Apex Legends Hunted: G7 Scout damage cut to 33 and the 30-30 Repeater moves to the support pack — what to pick up in Season 30

Since the launch of Season 30 “Manhunt” on August 4, 2026 at 5:00 PM UTC, Apex Legends' two most recognizable flat-shooting weapons have swapped places. The G7 Scout leaves the care package pool and drops back into ground loot, stripped of 4 damage, its Double Tap hop-up, and its precision optics. The 30-30 Repeater takes the exact opposite path: it joins the care package pool, goes from 43 to 51 damage per bullet, and comes with the original Skullpiercer hop-up built in.

The consequence can be summed up in one sentence: the precision weapon you used to pick up on the ground has disappeared from the ground, and the one replacing it no longer has what it takes to hold long range. A G7 Scout found in a building is no longer a trophy, it's a stopgap. The 30-30 Repeater, meanwhile, can now only be picked up by opening a care package — and its ammo reserve is capped at 50 rounds, which completely changes how it's played.

These are the launch patch numbers, and they're still current as of this Monday, August 17: none of these values have changed since August 4. Might as well get familiar with them now, since Ranked Split 2 opens tomorrow, Tuesday, August 18, and runs through Sunday, August 23.

The G7 Scout drops to 33 damage, loses Double Tap, and can no longer mount precision optics

The G7 Scout isn't getting a tweak, it's getting a demotion. Its damage falls from 37 to 33, meaning an extra bullet is needed to take down an opponent across several armor thresholds. The Double Tap hop-up, which turned the weapon into a two-round burst rifle, is simply removed. And the G7 can no longer equip precision optics: the high-magnification scopes you'd find on the ground no longer attach to it.

Magazines follow the same downward trend. The base magazine stays at 10 rounds, but the three higher tiers are trimmed down, according to the official patch notes:

Add it all up: less damage per bullet, a reduced fire rate, fewer bullets before reloading, and effective range cut short for lack of an optic. The G7 Scout becomes a decent mid-range weapon, nothing more: it's gone back to being ordinary loot, and it's treated as such.

The 30-30 Repeater moves to the care package pool: 51 damage, 0.25s charge time, and built-in Skullpiercer

On the other end of the scale, the 30-30 Repeater picks up everything the G7 lost. Its damage rises from 43 to 51. The aim-charge time, which used to make the weapon clunky, drops from 0.4 to 0.25 seconds: the “aim, charge, fire” motion becomes short enough to hold up in a duel, not just in a prepared ambush.

Most importantly, the Skullpiercer hop-up is now built into the weapon. When hip-fired, the 30-30 unleashes seven pellets at 8 damage each, for 56 damage if the entire spread connects. In practical terms: the 30-30's historic weakness, its inability to defend itself when an opponent closes in for a point-blank fight, no longer exists. It's a long-range weapon that now has a close-quarters backup mode.

The safeguard is the reserve: 50 rounds, full stop. The math therefore works in reverse compared to an assault rifle. You don't spray, you don't test a distant window "just to see," you don't shoot at a shield just to make noise. Every bullet spent is a bullet you won't get back from a bin.

What this changes in your landing pickup priorities

Drop priorities are no longer the same as those in our pre-season loadout guides. In order:

• Stop looking for the 30-30 Repeater on the ground. It's no longer there. If you want it, you'll need to plan for a care package, which is a team and rotation decision, not a lucky loot find.
• Grab the G7 Scout, but don't get attached to it. With 33 damage and no heavy magnification, it's a perfectly solid transition weapon for the first two minutes. As soon as a properly attached assault rifle or SMG comes within reach, swap.
• Save your precision optics for another weapon. The one you pick up next to a G7 won't be of any use to it; don't carry it around in your inventory out of habit.
• Stop chasing after a precise SMG. The three headliners each lose one point of damage, without their hierarchy changing: the gap between them stays the same. The best choice therefore remains the one that comes with the best attachments, not the one with the best name.
• If you pick up the 30-30 from a care package, designate its carrier. With a total of 50 rounds, the weapon should go to whichever teammate lands the most shots at range — not to whoever grabs it first.

Hemlok Burst AR and SMGs: the rest of the lineup is shifting too

The Hemlok Burst AR takes a hit on three fronts. Its damage drops from 22 to 21, its Boosted Loader's cooldown lengthens from 25 to 30 seconds, and its damage against breakable windows and structures is cut in half. This third point is the heaviest: breaking open enemy cover now costs twice as much ammo, and you'll only get the Boosted Loader once every 30 seconds to start over.

On top of that comes a fix that went more unnoticed: the August 11 update restored the weapon's recoil, which hadn't been behaving as intended since launch. So the control you learned in early August isn't quite the same today.

On the SMG side — and the RE-45, which is a machine pistol — the adjustment is uniform:

One point of damage per bullet may seem trivial; over a full magazine emptied at point-blank range, the difference adds up to tens of damage, and therefore to fights lost by the narrowest of margins.

Only one corrupted attachment per weapon: the choice is made at pickup, not at the end of the match

One last factor weighing on these trade-offs: this season's corrupted attachments are limited to one per weapon. There are five of them — we detailed them at the season's launch, with the Overflow Magazine leading the pack.

This exclusivity rule takes on particular significance on a G7 Scout whose magazines have just been cut: you won't be able to both compensate for the capacity and fix the weapon's handling at the same time — you'll have to choose. The same trade-off applies to your weakened SMGs. And since you can only equip one per weapon, the second corrupted attachment you pick up isn't a useless duplicate — it's something to equip your second weapon with, or a bargaining chip with a teammate.

Key dates to remember

The damage values above haven't changed since the August 4 launch. Only the August 11 update has happened since then, and it didn't touch weapon balancing: it addressed Hemlok recoil, Bloodhound's ultimate, and Seer's rotation slowdown. August 14, for its part, brought nothing new.

These are therefore the numbers you'll be playing with for Ranked 2, from Tuesday, August 18 to Sunday, August 23 — a short window that leaves little room to learn a weapon along the way. The season should run until early November, but Respawn hasn't announced any official end date: nothing stops them from tweaking the G7 Scout or the 30-30 Repeater before then.