Apex Legends Season 30 finally gives the weapon meta a noticeable shake-up. The biggest reason is simple: several of the short-range weapons players have relied on for seasons have been hit with damage and magazine nerfs, making mindless spraying much less reliable.
The R-99 and Alternator are the obvious examples, while the Hemlok has also slipped from S-Tier to A-Tier after another nerf. At the same time, weapons that reward accurate shots and work across multiple ranges are moving up the rankings.
So yes, the gun in your hands matters even more now.
Here’s my complete Apex Legends Season 30 weapon tier list, followed by the individual guns worth watching, Care Package changes, the new energy-ammo system, and exactly how these rankings were decided.
Apex Legends Season 30 Weapon Tier List
| Tier | Weapons |
|---|---|
| S-Tier | Wingman, Triple Take, Prowler, Peacekeeper, Nemesis, Flatline, Volt |
| A-Tier | Hemlok Breach AR, R-301, R-99, Alternator, Havoc, Mastiff, EVA-8, Mozambique, C.A.R. |
| B-Tier | RE-45, G7 Scout, P2020, Longbow, Devotion, Spitfire, Bocek |
| C-Tier | Rampage, Sentinel |
| D-Tier | Charge Rifle |
| Mythic | 30-30 Repeater, L-STAR, Kraber |
The first big takeaway is that Hemlok, R-99, and Alternator are no longer S-Tier weapons. That’s a pretty major departure from the previous meta, and I don’t want to rank these guns based on muscle memory from earlier seasons. Their current performance simply doesn’t justify it.
What Changed the Season 30 Gun Meta?
The developers have spent several seasons trying to bring short-range SMGs down a notch, and Season 30 finally feels like the point where that plan worked.
The S-Tier lineup now contains fewer weapons built around holding the trigger and hoping the enemy disappears. Instead, guns with stronger damage per shot and useful performance across multiple ranges are getting more attention.
That doesn’t mean SMGs are dead. Far from it.
It just means you can’t play them quite as recklessly as before.
For these rankings, I judge weapons without attachments. That’s important because some guns become significantly stronger once you find the right attachment, but their base performance still matters. Wingman and Triple Take, for example, make S-Tier because they’re already powerful when you pick them up — provided you can actually hit your shots.
Wingman
The Wingman feels even better to me this season simply because fewer players can immediately answer it with an endless SMG spray.
The gun itself hasn’t received a damage change. Headshots deal between 63 and 86 damage, depending on the enemy’s helmet, meaning two well-placed headshots can kill a player with 100 HP.
The Wingman is also extremely easy to build around. Pair it with an SMG, shotgun, rifle, or even another S-Tier weapon like the Triple Take. It also feels excellent during the opening minutes because you don’t need to carry a mountain of ammunition, and a single magazine can be enough to finish someone.
Obviously, that’s assuming you actually hit them.
Its average TTK remains around 1.15–1.54 seconds, which is plenty fast when your aim is on point.
Triple Take
Triple Take is much more interesting to me as a pressure weapon than as a traditional sniper.
I like using it to poke enemies, crack shields, and force players away from cover before the squad commits to a close-range fight. As an actual long-range sniper, though, it’s not particularly impressive.
Headshots can deal between 81 and 102 damage, depending on the helmet, while its TTK sits around 1.15 seconds.
Once again, accuracy is the deciding factor. Land your shots and Triple Take feels fantastic. Miss them and you’re probably wishing you’d brought something else.
Prowler
Prowler is one of the biggest winners of Season 30.
It was already strong, and unlike several competing SMGs, it avoided the same level of nerfs. That makes the gun look even better now that its rivals have been weakened.
The burst pattern can take some getting used to, especially if you’ve never spent much time with it. Once it clicks, though, the weapon is nasty when you catch someone entering a doorway, climbing, healing, or sliding into a fight without complete information.
The comparison with R-99 explains why Prowler stands out. You’re not holding the trigger and spraying for ages. You’re landing a few bursts and dropping the target.
I’m using it as my primary close-range weapon in ranked this season, and honestly, it’s difficult to argue against it.
