Apex Legends Season 31 Release Date: Cipher Launch Guide

Updated November 5, 2026 for Apex Legends Season 31 launch week.

The Apex Legends Season 31 release date was November 3, 2026, when Cipher launched with the Crypto rework, Akimbo Wingman, Strongholds and Ranked changes. The update appeared as patch 3.23 / 1.000.138.

When Season 31 started in each region

Season 30 ended on November 3, with the new season's local launch date falling on November 4 in parts of Asia and Australia. The expected launch hour was 10 AM Pacific or 1 PM Eastern.

The Apex Legends Season 31 release date applied to PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch 2 and PC, with PC access through the EA app, Epic and Steam.

Ranked changes available at launch

Ranked access

Road to Ranked challenges were removed, leaving Account Level 20 as the Ranked unlock requirement.

Legend bans in Diamond and above

Each Diamond+ match starts with a ban request phase before character selection, and each player can nominate one Legend. Two Legends become unavailable to everyone in that match, with each Legend's selection chance weighted by its share of requests rather than determined solely by the highest vote count.

If the lobby requests fewer than four different Legends, the system adds candidates from the previous week's most-used Legends, assigning one request to each until at least four candidates exist.

Prepare alternative picks before you queue; relying on one character leaves you exposed to the new bans.

Challenger and Goliath entry costs

Squad Tier uses your squad's average RP, but everyone within a premade group counts as having that group's highest member's RP. A teammate outside that premade keeps their own RP value, and a teammate who never connects lowers Squad Tier by one full tier. Lobby Tier is the median of the match's Squad Tiers.

You can see your match type while waiting for players and when leaving the dropship.

Ranked information during matches

The revised waiting screen shows Squad Tier, Lobby Tier, entry cost, match type and your squad's position within the lobby's rank distribution, including teammates who have yet to connect.

A Ranked tab in the inventory menu displays scoring rules and relevant RP targets, including covering entry cost, promotion, replacing a ladder score and leaving demotion protection when applicable. Opening inventory still selects the Inventory tab first.

The lobby now displays Matchmaking Tier, while the kill feed shows kill RP and a squad-elimination message displays placement RP gained. Net RP appears red when negative and white when positive, with a small audiovisual cue when you move into positive RP.

Battle Pass and Cryptic Core cosmetics

Cipher's Split 1 Premium Battle Pass uses a nanotech theme, with outfits for Ash and Axle. The pass disappoints many players, who dislike its appearance and say they intend to skip buying it.

This has to be up there as one of the worse battle passes to come out.

— one player

Cryptic Core is a Mythic Volt cosmetic built around Crypto's colors, nanites and a pixel-art PALS companion. It is a possible reward from Cipher Seasonal Packs in supported regions, alongside seasonal skins for Crypto, Wraith, Gibraltar, Revenant and Horizon. Alternative Cryptic Core looks use Exotic Shards.

How to get and fire the Akimbo Wingman

1. Find a Wingman in floor loot or at a Heavy Ammo Arsenal; it now uses Heavy Ammo and Heavy Magazines.
2. Pick up another Wingman to switch automatically into Akimbo mode.
3. Fire to send a shot from each pistol in sequence, or hold the trigger to keep producing bursts.

The Wingman's base damage fell from 50 to 45. Akimbo mode doubles magazine capacity and slightly increases firing speed, but adds recoil and lengthens reloads; its headshot multiplier is 1.25x, with 56 headshot damage per bullet.

Some players expect the dual Wingman to be overpowered and fear it will dominate before being nerfed.

Buy Apex Legends Boosts

Leave the grind to us!

Buy now!

How Strongholds work

Drop timing and landing hazards

One Stronghold arrives during Round 2's closing phase, alongside one Care Package; two other Care Packages arrive during Round 1's closing phase. Its landing kills anyone underneath and destroys objects caught below it.

A landed Stronghold can deploy up to four indestructible barriers and two Hardlight frames if space allows.

Capturing and opening a Stronghold

1. Enter and control the zone surrounding the locked structure.
2. Keep other teams out: progress advances only while a single team remains alive inside the zone, and multiple teammates speed up the capture.
3. Hold the zone when progress reaches 100% to claim the capture, open the doors and roof hatch, and give every living teammate one level.

Capture progress belongs to the objective rather than a particular squad and never decays. Loba cannot take its contents and Alter cannot enter it before the capture finishes.

