Apex Legends hotfix cuts Crypto's drone recall to 0.7 seconds in Season 31

Respawn has cut Crypto's drone recall time in Apex Legends from 6 seconds to 0.7 seconds. The change is in the post "Apex Legends: Latest Update 11/4/26", published on Steam on November 5, and it reverses a deliberate part of the Crypto rework that shipped with Season 31, Cipher. According to EA's patch notes, the season began on November 3.

In the dev note, Respawn says it keeps watching match data and player feedback after the rework and admits some details missed, "especially for Crypto mains". The recall change was one the team could make quickly. Further changes need a full client update and "should be released soon". The same hotfix fixes a crash when using ordnance while controlling the drone and closes an exploit that allowed excessive Evac Towers.

What Cipher changes

Respawn's season post of November 3 moves Crypto from passive to aggressive intel-gathering. His Surveillance Drone now runs on batteries instead of a cooldown, a new Sentry Mode tags enemies in sight for the whole squad, and the EMP Ultimate deploys with a button press. EA's designer notes give the reason: Crypto has had a very low pick rate for multiple seasons, "barely above 0%". The patch notes add that "a lot of the time he's camping in his drone". The long recall was intended at launch, meant to "give it some downtime before redeploying the drone", as the designer notes put it.

Beyond Crypto, the season adds the Akimbo Wingman, a pair of dual-wielded revolvers, and Strongholds, which Respawn calls the evolution of Care Packages. They hold crate weapons, Corrupted Attachments and EVO for the squad, but opening one takes time and trips an alarm that tells nearby players where you are. Revenant gets a shorter Ultimate cooldown and a quicker Tactical, Lifeline a reduced D.O.C. cooldown and self-heal while gliding. Ranked adds Legend Bans in Diamond lobbies and above, where every player casts one vote.

Godzilla, bans and what comes next

Also on November 5, Respawn announced a Godzilla event on Storm Point. Godzilla cannot be defeated, only survived, and players who dodge its attacks can claim a custom Devotion with heat-ray attacks. EA's event page ties the event to the theatrical release of Godzilla Minus Zero and lists a run from November 10 to December 1, though the same page also names an October start date. The map has a history: PCGamesN previously reported that Storm Point was pulled from all modes over crashes on certain devices.

Respawn's anti-cheat team said on November 4 that it banned 905 accounts for abusing an exploit that let players, primarily on PlayStation 5, enter Ranked as Rookie IV regardless of their rank. 848 of the bans hit PlayStation accounts and 12 PC accounts, with suspensions of 120 to 365 days depending on the RP gained.

On Steam, the game counted 52,118 players late on November 5, with a peak of 252,792 that day, putting it 14th by current players. Its reviews remain Mixed: 67 percent of 1,076,623 are positive.

Apex Legends is free to play, so trying the new season costs nothing. The Cipher Premium Battle Pass and the Cipher Seasonal Packs are optional, and the packs are not available in all regions. Crypto players should expect more changes once the next client update lands. Further out, EA's season page promises overhauls to weapons and looting, a legend rework and a new legend.