{"id":831184,"date":"2026-07-29T11:58:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T11:58:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/831184\/"},"modified":"2026-07-29T11:58:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T11:58:10","slug":"apex-legends-season-30-marked-exact-times-bloodhound-rework-switch-1-ends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/831184\/","title":{"rendered":"Apex Legends Season 30 ‘Marked’: Exact Times, Bloodhound Rework, Switch 1 Ends"},"content":{"rendered":"

Apex Legends\u2019 30th season, subtitled \u201cMarked,\u201d goes live on August 4, 2026, bringing the biggest rework of Bloodhound since launch, a rebuilt World\u2019s Edge, a new Corrupted Attachments system and the permanent shutdown of the game on the original Nintendo<\/a> Switch. Respawn Entertainment confirmed the update\u2019s scope and timing through its own Apex Legends news portal, with the changes independently corroborated by outlets including Dot Esports, Sportskeeda and GameRant.<\/p>\n

The rollover happens with zero downtime: Apex Legends Season 30 will debut on August 4, 2026, at 10:00 am PT (UTC-7), which is 5:00 pm UTC, the exact moment Season 29, \u201cOverclocked,\u201d expires. Respawn\u2019s own update page confirms players should \u201cgrab your squadmates, clear your calendar, and dive head first into Apex Legends: Marked when it releases on August 4th, 2026!\u201d<\/p>\n

Exact Launch Times for New Zealand and Australia<\/p>\n

For players tracking the countdown locally, the 5:00 pm UTC start converts to roughly 5:00 am NZST on Wednesday, August 5, and about 3:00 am AEST the same morning for the Australian east coast, since neither region observes daylight saving in early August. West Coast North American players get the 10:00 am kickoff during their working day, while European fans will see the update land in the early evening.<\/p>\n

Because Season 29 ends the instant Season 30 begins, there is no scheduled maintenance gap between updates. Anyone with an unfinished Battle Pass or ranked placement match should note that unclaimed Season 29 rewards will not roll over once the clock resets.<\/p>\n

Bloodhound\u2019s Ultimate Becomes a Team Cloak, Not a Solo Hunt<\/p>\n

The headline change is a top-to-bottom overhaul of Bloodhound, one of the six Legends available since the game\u2019s 2019 launch. According to Dot Esports<\/a>, Bloodhound has a new, refined set of abilities including an entirely new ultimate to help them keep up with the faster pace of modern Apex. The old solo-frenzy ultimate is gone entirely.<\/p>\n

In its place is the Allfather\u2019s Cloak: an ultimate that cloaks any teammates in its range, granting them increased speed and threat vision, with leaving the area allowing allies to stay cloaked longer, but taking any damage or using a weapon will remove the effect. Dot Esports notes the shift moves Bloodhound from a lone-wolf tracker toward \u201cmore of a team advantage\u201d pick. GameRant\u2019s reporting adds that the passive and tactical abilities are also being retuned rather than replaced, with a ton of new content for the popular battle royale game, including a map adjustment for World\u2019s Edge for the first time in a long time.<\/p>\n

Two older Legends get smaller touch-ups alongside Bloodhound. Respawn\u2019s own patch preview states \u201cBloodhound isn\u2019t hunting alone. Loba and Rampart join the pack with fresh buffs. Loba keeps the squad supplied with an improved Black Market with a reduced cooldown timer. Her Tactical moves faster and covers more ground\u201d, changes aimed at keeping veteran picks competitive against newer additions like Season 29\u2019s Axle.<\/p>\n

Corrupted Attachments and a Trimmed Loot Economy<\/p>\n

Marked also introduces Corrupted Attachments, a new mod category that trades raw power for a drawback. Respawn describes it directly: \u201cCorrupted Attachments introduce new power with a real tradeoff, energy weapons have been completely reworked, and visible weapon stats show how attachments change the performance of each weapon.\u201d Only one Corrupted Attachment can be slotted per gun for now.<\/p>\n

Energy weapons are getting their own overhaul, moving away from fixed ammo counts. Sportskeeda\u2019s coverage confirms the developers are changing how Energy weapons work in Apex Legends by adding regenerating ammo, meaning players who run dry can simply wait rather than scramble for pickups mid-fight.<\/p>\n

The wider loot pool is also being trimmed. Respawn\u2019s patch notes confirm the studio is \u201cremoving Support and Assault Bins, Explosive Holds, loot bin resets, wildlife loot, and rebalancing all other loot sources\u201d to push squads toward committing to whatever loadout they already have rather than chasing late-game upgrades.<\/p>\n

No New Legend Until Season 32<\/p>\n

Unlike most seasons, Marked does not add a 29th playable Legend. Respawn\u2019s 2026 roadmap set that expectation months earlier, confirming two new Legends this year, one Skirmisher in Season 29 and another in Season 32, while continuing to evolve the existing roster with Legend Reworks planned for Seasons 30 and 31. That means Bloodhound\u2019s overhaul effectively substitutes for a new-character drop this cycle, with the next fresh face not arriving until February 2027.<\/p>\n

Original Nintendo Switch Loses Apex Legends for Good<\/p>\n

The launch of Season 30 also marks the end of the road for Apex Legends on the original Nintendo Switch, a change EA flagged on its own support page well ahead of time. The notice states plainly: \u201cStarting August 4, 2026 (Season 30), Apex Legends will no longer be playable on the Nintendo Switch system.\u201d Season 29 was confirmed as the console\u2019s last content update.<\/p>\n

Players won\u2019t lose their progress, however. EA\u2019s page confirms all players\u2019 progress, purchases, and earnings are tied to their individual EA accounts, meaning Apex Coins and cosmetics carry over automatically to Nintendo Switch 2<\/a>, PlayStation, Xbox or PC. Premium currency purchases on the original Switch will simply stop being possible once the cutoff hits, though existing balances can still be spent beforehand.<\/p>\n

Read also: Hades II Hotfix 5: Supergiant Details July 2026 Bug-Fix Patch for PC, Switch Next<\/a><\/p>\n

For a seven-year-old shooter still drawing crowds to events like the Esports World Cup, folding a Legend rework, a ranked-focused map overhaul and a hardware sunset into a single patch is a lot to land in one day. Australian and New Zealand players logging on for that early-morning reset will at least know exactly what they\u2019re walking into \u2014 and exactly which console will no longer let them walk in at all.<\/p>\n

Sources<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Apex Legends\u2019 30th season, subtitled \u201cMarked,\u201d goes live on August 4, 2026, bringing the biggest rework of Bloodhound…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":831185,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[404360,64,63,128980,404361,7777,68736,198623,404362,105],"class_list":["post-831184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-apex-legends","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-battle-royale","tag-bloodhound-rework","tag-empty","tag-nintendo-switch","tag-respawn-entertainment","tag-season-30-marked","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/831184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=831184"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/831184\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/831185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=831184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=831184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=831184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}