Respawn has pulled the curtain back on Apex Legends Season 30, and it is called Marked. The theme is the hunt, and almost every headline change ties back to it, from a top-to-bottom Bloodhound rework to a darker, colder version of World’s Edge. Season 30 goes live on August 3rd, 2026, and it is shaping up to be one of the biggest system-level shakeups the game has seen in a while.
- Update: Respawn has now released the official Designer’s Notes for Apex Legends Season 30. This article has been updated with confirmed ability values, additional Legend changes, and new information about weapons, attachments, loot, and energy ammo.
In brief
- Bloodhound gets a full kit overhaul, including a brand new Ultimate that cloaks any Legend who steps inside it, plus three new perks built around it.
- World’s Edge returns with three new POIs, the comeback of Sorting Factory, and an aurora borealis lighting up the night sky.
- Corrupted Attachments arrive with real tradeoffs, energy weapons get reworked, and weapon upgrades reportedly stay locked at the start of every match.
- Axle, Valkyrie, and the RE-45 are all reportedly on the nerf list, and a Gibraltar Mythic skin is said to be coming this season.
- Loba and Rampart both pick up buffs, and Respawn has confirmed Ranked updates are landing in Season 31 ahead of the major Season 32 overhaul.
Apex Legends Season 30 Marked Release Date
Season 30 Marked launches on August 4th, 2026 across PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC through the EA app, Steam, and Epic Games Store. As always, the game stays free to play, so there is nothing stopping you from jumping straight in once servers flip over.
Bloodhound Rework in Apex Legends Season 30
Bloodhound has been the game’s tracker since launch, but the kit has felt increasingly outdated as scan legends fell out of favor. Respawn is fixing that with a complete overhaul designed to lean fully into the hunter fantasy.
The Passive is the first thing that changes how you play. Enemies now leave a glowing trail behind them as they move, which turns Bloodhound into a genuine bloodhound instead of a legend who occasionally spots a footprint. White Ravens have also been improved with better range, and you can now trigger them with a quick glance rather than fiddling with an interaction prompt mid-fight.
The Tactical gets more value as after the initial scan finishes, Bloodhound now gets additional snapshot scans, which means one press keeps feeding you information instead of giving you a single frame of intel and then going quiet.
The Ultimate is the main upgrade, as Beast of the Hunt is gone in its old form, and in its place Bloodhound deploys a device that cloaks every Legend who enters it. Cloaked Legends are not fully invisible, so this is not a free escape button, but the effect lingers for 12 seconds after you leave the area. It breaks the moment you take damage or fire your weapon.
Bloodhound is also getting three new perks, and all of them are built to squeeze more out of the new Ultimate. Hidden Sight refreshes the Tactical the moment you pop your Ult and hides the activation from enemy detection, so you can scan and reposition without broadcasting it.
Bird’s Eye sends White Ravens out to scout a second squad independently, which turns Bloodhound into a genuine third-party detector rather than a legend who only tracks whoever is in front of them.
True Predator is the aggressive pick, letting Bloodhound recloak after firing a weapon instead of losing stealth for the rest of the fight. And that last one is the interesting choice, because it converts the Ult from a repositioning tool into something you can actually fight out of.
World’s Edge Map Update in Season 30
World’s Edge is back in rotation with a facelift that Respawn is describing with old god aesthetics. The night sky now glows with an aurora borealis, and the whole map has been pushed toward a colder, more ritualistic look that fits the Marked theme.
Three new POIs are joining the map. Bloodhound’s tribe has claimed Climatizer, which now features East Village-style architecture and a massive Longhouse at its center. Survey Camp has been replaced by War Camp, built as a tight arena showdown space where fights are meant to be close and messy. Tree Settlement is the third addition, and it brings vertical movement gameplay to a map that has traditionally been fairly flat outside of a few landmarks.
Longtime players will care just as much about what is coming back. Sorting Factory has returned and is once again competing with Fragment for hot drop traffic, which should finally take some pressure off the middle of the map. Construction stacks are back in Fragment as well, and Rampart has parked Big Maude on top of Landslide.
Corrupted Attachments and Energy Weapon Overhaul
Season 30 is also where Respawn starts messing with weapons at a systems level rather than just tuning numbers.
Corrupted Attachments are the new toy. These are attachments that hand you real power but attach a genuine cost to it. The example Respawn showed off was a corrupted sniper stock that cuts magazine size while boosting rate of fire, reload speed, and weapon handling. So instead of every attachment being a straight upgrade you slap on without thinking, you now have to decide whether the tradeoff actually suits how you fight.
Energy weapons have been completely reworked as well. From what has been shown, energy guns move away from traditional ammo counts and toward a percentage-based system, which is a major departure for guns like the Nemesis. Respawn is also adding visible weapon stats so you can actually see how an attachment changes performance instead of guessing.
