After plenty of players likely took something of a break over the holidays, their welcome back to Apex Legends in the new year wasn’t what many had hoped.
The game is currently overrun with players abusing bugs affecting the Rampage LMG and Sentinel sniper rifle that allow players to permanently keep the two guns in their charged state. Accordingly, many Apex pros and streamers have voiced their displeasure on social media.
Both the Rampage and Sentinel have “charged” states that require a consumable. In the Rampage’s case, using a Thermite Grenade to charge the gun gives it a big boost in fire rate for a limited time, while the Sentinel uses two Shield Cells to power up the gun’s damage against enemy body shields. When working as intended, these guns consume the grenade or Shield Cells, offer the player a limited time in the gun’s charged mode, and then return to their normal modes until charged once again with additional grenades or Shield Cells.
Late last year, players discovered ways to keep both guns permanently charged after only the first time charging the weapons. These exploits were quickly abused since keeping the guns in their charged state without needing to use any consumables, or needing to worry about the charge time of the weapon, for that matter, is clearly overpowered. It appears the bug only exists on PC at the moment, though, since mouse and keyboard inputs are required to achieve the infinite charge bug.
Respawn believed it fixed this bug in a patch shipped on Dec. 16, but players once again found a way to keep exploiting the charged-up weapons. The issue has persisted for long enough that several high-profile players wonder why the weapons haven’t been taken out of the game until the bug is completely fixed.
There is precedent for removing bugged weapons from the game completely. In October 2020, Respawn temporarily disabled the Sentinel, removing it from the loot pool in all modes, when a different bug allowed players to turn the bolt-action sniper into a rapid-firing, semi-automatic weapon. The devs moved quickly, in that case, to disable the Sentinel until it was completely fixed. It’s unclear if the same thing will happen with the infinite charge bug since it concerns multiple weapons.
But it’s clear that the developers need to address this bug quickly since it gives players who abuse it a big advantage over those who choose not to use the exploit and use the weapons as they were intended. Some delays due to Apex team members coming back from holiday breaks should be expected, but for such a clear and present issue, players deserve some sort of communication on the subject.
Neither Respawn nor the Apex Legends channels have addressed the issue as of yet. Until they do, it might be best to take some time off from the ranked ladder on PC.
