Apex Legends is about to celebrate its 4th Anniversary with its major new update, Revelry, marking the 16th season of the game. There is a lot coming to this update that fans have been asking for, like new LTM modes and a new weapon, but Respawn has also not shied away from bringing in changes that will completely change the way both new and veteran gamers will play. These are all the changes coming to season 16 of Apex Legends:
OLD LEGENDS MADE NEW
Let’s kick things off by mentioning that there will be no new legend this season. Instead the team has focussed on refreshing and revamping the legends you know and love to bring a whole new way to play. This has resulted in the Legends becoming even more legendary with new Remastered Classes, that will completely make players rethink their playstyle, team comps and character resourcefulness and value in matches. The roster of legends is now divided into Assault, Skirmisher, Recon, Controller and Support classes to better showcase each Legends area of expertise, as well as highlight each class’s new special perk. Yes, that’s right. Not only do you now have each individual legend ability in the way of their Passive, Tactical and Ultimate, but also an overall class perk which applies to all legends in that class (similar to before, but now much more defined and strategic). The legends and their class/class perks are:
Assault (Combat Utility & Initiation)
Legends: Fuse, Mad Maggie, Bangalore, Ash, Revenant
Class Perk: Access Weapon Supply Bins – Access the hidden loot in red Weapon Supply bins for High Value Weapon Attachments / Carry Extra Ammo – Can carry an extra stack of ammo in each Inventory slot.
Skirmisher (Combat Mobility & Escape)
Legends: Valkyrie, Wraith, Mirage, Horizon, Octane, Pathfinder
Class Perk: Care Package Insight – Reveal Care Package contents to see the highest value item inside.
Recon (Enemy Intel & Tracking)
Legends: Bloodhound, Seer, Crypto, Vantage
Class Perk: Access Survey Beacons – Scan Survey Beacons to reveal all enemy positions for a short time (Note: this is no longer a ring reveal, but more like the map ping from Map Room on Kings Canyon).
Support (Team Survival & Supply)
Legends: Gibraltar, Newcastle, Loba, Lifeline
Class Perk: Access Extended Supply Bins – Access the hidden loot in blue Extended Supply Bins for Healing and Survival Items / Craft Ally Banners – Craft unrecovered or expired ally banner cards at Replicators.
Controllers (Area Setup & Control)
Legends: Rampart, Caustic, Wattson, Catalyst
Class Perk: Access Ring Consoles – Activate Ring Consoles (a new device players will find on maps) to reveal the next circle’s location.
Legend Meta Updates
Seven Legends will also be getting major meta updates to their abilities, boasting some massive speed and distance changes, as well as some much needed reworks (mainly talking about you, Bloodhound and Seer).
Bloodhound and Seer – will be getting reworks on their scan abilities, with Bloodhound getting a shift away from their scan meta and more into a tracking focused mechanic. You’ll notice more ravens that guide your way, with their ultimate no longer speeding up tactical regen, but prompting ravens to fly directly towards enemy positions. Seer will have his Ultimate timing shortened and more importantly his heartbeat sensor tweaked to essentially only give readings when directly on an enemy.
Wraith & Pathfinder – are getting a major meta change when it comes to their Ultimates. Both Ultimates will now have the ability to be placed just over more than double their original distance, with Wraith gaining an extra boost in speed when placing her portal and Pathfinder (and allies) gaining a speed up when riding ziplines.
Horizon – is getting reworks to her gravity lift, with a speed boost to her and her allies when being lifted up, but a slow down occurring for enemy teams trying to utilise or caught in the lift, for better escape and offensive play.
Mirage – will be getting boosts to his revive ability, allowing him and his ally to stay cloaked for a few seconds longer after revive, but noting cloaking will be removed once a weapon is pulled. Mirage’s bamboozle has also been tweaked to give players more of a tracking mechanic when enemies shoot a clone, rather than just a ping they’ve seen previously.
Lifeline – has no doubt received some major love with the meta changes. The team has reduced the movement slow down on her when reviving allies and her care package now drops in about half the time (upon testing it goes from the previously 14 secs to secs).
