Season 15 of Apex Legends will soon come to an end. So let’s look ahead and see what the upcoming season has in store for us.
Season 15 of Apex Legends has been quite lackluster in terms of content. Although the Broken Moon map and a new legend called Catalyst were released, the player count remained very disappointing throughout the season.
However, the content is not the only issue. Due to the launch of Overwatch 2 and Warzone 2.0, Apex Legends saw a massive decline in player count at the beginning of the season. Yet, the total number of players is steadily growing as the season approaches its conclusion.
Therefore, it is still unclear if the increase in the player count resulted from the new SBMM, three consecutive Collection Events, or something else. Nevertheless, it only makes sense that people will return to Apex Legends, given all the positive things that are being reported about the game.
Apex Legends Season 16 Revelry Major Changes
Dev Notes: For Apex’s fourth anniversary season, we’ve got a bunch of exciting shake ups in store! We’re building on the intense Apex Legends Battle Royale experience that you love—and providing a place for those looking for something different. So whether you’ve been with us for a while, coming back, or joining us for the first time, Apex Legends: Revelry has something for everyone!
Remastered Legend Changes
Dev Notes: Rather than adding a new Legend this season, we’re revamping the Legend Classes—bringing a new element to the Legends you know.
The Legend Class system divides our Legends into 5 classes. Each class reflects a core playstyle that encourages similar patterns of engagement on the battlefield. We also wanted to give every Class its own strategic gameplay ability. Each of our current and future Legends now have a meaningful role benefitting the team they’re on.
Choose Your Legend
In Revelry, Legends have been reorganized on the Legends Screen according to their Class. You’ll be able to see their associated Class perk on top of that Legend’s unique abilities.
This reorganization will help players identify Legends that play or support the team in a similar manner, and help them understand the new roles easier. The Legend Select screen has also been improved alongside this change.
Class Perks
Every Legend Class also now has an associated gameplay perk that grants the Legends of that class access to new strategic options in the game.
At casual levels of play, these new gameplay benefits will be fun new bonuses to engage with and empower decision making.
At higher levels of play, a squad make-up now determines what gameplay elements the team will have access to, and what they’re leaving behind.
| Assault | Skirmisher | Recon | Controller | Support |
| MORE AMMO/STACKACCESS ‘RED’ BINS | REVEAL CARE PACKAGES | SURVEY BEACON (Enemy Locations) | RING CONSOLE(Next Circle) | CRAFT BANNERSACCESS ‘BLUE’ BINS |
Legend Class Breakdown
Assault – Combat Utility & Initiation
Assault Legends are mobile armories, armed to the teeth and ready for battle. Their core patterns revolve around using their abilities to force opponents to make combat decisions that play to their advantage, opening them up for an assault.
Assault Legends are always prepared for a fight, able to gear up quickly from the hidden compartments of Weapon Supply Bins, and stock more ammunition than other Legends. Which gives them extra space for other items—often grenades.
Legends:
- Bangalore, Ash, Fuse, Mad Maggie, Revenant
Perk:
- Access the Secret Compartment of Weapon Supply Bins
- Contains 4 “smart loot” attachments for you or your team’s current loadout
- One loot slot is reserved for optics
- Chances for a magazine & hop ups are lower than for other gear
- If the secret compartment is opened while no one on your team has a weapon, a weapon will drop with 2 attachments for it
- Min Tier for all attachments is RARE
Skirmisher – Combat Mobility & Escape
Skirmishers can move in or get out of tight situations more quickly than other Legends. They are often the first into a fight or are the ones creating rotation options for their team. With this perk, Skirmishers can gain early insight into the contents of a Care Package, to ascertain its worth and make a play for it quickly if desired.
