A new season of Apex Legends is right around the corner, launching on Feb. 14, and its contents are shaping up to be quite a bit different from what players have come to expect in recent releases. Alongside major updates to the classes, the arrival of Team Deathmatch, and a new permanent playlist, Apex season 16 is also going to be adding in the game’s first new weapon in over a year: the Nemesis, an energy burst assault rifle.
Players have been wondering when Apex’s armory would next grow, with the last weapon introduced being the CAR submachine gun in season 11 back in late 2021. For the developers at Respawn, the long wait was a necessary one, as they want to focus on being “strategic” going forward with weapon releases.
“We haven’t launched a ton of weapons and that’s for good reason,” explained lead weapon designer Eric Canavese at a recent press event. “We have a lot of weapons and they all have a pretty strong personality and a definition of what they do. When we think about the Nemesis and what our goals are for it on the battlefield, it’s really to help dislodge this sort of line we have at the top.”
That line he speaks of specifically refers to the assault rifles that have long dominated pick rates amongst the majority of players: the R-301 and the Flatline.
“It’s these two weapons that dominate most players’ loadouts,” he continued. “They kind of do everything and it creates this weird situation where if we ever try to nerf one of them or change out the meta with them or put one in the crate or the crafter, it’s just so easy to see everybody going onto the second one.”
This paradox is where the Nemesis comes in, an energy weapon and four-burst assault rifle with the stability and damage to compete on a level playing field with these titans. It comes in a season that Respawn also plans to give the weapon category—and the R-301 specifically—some targeted nerfs to knock them down a peg.
Yet there’s more to the Nemesis than first meets the eye. It’s a burst weapon like the Hemlok, but has a fully automatic trigger that will allow players to hold it down and maintain a smooth tracking experience on opponents. Furthermore, it has a ramping-up mechanic similar to the Rampage light machine gun. As you hold down the trigger, the delay between each burst is reduced, exponentially increasing the fire rate until it caps out at maximum charge.
The charge that you gain with the Nemesis also persists for a short duration, meaning that the weapon can be reloaded or the player can leave combat for a brief period without immediately sacrificing the increased fire rate. It incentivizes players to engage early with the weapon and maintain that engagement to maximize the potential that the Nemesis has.
“It’s definitely tuned pretty hot,” Canavese admitted, a fact that became clear in our playtests of the new content as the potential time-to-kill the weapon possesses became apparent. “It’s going to be a strong gun when it launches. It’s definitely going to gun for the R-301 and the Flatline. We’re excited to see how that plays into the meta this season.”
The focus on making the Nemesis dethrone its contemporaries on release will make it interesting to see in the wider weapon meta. The R-301 taking a small hit to its bullet damage at the same time will no doubt allow Respawn to effectively enact this intended role reversal:
“By getting a third weapon up there to start competing with the R-301 and the Flatline within the assault rifle territory, it allows us so much more wiggle room down the line for long term meta changes.”
With it being over a year since the last weapon came out, it’s hard to gauge the potential impact that a new addition could have in the current state of the meta. A fresh weapon with its own unique feel is a welcome inclusion nonetheless, and if the Nemesis succeeds in dislodging weapons that have been at the top of the popularity contest since Apex launched in 2019, fights in season 16 could look very different.
