Apex Legends' damage reduction buff for Gibraltar appears to be broken

Earlier this week, Respawn rolled out an update for Apex Legends that, among other things, conferred damage reduction to Gibraltar and Caustic—an attempt to compensate for the big boys' beefy builds, which are a whole lot easier to hit than, say, the slim-and-sleek Wraith or Octane. But it doesn't appear to be working quite as intended, and may in fact be doing more harm than good.

Characters in Apex Legends can equip defensive shields that protect them from incoming damage; once the shields wear out, they begin taking physical damage. But this clip from YouTuber Slaydra (via GamesRadar) illustrates, some damage is now getting through Gibraltar's shield—his health (the white bar on the bottom left) goes down even while the shield (the segmented purple bar above it) is still active. It's a not a huge health loss, but every little bit counts in a do-or-die game like Apex, and more to the point it's basically the opposite of what Respawn is trying to accomplish with the buff.

Respawn community manager Jayfresh acknowledged the issue yesterday on Reddit, saying that the studio is aware of the issue and working on a fix, although there was no ETA on it at the time.

This isn't the only issue with Gibraltar to come to light since the 1.1.1 update went live: Players have also noted that he can escape the effects of Arc Stars (basically electrified stun grenades) that strike his passive gun shield, simply by lowering the gun shield. It's not clear whether this is actually a result of the latest update, as others have claimed that the glitch has been there all along; Respawn has said only that it is "looking into it."

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Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.