Apex Legends season two update reveals the L-Star LMG and some new hop-ups

The L-Star LMG, introduced earlier this month as part of the Apex Legends season two announcement, is a heavy hitter—so much so that it's not available as a regular weapon spawn, but can only be found in care packages. In an update posted today, principal weapons designer Sean Slayback revealed more about the weapon, saying that, "quite frankly, it's a beast."

L-Star ammunition is much bigger and heavier than that of other weapons in the game, meaning that you'll have to lead targets more to make up for its relatively low projectile velocity. Another problem is heat: Too much sustained fire will eventually cause the L-Star's lens to break, which "takes some time" to replace. And like the Mastiff and Kraber, the L-Star's ammo is unique and cannot be replenished, so once it's dry, it's done. Easy on the squeezy, kids.

The good news is in all of this is that aiming isn't so much a priority with this weapon because, thanks to those huge-ass bullets, if it tags you it's probably going to ruin your day no matter where it hits. LMGs aren't exactly precision weapons anyway, so less-scalpel, more sledgehammer seems like a natural approach and will hopefully make for some good fun in small rooms.

Slayback also revealed a couple of the new hop-ups teased in the season two announcement. Disruptor Rounds for the Alternator and RE-45 (two vastly underrated weapons, by the way) will do increased damage to shields, while the P2020 and Mozambique will get Hammerpoint Rounds that do increased unshielded damage. "Ideally players will consider one of these hopped-up small arms for weapon-swap tactics, and sometimes carry them unironically into endgame situations," he wrote.

Season two will also see the addition of new Energy Mag attachments that will boost the ammo capacity and reduce reload time of energy-based weapons, the Flatline, P2020, Alternator, and Triple Take are getting buffs, and the Arc Star is getting tuned up a little. And there are some big changes coming to Energy and Shotgun ammo stacks: Energy stack size is being increased from 60 to 80, which is nice, but shotgun ammo stacks are being hacked from 64 rounds to 16. That means dedicated shotgunners are going to have to dedicate a lot more inventory space to keeping double EVA-8s properly fed.

Season two will also see changes to airdrop packages, which will use different loot tables depending on the stage of the game—more Krabers in early/midgame drops, more Mastiffs in the endgame, for instance—and a new set of gold weapons will also be introduced. Full details on all the changes will be shared in the season two patch notes, which will be posted when the season goes live on July 2.

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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.