Apex Legends Season 4 began two days ago, and players have been busy playing and uncovering all of the new things it has brought to the table, from the changes that have been made to the map to the fact that new legend Revenant comes with a Naruto reference. Quite a few noticeable additions have been made, so players might not immediately notice a smaller change that has a direct impact on gameplay.
Being a game all about shooting to win, ammunition is one of the most important items for Apex players to have, and starting this week, they have a new type of ammo to collect: Sniper Ammo. Like the name suggests, this new ammo type, which drops in batches of ten, is exclusive to the game’s sniper rifles, including Season 4’s new addition, the Sentinel.
Along with the Sentinel, the Longbow DMR, TripleTake, and Charge Rifle now use Sniper Ammo (the airdrop-exclusive Kraber, however, still uses its own exclusive special ammo). One long-range weapon that doesn’t, though, is the G7 Scout, as that has been reclassified from a sniper rifle to an assault rifle.
This might not seem like a big deal at first, but this change will alter how sniper players play Apex Legends noticeably. Prior to Season 4, sniper rifles used the game’s standard heavy, energy, and light ammo types, which made it relatively easy to keep them well stocked-up. Now that their usage is tied to their own unique ammo, however, it means fresh ammunition will be a little harder for players to find.
As for why Respawn Entertainment made this change, it explained in Season 4’s patch notes that its goal with Sniper Ammo is to “create a deeper, more balanced long range meta.” It explained that since sniper rifles shared the same ammo as SMGs and LMGs, there was no good way to balance ammo scarcity for long-range play without overly penalizing Apex’s more ammo-hungry weapons.
“So for Season 4 we’ve added a new class of ammo that only applies to Sniper Rifles that we hope will have players being careful about the shots they take and limit how long they can pressure targets at long range before having to reposition,” it said. How this will affect the meta among fans of Apex Legends' sniper rifles in the long-run will remain to be seen, but it shows at the very least that Apex isn’t going to stop shaking things up anytime too soon.
Apex Legends is free-to-play on PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
Source: Trello