Every New Feature Confirmed For Apex Legends Shockwave

A massive update will soon be hitting Apex Legends fans everywhere, with its 22nd season promising major changes. Coming hot off the heels of Apex Legends‘ biggest debacle, Shockwave’s shifts in direction will need this dramatic weight and more to win back the fanbase.

Apex Legends‘ just narrowly escaped a huge controversy, an outcry so sweeping that the game is still reeling from the exodus of players and content creators it provoked. Respawn’s attempts to gate its game’s battle pass exclusively behind real currency was the straw that broke the fanbase’s back; major hacking incidents, overbearing monetization, and a game full of glitches turned Apex‘s community into a tinderbox. Fortunately for Respawn, Shockwave offers a chance for redemption.

All Changes Confirmed For Apex Legends Season 22, Shockwave

New Map, E-District

The city-scape of Fragment is one of the most popular hot-drop spots in Apex, and the new map E-District is set to meet that demand. This urban sprawl of skyscrapers and neon slums is more packed together than any other map, dense with POIs and vertical area. With high heights and new grav-cannon launchers, players will be able to duck and dive across the map in spectacular rooftop combat. Apex Legends‘ new E-District is also rife with Titanfall references for those long-time franchise fans.

Akimbo Pistols, Battle Sense, and New Loot Bins

Akimbo pistols have finally come to Apex Legends. Now players can dual wield two P2020s or two Mozambiques. While the player can’t aim down sights in this mode, as doing so will only tighten hipfire spread, this snazzy method of gunfire has an increased rate of fire, mirrored attachments, and a doubled mag size. LMGs also have their own big change, as a new shield hopup will give fans a regenerating shield similar to Gibraltar’s passive. All light weapons also benefit from better ammo storage (stacking in units of 72 in the inventory), and shotguns have been buffed with a tighter spread, higher damage, and their own storage improvement.

Many changes have also been made to keep the game’s momentum up. This includes loot bin tweaks; not only have different rarities of loot bins been added—including a single mythic bin per match—but loot bins will now close and refresh their contents partway through the match. Healing items have also been given their own row in death boxes and Loba’s ultimate, a quality-of-life feature that goes nicely with the automatic callout for ammo that will activate when players run out of reserve supply. Most controversial of these is Apex Legends‘ new Battle Sense feature, which will show an enemy’s health in a close-quarters fight. It won’t reveal a foe’s position or highlight them from a distance, but otherwise it will display health and shields similarly to Seer’s tactical.

New Modes

A number of new modes are coming alongside the launch of Apex Legends Shockwave, including Revival—a battle royale mode that will allow players to instantly respawn, so long as one teammate is still kicking. Bot Royale is designed for new players, allowing for a quick battle royale match where a squad of humans, or one human and some bots, can take on a small lobby of bots. Also for new players will be the Welcome Pass: a set of challenges to guide them through the early game.

Balance Changes and Bug Fixes

A healthy heap of bug fixes are coming to Apex Legends, alongside balance changes. Alter, Ballistic, Crypto, Lifeline, Rampart, Seer, Vantage, and Wattson have seen tweaks, but more sweeping changes include a nerf to aim assist (specifically for controller players on PC; console lobbies will remain unaffected) and buffs to certain class perks. Recon characters now have a limited form of threat vision when they aim down sights, while Controller legends get shield overcharge when playing in the zone—as well as the ability to remotely regain undamaged tacticals.

Apex Legends

Apex Legends is a free-to-play battle royale game made by Respawn. In this shooter, players take up the mantle of a Legend — one of the playable characters — and form a squad with other players. The game is set in the same universe as the Titanfall series and the two franchises have had many crossovers.

Battle Royale

First-Person Shooter

Released

February 4, 2019

Publisher(s)

Electronic Arts

Multiplayer

Online Multiplayer

Engine

Source on console/PC, Unreal Engine 4 on mobile

ESRB

T for Teen: Blood, Violence

PS Plus Availability

N/A

Cross-Platform Play

PC, PS4, Switch & Xbox One

Steam Deck Compatibility

yes

X|S Enhanced

yes

Cross Save

Cross Progression lets you share your game progress across PC, PlayStation®, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch

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