“We knew they were going to be strong, but I’ll level with you: I didn’t know they were going to be that strong.” Apex Legends’ lead battle royale designer Eric Canavese is talking about the akimbo Mozambiques, which were released last season and had to be significantly tuned down in a mid-season patch.
“They were pretty devastatingly strong. That’s probably the strongest thing we’ve ever launched, at least that I’ve been a part of,” he continues. “We’re adopting this new mentality of faster, more rapid, more impactful changes. So we’re getting a little bit more lenient with that. We really want to see what happens when we break those eggs and how players are going to piece that cake back together.”
Canavese is also clear that the team is constantly monitoring every weapon, every tweak, and isn’t going to be shy about reassessing and rebalancing. We’ve seen as much with the Mozambiques, which seem in quite a good place post-patch, and he hopes to continue that going forward.
Apex Legends Gets An Old New Weapon, Kind Of
One new weapon that will need to be monitored is the EPG-1, an iconic grenade launcher from the Titanfall games. It’s only available by finding Rift Relics, special loot ticks only available in public matches and Revival modes, which represent this season’s main gimmick.
“If you’re a real old school gamer, your Rocket Arena plays, your Quake skills, come into play here.” Mike Button, events lead at Respawn.
As well as the EPG-1, you can find upgrades to your character’s abilities. These skills take up your survival slot and can materialise as things like a boost kit that gives you a mid-air hover. And yes, events lead Mike Button confirms to me that you can chain these abilities like the days of old.
“You can rocket jump [using the EPG-1],” he explains. “You can combo things like the hover with that and shoot, rocket jump, hover, take another shot midair. If you’re a Legend that has additional manoeuvrability, there might be another combo play even off that. So all the things you remember about EPGs or, if you’re a real old school gamer, your Rocket Arena plays, your Quake skills, come into play here.”
There’s a lot more to be revealed in this regard, as different weapons and skills will cycle in and out of the Rift Relics over the course of the season. Button is keen to point out that these references may be “a piece of Apex and Titanfall history” and “feel a little familiar”. Here’s hoping BT-7274 pops out of one to end the season with a bang, eh?
Apex Legends Season 23 Lifeline Rework And Support Buff
Aside from us all winning when we open up an EPG-1 like it’s Christmas Day, the real winner in Apex Legends Season 23 is Lifeline. Her ultimate has been completely reworked and her other abilities brought in line with the niche the developers feel her role should fill. Here are her abilities in full:
Lifeline’s passive remains Combat Revive; she can still revive allies using DOC, but she can also use her handy drone to glide through the air, giving her a movement ability.
Her tactical still has DOC restore an ally’s (or opponent’s) health, but the drone now follows you around and can be assigned to one of your teammates. This is helpful in the midst of a fight, rather than its old use that tended to be skewed to only being used after fights.
For her ultimate, Lifeline’s care package is no more. Now outclassed by loot bin resets and gold and mythic bins, she’s now got a Gibraltar-esque shield, the main difference being that hers has no roof. Doc’s Halo acts as a barrier to all incoming and outgoing fire, but watch out for those vert nades.
Lifeline’s rework will be interesting, as she’s already popular at all levels of play. However, I’m more interested in the buffs to other support Legends and the class as a whole.
Apex Legends Season 23: The Season Of Support
Lead Legend designer Devan McGuire suggests that this is the “Season of Support”. The whole class gets new perks, which means they’re no longer slowed while healing and small meds heal double, like the old Gold Armour. They can all revive allies faster and give them brief health regeneration, and mobile respawn beacons automatically appear in allies’ loot boxes. However, as a trade off, everyone can craft banners at crafting stations now, which feels well overdue.
Support Legends have also received some more bespoke TLC, with Gibraltar’s Dome Shield cooldown reduced from 30 seconds to 17; Conduit’s passive buffed to include ally death boxes; and Newcastle’s Mobile Shield becoming invincible and able to be repositioned while you’re downed. Newcastle in particular, who has been a firm favourite of mine this season, has reworked perks to reflect his altered abilities.
There’s no news for Mirage or Loba mains just yet, but McGuire says that “pretty spicy changes” are coming to the pair. Whether that’s in Season 24 or a mid-season patch remains to be seen, but the last Legend I heard described as spicy was Crypto, and he turned completely invisible.
As he intimated earlier, Canavese is happy with where the Mozambique is at right now, but the akimbo P2020 is getting a buff. The Longbow will do more damage, as will the L-Star, which also has some smoother animations to help while aiming. The Sentinel and Rampage have additional capacity when charged, meaning that your shield cells and thermite grenades will go further, and I can already see the small med combo of a support Legend and a Sentinel popping off.
The Havoc enters the Care Package with the Selectfire hop-up from back in the day, replacing the Devotion. With no Turbocharger in the loot pool, the Devotion has been nerfed and buffed at the same time so it’s not at its Care Package strength, but also isn’t completely useless.
The map rotation in Season 23 will be World’s Edge, Storm Point, and Broken Moon. I’m a little disappointed to see e-District gone so soon, but at least we don’t have to deal with Kings Canyon. If, like me, you’re desperate for the cyberpunk ordeal, then e-District will be played in the ALGS Championship this year. While the snowy climes of Hokkaido don’t quite match the bustling metropolis of the Tokyo-inspired map, it’s always refreshing to see the esport adapt.
Season 23 doesn’t have a blockbuster announcement. There’s no megastar new Legend hogging the limelight, no major map update for players to sink their teeth into. The changes are iterative and building on what makes this game great – its Legend utility and its movement. It’s time to get your Quake on and tap strafe into a rocket jump. If only there was wall-running, too.
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