Legends:
- Wraith, Valkyrie, Octane, Horizon, Mirage, Pathfinder
Perk:
- Can spot incoming Care Packages to see the highest value contents in them
- Care Packages are revealed by looking at them for a few seconds
- They can be spotted in the air as they fall OR
- At their landing location, if within range
- Can also see when the item has been taken by another team (turns grey)
- Can ping map icons or in-world icons for team
- Care Packages are revealed by looking at them for a few seconds
Recon – Enemy Intel & Tracking
Recon Legends are all about scouting, and gathering enemy intel about their enemies to give their team the tactical advantage. These Modified Survey Beacons lean into their enemy-scouting role, revealing a snapshot of all enemy positions (similar to Crypto’s prior Town Takeover). With this intel, Recon players can plot rotations for their team either to avoid heavy enemy presence, or to move in to ambush an isolated squad. There is risk to this knowledge however, as enemies nearby will be alerted to the beacon’s use and will know they have been tracked. Others far outside of the large range are still revealed, but will receive no update.
Legends:
- Bloodhound, Crypto, Seer, Vantage
Perk:
- Can Use Modified Survey Beacons
- Reveal all enemy positions on the Map/Mini-Map for 30s
- Enemies in pulse range are alerted to beacon use
Controller – Area Setup & Control
Controller Legends place elements on the field to trap or fortify their position. They want enemies to fight them on their turf and excel at holding strong positions in the ring. Shifting circle knowledge to these Ring Consoles, allows the Legends who care most about setup to be responsible for knowing where they want to bunker down next. Unlike Survey Beacons, which are often located higher up, these new consoles can be found on more grounded areas in plazas and courtyards across the map.
Legends:
- Caustic, Wattson, Rampart, Catalyst
Perk:
- Use Ring Consoles to find the next Ring Location
Support – Team Survival & Supply
Support Legends have a more team-oriented focus. They look for opportunities to protect, recover, or resupply their allies. In the new Class System, the Support role has been expanded and allows these Legends to stock their team and keep them alive. As visible locations on the map, Blue Bins will provide key rotation options when in need of meds or Survival items. Additionally, Support Legends can now recover Ally Banners from Crafting Stations, even if the banner has expired, giving new options to get the team back into the game.
Legends:
- Lifeline, Loba, Gibraltar, Newcastle
Perk:
- Craft ally banners (even if expired)
- Current Cost = 30 Crafting Materials
- Banner can be recovered from the Crafter once crafting is complete
- A crafted Banner will contain all recoverable teammate
- Access Secret Compartments on Blue Bins
- Compartment has increased chance for large health kits (Shield Batteries and Med Kits)
- Compartments has unique Survival Item logic
- Increased % of Heat Shields when outside the ring
- Increased % of Mobile Respawn Beacon if carrying a teammate banner.
- This logic has an internal limit (cannot be repeated) and will not trigger if already carrying the item.
- Compartment has increased chance for large health kits (Shield Batteries and Med Kits)
Dev Notes: We will continue to build on these classes in the future. Legends develop and change constantly, so expect modifications and tweaks in the future—Legends can even change classes entirely should the need arise. We’re excited to see the new Legend Classes go live so we can evaluate live community feedback and internal data!
Legend Buffs and Nerfs
Seer
- Passive – delay added to heartbeat sensor of ∼ 2 seconds; after that, it will appear indefinitely. A louder audio cue is given to enemies when being scanned.
- Ultimate – Cooldown increased from 2 to 3 minutes + duration decreased from 35 to 25 seconds
Bloodhound
- Ultimate – Bloodhound’s Ultimate Ability, Beast of the Hunt, has been overhauled to fit with a new ‘White Raven concept’ – it will no longer speed up their Tactical Ability charge.
- Instead, it will now find “ethereal white ravens around the map.” When interacted with, these ravens will fly in the direction of the closest enemy. This creates a longer hunting loop.
Wraith
- Ultimate – increased portal length from 75 meters to 150 meters and “will speed up as she travels that extra distance.”
