Apex Launches Year 2 with More Than A New Season

February 4 marked the beginning of Apex Legends season 4 and it brings much more than most of us could have expected! It only makes sense that Respawn would take the chance to make major changes on the first anniversary of their biggest game to date. “Assimilation” adds quite a bit of edge to the state of Apex after season 3 both visually and thematically with the new legend and map update.

Of course with every new season we see some minor updates that don’t necessarily affect the majority of players, but are cool nonetheless. Ranked Series 3 tweaks the rewards a bit and adds a new rank, “Master,” in between Diamond and Apex Predator. What people should really be aware of, however, is the “split” that is coming on March 24. The “split” will break up the series into two parts, the first being played on the current state of World’s Edge and the second taking players back to King’s Canyon until early May. So if you were itching to get back to the old map just switch on over to ranked play after March 24!

What everyone has really been anticipating with “Assimilation” is the addition of the new legend Revenant. The anticipation building up to his inclusion in the game was at an all time high thanks to some viral marketing by Respawn. We were teased with a long rumored legend named Forge, who had some spotlight both in game with the “Grand Soiree” event and from Respawn’s own mouth. However, in a short animated interview the focus was pointed at Revenant, another datamined legend that the Apex subreddit has been long awaiting. 

Revenant eerily jumps in as Apex’s fifth “Assault” class legend. His backstory as a nightmarish hitman (which was beautifully shown in his official introductory trailer) is reflected in his supernatural abilities. Through some form of technological/spectral hybrid, Revenant has been deconstructed and brought back to life many times and his ultimate ability is based all around that concept. Revenant drops a “totem” that allows his teammates to respawn back at it instead of being knocked down or eliminated. It comes at the cost of all damage going straight to players’ health, but it may be useful for squads that like to rush into firefights. His other abilities also back up who Revenant is as a character with his passive allowing him to crouch walk faster than normal and climb much higher than the other legends. Finally his tactical ability, “silence,” throws essentially a stun grenade that disables the abilities of enemies. Everything about Revenant builds up the lore behind him as well as the Titanfall universe as a whole.

Alongside the addition of a new legend, season 4 changes up many aspects of Apex that players have been comfortable with for months, if not the entire first year. 

World’s Edge has been altered by Hammond Robotics who has started to drain the energy from the core of the planet. This all means that there is a huge drill in the center as well as destroyed buildings and extra lava hazards in new places. One of the major map changes overall that came out of this update is the inclusion of weapon racks. Right now the racks are only in the Survey Camp, meaning in every game there will be guaranteed weapons in this location hanging around for players to choose from.

The last, and most surprising update to Apex as a whole is the weapon changes. First off, the Sentinel is the new weapon added this season and is a lootable bolt-action sniper – making it a more accessible alternative to the Kraber. And, speaking of snipers, they have all been grouped together under one class and one ammo type. Except for the G7 Scout. Snipers have a dedicated ammo type, stock, and extended mag with some having hop-up options such as the Triple Take. Also notable is the fact that extended energy mags are gone and the L-Star is now in the normal loot pool. 

For any Apex Legends fans who may have taken a break, whether it was in season 3 or season 1, many changes came with this anniversary update that are worth checking out. If the past year is any indication on Respawn’s capability to support an ongoing battle royale, then year 2 is going to hold some great events and game changes to keep the game from getting stale.

This is a community post from Eli Shaw (@RealSFTreat)