Based on documents published up to May 4, 2026
Season 29: Overclocked
Season start: May 5, 2026
Overclocked is Season 29, live from May 5, 2026. The RP formula itself stays put; what got touched is seeding and matchmaking, including a fix for players near a tier boundary being placed too low at the season reset. In the match, the headline is a new base rule: reviving a teammate straight out of their deathbox. Six ranked ladders of three days each.
At a glance
- Six ranked ladders of 3 days. The first opens May 14, nine days into the season; the last closes June 21
- The season-reset placement bug is fixed: players near a tier boundary could be seeded below others
- Later in the split, solo queuers are matched against a slightly lower skill tier in both Ranked and Unranked
- Deathbox Respawns arrive: 7 seconds, loud and visible to anyone nearby
- The new Legend is Axle, a Skirmisher. Ranked rotates Broken Moon, Kings Canyon and Olympus
Ranked ladder calendar
| Ladder | Window | Span |
|---|---|---|
| Ladder 1 | 5/14 – 5/17 | 3 days |
| Ladder 2 | 5/21 – 5/24 | 3 days |
| Ladder 3 | 5/28 – 5/31 | 3 days |
| Ladder 4 | 6/4 – 6/7 | 3 days |
| Ladder 5 | 6/11 – 6/14 | 3 days |
| Ladder 6 | 6/18 – 6/21 | 3 days |
The dates exactly as the patch notes print them. No timezone is given there.
Six 3-day ladders, each opening Thursday and closing Sunday
Six three-day windows from May 14 to June 21. Last season, Amped, ran twelve windows of the same length, so the shape is unchanged and the count is halved. The totals and gaps below are our arithmetic on the two seasons' own date tables.
- Window length: 3 days, unchanged
- Windows: 12 → 6 (total competitive days: 36 → 18)
- Three days between windows, and a nine-day run-up to the first
- Nothing in the notes changes RP maths, promotion or demotion
What it means if you track your rank
Half as many pushes on the curve, spaced further apart. Each window carries more weight, so which weekends you play shows up in the season result. Season 30 goes further — five windows, but five days each.
Sources: Apex Legends™: Overclocked Patch Notes / Apex Legends™: Amped Patch Notes
Fixed: players near a tier boundary seeded below others at the reset
Seeding across a season boundary had a bug: players sitting near a tier line could start lower than comparable players. The notes list it as fixed. The principle behind seeding — place on tracked skill, not on the RP balance you finished with — is unchanged since Season 25.
- Scoped to placement right after the reset; in-season promotion and demotion are untouched
- The effect lands once, at the reset, so it shifts only where a season opens
What it means if you track your rank
If a season used to open a tier below where your results suggested, there was a reason. On a Vitals chart that shows up as the step at the season boundary — lift the starting point and the whole line after it shifts up with it.
Queue solo and you face a slightly lower skill tier
To offset the disadvantage of facing full squads, solo queuers are matched against a slightly lower skill tier in both Ranked and Unranked from later in the split. The notes also warn that tightening the skill bands at the top can add a few minutes to queue times. Bot testing continues in Unranked in some regions, never on your own team.
- Rolls out later in the split, not at season start
- High-skill queues can run a few minutes longer than before
- Unranked bots only ever fill the opposing side, never your team
What it means if you track your rank
The same player can post different RP curves depending on whether a stretch was played solo or in a party. Worth remembering when comparing two stretches of your own line.
Revive straight from the deathbox — but it takes 7 seconds, loudly
A downed teammate can be brought back at their deathbox instead of at a respawn beacon, and any gear still unlooted comes back with them. The cost is time and exposure: it is loud, it is visible, and each additional death lengthens the lockout before the team can use it again.
- Takes 7 seconds
- Unlooted weapons and gear return to the inventory automatically
- Each further death increases the lockout before the next use
“Respawning at a Deathbox is loud, visible to nearby enemies, and takes 7 seconds”What it means if you track your rank
Winning a fight no longer means a run to a beacon, so a squad can stay in more fights per match. It pushes against losing placement points to a wipe, and it suits a kill-led playstyle.
Broken Moon, Kings Canyon and Olympus — with the rides taken away
Three maps in the Ranked and Unranked rotation, and less transport on them: Tridents are gone from Storm Point and Olympus, and Broken Moon loses ziprails from most rotations while keeping them at the majority of POIs. Broken Moon gains two redeploy balloons and two new rotation options in exchange.
- Ranked and Unranked: Broken Moon, Kings Canyon, Olympus
- Tridents removed from Storm Point and Olympus
- Broken Moon: ziprails cut from most rotations, two redeploy balloons added
What it means if you track your rank
Slower rotations make it harder to reposition once the ring is on you, which raises the weight of ring discipline for anyone earning on placement. It points the same way as the previous season removing Heat Shields from core BR.
Sources: Apex Legends™: Overclocked Patch Notes / Apex Legends™: Amped Patch Notes
Axle joins, and a light ammo stack drops from 72 to 60
Axle arrives as a Skirmisher, Vantage and Ash get buffs, Conduit is reworked and Alter is nerfed. On the weapon side the C.A.R. returns to floor loot and the L-Star EMG moves into the care package. The quiet one that matters is the light ammo stack: how much you can carry changes.
- Light ammo stack size: 72 → 60
- Alter ultimate range 300m → 250m, tactical cooldown 20s → 25s
- Vantage ultimate rechamber 1.2s → 1.1s, scope magnification 3x → 4x
- C.A.R. to floor loot, L-Star EMG into the care package
Sources
Each entry is a summary with our own commentary, not a translation of the original. The primary documents it rests on are listed at the end of the write-up.