Apex Legends patch notes (December 17, 2024): Winter's Haunt event, Bloodhound Heirloom recolor, Winter Express, and more

The latest Apex Legends patch notes for December 17, 2024, highlight the second split of Season 23. With the new update, Respawn Entertainment has introduced the fan-favorite Winter Express event, a brand-new Heirloom recolor, and a variety of Legend changes to help improve the game's competitive integrity.

This article lists the official Apex Legends patch notes for Season 23 Split 2.

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Apex Legends patch notes for December 17, 2024

All aboard, Legends! Winter’s Haunt is coming and it’s bringing back the action-packed favorite Winter Express LTM in Apex Legends. Earn Ice Gems to unlock rewards including Epic skins for Valkyrie and the Triple Take. Bring the heat to collect 30 icy cosmetics, including Bloodhound’s Heirloom “Winter’s Bane” and the reactive Hemlok skin “Attunement.” Naughty or nice, the more you collect, the more you’ll earn with milestone rewards like Apex Packs and 150 Heirloom Shards. Will you be iced out or climb your way to the top?

WINTER EXPRESS RETURNS

Not familiar with this fan favorite? Three squads board the train, but only one will remain. Don’t lose track of time, the countdown begins when the train stops at a station. Capture the train or remove all enemies to close out the round and score a point. Now with all weapons and all Legends!

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MILESTONE EVENT ITEMS

Collect 30 bone-chilling limited-time cosmetics as you make your way through the event. Each Winter’s Haunt item received during the event will count towards bonus rewards that you’ll automatically unlock at certain milestones, including 150 Heirloom Shards as per the Apex Legends patch notes.

All 30 items will be available in Winter’s Haunt Event Apex Packs for the entire duration of the event—and there are no duplicates of event items in these packs. Note: each event pack contains one event item and two standard items.

Unlock Bloodhound’s Heirloom “Winter’s Bane” and you’ll automatically receive the matching Mythic Banner Frame and Finisher to round out your set. And deck out your Hemlock with “Attunement,” a reactive skin that makes each elimination a little cooler in Apex Legends.

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REWARD SHOP

Complete daily event challenges to earn Ice Gems, then head over to the Winter’s Haunt Reward Shop to choose your own reward adventure and check out your progress with event badges. Offerings will rotate halfway through the event.

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LEGENDS

Lifeline (recently updated)

• D.O.C. Halo: increased cooldown to 180s (was 150)
• Hands-free D.O.C.: revive is now the same speed as non-support Legends

Newcastle (recently updated)

• Revive Shield
• White: 250 HP (was 300)
• Blue: 400 HP (was 450)
• Purple: 600 HP (was 750)
• Mobile Shield
• Base CD increased to 20s (was 15s)
• Removed invulnerability, Thick Shield HP now integrated into base
• Swift Shield upgrade now also reduces CD to 12s

Dev Note: Earlier this week, we released a patch that made some changes to both Lifeline and Newcastle. We pushed hard at the start of the support season with Newcastle and, while it's great to see a Legend who was for a long time at the bottom rise to the top, the compounding shield meta that emerged was a little too strong with much of his counterplay removed. So, we returned health to his Mobile Shield, increased its cooldown and reduced his Revive Shield health as well.

And while we don't want to cut the life line out of our Lifeline, we did want to make some of the more frustrating elements of her kit a little easier to deal with. Given the power her hands-free-revive already has, we've decided to return DOC to the baseline revive speed, and give a little more time for players to react to it and the defending medic in Apex Legends.

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MODES

Rift Relics: EPG-1

The EPG-1 joins the party in Apex Legends. This single fire, direct energy propelled launcher brings something special to your arsenal: splash damage and rocket-jumping capabilities.

COMMUNITY DRIVEN BUGS

Here’s a couple of the open bugs that we’ve seen some community chatter around. Our team is actively working on these bugs and more, and we’ll update our progress on our public Trello board.

• Akimbo Weapon Mastery: Held XP is not correctly generating/is low in match summary.
• Graphics: Not enough shaders loading in at boot, occasionally results in stutters and/or missing textures or models (affects both DX11 and DX12).
• Welcome Pass: Players were getting stuck at Level 39 or not being awarded final rewards. A hotfix went out for this earlier this week.

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That's all there is to know about the Apex Legends patch notes for Season 23 Split 2. For more related news and guides, stay tuned to Sportskeeda esports.