Peacekeeper
Peacekeeper climbs into S-Tier largely because of the same SMG nerfs that changed the rest of the list.
With several close-range guns weakened, shotguns have more room to shine, and Peacekeeper is the obvious standout.
One massive hit can completely reverse a bad push. Better yet, its movement-friendly playstyle lets you expose yourself for very little time: slide in, fire, slide back out, then reset behind cover.
Its TTK sits around 1.0–1.1 seconds, and theoretically, two body shots can finish an enemy.
But there’s no room for the old spray-and-pray mentality here. You have to land those shots, and Peacekeeper naturally loses value at range. That’s why I’d pair it with something like Nemesis or Flatline to cover longer engagements.
Nemesis
Nemesis remains one of the strongest rifles available in Season 30.
You can pick it up from the ground and immediately start getting value without needing a pile of attachments or extensive practice with its firing pattern. It works well for holding angles, punishing poor rotations, and forcing enemies away from cover before your squad pushes.
It isn’t necessarily the easiest rifle for a complete beginner, but learning it is absolutely worthwhile.
I’d generally choose Nemesis over Hemlok this season.
Against an unshielded enemy, two body bursts are enough to secure the kill. Against Blue, Purple, or Red shields, it takes only three body bursts.
Flatline
Flatline remains one of the most dependable all-purpose weapons in Apex Legends.
It deals 18 body damage, 32 head damage, and 14 leg damage. For me, it’s particularly useful when I don’t know what ranges my next fights are going to happen at.
There is some recoil to learn, but it’s hardly a weapon that demands hours in the firing range.
Flatline also avoided a Season 30 nerf, which helps it retain its place as a reliable choice. In ranked, you can pair it with almost anything — shotgun, SMG, marksman weapon, or pistol — without locking yourself into one specific playstyle.
Volt
Volt takes an S-Tier spot while R-99 and Alternator slide down.
It hasn’t been nerfed this season, and for close-to-mid-range fights, it’s one of my favorite choices in the current meta. Compared with Prowler, it’s also easier to control.
Volt doesn’t have the highest damage output, but its recoil makes the gun much more forgiving.
It deals 16 body damage, 20 head damage, and 13 leg damage. That’s more than enough to make it competitive, especially considering how flexible the weapon is.
If you’ve spent the last few seasons getting comfortable with the old SMG lineup, Volt is absolutely worth trying.
Care Package Weapons in Season 30
Care Package weapons need their own ranking because they’re not balanced around ordinary floor-loot rules. If you find one, you’re generally going to want it — but Season 30 has an especially interesting lineup.
The 30-30 Repeater replaces the G7 Scout in the Care Package, giving it a completely different role from its previous floor-loot version.
| Rank | Care Package Weapon | Why It’s Here |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 30-30 Repeater | High damage, fast charge, strong reload, Shattercaps for hipfire |
| 2 | L-STAR | Excellent pressure and sustained-fight potential |
| 3 | Kraber | Can still instantly decide a fight with a clean shot |
L-STAR and Kraber have already spent time in the Care Package, so there isn’t much mystery there. If you know how to exploit their strengths, take either one.
Kraber remains capable of ending a fight with a single properly placed shot, just as it did in Season 29.
The real standout is the 30-30 Repeater. It now deals 51 damage per shot, charges faster while aiming down sights, reloads faster, and gets Shattercaps for hipfire.
Considering how many powerful SMGs were weakened, that makes the 30-30 much more attractive. If your squad already has its close-range fights covered, I’d happily take it over most floor-loot options.
Every Major Weapon Change in Apex Legends Season 30
Season 30 finally delivers the SMG nerfs the developers were already pushing toward in Season 29.