Pathfinder
- Ultimate- Increased zipline length to 200 meters, faster travel speed, and can be placed on ANYTHING regardless of height distance (e.g., top of the mountain)
Horizon
- Tactical – Accuracy when firing during Horizon’s Tactical Ability, Gravity Lift, has been reduced, making targets more difficult to hit. However, the speed at which she is lifted into the air has increased slightly.
Mirage
- Passive – After reviving, Mirage and the revived ally will be cloaked for 3 seconds. This 3-second duration only stands as a result of the player remaining unarmed. If they draw their weapon, the cloak is broken immediately.
- Tactical/ Ultimate – When a clone is shot, the bamboozled enemy will now be tracked by a small icon for a short time.
Lifeline
- Passive – Slow / delay removed when reviving teammates allowing more fluid movement
- Ultimate – Care package deploys 2.5x quickly
Valkyrie
- No longer sees enemy locations marked when using her Ultimate Ability, Skyward Dive.
Weapon Changes
Nemesis AR
Meet the Nemesis, a new energy-class Assault Rifle that fires four rounds per burst. With a ramping burst delay that decreases the time between bursts and simulates a fully automatic weapon, the Nemesis is guaranteed to ruin the day of at least one Legend in the next match.
Below are the damage values:
- Limb: 13
- Body: 17
- Head: 27
R-301 and Assault Rifle Hip Fire Accuracy Nerf
As Nemesis AR is being introduced, Respawn decided to nerf R-301 in the game. The damage will be reduced from 14 to 13 per bullet. Moreover, all Assault Rifles will now have reduced hip-fire accuracy.
Hemlok Replacing Rampage as Care Package Weapon
Hemlok is going into supply drops and will be removed from ground loot. Like every other Care Package weapon, Hemlok will also receive major buffs to its damage and headshot multiplier. In addition, the Boosted Loader hop-up will be pre-attached to the Hemlok. Also, Hemlok will replace Rampage in the Care Package
Below are the damage values of Hemlok in the Care Package:
- Limb: 17
- Body: 23
- Head: 38
Below are the damage values of Rampage in Ground Loot:
- Limb: 22
- Body: 26
- Head: 36
Volt and Longbow in Replicator
Currently, the CAR SMG and Spitfire are in the crafters. Volt SMG and Longbow DMR will replace these two weapons at the beginning of Season 16.
In:
- Volt
- Longbow
Out:
- CAR SMG
- Spitfire
Hammerpoint Returning to Ground Loot
Hammerpoint rounds will return to floor loot. It is important to note that they are now a gold attachment rarity.
Tactical Stocks and Golden Bolt Added for Shotgun
Gold Shotgun Bolt added into the game, which gives maximum fire rate increase and reloads rounds when sliding – this works when the weapon is stowed OR in your hands. It reloads rounds really fast too.
Tactical Stocks added to Peacekeeper and Mastiff. It improves handling and reload speed. Also, “improved projectile size of all shotguns at close/medium range” to improve the consistency with which shotguns perform.
Team Deathmatch
Dev Notes: Ever since we’ve released Control we’ve seen players gravitate towards it for different reasons. The common reason was that players wanted a place to warm up for BR. Lots of players just jumping in to get hands warm and a quick aim practice. We’re bringing a fast respawn mode into Apex to help service an audience of players who want to jump in fast and get to the meat of Apex gunplay in a more casual way with Team Deathmatch.
Previously Arenas was Apex’s ”fast” mode. Something we’ve seen and tested over its lifetime was that it’s a somewhat daunting mode to approach. Arenas feels high stakes and you need to prepare and get ready for a sweaty match. While Apex is a Battle Royale focused game, which falls under a similar “sweaty” category, we saw Control provide a place for players to feel comfortable making mistakes, dying fast, and enjoying Apex in a much more relaxed way. One of TDM’s goals is to provide a low stakes environment where you can experience a fast paced version of Apex combat. We’re looking to highlight Apex gunplay and skirmishes while removing some tension of having a single life.
