Apex Legends Season 31 Adds Legend Bans to High-Ranked Play
The new season, which launched on November 9, introduces a pre-match vote system to remove Legends from Diamond and higher Ranked lobbies.
Apex Legends Season 31, Cipher, is the live season as of November 9, 2026 and brought Legend bans to Diamond and higher Ranked lobbies, where players vote to remove Legends before a match starts.
The system changes the strategic question from which Legends are strongest to which ones are most beneficial to remove from a specific lobby.
"A tier list answers one question: how strong is each Legend if everyone is available," the analysis notes. "A ban vote asks a different one: which Legend, removed from the lobby, helps my squad most."
The Cipher patch on November 3 changed several Legends, with three moving up and two moving down according to launch-week coverage of the patch notes.
Lifeline gained buffs because Respawn said her pick rate had dropped sharply at higher Ranked levels, a detail that matters for a ban planner as bans only exist at the top of the ladder.
Revenant’s Ultimate cooldown fell by 30 seconds and the rules for extending it through knockdowns changed, while Loba’s abilities were slowed and Axle took a nerf.
The season also added the Akimbo Wingman weapon, brought back the Hemlok Burst AR, and vaulted the Hemlok Breach AR.
Strongholds, a mid-match objective that appears once per match, reward squads that can capture and hold a position to reach Care Package weapons and gold-tier gear.
Crypto received a drone and EMP redesign in Cipher, and nobody has months of data on how it plays.
The official description says players in Diamond and higher Ranked matches vote to ban Legends before each match, and the planner assumes a banned Legend becomes unavailable to the whole lobby.
"The number of bans per match is a command-line parameter, because you should confirm it in your own lobby before trusting anyone’s figure, including mine," the analysis states.
Redington Cybersport reported in October that early leaks pointed to Legend reworks and Strongholds for Season 31.
EA has announced a larger Ranked update and the Kings Canyon Evolved map for Season 32, expected in early 2027, and its roadmap also plans a Legend Class overhaul for that season.
Cipher is a free seasonal update available on PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox One and Series X|S, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC through the EA app, Epic Games Store, and Steam.