The result is a slower weapon meta, which I personally prefer. Gunfights happening at more varied ranges are a lot more interesting than every encounter turning into an SMG spray contest.
| Weapon | Season 30 Change | Effect on Gameplay |
|---|---|---|
| G7 Scout | Returns to floor loot; loses Double Tap and sniper optics; damage reduced to 33; lower fire rate and smaller magazines | Much weaker than its Care Package version |
| 30-30 Repeater | Moves to Care Package; damage increased to 51; faster charge and reload; Shattercaps added | Major upgrade and now a top Mythic weapon |
| Hemlok | Damage reduced to 21; Breach Charge cooldown increased to 30 seconds; lower structure damage | Still strong, but no longer as dominant |
| Alternator | Damage reduced to 18; Double Tap damage reduced; smaller magazines | Still easy to use, but much less forgiving |
| RE-45 | Damage reduced to 16; purple magazine reduced to 24 | Drops out of the strongest close-range options |
| R-99 | Damage reduced to 12 | Still fast, but harder to one-clip consistently |
| Gold Weapons | Gold attachment power replaced by Corrupted Attachments with stronger tradeoffs | Bigger potential spikes, but meaningful drawbacks |
| Devotion | Uses the new battery system with roughly three magazines in reserve | More focus on uptime and spin-up fights than finding energy ammo |
R-99 and Alternator are still perfectly usable. The difference is that missed bullets hurt much more now. Smaller magazines mean you can’t hold the trigger and hope for the best like you could in Season 29 and earlier.
The 30-30 Repeater, meanwhile, benefits enormously from its new Care Package status. As floor loot, it never felt particularly exciting when there were already plenty of solid mid-range choices. With higher damage and Shattercaps, that’s a different story now.
Energy Weapons Have a New Ammo System
This is the change you really need to understand before judging the Season 30 energy-weapon meta.
Energy weapons no longer rely on conventional ground-loot ammo. Instead, each weapon has its own internal battery that gradually regenerates ammunition after you stop firing.
In other words, you aren’t filling your backpack with stacks of energy ammo anymore.
The battery regenerates the equivalent of one magazine every 18 seconds. A Volt without an extended magazine, for example, regenerates 20 shots over 18 seconds.
| Weapon | Battery Stockpile |
|---|---|
| Volt | Around 2 magazines |
| Nemesis | Around 3 magazines |
| Devotion | Around 3 magazines |
| L-STAR | Around 4 magazines |
That changes the rhythm of energy weapons considerably.
With Volt, you can’t empty your magazine in one fight, immediately chase another squad, and expect to find more energy ammo lying around. But you also don’t have to ask your teammates to hand over their reserves.
Survive the first exchange, give the weapon some time, and its ammunition starts coming back on its own.
How I Ranked the Season 30 Weapons
I’ve spent more than 1k hours playing Apex, so I know weapon tier lists are always going to be subjective. That’s unavoidable.
Still, there are some clear things I look for when deciding where a gun belongs.
Damage Output
Raw damage matters more than almost anything else. The faster you can eliminate an enemy, the less opportunity they have to do the same to you.
Range
The SMG nerfs make range more valuable than before. A weapon that can comfortably handle both close and mid-range fights is now worth more than a gun designed almost entirely around point-blank spraying.
Attachment Dependence
A strong weapon should be useful immediately.
That’s why Wingman ranks so highly. It doesn’t need a pile of attachments to become good. You mainly need to land your shots.
Forgiveness
Magazine size and recoil control matter, especially for newer players.
Weapons that give you more room for missed shots and are easier to control naturally rank higher. Experienced players benefit from that consistency too, since it lets you play a little more comfortably.
Hipfire
Close-range fights aren’t going anywhere. This is still Apex Legends, after all.
That makes hipfire performance important when choosing a weapon for aggressive encounters. Prowler and Volt both score highly here, which is another reason they’re sitting in S-Tier.
Final Verdict
I’m genuinely happy with where the Season 30 weapon meta has landed.
The SMG nerfs finally reduce the dominance of pure spray weapons, while rifles, shotguns, marksman options, and accurate high-damage guns get more room to shine. The new energy battery system also gives energy weapons a completely different rhythm instead of simply asking players to carry more ammunition.
R-99 and Alternator aren’t useless. Hemlok isn’t suddenly bad. But the old habits don’t work quite as well anymore.
If you can consistently land your shots, Season 30 gives you plenty of reasons to branch out.
And honestly, I’m all for it.
Have fun in Season 30.