As of Apex Legends' twelfth season, there are 28 weapons in the game. With each new season, weapons have gone in and out of the care package to provide a different gun meta over three-month cycles. However, with the loot pool more saturated than ever, and with weapons starting to go into the replicator (a completely different system that requires materials to craft), one staple gun should never be hard to find.
For the longest time, the R-301 assault rifle has been the Swiss Army Knife of Apex Legends. It was there when the game launched and is known as a weapon that both pros and newcomers can rely on. It won't outclass something like a Flatline (the game's full-auto heavy assault rifle) or the R-99 submachine gun at close range, but what it lacks in damage it makes up for in versatility and consistency.
How the R-301 Impacts Apex Legends
The R-301 is great at any distance, as Apex Legends fans can test in the firing range. Players can hip fire up-close, shoot from mid-range, and even shower an enemy in a hail of bullets at long range, provided they have the proper scope or iron sights. If players have line-of-sight on an enemy, chances are the R-301 will be able to hit them. The ease at which players can hit their target is largely due to the weapon's manageable recoil. The gun has little-to-no horizontal recoil, so add in some vertical recoil management and opponents will find their shields and health disappear.
Ammo availability is another thing the R-301 has going for it. Light ammo is found in abundance in Apex Legends, powering a lot of useful guns. Even if players can't find any light ammo, there's a good chance their teammates have picked some up. If not, they can just loot the death boxes of their fallen enemies.
As mentioned, Respawn Entertainment has started adding guns into the replicator. Season 12 has the Flatline heavy assault rifle and the Longbow sniper rifle locked inside these crafting stations for 30 materials each. While this is relatively painless to do, it still adds a checklist that needs to be completed in order for players to get their hands on a desired weapon.
Adding the R-301 into the replicator could potentially be a bad idea. The gun is known for its ease of access. Hot dropping at the start of a match and finding an R-301 from the get-go usually makes Apex Legends players feel like they're in good hands, because no matter what they run up against, chances are they'll be able to hold their own. That said, hiding the gun inside a replicator also means that players will know where to find it. Overall 30 materials isn't much of a commitment, and since finding a replicator is so easy, potentially anyone could still obtain an R-301. Locking it in a replicator just removes cathartic instances of finding the gun after dropping or respawning.
It's likely going to be debated whether the R-301 should be easily found as ground loot or crafted at a replicator. Both make the gun relatively simple to pick up, but they do so at different times of a match. While this is all up for speculation, it's safe to say that no matter what the future loot pool will look like, the R-301 should always be easily accessible to all players rather than trapped inside a care package.
Apex Legends is available now on PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One. PS5 and Xbox Series X/S versions are in development.