It’s make or break time for Apex Legends. The Season 1 Battle Pass arrived on a wave of hype and player excitement, only for them to discover that it was a tedious grind with disappointing rewards. It’s a factor that may well have contributed to the shine coming off the game, with its impressive player base gradually shrinking as people returned to Fortnite. Respawn Entertainment will be hoping they make their way back for the re-jigged, much improved Season 2 Battle Pass though, which launches on July 2nd.
The developer claims to have listened to the fans on this one, and has cooked up challenges that aren’t just based on mindlessly plugging away at the game for hours on end, but on smart tasks that allow players to level up quickly (with rewards that you might actually want). So, how exactly will these challenges work? Well, Respawn recently laid it all out and here’s what you’re going to need to do to get the most out of the Pass.
Season 2’s challenges come in Daily and Weekly flavors. Each day will see three new Daily Challenges, randomly selected from a pool of 200. For example, you may have to play matches as a certain legend, or rack up kills at a particular spot on the map. Complete these and you’ll be awarded 3000 STARS. STARS are a new form of XP created for this Battle Pass that allow you to progress through it but are entirely separate from the match XP used to level up your account.
The Weekly Challenges, meanwhile, are a bit more involved. There are seven in total and they task you with getting a certain number of kills as a range of characters, or discovering a certain amount of Epic Items. These will require more commitment than the Dailies, but the rewards are also greater. Four of the Weeklies will grant players 6000 STARS, while the remaining three will just give you a whole Battle Pass level on completion. Any players beginning the Season late will also be able to access previous week’s challenges to get them up to speed.
On top of all this, there will also be three Weekly Challenges that recur each week throughout the season. They’ll reward you for Completing 5 Daily Challenges, Completing 10 Daily Challenges and Earning 9000 STARS and/or match XP. The 9000 STARS challenge can be repeated as much as you like, though the threshold will gradually increase as you progress through the pass (to a maximum of 54,000 STARS).
On paper, this sounds like a decent progression system. But it counts for nothing if there isn’t cool loot as a motivation. We know from the trailer that we’re getting at minimum two new Legendary skins for Caustic and Octane, and new skins for the Spitfire and R-301 weapons. We’ll also be getting new Legend Wattson, whose speciality is electrical traps and defenses, but will it be enough to win back Apex Legends fans? Time will tell.