Next week, Apex Legends will unleash its latest season, entitled “Hunted,” and I was recently privy to a press briefing and Q&A on the update. While I can’t yet talk about the game’s new Legend Vantage in greater detail just yet, I can share some info on changes coming to King’s Canyon, the game’s level cap increase, and more. You can check out a new Hunted gameplay trailer, showing off the changes to King’s Canyon and some of Vantage’s moves, below.
In an interesting course adjustment, it seems the Apex Legends development team at Respawn Entertainment/Respawn Vancouver will be focusing on “map health” going forward. What that actually means is we’ll likely see a) fewer all-new maps, and b) less of a focus on new POIs and gimmicky reinventions. Instead, Respawn will be taking a broader look at their maps in an attempt to make them more playable.
Case in point, King’s Canyon’s overall landmass will be increased and certain points where it was too easy for people to dig in will be opened up (the Cage is being reduced in height and losing its walls). That said, there will still be new POIs — the area once devoted to Skull Town now becomes Relic, a battleground set in and around a giant skull. King’s Canyon will also be getting a bit of a visual update, with the map’s lighting being totally redone.
We also got more info on the Apex Legends’ level cap update, and it’s a big one. Rather than simply pushing the level cap higher, players can now repeat the journey to level 500 four times, essentially raising the level cap to 2000. For those who don’t want to do the math, that’s enough levels to earn you 544 Apex Packs as well as a guaranteed heirloom. Meanwhile, Respawn is promising cross-progression is still on the way, but it’s a complex problem as the game wasn’t really built for it. That said, it’s said to be coming “sooner rather than later.”
Apex Legends is available now on PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5, and Switch. The Hunted season launches on August 9.
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