Active reload
Tap Reload as the marker crosses the highlighted sliver and you finish reloading instantly AND get 7 seconds of +25% fire rate, +16% bullet lifesteal and faster feet — and you can fire it off at a full mag to pre-buff a fight.
Active reload is a quick-time event you only get from the Active Reload weapon item: while reloading, press Reload as the marker hits the highlighted band on the bar to instantly finish the reload and gain a short burst of fire rate, bullet lifesteal and move speed. Nail it in a fight and it's free damage and sustain; whiff it and you just reload normally, no harm done.
The numbers
Active reload is not a default ability — it comes only from the Active Reload weapon item, a Tier 2 pick in the Magazines group that costs 1,600 souls. The moment you own it, two things are true. First, an always-on innate: +20% Max Ammo, so even if you never touch the timing it's still a bigger-clip item. Second, the headline feature: while reloading, press Reload during the highlighted band on the reload bar to instantly finish the reload and gain a 7-second buff of +25% Fire Rate, +16% Bullet Lifesteal and +0.75 m/s Move Speed. The buff runs on a 12-second cooldown, so reloading on cooldown keeps it up well over half the time. (The move-speed chunk was trimmed from 1 to 0.75 m/s in the 12-2025 patch, so don't trust older guides quoting +1.) The bullet lifesteal heals you for 16% of the gun damage you deal — real sustain for a gun-heavy hero — and the instant finish means the buff doubles as a reload-speed boost since you skip the rest of the animation. Crucially, since the early-2026 change you can trigger active reload at a FULL magazine: press Reload, the window plays, hit it, and you get the buff without needing to be empty.
Reading the reload bar
The real timing window is fixed at roughly 0.3 seconds — but how big it LOOKS on the bar depends entirely on your reload speed. A small magazine that reloads fast crams that 0.3s into a short bar, so the highlighted band looks wide and forgiving; a long, slow reload spreads the same 0.3s across a much longer bar, so the band shrinks to a thin sliver that's far easier to miss. Reload-speed items make this worse, not better: cutting your reload time squeezes the whole bar, so the band you're aiming for gets visually narrower even though the actual timing never changes. Hit the band and the reload snaps to done and the buff fires; press too early or too late (or not at all) and you just complete a normal reload with no buff and no penalty — you can immediately reload again to retry, including at full ammo. One real gotcha: binding Reload to the mouse scroll wheel is known to break the input and make the window feel like it 'resets with no green' — keep Reload on a clean key or button if you want consistent active reloads.
How to play it
Treat it as a pre-fight button, not just a between-bursts habit. Because you can active reload at a full mag, top off behind cover and hit the window right before you peek a corner or commit — you walk into the fight already at +25% fire rate, healing off every bullet, and moving faster. In an extended trade, weave the reload between volleys and aim to trigger it roughly every cooldown so the buff is almost always live. The lifesteal is what makes it more than a damage item: it turns sustained gunfire into self-healing, which is why it's a staple on high-fire-rate carries — Haze in particular, who machine-guns through magazines and stacks bullet lifesteal, gets enormous value. Don't reload out in the open if you might whiff; the QTE is a beat of vulnerability, so do it from cover or at the very start of an engage. And keep it distinct from its shelfmates: Quicksilver Reload auto-reloads your bullets when you cast your imbued ability (no timing game), Extended Magazine just grows your clip, and Ammo Scavenger refills ammo off secured souls — Active Reload is the only one that rewards a clean window with a fire-rate, lifesteal and speed burst.
Raw dataidentity & API
identity
- id
- mechanic_active_reload
- slug
- active-reload
- category
- combat
- flowStage
- fighting
- aliases
- active reload, AR, reload quick time, perfect reload, reload window, timed reload, green reload, активная перезарядка, активка, окно перезарядки, идеальная перезарядка
- sourcePath
- manual:mechanics/active-reload
- updatedAt
- 2026-06-06T00:00:00.000Z