Here’s Every Major Change That Was Made In Apex Legends’ Season 1 Update

Apex Legends‘ first ever season, Wild Frontier, is now live in-game for all visitors of Kings Canyon to enjoy, but what, exactly, is included with the mammoth-sized update? There are, of course, the obvious changes in the form of seasons and the long-awaited arrival of Apex Legends‘ own Battle Pass subscription, but the hype generated by those has just about settled. Enough time has passed for us to pore over everything else Respawn has included with the bumper update, chief among them being new character Octane.

Besides being a cheeky tribute to a certain Titanfall 2 speedrunner, Octane is the first (likely of many) post-launch characters to join the ranks of Apex Legends‘ existing cast, bringing with him a suite of brand new abilities to boot that’ll surely shine in the right hands. Octane’s passive ability, Swift Mend, allows him to spontaneously recover health while not taking damage, while tactical ability Stim triggers a 30% movement speed boost for 6 seconds. Health is required to trigger its use, however, meaning those looking to master the character will need top-notch resource management skills.

Moving on to the decidedly more technical parts of the patch, Respawn outlines several balance changes made to existing characters. Caustic, Pathfinder, Bangalore and Gibraltar are all affected, though it’s the first name on that list to receive the biggest batch of buffs. The unlockable Legend has had the cooldown time of all his Traps and grenades shortened, no doubt in an effort to encourage more players to give him a try.

All of the above come part and parcel with several performance fixes (which can be found in full via the link below) and, perhaps most importantly, further attempts to curb the prevalence of cheating. Respawn confirmed yesterday that close to half a million Apex Legends players have already been banned for participating in illicit activities and the figure is sure to grow over the weeks and months to come, too.

All in all, Wild Frontier is a solid mix of new content and quality of life changes and while some players aren’t happy with the apparent lack of new cosmetics to chase, Respawn will undoubtedly take the feedback on board for future seasons.