Apex Legends basically went ‘oops, all Evo armour’ at the start of season 6, and the change has been a controversial one. That’s largely because the change came alongside a nerf to all shield values, which dramatically decreased the time-to-kill across the game. Now, Respawn is reverting those shield values back to their original form.
All armour is still Evo armour, but each stage of those shields will be reverted to their pre-season 6 values. That means each shield stage will be buffed by 25 points from their current form. So if you’ve got purple armour on, you’ll once again have 200 health, or 225 with red armour.
Red armour is a big part of why the shields got nerfed in the first place, as Respawn explains in the announcement. During internal playtests, players were getting to red armour far more often. So “good players were able to outplay teams more consistently, even if the enemy had worked for a much better position”, and the devs found that this pushed against the experience they were trying to build for Apex.
“I can’t promise you that we won’t try experimental changes again,” design director Jason McCord says. “In fact, I will promise you that we will change the game in order to keep it fresh and interesting as the years go on. I hope that this patch proves that we are thinking deeply about our decisions, but most importantly listening to our players.”
If you’re looking for more now that season 6 is well upon us, check out our guides to Apex Legends crafting or Apex Legends characters if you need some help diving in.