Today marks the release of Season 5 of Apex Legends, and with the update comes a bevy of huge changes to characters, guns, and gameplay mechanics that you’re really going to want to familiarize yourself with before jumping into King’s Canyon again. Let’s take a look at some of the most notable changes you need to know about.
Of course, one of the most important new additions to the game is the newest legend, Loba, who we’ve been learning about via trailers over the past few weeks. This new character will be very focused on loot, with a passive that allows her to view loot through walls and an ultimate that lets her teleport those items to other teammates. She’ll also have the ability to use her Jump Drive bracelet to teleport herself around the battlefield and gain access to all this shiny loot. All in all, she sounds like a hell of a lot of fun to play as and will almost certainly gain a following of strategy-focused players.
Speaking of characters, Mirage is receiving a complete overhaul that will change up his abilities and hopefully add to his utility, and Caustic’s gas will no longer slow teammates – a feature that has been requested since literally day one of the game’s launch. Bloodhound, Octane, Crypto, and Lifeline are all seeing some minor buffs, while Pathfinder and Gibraltar are being hit with some painful but fair nerfs.
One of the biggest and most shocking changes revolves around one of Apex Legends‘ most divisive guns. After so much time as arguably the most powerful gun in the game, the Peacekeeper is now being rotated to a care package-only weapon and having its damage increased and its spread and reload speeds decreased to make it even more powerful. In its place, a rebalanced Mastiff will now spawn in the regular loot pool rather than its original spot as a rare golden item in care packages.
Other cool changes worth noting include the addition of a reconnect mechanic that will allow you to rejoin a match if you lose connection, seasonal quests that will see you collecting treasure packs to unlock new story content and rewards, and map locations called “Charge Towers” that can instantly charge a legends’ ultimate ability. And, as always, there’s a new battle pass full of rewards to work toward all season and some changes to the map that may shock you – say goodbye to fan-favorite locations like Skulltown and Thunderdome.
By the looks of things so far, it’s going to be an interesting and fun season of Apex Legends, so dive in and get to shooting. If you’d like to see the full patch notes, you can check them out over on the official EA website.