TEAM DEATHMATCH AND PERMANENT LTMs
Apex fans can rejoice in knowing that a Team Deathmatch game mode is coming with season 16, alongside a permanent playlist of the LTM favourites of Control and Gun Run. The Team Deathmatch game mode will consist of a 6 vs 6, killed based, fast spawn play style, with squads needing 30 kills to win a match and a best of three matches win mechanic. Loadout choices will be similar to the systems players are familiar with from Control, alongside the random care package drops. Dropping launch day, gamers will be able to show off their TDM skills on Partycrasher, Skull Town and Habitat 4.
Mixtape will be the title of the new permanent LTM playlist, consisting of Control, Gun Run and the new Team Deathmatch. Respawn mentioned that players will get three weeks of TDM focus before the rotation starts, however when the mix begins, the game modes will be rotated every 15 mins.
With these new additions it’s important to note that Arenas will be getting sunset this season, as the devs found that Arenas gameplay had become “a bit too sweaty to what they had originally created it for”. Respawn had initially introduced Arenas to the scene in order to give players, old and new, a chance to experiment and get used to the combat mechanics in a more bite sized version of the BR classic. However, over time, it has become a place where gamers have felt the need to be strategically ready to go, and essentially not mess up in order to come out on top, which was never Respawn’s intent. This season they are hoping Team Deathmatch will bring that experimental nature back to players and give new and veteran apex fans a chance to explore their play style, metas and team comps more.
NEW PLAYER EXPERIENCES
Speaking of experiences for those new to the Apex Games, players will now find a whole new way to introduce themselves to the fast paced, strategy focused world of Apex Legends. The new Orientation Match system creates an easy introduction to new players where they can gather their bearings and learn the core mechanics of the game. They’ll be able to play solo or bring along their friends to eliminate a lobby made up of 16 bot teams and four squads of new players. Newbies will need to win or rank top five enough times on Kings Canyon to graduate out of the orientation system before being able to access the chaos that is standard BR.
Alongside the new orientation system, comes upgrades to the Firing Range. Players will now have a firing range customisation menu with an array of options including dummy movement and shields, unlimited ammo, dynamic stats, hit markers and more. Respawn has said that this will be the first iteration of features coming to the firing range.
New players (and old) will also have access to the new introductory challenges to help new players experience everything Apex has to offer, with a new Apex 101 badge up for grabs when completed.
NEW WEAPON AND QUALITY OF LIFE UPDATES
Revelry introduces 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 sure to be a game changer and even gun for fan favourite, over the R301 and Flatline. The Nemesis will be an Energy based weapon and take weapon attachments like barrels, mags, tactical stock and optics.
A new gold weapon attachment is coming in the way of Gold Shotgun Bolts, giving players the ability to automatically reload their shotguns (either in hand or stowed) whilst sliding.
Shotguns will also see an introduction of the tactical stock being attachable on the Peacekeeper and Mastiff, with projectile size being improved on all shotguns (hopefully meaning less of those nightmare 11 damage shots!)
The Hemlock will be Season 16’s Care Package or Red Tier item, with the Volt SMG and Longbow DMR going into the Replicators.
Assault Rifles will have the bullet spread on hip-fire increased, meaning they will no longer play the “good for every kind of firefight” role they’ve found themselves in over the last 15 seasons, alongside some bad news for R301 fans (so everyone). The R301 is getting a damage reduction this season, taking the current damage from 14 to 13.
This season’s map rotation will be Broken Moon, Stormpoint and World’s Edge for public matches, with the Ranked matches getting a rework this season with now a rotating roster. The Ranked map roster will rotate every 24 hrs for the entire season as opposed to the Split 1 and Split 2 map change previously. No other Ranked changes this season.
To celebrate Apex Legends’ anniversary, every player will receive login bonuses for the first two weeks of the new season. For the first week, players can log in from Feb 14th – 21st to automatically unlock Crypto, with a thematic pack guaranteed to include an item just for him. They can then log in from Feb 21st – 28th to automatically unlock Ash and a themed pack just for her. Players will also notice some exciting (and huge) party decorations on all maps and modes this season, with the sneaky return of Mirage’s infamous party boat.
Apex Legends: Revelry will be released for Aussie players in the early morning of February 15th, 2023.
