The Rampage and Sentinel bug is back and causing serious issues.
After many players took a break from the holidays, their return to Apex Legends in the new year has not been what many had hoped for.
The game is currently filled with players abusing bugs that affect the Rampage LMG and Sentinel sniper rifle, allowing players to keep the two guns permanently in a charged state. Accordingly, many Apex professionals and publishers have expressed their dissatisfaction on social media.
Both Rampage and Sentinel have "loaded" states that require a consumable. In Rampage's case, using a Thermite Grenade to charge the weapon gives a huge increase in rate of fire for a limited time, while Sentinel uses two Shield Cells to amplify the weapon's damage against enemy body shields. These weapons consume the grenade or Shield Cells while operating as intended, giving the player a limited time in the weapon's charged mode, then returning to their normal mode until once again recharged with additional grenades or Shield Cells.
Late last year, players discovered ways to permanently charge both weapons after only charging them for the first time. These exploits were quickly abused as keeping weapons charged without needing to use any consumables or worrying about the weapon's recharge time was clearly overpowered in this regard. The error seems to exist only on PC at the moment, as mouse and keyboard inputs are required to get the infinite charging error.
Respawn believed they fixed this bug in a patch shipped on December 16, but players once again found a way to continue using charged weapons. The problem has been around long enough for a few high-profile players to wonder why the guns weren't removed from the game until the bug was fully fixed.
There is precedent for completely removing faulty weapons from the game. In October 2020, Respawn temporarily disabled Sentinel and removed it from the loot pool in all modes when a different bug allowed players to convert the slider sniper into a rapid-fire, semi-automatic weapon. In this case, the developers moved quickly to disable Sentinel until it was fully fixed. It's unclear if the same thing will happen with the infinite recharge error as it relates to multiple weapons.
But it's clear that developers need to address this bug quickly, as it gives players who abuse it a huge advantage over those who choose not to use the exploit and use the weapons as intended. Some delays can be expected as Apex team members return from their holiday break, but for such a clear and up-to-date topic, players deserve some form of communication on the subject.
Neither Respawn nor Apex Legends channels have fixed this issue yet. Until they arrive, it might be best to take a break from ranked matches on PC.