Season 30 Arsenal Change: Weapon Upgrades Disabled Early
There is one more weapon system change that has not shown up in Respawn’s official blog yet. According to Apex leaker HYPERMYST, weapon upgrades will be disabled at the start of a match in Season 30 and only come online later in the game.
If that holds, it is a big deal for early game pacing. Right now, a fast landing squad can roll into a hot drop, kit out a gun in the first ninety seconds, and steamroll anyone who looted slower. Locking upgrades behind a timer flattens that advantage and pushes the fully built loadouts into the mid and late game instead.
Combined with the loot pool cuts and Corrupted Attachments, it points to Respawn wanting the opening minutes to feel scrappier and the closing rings to feel like the part where your loadout actually matters.
Looting Changes and Nerfs in Season 30
Respawn is stripping a lot out of the loot pool. Support Bins and Assault Bins are being removed. Explosive Holds are gone. Loot bin resets are gone. Wildlife loot is gone. Every remaining loot source is being rebalanced around those removals.
Cutting these sources means you spend less time optimizing and more time actually using what you find. It also indirectly nerfs Support legends, who leaned hard on class-specific bins for value, so expect the class meta to shift once players get their hands on it.
Loba and Rampart Buffs in Apex Legends Season 30
Bloodhound is not the only legend getting attention. Loba and Rampart both walk away from this patch stronger.
Loba’s Black Market has been improved and now comes with a reduced cooldown, which matters a lot more in a season where loot sources are being cut. Her Tactical also moves faster and covers more ground, so the bracelet becomes a more reliable escape instead of something you throw and pray about.
Rampart gets a mobility answer to her biggest weakness. She can now move faster while firing Sheila, which means minigun pushes are actually viable rather than a commitment to standing still and dying. On top of that, her Amped Walls build faster and can take more damage before breaking.
Axle, Valkyrie, and RE-45 Nerfs Confirmed in Season 30
Valkyrie’s Missile Swarm will deal less damage, while its trajectory is being adjusted so the missiles cannot travel over tall cover as easily.
Skyward Dive is also losing 15% of its launch height. Eye in the Sky will have its base through-wall scanning distance reduced to 100 metres, while Supersonic will now take three seconds to provide its improved launch speed instead of 2.5 seconds.
Axle’s Nitro Gate slide boost is being reduced from a maximum of five seconds to three seconds. Players who select the new Long Haul upgrade can restore the five-second duration.
Her Ultimate will now affect Axle and her teammates. Axle will take damage, become stunned, and be displaced by her own Ultimate. Teammates will be stunned and displaced but will not receive damage. She will also lose the ability to store two Ultimate charges.
Seer is also receiving a nerf following his recent return to the meta. The turn-rate slow applied by his Tactical is being made considerably weaker after Respawn found that the effect was frustrating every Legend rather than primarily countering highly mobile characters.
A separate report has suggested that the RE-45 will be nerfed in Season 30. However, Respawn did not include the weapon in its Designer’s Notes, meaning players should wait for the full August 3 patch notes before treating that change as confirmed.
Energy Ammo Rework
Energy ammo will be removed from the standard loot pool in Season 30. Instead, energy weapons will come with their own regenerating ammunition stockpile.
After ammunition is used, the weapon will gradually regenerate its supply while it remains idle. This should allow players to carry energy weapons without dedicating multiple backpack slots to ammunition, although players may need to switch weapons or temporarily stop firing while waiting for the stockpile to recover.
The new system will apply to energy weapons across Battle Royale, Mixtape, and Wildcard.
Gibraltar Mythic Skin in Apex Legends Season 30
Also, cosmetics are getting attention in this new season. HYPERMYST says a Gibraltar Mythic skin is coming in Season 30, which would put the shield bunker in a very short list of Legends who have one.
Mythic skins are the top tier of Apex cosmetics, they come with evolving tiers you unlock through play, and they usually arrive attached to a paid Collection Event rather than the Battle Pass. Season 30 is already introducing a new Mythic tier for weapons with the All Father’s Fury CAR SMG skin, so a Legend Mythic landing in the same season fits the pattern of Respawn front-loading the biggest cosmetics into a milestone update. Gibraltar has also gone a long time without a marquee skin, so the timing tracks even if the leak does not.
Apex Legends 2026 Roadmap Update
Respawn also gave a check-in on the 2026 roadmap, and there is one meaningful change. A Major Ranked Update was already confirmed for Season 32, but the studio decided that asking players to wait until February for movement in the competitive mode was too long.
So Ranked updates are now also coming in Season 31. Respawn says it will keep evaluating, testing, and tweaking throughout Season 30, then deliver impactful changes in Season 31 before doubling down in Season 32. Details are still being held back, but the team has promised more information later this season.
Apex Legends Season 30: Marked launches on August 4, 2026. The full patch notes arrive on August 3 and should reveal the remaining weapon adjustments, exact damage values, loot changes, and any additional surprises Respawn has not yet announced.
