Apex Legends Season 30 Patch Notes: Bloodhound Rework & Energy Ammo Removal

Apex Legends Season 30 — "Marked" — went live on August 4, 2026, and Respawn shipped it with zero new Legends and one of the densest patch notes documents the game has seen in years. I spent the weekend grinding ranked and testing the changes, and the short version is this: Bloodhound is terrifying, Loba is finally good, and energy weapons now run on patience instead of loot.

According to the official EA Apex Legends: MARKED patch notes, the update focuses on four pillars: a full Bloodhound rework, buffs to Loba and Rampart, nerfs to Valkyrie/Axle/Seer, and a systemic overhaul of weapons, loot, and attachments. Here's everything that actually matters.

Bloodhound Rework: From Tracker to Ambush Predator

Bloodhound has been struggling at Gold rank and above for multiple seasons. Respawn didn't buff them — they rebuilt the kit. After a few hours playing the new Bloodhound, I can say this is the most fun the Legend has been since launch, and also the most unfair-feeling to play against.

The passive now leaves a clear glowing trail behind moving enemies, and White Ravens can be activated just by glancing at them. The Tactical scan runs for three seconds, then delivers four additional snapshot pulses that reveal enemy trajectories without the old wallhack spam feeling.

The biggest change is the new Ultimate: Allfather's Cloak. Bloodhound throws a device that cloaks everyone in its radius — squadmates and enemies — for up to 12 seconds after leaving the zone. The cloak breaks if you take damage or fire a weapon, but abilities and scanning do not break it.

I tried the "True Predator" upgrade path first, which lets you recloak after firing. It sounded broken on paper, and it is. I wiped a full squad in Fragment by cloaking, firing a burst, recloaking, and repositioning. They never knew where the shots came from. The downside? Enemy Bloodhounds can do the exact same thing to you, and I died to it twice before I learned to listen for footsteps instead of relying on sight.

Legend Balance: Who Got Buffed and Who Got Hit

Respawn specifically targeted three overpicked Legends while lifting two underperformers. After running these changes in ranked, the shift in team comps is already noticeable.

Legend	Change Type	Key Change	Impact
Bloodhound	Rework	New Ultimate Allfather's Cloak, glowing trails, snapshot scans	High — becomes an ambush/rotate tool
Loba	Buff	Tactical 0.6s→0.4s equip, +15% range, +30% travel speed; Ultimate 150s→120s	High — bracelet is now a real escape
Rampart	Buff	Walls 400/600/800→600/700/800 HP; 0.5s faster deploy; Sheila move speed 70→104	Medium-High — mobile Sheila actually works
Valkyrie	Nerf	Tactical damage 25→15; missiles no longer arc over tall cover; Ultimate height -15%	Medium — still the only team vertical rotate
Axle	Nerf	Slide boost 5s→3s; Ultimate now hits allies; lost double-charge	Medium — rotation still strong, less oppressive
Seer	Nerf	Turn slow reduced; two top upgrades moved to level 3, pick one	Medium — scan info still unique, less spammy

Loba is the biggest winner here outside of Bloodhound. I mained her for ten games and the bracelet speed increase is genuinely disorienting at first — in a good way. I escaped third parties I would have died to in Season 29. Combined with the loot economy changes below, Black Market on a 120-second cooldown feels like cheating when purple attachments are this scarce.

Valkyrie needed the nerf, but I think Respawn was careful not to kill her. Her Ultimate is still the only ability that relocates an entire squad vertically. The missile change just means she can't farm damage from behind cover anymore, which is fair.

Energy Ammo Is Gone and Attachments Got Weird

This is the most controversial system change in Season 30. Energy ammo no longer spawns as loot. Instead, energy weapons — Havoc, Nemesis, Volt, Devotion, RE-45, Triple Take — carry a regenerating internal reserve. The ammo recharges when you are not firing or reloading, roughly one magazine every 18 seconds depending on the weapon.

In practice, this makes energy weapons incredible for one clean fight and terrible for extended third parties. I picked up a Volt, won my first engagement, then got pushed by a second squad while my reserve was still gray. I died with a dead battery instead of dead enemies. Lesson learned: energy weapons are now sidearms for quick skirmishes, not primary weapons for long rotations.

Corrupted Attachments are the other half of the weapon shake-up. These are a new top-tier rarity that pair a strong buff with a real drawback. You can equip only one per weapon. Examples from the official designer's notes:

• Overflowing Mag: larger magazine, slower reload.
• Headseeker Barrel: more headshot damage, worse hip-fire accuracy.
• Agile Standard Stock: faster movement, smaller magazine.

I ran an Overflowing Mag R-99 for three games and the reload penalty is no joke. It forces you to play around cover more deliberately. I actually prefer the trade-off to the old gold attachments, which were pure upgrades with no thought required.

Loot Economy and World's Edge Rework

Respawn also flattened the loot curve. Gold attachments, gold bins, mythic bins, and gold backpacks are gone. Purple attachment spawn rates are down. Arsenals now activate alongside Evo Harvesters instead of at match start. Wildlife no longer drops attachments. MRVNs are reduced from 24 to 12 spawns and are single-use.

The result is a poorer, scrappier early game. I landed Countdown three times and left with gray armor more often than purple. That scarcity is exactly why Loba and Rampart feel stronger — one finds gear, the other defends what little you have.

World's Edge got the seasonal map update:

• Sorting Factory returns with new tunnels, ziplines, and functional train cars.
• Construction Stacks return to Fragment West, spreading combat away from one building.
• Tree Settlement replaces The Tree; War Camp replaces Survey Camp.
• Big Maude merges into Landslide, making that POI viable again.

I love the Sorting Factory return. It gives competitive squads a real alternative to Fragment without forcing everyone into the same choke point.

Quality of Life and Ranked Changes

The update also includes server stability improvements, a weapon stat UI overhaul with side-by-side comparisons on loot cards, a "Volunteer" Jumpmaster system, and a revamped Power Journey progression track. Ranked ladders have been extended to five days in duration.

The stat comparison UI is genuinely useful. I always hated guessing whether a blue barrel stabilizer was better than a purple standard stock. Now the numbers are right there on the card.

Verdict: The Best Systemic Patch in Years

Season 30 doesn't have a flashy new Legend, but it has something better: a coherent vision. Bloodhound is now a hunter instead of a scan bot. Loba and Rampart are playable in high-tier ranked. Energy weapons have a real identity. The loot economy makes every purple attachment feel earned.

If you skipped Apex for a season or two, Marked is a good reason to come back. Just be ready to get ambushed by an invisible Bloodhound squad — because I have been on both sides of that exchange, and it never stops being chaotic.