Apex Legends: Cipher (Season 31) Patch Notes Explained — Crypto Rework, Akimbo Wingman, Strongholds and Ranked Overhaul

Apex Legends Season 31, officially titled Cipher, went live on November 3, 2026, bringing a full rework for Crypto, a brand-new dual-wield pistol, a mid-match loot structure called Strongholds, and the biggest overhaul to Ranked matchmaking since Leagues launched. Respawn published the complete patch notes on November 2, a day ahead of launch, and the changes touch nearly every part of the game: legends, weapons, maps and competitive scoring.

Here is everything confirmed in the official Cipher patch notes and designer's notes, broken down section by section.

1. When Cipher Launches and the Key Dates

Season 31 started on November 3, 2026. Respawn's patch notes lay out the rest of the season's calendar alongside it:

• Wildcard map rotation: District and Broken Moon from November 3–9, then Olympus, District and Broken Moon from December 1 to January 5.
• Mixtape rotation: runs the full season, November 3, 2026 through January 5, 2027.
• Ranked Ladders: five separate ladder windows roll out later in the split — November 10–15, November 17–22, November 24–29, December 1–6 and December 8–13.
• A hotfix to Axle that shipped October 1 carries into the new season (see the weapons and legends sections below).

Respawn also confirmed the Season 32 major map update on the roadmap: a reworked Kings Canyon, called Kings Canyon Evolved, arriving in early 2027.

2. Crypto's Rework: From Passive Scout to Aggressive Intel-Gatherer

The headline change of Cipher is a full rework of Crypto, whose kit was largely untouched since launch. Respawn's own framing is that his "role has switched from passive to aggressive intel-gathering."

• His Surveillance Drone now runs on a 25-second battery instead of a cooldown, with a 6-second recall and no redeploy cooldown — meaning Crypto can call it back and send it out again far more freely than before.
• The drone's scan now covers a full 360 degrees and marks enemies for 8 seconds, on a 4-second cooldown.
• His Ultimate EMP can now be self-deployed directly from the drone at the press of a button, dealing full shield damage to anyone it hits with line of sight, or 50 damage plus a lighter slow otherwise.
• His old passive, which boosted ally movement speed while using the drone, has been folded into his base kit at a slightly reduced value, freeing up an upgrade slot.
• Upgrade tree changes: Got Eyes On You (Level 2) replaces the old ally speed-boost upgrade, and Charged Up (Level 3) adds 10 seconds of battery life.

Players who already know Crypto's old kit from the beginner's guide to Legend classes and game modes will need to relearn him — he now plays closer to a recon legend who can threaten fights directly with his drone-deployed EMP, rather than one who only sets up picks from a distance.

3. Revenant and Lifeline Both Get Buffed

Two more legends received direct buffs in Cipher, continuing the balance pass Respawn started with the Marked midseason patch in September.

Revenant

• Tactical cooldown cut from 20 to 15 seconds, and it now charges faster.
• Ultimate cooldown reduced from 180 to 150 seconds.
• New upgrades: Ever Lasting (Level 2) adds 10 seconds of Ultimate duration on every knock; Silence (Level 3) applies an area silence when his tactical Shadow Pounce lands; No Escape (Level 3) refreshes his tactical cooldown whenever his passive marks a nearby enemy.

Lifeline

• D.O.C. now heals Lifeline herself while she is gliding.
• Tactical cooldown dropped from 25 to 15 seconds.
• Her upgrade tree was reshuffled: Enhanced Radio moved down to Level 2, a new Ultimate Cooldown reduction (-60 seconds) was added at Level 3, and a new Revive Shield upgrade shields D.O.C. while she revives a teammate, replacing the old tactical-cooldown upgrade.

Not every legend got better: Loba's tactical cooldown rose from 25 to 30 seconds and her Ultimate cooldown rose from 120 to 150 seconds, a clear nerf aimed at her item-access speed.

4. Akimbo Wingman: A New Dual-Wield Heavy Pistol

Cipher introduces the first akimbo weapon built around the Wingman. Looting a second Wingman while already holding one automatically enters Akimbo mode — no separate hop-up required.

• The Wingman's ammo type changed from Sniper to Heavy, so it now pulls from Heavy Magazines and Heavy Ammo Arsenals.
• Base damage was reduced from 50 to 45 to account for the dual-wield firepower.
• In Akimbo mode: a 1.25x headshot multiplier (56 headshot damage), a slightly faster fire rate, longer reload, more recoil, and a doubled magazine size.
• It fires in alternating bursts — holding the trigger keeps releasing subsequent bursts automatically.
• Akimbo Wingman is one of several weapons, alongside the Prowler, Hemlok and Nemesis, that now support tap-fire queuing for cleaner burst control.

5. Strongholds: A New Mid-Match Airdrop Structure

Strongholds are Respawn's description of "the evolution of Care Packages" — a new structure that drops near the middle of a match, crushing and killing anything caught underneath on landing, then deploying up to four indestructible barriers and two Hardlight frames around itself.

