Apex Legends: playing and countering the Stormbreaker Cape — 8 seconds of zone, 12 of stealth, and an August 25 patch never confirmed

Since August 4, 2026 and the launch of Season 30 "Manhunt", Bloodhound has swapped their old Beast of the Hunt ultimate for a concealment tool: the Stormpoint Cloak. A device is thrown to the ground, and anything passing within its radius becomes very hard to see. In ten days, Respawn has revisited this Legend three times — without a single one of these interventions being published in French.

The latest is the most significant: starting Tuesday, August 25, 2026, ring damage was no longer supposed to expose a Cloak wearer. The studio announced this on August 21 at 11:59 PM UTC, i.e. August 22 at 1:59 AM Paris time — our conversion — targeting "early next week (aiming for Tuesday morning)." As of September 1, no published patch note confirms that this fix has gone live.

The Cloak's values, as published in the French notes

The entire table below comes from a single source: the Manhunt patch notes, published in French by EA on August 3, 2026 — to date the last complete description of the ability in our language.

One sentence deserves a second read: "Throw a device that camouflages anyone within range." Anyone. The design notes from July 30, also translated, remove any doubt: the device "conceals everyone (teammates and enemies alike) who comes near it." We ourselves wrote here, on August 11, that the Cloak covered nearby teammates: that was incomplete, and the imprecision matters as soon as it comes to countering the ability.

Another point to watch: EA has described three times what breaks the camouflage, with three different lists. On July 28, the season showcase page only mentions taking damage and shooting; on July 30, the design notes mention using weapons or taking damage; on August 3, the patch notes add a third way to break it, "using most abilities." We're going with the most recent — while noting that "most" comes with no accompanying list.

Three passes on Bloodhound in ten days, all in English

Here are these interventions, timestamped according to the game's official feed. The Paris column is our conversion.

The detail that matters for a French-speaking reader: this isn't a translation issue. EA's official site has published nothing since August 13, 2026 — neither in French, nor in English: opened on September 1st, both news feeds stop at the announcement of Advanced Tracking. These three interventions exist only on the in-game feed, and consulting it in French changes nothing: the same address queried with the French language parameter returns the English text word for word.

The patch targeted for August 25: announced, never confirmed

Four lines concern Bloodhound in the August 21 announcement. Only one is quantified: « Tactical scan will be increased by 1 second ». The other three are qualitative: ring damage no longer breaks cloaks — « Ring damage will no longer break cloaks » —, cloak visibility decreases when its wearer stands under a dome, and scans produce closer-spaced snapshots that fade progressively.

Regarding the dome, the studio specifies neither which one nor by how much. EA's Legend sheets list only one ability of this type, Gibraltar's Dome of Protection: this is the most plausible reading, not data from the publisher.

What remains is the question that governs everything else: are these values in the game? Respawn did publish something on August 25, but it's a crash notice targeting a graphics card model; on August 26, four fixes, none of which mention Bloodhound. Since then, nothing more. We therefore cannot certify that these four lines are applied: only that they were announced and that the expected final patch note never came.

Playing the Cape: four uses the patch notes allow

1. Move the entire squad. The best-documented use: 8 seconds of zone, then 12 seconds of grace once out, with an extra fifth of speed. A rotation taken late holds within this window.
2. Observe without being seen. Bloodhound's abilities don't break their own cloak. The level 2 upgrade Discreet Vision goes further: it refreshes the tactical the moment the ultimate is used and hides from enemies the visual effects of a scan launched while cloaked.
3. Open the fight rather than flee it. At level 3, Ultimate Predator eases the penalty for shooting: doing so no longer dissipates the cloak, it merely interrupts it for the duration of the exchange. The escape tool becomes an engagement tool.
4. Don't waste the tactical refund. The least-known rule of the rework, and the most counterintuitive: a scan hitting a white raven and at least one enemy no longer refunds anything of the cooldown, whereas a scan hitting a white raven and no enemy refunds it in full.

Countering the Cape: what is sourced, and what is not

Deal damage, any damage. The official wording is generic — the cloak drops "when you take damage" — with no threshold or weapon type specified. A grenade lobbed blindly into a suspect area would therefore count on paper just as much as a well-placed bullet. This is our reading of a deliberately broad sentence: the studio publishes neither a floor value nor a list of sources.

Don't rely on the ring anymore. If the August 25 patch is indeed in play, the zone stops being your ally: a Bloodhound can move through a late rotation without being spotted on the first tick. This is precisely the unverifiable line — test it in a match before basing a plan on it.

Just do the math. Eight seconds of zone plus twelve seconds of grace period give a cap of twenty seconds for anyone who stays until the end. This is our addition: the patch notes give the two durations separately, with no total.

Entering the zone isn't necessarily a mistake. Since the device also hides opponents, anyone advancing into the radius becomes just as hard to spot in turn, and the patch notes grant the 20% speed boost and threat vision to anyone cloaked, without restricting this bonus to Bloodhound's squad. Again, this is our reading, not a guarantee from the publisher.

Two things that shouldn't be claimed. No official patch note says the deployed device is destructible, nor what its range is; none say either that an enemy scan reveals a cloaked target. You'll read the opposite elsewhere: we won't write it without a document from EA.

In practice

Three reflexes. The only universal and documented counter remains damage: as long as you land a hit, the Cloak no longer protects. The version you're up against then depends on the EVO level — at level 3 with Ultimate Predation, the Bloodhound can shoot and re-cloak, whereas a lower level gets revealed on the first shot fired. Finally, the window is short: twenty seconds at most.

And one caveat we'd rather put in writing. This guide describes the ability as EA published it in French on August 3, supplemented by an English announcement on August 21 whose posting was never confirmed. Until Respawn publishes a definitive patch note, the exact behavior of the ring against the cloak remains to be verified controller or mouse in hand.