Game intel
Apex Legends
Join the Apex Games ready for battle with the PlayStationPlus Play Pack. This collection of content will trick out specific weapons and Legends in special gear…
After 26 seasons of Apex, care-package drops still flip late-game tempo. But Season 27’s headliner isn’t just a numbers tweak – it’s a design shift. Respawn is putting the CAR SMG into care packages and letting you toggle between Disruptor rounds (shield shred) and Hammer Points (flesh melt). That’s not just “strong gun is strong”; it’s a weapon that asks you to make the right call mid-fight, with real consequences for time-to-kill and push timing.
Respawn’s weapons designer Casey O’Brien says the CAR will “retain that swap of power” in a “super sick way.” Translation: instead of light vs. heavy ammo flexibility, the care-package CAR flips between two damage profiles. Disruptor rounds historically evaporate shields – anyone who lived through the Alternator + Disruptor era remembers the pre-nerf terror. Hammer Points, meanwhile, reward you for capitalizing on broken shields by juicing damage to unarmored targets. Putting both on a single SMG means the gun can handle the entire arc of an engagement by itself: crack shields, instantly swap, delete health bars.
The wild card is the toggle speed and handling. If it lives on the fire-mode button and feels instant, sweaty players will break armor, toggle on muscle memory, and finish before a battery pops. If there’s friction — animation delay, audio tell, or a reload gate — it becomes a high-skill, high-reward play rather than a guaranteed delete button. That difference will decide whether the CAR becomes an endgame must-grab or simply a flashy tool for confident fraggers.
The Triple Take dropping back to floor loot matters, too. It brings more accessible poke and mid-range control to early and mid-game, especially for teams that don’t want to commit to marksman rifles like the G7 or 30-30. Expect more chip damage across open zones and more pressure to carry batteries — which quietly buffs the value of a gun that can punish armor swaps as aggressively as a Disruptor/Hammer Point CAR.
Double Tap on the Alternator isn’t the old “two-shot burst” we saw on the G7 or EVA; this time both barrels spit a pair simultaneously. That’s basically a micro-burst every trigger pull. The immediate upsides are obvious: faster burst damage and better crack potential in melee ranges, with hit registration potentially favoring controller coil-up or tight strafes.
The tradeoffs will decide if it’s meta or meme. Firing two rounds at once will burn mags faster and punish whiffs, which has always been the Alternator’s hidden strength: forgiving recoil and great sustain. If Double Tap tightens spread and keeps recoil tame, it could bully R-99 and Volt users inside buildings. If the spread blooms or range falloff spikes, it becomes a “win fast or reload in someone’s face” playstyle. O’Brien hints at built-in drawbacks, so I’m expecting ammo economy and mag dependency to be the tuning levers here.
The endgame in recent Apex seasons has leaned on poke into a coordinated crash. A care-package CAR that can crack shields and immediately pivot to Hammer Point cleanup rewards teams that time pushes around enemy heals and crack calls. Picture a Horizon Q or Revenant hit: Disruptor to break, instant toggle mid-slide, and you’re deleting armor-swapped players before they finish their swap animation.
It also reorders floor SMG priorities. With CAR out of ground loot, R-99/Volt look like the default pickups again. That’s healthier for identity — the CAR’s been the “easy button” for too long — but care-package exclusivity risks consolidating late-circle power behind RNG drops. If you’re solo queuing ranked, you already know how big a swing one care package can be; this change might widen that gap unless spawn logic or tuning keeps it fair.
As for the Triple Take returning to floor: expect more mid-range lanes reopened and more teams carrying Energy ammo. That can slow pushes and inflate battery usage, which indirectly boosts legends with mobility entry (Octane, Wraith, Horizon) and supports who keep resources flowing. It also pressures crafting choices if cells/bats become scarce in contested POIs.
I love the intent here. Apex is best when guns have personalities and demand decisions under fire. A Disruptor/Hammer Point toggle on the CAR is a perfect “skill expression” idea — provided the swap isn’t so snappy that it erases counterplay. If it ends up recreating the Season 2 Disruptor meltdown, ranked will turn into whoever finds the red beam first. But if the toggle timing, recoil, and ammo economy require finesse, we might get the most interesting care-package SMG the game’s ever had.
Double Tap Alternator could be the sleeper. It won’t headline patch notes, but if burst damage lines up with close-range strafing, we may see it creep into comp scrims as a building-clear specialist — especially for players who hate R-99 recoil or Volt charge time. Just remember: two bullets per click means you’re mag-dumping faster than you think. Miss, and you’re reloading into a Peacekeeper choke.
Season 27 lands November 4 with ranked and legend balance changes still to be detailed. The weapon sandbox hints at a faster TTK up close and more poke at range — a classic Apex push-pull. If Respawn threads the needle, we’ll get a sandbox that rewards decisive plays without reducing fights to insta-delete beams. Keep an eye on CAR toggle handling and Alternator mag dependency in the first week; those two details will tell the real story.
The CAR enters care packages with a Disruptor/Hammer Point toggle that could redefine endgame pushes, while Double Tap turns the Alternator into a bursty brawler with ammo and mag tradeoffs. It’s an exciting, experimental sandbox — as long as the toggle timing and tuning keep counterplay alive.
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