Apex Legends Patch 3.23 Notes: Ranked Legend Bans, Hemlok Burst Returns and a 30 GB Smaller Install

Apex Legends Season 31, Cipher, went live on November 3 as patch 3.23 (1.000.138), and the full patch notes Respawn posted on November 2 go a lot further than the headline Crypto rework. Ranked gets its biggest structural shake-up in a while, several weapons are quietly reshaped, the map pool gets close to a hundred fixes, and the game takes up far less space on your drive. Here's what actually changed and what it means for your next drop.

TL;DR

• Legend bans arrive in Ranked for Diamond and above: two Legends are banned every match.
• Challenger and Goliath matches change Ranked entry costs when your squad is far from the lobby's skill level (-30% / +50%).
• Hemlok Burst AR is back to its classic form, the L-STAR returns to floor loot with heavy nerfs, and the Akimbo Mozambique takes its Care Package slot.
• Strongholds replace one of the end-of-round airdrops, and Wild Cards are now handed out at the start of Rounds 1, 2 and 3.
• Crypto rework, Lifeline and Revenant buffs, Loba nerfs.
• About 30 GB smaller install compared with Season 29 on most platforms (about 17 GB on Switch 2), plus 99 targeted map fixes.

The biggest change: Legend bans in Ranked

Starting this season, Diamond-and-up Ranked lobbies get a ban vote before Legend select. Every player requests one Legend, and each Legend's chance of being banned equals its share of the total requests – so the more players who target the same pick, the more likely it disappears. Two Legends are removed per match.

There's a safeguard against a lobby all naming the same character: if fewer than four different Legends are requested, the system tops up the list with last week's most-played Legends until there are at least four candidates. In practice, expect whatever dominates the high-rank meta to be banned often, so Diamond players should have at least two or three comfortable mains per role.

Challenger and Goliath matches

The second Ranked change is aimed at uneven lobbies. Your Squad Tier is now calculated from your teammates' average RP (premade members count at the highest RP in the premade), and the Lobby Tier is the median of all squads in the match.

For reference, a standard Platinum match costs 65 RP to enter. A teammate who never connects now lowers your Squad Tier by a full tier, which softens the blow of a disconnect. The Ranked UI also gets a lobby tier label, RP numbers in the kill feed and a new Ranked tab in the inventory. Ranked Ladders run in five weekly blocks from November 10 to December 13.

Weapon changes

The Akimbo Wingman is the new toy (heavy ammo, 45 base damage, a second Wingman turns on dual-wield burst fire), but the rest of the weapon list matters just as much:

Tap-fire queuing also comes to the Prowler, Hemlok, Nemesis and Akimbo Wingman, so burst weapons should feel less finicky when you click slightly early. The short version: burst ARs and the Prowler get harder to control, the Peacekeeper becomes a stronger close-range pick, and the floor L-STAR is a far weaker weapon than the Care Package version players remember.

Strongholds and Wildcard

When Round 1 closes, two Care Packages fall as usual; when Round 2 closes, one of the two drops is a Stronghold instead. It crushes anything it lands on, comes with up to four indestructible barriers and two Hardlight frames, and stays locked until one team captures the zone around it. Progress only moves when a single team is inside, doesn't decay, and goes faster with more teammates. Loba can't steal from it and Alter can't breach it. The reward is a level for every living squad member, a Care Package weapon, three Gold weapons, three Amps and two Corrupted attachments.

In Wildcard, Wild Cards are now granted at the start of Rounds 1, 2 and 3, and Replicators have been removed from the mode.

Legend balance

The Legend changes were previewed in the designer notes, and the final patch confirms them:

• Crypto: the drone now runs on a 25-second battery with a 6-second recall and instant redeploy, scans mark enemies for 8 seconds on a 4-second cooldown, and the EMP does full shield damage with line of sight (50 without).
• Lifeline: Tactical cooldown 25s → 15s, D.O.C. heals her while gliding, plus new upgrades including a revive shield.
• Revenant: Tactical 20s → 15s, Ultimate 180s → 150s, new upgrades.
• Loba: Tactical 25s → 30s, Ultimate 120s → 150s.

Maps, rotation and fixes

Pubs and Ranked rotate between Storm Point, E-District Night and Broken Moon. E-District Night gets an overhaul of its lighting, shadows and color for better visibility, and every map gets lighting, fog and auto-exposure updates.

The map list is long: 99 targeted fixes focused on Storm Point, Olympus and World's Edge, more than 35 rat and hiding spots sealed, and over 15 places where Alter could clip out of bounds fixed. World's Edge also gets new cover at War Camp.

Other fixes worth knowing:

• Bunny hops during Death Box respawns are blocked.
• Mirage decoys no longer float when deployed while skydiving.
• Crypto can no longer use weapons in the Olympus boxing ring.
• Mad Maggie now gets the Corrupted Agile Stock speed boost.
• Ballistic's Sling no longer keeps Locked Hop-Up perks after Tempest ends.

What it means for players

For most players the headline is the install size: streamable cubemap textures cut roughly 30 GB from the game compared with Season 29 on most platforms, and about 17 GB on Switch 2. For ranked grinders it's bans and wide-match scoring – Diamond+ lobbies will look different week to week, and getting stuck in a lobby far above your level now costs less. On the gunplay side, expect the Peacekeeper and the classic Hemlok to show up a lot more in early fights while the L-STAR fades into the background. The question now is which two Legends the Diamond lobbies end up banning most.