Apex Legends 30.1: Conduit, Fuse, and Catalyst reworked — five upgrades removed, five created, patch notes on September 14

Respawn posted the mid-season design notes for Apex Legends on Thursday, September 10, 2026, published in French by Electronic Arts under the title « Notes de conception de mi-saison : Traque ». The page is timestamped 8:00 AM Pacific time, i.e. 5:00 PM in Paris: this is our conversion, as EA only publishes the US time zone. Three Legends are covered, Conduit, Fuse, and Catalyst, and their three perk trees come out of it modified.

This document is not a patch log. Respawn says so in its conclusion: you'll need to check «the full patch notes which will be available on September 14, 2026». None of what follows is live in the game as of this article's publication date: these are stated intentions, whose detailed figures are expected on Monday, September 14, 2026.

Design notes, not patch notes

The format is deliberate: the studio states it wants to explain «the reasons» behind its balance changes. Directions, then, not values. The text contains only three numbers affecting gameplay: Conduit's ultimate recharge «once within 10 seconds of its initial activation», the «2 fewer jammers» per barricade with Rivalry, and the extra trap unit granted by Ferrofrenzy. No cooldown duration, no shield points, no damage figures.

The percentages cited below do not come from the text: they appear only in the captions of EA's charts. And the page closes with a clause that always gets skipped over: «This announcement is subject to change based on community feedback and the development of our live service and content.» Note finally that EA dates the publication of the notes to September 14 and ties the changes to «Hunted season's Division 2», without stating that this division begins on that day.

Conduit: Respawn weakens what it had just strengthened

Following the season 29 tweaks, the team said it was thrilled to see Conduit's pick rate rise, much less pleased to see that her success «flattened squad composition variety and pushed other support Legends out of the meta». Hence the announcement: «we've reduced some of the power and availability of her tactical ability's regeneration». The studio concedes that buffing then nerfing «can seem a bit counterintuitive».

Look at what the curve actually measures: the pick rate of all support Legends, which rose to 14% at the launch of season 29 and then fell back to 6% after a patch. Not Conduit's alone. Her window, as specified by EA, ends on August 3, 2026, the eve of Hunted's launch: no data from the current season publicly supports this nerf.

The Radiant Transfer, on the other hand, gains a readability it didn't have before: Conduit and her allies will see "a visual preview appear on their shield bar to indicate the amount of temporary shield that will be generated." The Energy Barricade, meanwhile, is the centerpiece: faster deployment, "a new HUD element," and targeting effects signaling whether the jammers are about to break, jammers that are "taller and slightly closer together," and deployment straight ahead rather than in a horizontal line, "simply by holding the button while aiming."

Both tier 2 upgrades are getting skipped: Battery Pack and Wide Barrel are "being reworked entirely." Concurrency allows the ultimate to be recast within 10 seconds with no cooldown, at the cost of 2 fewer jammers and a denser formation, with EA mentioning arrangements "in an X, a V, an L." Its counterpart, Jammed Up, widens the radius and "hides information displayed on enemy Legends' HUDs": the studio distinguishes it from Crypto's EMP, saying it denies information without restricting mobility.

A detail for anyone looking for these terms in-game: the official page uses two labels for the same object, "jammers" in the body text and "jamming devices" in the description of the new HUD screenshot.

Fuse: Fire Rate Resistance and Nitro Jump folded into the base kit

Respawn places Fuse "middle of the pack in terms of popularity" and considers his stats "pretty solid overall": what follows is a matter of polish. His official curve actually stops on May 4, 2026, four months before the update.

Fire Rate Resistance, the resistance to explosive damage, stops being a selectable upgrade: it joins the base kit "with a slight nerf." The reasoning is worth noting, since Fuse's opponents "had no way of knowing his level of resistance to explosive damage." After the update, every Fuse will be resistant to explosions.

Same move on mobility: Nitro Jump moves into the base kit, including "in Mixtape mode." The double tradeoff is no more tactical cooldown reduction on jumps, and jump power "slightly reduced compared to the old upgraded version." The studio says it's keeping an eye on this, since Fuse is meant, in their view, to "wreck the opposition," not to cross the map.

The Grand Slam gets four tweaks without a single number attached: faster deployment, adjusted throw arc "to favor close-range effectiveness," reduced damage falloff on the central explosion, mini bombs that explode sooner. Respawn half-admits the Season 28 version fell short: "we didn't reach the power level some people expected."

Catalyst: ferrofluid immunity removed

This is the only change that outright strips a property from a character. Catalyst was immune to ferrofluid, including her opponents' ferrofluid; that immunity is being removed, because "potentially a third of the players in the lobby could be unaffected by most of her kit." A Catalyst-versus-Catalyst matchup stops being a stalemate.

Her curve is the only one of the three to cover Season 30: 6% on February 9, 2026, then holding around 1% until August 20. One inconsistency worth noting: the chart's description has it starting on January 31, while the caption below the image states "from February 1, 2026 to August 20, 2026."

On the tactical ability side, Respawn is granting a long-standing request, "placing traps will automatically reinforce and rebuild doors," and adding a reload reduction, unspecified. Piltover Wall [note: kept as Ferrobarrière per instructions—see below] sees its trigger time adjusted, and above all allies "are no longer negatively affected when passing through the wall": the squad can push into contact without being blinded.

The tree is being overhauled. Sole Survivor [kept as Perce-semelle—see below] is being removed. Resistant Shroud and Ferro Door [kept as Voile résistant / Ferroporte—see below] drop to level 2, each gaining something: reduced ultimate recharge for the former, more reinforceable doors for the latter. At level 3, Ferro-Frenzy appears: one more trap and increased damage rate, in exchange for traps that are "noticeably smaller."

Then there's Hidden Spikes. The French text only says it is "reclassified to counter" Ferro-Frenzy, without specifying the direction. The English version settles it: "Hidden Spikes is getting moved up." The upgrade is therefore moving up to level 3, something the French text alone did not make clear.

The five upgrades removed, the five created

The levels indicated are those explicitly cited by the publisher; where none are given, we do not invent any.

What to remember

Five upgrades leave the trees, five enter them. Two of them, on Fuse, only change status: free for everyone, they free up the slot they occupied. Conduit mainly requires relearning his ultimate, between forward deployment and Surge Link relaunch. Catalyst, for her part, trades building convenience for the immunity that protected her from her counterparts.

The only actionable information available right now concerns Fuse: after the update, all will be resistant to explosive damage, with no visual cue to watch for. The rest awaits Monday, September 14, 2026 and the full patch notes. Until they are published, none of these adjustments has a numerical value, and the publisher has reserved the right in writing to change them.