Apex Legends Final Fantasy 7 Event Release Time Countdown & Update Patch Notes

With a new crossover on the horizon, it’s time to check out the Apex Legends Final Fantasy 7 event release time countdown and patch notes. It’s the latest major event in Apex Legends, following other gaming collabs such as Dead Space and Mirror’s Edge. If you’re eager to dive in but want to know more about what to expect and when, we’re here to help.

Apex Legends X FF7 Event Release Time Countdown

The Apex Legends X FF7 event releases on January 9, 2024 at 1PM ET. You can check the countdown below to see how long there’s left to wait:

By the time you’re reading this, the new FF7 event in Apex Legends is likely out now. It was first announced back in December 2023, designed to promote the new FF7 Rebirth game. With a few weeks to go until that game releases, that gives you plenty of time to dive into the battle royale game as hype levels grow.

Apex Legends X FF7 Event Update Patch Notes

The day before the Apex Legends FF7 event released (January 8, 2024), Respawn released a patch to make a few balance adjustments. However, there are no specific mentions of the FF7 event here – those will likely land upon release. Here’s what changed in that patch:

Apex Legends Final Fantasy 7 Event Balance Updates

Crafting Rotation

• R-301 and Volt leave the crafter and are back on the floor
• Hemlok and Alternator enter the crafter

Weapons

• Mastiff
  • Tactical reload time reduced to 0.9 (was 1.03)
  • Empty reload time reduced to 1.6 (was 1.7)
  • Draw Time reduced to 0.45 (was 0.8)
• R99 
  • Damage reduced to 11 (was 12)
• CAR SMG
  • Damage reduced to 12 (was 13)

Legends

Catalyst

• Piercing Spikes
  • Now require line-of-sight to an enemy player to activate
  • Spikes that have not been activated will still slow players

Horizon

• Improved Horizon audio to make “falls” less silent
  • Hard landing audio adjusted to match other legends
  • Soft Landings now play audio in world ( not just for Horizon )
  • Gravity Lift exit audio range increased to make it easier to hear characters who exit

Newcastle

• Castle Wall: impact will now destroy Conduit’s Energy Barricade mines
• Mobile Shield: can now be destroyed by enemy Crypto EMP
• Delayed balance adjustments from the season 19.0 patch are now fully integrated

Rampart

• Amped Walls are no longer destroyed by friendly Crypto EMP or Mad Maggie’s Wrecking Ball

Maps

Map Rotation

• Kings Canyon
• Storm Point
• World’s Edge

Storm Point

• Added and adjusted cover at ZEUS Station & ECHO HQ
• Added Ring Console to Coastal Camp
• Added Trident to Barometer
• Adjusted the position of the Ring Console, Survey Beacon and Crafting Station at Lightning Rod
• Reduced volume of ambient audio at ZEUS Station & ECHO HQ
• Removed Ring Console, Survey Beacon and Crafting Station from Thunder Watch
• Resolved a number of additional bugs and rat spots
• Restored missing Ring Console at Command Center
• ECHO HQ
  • Added four new staircases at ECHO HQ to improve vertical navigation around the perimeter
  • Rooftop of ECHO HQ is now out of bounds, Zipline and rooftop hatch has been removed
• Wattson’s Pylon
  • Adjusted position of the ziplines at Wattson’s Pylon to improve consistency of mantle jumping
  • Reduced amount of ultra rare loot at Wattson’s Pylon
• ZEUS Station
  • Added additional cover and ziplines at ZEUS Station for mixtape modes only
  • Increased the speed of the redeploy balloon zipline at ZEUS Station by 25%

Mixtape

Map Rotation

• Control
  • Hammond Labs and Production Yard are out
  • Lava Siphon and Caustic Treatment are in
• Gun Run
  • The Core, Estates, and Wattson’s Pylon are out
  • Skulltown, Fragment East, and ZEUS Station are in
• TDM
  • ZEUS Station, Skulltown, and Phase Runner are out
  • Wattson’s Pylon, Party Crasher, and Overflow are in