• Strongholds cannot be entered, stolen from by Loba, or breached by Alter until a team captures them.
• Capturing: progress only ticks while exactly one team is alive inside the zone. Multiple squads can contest it, progress is shared and does not decay, and more teammates inside speeds up the capture.
• Reward: the Stronghold opens once captured and grants every living teammate who helped take it an instant level-up.
• Loot inside: one Care Package weapon, three Gold Guns, three Amps and two Corrupted Attachments.
• Airdrop timing in a match now includes two standard Care Packages and one Care Package plus one Stronghold, tied to the closing of Round 1 and Round 2.

Elsewhere in the loot pool, the L-Star returns to floor loot and the Care Package rotation now includes an Akimbo Mozambique, which comes with a boosted Executioner Hop-Up that heals 15 shields per second.

6. Map Changes: E-District Night and 99 Targeted Fixes

Pubs and Ranked now rotate between Storm Point, E-District Night and Broken Moon. E-District's night variant got reworked lighting, shadows and color correction specifically to improve visibility and cut down on visual noise, alongside a global pass on lighting, fog and auto-exposure across every map in rotation.

Respawn also shipped 99 targeted quality-of-life fixes this patch, concentrated on Storm Point, Olympus and World's Edge — including more than 35 resolved rat and hiding spots, over 15 fixed out-of-bounds clips involving Alter, extra cover added at War Camp, and a closed railing gap at Construction Stacks, both on World's Edge.

7. Ranked Overhaul: Legend Bans and Wide-Match Scoring

This is the biggest change to competitive play since the current Ranked system launched, expanding on ideas first teased in the Season 31-32 Ranked roadmap.

• Legend Bans (Diamond and above): each player requests one legend to ban. The chance a legend actually gets banned is proportional to its share of requests across the lobby, and two legends are banned per match. If fewer than four unique legends are requested, the system fills the gap using the previous week's most-played legends at one request each.
• Challenger Match: entry cost drops 30% when a squad's tier sits two or more tiers below the lobby's tier, making it cheaper to queue up against stronger lobbies.
• Goliath Match: entry cost rises 50% when a squad's tier sits two or more tiers above the lobby's tier.
• Squad Tier is calculated from the average RP of squadmates, with premade members counted at the group's highest RP; a missing teammate drops the tier by one. Lobby Tier is the median across the lobby.
• The waiting screen now shows Squad Tier, Lobby Tier, entry cost and match type before you queue, and a new Ranked inventory tab displays squad info and RP goals. In-match, the kill feed shows RP earned per kill and placement RP on squad elimination, with net RP colored red when negative and white when positive.

For the underlying ranked RP math and split structure this builds on, see the full Ranked Mode explainer.

8. Other Weapon Balance Changes

Beyond the new Akimbo Wingman, Cipher rebalances several existing guns:

• EVA-8 Auto: Double Tap Trigger removed; Disruptor Rounds added as a new unlock (375 points).
• Hemlok Burst AR: the Elite variant is gone — Automatic mode, Breach Charge mode and the integrated silencer were all removed, restoring the classic Burst and Single-fire modes (21 body damage, 29 headshot).
• L-STAR EMG (now floor loot again): base damage down from 21 to 19, shots before overheating down from 28 to 22, stockpile cut from 168 to 88, clip recharge shortened from 22 to 18 seconds, and the Redline Hop-Up was removed entirely.
• Nemesis Burst AR: increased vertical recoil.
• Peacekeeper: increased rate of fire, and Shotgun Bolt attachments now also boost rechamber speed.
• Prowler Burst PDW: increased recoil, and the Selectfire Hop-Up was removed.
• Corrupted Rapid Sniper Stock: its fire-rate multiplier on the G7 Scout, Longbow DMR and Triple Take was tuned down from 1.2x to 1.1x.

Axle also carries changes from an October 1 hotfix into the new season: 50% less slide lateral control on his passive (25% less when using Nitro Gate), aim assist disabled while using Nitro Gate, a weaker Nitro initial push (700 down to 650), and a reduced Ultimate max knock-up and drone chase time.

9. Quick-Tips Recap

• Crypto is now an aggressive intel legend — spam the drone more freely and look for EMP picks instead of only scouting from range.
• Pick up a second Wingman whenever you find one; Akimbo mode is automatic and hits much harder on headshots.
• Don't rush an uncaptured Stronghold alone — progress is shared between contesting squads, so bring your whole team to hold the zone.
• If you're climbing past Diamond, expect two legends banned every match — have a backup main ready.
• Check your Squad Tier versus Lobby Tier on the new waiting screen before you queue to understand your entry cost.

10. Official Resources

• Apex Legends: Cipher Patch Notes — EA.com
• New Updates Coming with Apex Legends: Cipher — EA.com
• Cipher Designer's Notes — EA.com
• Apex Legends Ranked Roadmap — EA.com
• Apex Legends Official Site

For more on what's changed this split, catch up on our Marked midseason patch breakdown, or browse every Apex Legends guide on Walkthroughs.net.