Here’s a quick breakdown of the how the mode works
- 6v6 Alliances
- Pick your loadout on spawn
- You can swap your loadout or legend while respawning
- Shields regen automatically (We’ll be looking to update this very soon!)
- 30 kills to win a round
- First alliance to win 2 rounds wins the match
- Swap loadouts in between rounds
- Collect airdrops mid-round for stronger weapons
Dev Notes: We’re predicting that a lot of players will use TDM as a place to warm-up for Battle Royale as we’ve seen people already do with Control. We’re aiming to see players have an avenue to practice certain guns they don’t normally get much live fire training with. And we’d like newer players to have a place to overcome some of the initial hurdles of approaching Apex’s combat.
With that said we still want TDM to be able to hold its own as a mode. Apex players should be able to play TDM as its own activity and have fun. As a result our TDM format looks a little more robust in terms of rules. Players looking for a place to fine-tune and hone their skills in a more regimented manner can expect some upcoming updates in other areas soon!
Consider this as our first drop for TDM. It’s been a long time coming for Apex and there are so many things we can experiment and play around with in this environment. We already have some tweaks and different mode ideas to shake up TDM and we are looking to keep it fresh for seasons to come.
MIXTAPE
Dev Notes: Another sentiment we’ve frequently heard from players is that they want certain LTMs to stick around permanently. There has always been a dichotomy between the initial reaction to big modes like Control or Gun Run and how they perform long term. Unsurprisingly, modes (especially brand new ones) see a high spike in play rate on launch and then trend downwards—some much more than others. In particular we’ve seen both Control and Gun Run have a really high play share compared to other LTMs and modes we’ve done in the past. However, they both still suffer from the same drop-off.
It’s important to us that if we decide to keep something around long term that it’s being supported in the right way. The game is changing all the time so there’s a lot of maintenance to things even if nothing is inherently different about the mode from patch to patch. Updated weapons, Legends, and game systems can break things in modes we’ve done in the past. A recent example is in Winter Express, Newcastle and Catalyst are new to that mode so there was a decent amount of work to make sure their abilities functioned properly on a moving train. Basically this is a long-winded way to say that if we’re deciding to keep something around long-term we want to make sure people are playing and enjoying it and that we can justify resources for it.
With that said we feel confident about Control and Gun Run and are bringing them back as permanently available modes in a rotating playlist of modes we’re calling Mixtape—a little nod to Titanfall 2 for those who are a fan of it! It’ll work similarly to how maps rotate in Battle Royale: every 15 minutes the Mixtape playlist will rotate through a curated list of modes and maps to play. Only TDM will be available during the season’s launch for the first three weeks, and then Mixtape will launch following that with TDM, Control, and Gun Run in its rotation.
Dev Notes: Going forward, we haven’t established any hard rules for what goes into Mixtape. If it’s something that we think people will enjoy, we might throw it in there. This could go for any mode including past LTMs and modes—assuming it makes sense on our side.
Expect us to follow a similar-ish model to this where we’ll spotlight new modes and potentially loop them into Mixtape as we see fit. Hopefully this helps players feel like they have a wide variety of things to play and feel compelled to keep up with these modes long-term. This also gives us an avenue to debut new things and decide what’s the best way to support them going forward.
With all that said, we’re still working on a bunch of LTMs. Some of these are aimed at Battle Royale and some aimed at TDM variants—any of which we might loop into Mixtape if we think it’s worth it. Stay tuned because this is just the start for what’s to come!
The Nemesis
Meet the Nemesis, a new energy class assault rifle that fires four rounds per burst. With a ramping burst delay that decreases the time between bursts and simulates a fully automatic weapon, the Nemesis is guaranteed to ruin the day of at least one Legend next match.
Orientation Matches
New to the Outlands? Try the new Orientation Match system to create an easy introduction where new players can get their bearings and learn the core mechanics of Apex Legends. Play solo or bring your friends to take out some bots before joining the regular matchmaking queue. Every Legend was level 1 once: drop in and start learning to be legendary!
All image credit goes to EA.