New

• Added new Legend voice lines that occasionally play on respawn
• Lowered Ratings reward for assists in Control 5 per assist (was 20)
  • This is in response to a recent change where we started counting assists in Control and TDM based on the whole team and not just within your individual squad

World Systems

• Extended Supply Bins
  • Added a cap to the number of heat shields a team can receive from the secret drawer
  • Added a cap to the number of medkits a team can receive from the secret drawer

Apex Legends FF7 Event Bug Fixes

• Firing Range: players dying with a Nessie in their inventory will no longer find the Nessie deleted.
• Players no longer get stuck due to spamming holosprays while skydiving
• Players no longer drop out of Wraith’s portal before reaching the other side
• Resolved small chance of getting 5 items in secret drawer of Extended Supply Bins
• Resolved bug preventing audio engine from properly utilizing fast storage drives when reading compressed audio data
• Startup logo video audio volume now respects the master volume slider
• Storm Point: players should now be able to use Evac Tower through the ceiling hatch in Command Center
• Trident collision should no longer occasionally push players through walls and floors

Legends

• Ash: Ultimate can no longer be used with Tridents to get under map
• Bloodhound: Niflheim Hundr skin’s raven now white (was black)
• Catalyst
  • Piercing Spikes ability description now shows the correct max number of traps
  • You can ping Piercing Spikes again
  • Ultimate no longer shows as ready in inventory when not fully charged
• Conduit
  • Fixed Energy Barricade V-Shape deployment when looking directly at the ground
  • Can no longer use Tactical on respawning team still in dropship
• Crypto: fixed Crypto taking ring damage while standing in a heat shield if controlling his drone in the ring
• Loba: restored movement speed while holding Tactical if it was activated while standing still
• Mad Maggie
  • Fixed damage numbers not showing correctly when hitting Revenant’s ultimate shroud with Wrecking Ball
  • Passive no longer works through Catalyst’s walls
• Revenant: no longer occasionally becomes invincible during his ultimate if his shroud is broken while marked by Vantage’s Sniper
• Vantage: corrected Sniper Ult bullets damage to marked targets when breaking Gibraltar’s arm shield or Revenant’s ultimate shroud
• Wattson: Ultimate correctly recharges shields when placed after Bangalore’s smoke

Modes

• Abilities that outline players should no longer stop functioning after killing an enemy
• Silence abilities should no longer cancel auto healing
• Voice chat is no longer heard outside of the squad in TDM and Control

Control

• Caustic Treatment: weapons cannot be used on the supply ship
• Damage not taken while inside the respawn ship
• Players no longer occasionally spawn in a skydive state when respawning on Kings Canyon
• Players no longer lose invulnerability while still on the dropship when spawning on the MRB

Code Optimizations

• Fixed issue with dynamic resolution not reacting fast enough to high graphics load. Improves frame rate stability on consoles
• DX12 (PC) video memory (VRAM) usage is now reduced by 1.5 – 2GB
• DX12 (PC) improved graphics performance with parallelization of rendering workloads
• Upgraded Nvidia Reflex SDK to v1.8 and adds support for latency markers

Apex Legends FF7 Event Quality of Life Changes

Legends

Conduit

• Improved visibility for jammers
• Ultimate SFX can no longer be heard in other Firing Range instances

Mirage’s Decoys

• Improved issues against terrain that would cause destruction/floating
  • Any destroyed by terrain will now be refunded
• Improved to more correctly copy the ADS state of the player
• No longer mimic reviving or execution animations

Newcastle

• Voice line added when Newcastle removes one of his own Castle Wall segments

We’re also anticipating a patch on January 9 as the Apex Legends Final Fantasy 7 event arrives, so we’ll update this guide once that lands. Until then, read up on how to get Camo Credits in Apex Legends and how to fix the No Server Found error.

About the author

Luke Hinton

Luke Hinton is a video games journalist currently working as Senior Guides Writer and Associate Editor at Twinfinite. He has undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in Journalism, Media, and Culture, and previously specialised in entertainment writing.