Stronghold rewards

Crypto, Lifeline, Revenant and Loba changes

Crypto

Crypto's drone now has a 25-second battery and a six-second recall, after which you can redeploy it without another cooldown. Drone movement, handling and entry transitions are faster, and Ally.MoveTo's teammate-directed speed boost is part of his base kit at slightly reduced strength.

Crypto. Image: EA.

The drone also returns to availability sooner after destruction.

The scan covers 360 degrees and no longer detects doors or loot bins. The deployed drone can scan and mark enemies, with icons visible through geometry and persisting after the drone is recalled or destroyed. Marks last eight seconds, marking has a four-second cooldown, and you cannot mark an already-marked target again.

The battery limit and recall changes make the rework feel weaker to some players, who also object to what they describe as lost healing.

While piloting, use the Ultimate button on PC or Y on console to trigger EMP; the fire button manually applies marks instead. Outside piloting, Ultimate triggers EMP from the deployed drone, or deploys an available, undestroyed stowed drone and activates EMP after a short delay.

EMP deals its full shield effect and stronger slow with line of sight, or 50 damage and a weaker slow without it; Crypto no longer hurts himself with his own EMP.

Lifeline

D.O.C. can heal Lifeline while she glides, and its Tactical cooldown dropped from 25 to 15 seconds.

Revenant

Revenant's Tactical cooldown dropped from 20 to 15 seconds with faster charging, while his Ultimate cooldown fell from 180 to 150 seconds.

Loba

Loba's Tactical cooldown increased from 25 to 30 seconds, and her Ultimate cooldown increased from 120 to 150 seconds.

Other weapon and attachment changes

Hemlok Burst AR

The Elite version left all modes, taking its automatic fire, Breach Charge and built-in silencer with it. The returning Hemlok has burst and single-shot modes, 21 body damage and 29 headshot damage; holding fire repeats bursts.

Hemlok Burst AR. Image: apexlegends.fandom.com.

Care Package Akimbo Mozambique

Akimbo Mozambique moved into Care Packages with damage per pellet increased from 17 to 18, a tighter spread and the Executioner Hop-Up; it also heals 15 shields per second. Its stockpile holds 80 rounds, split evenly between the guns, or 110 rounds in Wildcard.

Floor-loot L-STAR

The L-STAR returned to floor loot with damage reduced from 21 to 19 and overheat reached after 22 shots instead of 28. Its base stockpile dropped from 168 to 88, stockpile recharge decreased from 22 to 18 seconds, and Redline was removed.

Recoil, shotguns and Hop-Ups

• Nemesis: Vertical recoil increased.
• Prowler: Recoil increased and Selectfire was removed.
• EVA-8: Disruptor Rounds replaced Double Tap Trigger, with a 375-point unlock requirement.
• Peacekeeper: Firing speed increased, and shotgun bolts improve both firing and rechamber speed.
• Corrupted Rapid Sniper Stock: Its firing-speed multiplier dropped from 1.2x to 1.1x for the G7 Scout, Longbow DMR and Triple Take.

Tap-fire queuing is available for automatic bursts on the Prowler, Hemlok, Nemesis and Akimbo Wingman.

Map rotations and Wildcard

Public and Ranked matches share Storm Point, E-District Night and Broken Moon. E-District Night received brighter shadowed areas, additional practical lighting, clearer silhouette contrast and less distracting environmental coloration.

The patch also adjusts lighting, materials, fog, exposure transitions and localized lighting performance across maps, alongside 99 map quality-of-life fixes.

Mixtape rotation

Wildcard selection and maps

Wildcard hands out your Wild Cards via a picker along the top of the HUD during the opening moments of Rounds 1, 2 and 3, and Replicators have been removed from Wildcard.

What comes next: Ranked Ladders and Season 32

Ranked Ladders start later in the split, with the following scheduled windows.

Season 32 is scheduled for early 2027 with Kings Canyon Evolved, featuring new and revised points of interest, and a major Ranked update. Iron, Emerald and Grandmaster are planned for that later Ranked overhaul.

Why the Season 31 download is large

The Season 31.0 patch includes recompressed existing textures, making the update larger while reducing the installed game's size. Relative to Season 29.0, the game takes up about 30 GB less storage on the majority of systems and 17 GB less on Switch 2.

The patch also fixes crashes caused by Bluetooth audio disconnections or device changes, restores affected Steam win achievements for support and recon Legends, and corrects the challenges layout on 21:9 displays.

See also: Apex Legends Weapon Tier List: Best Guns for Season 31