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Valkyrie
Valkyrie, aka Kairi Imahara, is Apex’s latest legend. She’s the daughter of Viper, a Titan Pilot from Titanfall 2 who was also a member of Blisk’s Apex Predators mercenary group (if you want the full breakdown on Valkyrie’s past, check out my lore video) Valkyrie enters the Apex Games with an altered Northstar Titan kit that grants her more horizontal movement. She has more than one passive: there are her Vtol Jets which allow her to jump in the air and maneuver around, and there’s her ability to scan enemies in the air when deploying or redeploying.
Valk’s Tactical Ability is a Missile Swarm that targets a small area with rockets that will stun and slow enemies on hits. Her Ultimate Skyward Dive allows her and her teammates to launch into the air and redeploy, which also reactivates her passive to scan enemies from the air.
Arena Game Mode
Speaking of preserving legacies, Ash is back in the Apex Games as the overseer of the Arena game mode. After witnessing the Apex Games in its current state, Ash deemed the games soft and believes the Legends are in it for the glamor and fame. Her solution? The Arena game mode, designed to test Legends’ true combat skills.
Arena is a permanent 3v3 mode where the first team to win 3 rounds and win the match point will be the victor. Its format is completely different from the Apex Battle Royale: two teams of three are pitted against each other and the objective is to eliminate the other. If you’re downed in this mode you can be revived, but you cannot be respawned back if you fully die (you can be brought back in the next round if this occurs).
The maps in Arena are smaller and contain two new custom maps called Party Crasher (the area where Mirage Voyage has crashed) and Phase Runner (an abandoned construction site on Talos). Arenas maps also include three existing Battle Royale map locations Thermal Station from World’s Edge, Golden Gardens from Olympus, and Artillery from Kings Canyon.
In the start of Arenas, you pick your Legend as usual, but before every round there is a buy phase where you can choose your guns, equipment, and ability charges (think Counterstrike/Valorant/Rogue Company). Unlike the Battle Royale, your abilities and ultimate do not recharge over time and you have to buy “charges” for use of your abilities and ultimate. Within the buy phase, you can upgrade your weapons and customize your gun’s sights to your desire (if you have enough materials).
However, unlike Counterstrike or the other tactical team shooters, your weapons will not carry over from the previous round even if you win, so pick your gear carefully since you have limited amounts of materials to buy with. You can gain more materials through canisters on the map, getting kills, and winning rounds. In each round there’s one care package drop that contains three weapons, and it’s revealed which weapons will drop in the shop in the buy phase. Ranked Arenas will be coming in future updates but there’s no official release date just yet. Arenas will have its own skill-based matchmaking separate from the Battle Royale.
Bocek Weapon
Legacy brings in a brand new weapon to the Titanfall and Apex universe, and it’s a great medium-range one. The Bocek Bow is extremely quiet, though it’s not completely silent. You can find arrows for the Bow all around the map and you can retrieve arrows you’ve shot, including ones in the bodies of your enemies. The Bocek has two slots for hop-ups: the Deadeye’s Tempo and Shatter Caps. Deadeye’s Tempo lets you draw faster when firing at a perfect tempo. You can keep track of your rhythm by looking at the middle of your screen or off aiming down the sights; a meter will show when you hit your perfect tempo. The Deadeye’s Tempo hop up can also be used on the Sentinel sniper rifle. The Shatter Caps hop-up makes your arrows a burst shot, spreading out like a shotgun blast. This hop-up can also be used on the 30-30 Repeater. On the Bocek Bow, both of these hop-ups can be equipped at the same time and you can switch between the two by toggling the alternate fire keybind. The Bocek Bow is surprisingly accurate, and you can equip the holo, 1x, 2x, 1-2x, and 3x sight on the weapon to your preferred range, though there is a visible falloff at longer ranges.
Map changes
Olympus has been taken over by a fleet of abandoned ships and brought with them a strange parasitic plant that’s started to grow over the map. There are a few new points of interest including a docked ship called The Icarus that now sits between Bonsai Plaza and Orbital Canon. Inside this ship, you’ll be able to find corpses of the dead scientists who were aboard and find keycards that will grant you access to a special locked area of the ship that rewards the best loot in that area.
The map rotations for ranked will start with World’s Edge in the first split and the second split will return players to Olympus. The ranked points and system will stay the same for this season.
Legend Changes
While we don’t have the official patch notes just yet, it’s been confirmed that Low Profile on the smaller Legends is officially gone. For example, Wraith no longer has Low Profile with her adjusted hitbox from last season. Octane’s Stim ability will take more health when used, Horizon’s Gravity Lift will now have a slower rise speed and she will no longer be able to fast strafe at the top. Lifeline’s Combat Resurrection is now shieldless but still uses her drone and her Ultimate now drops Shield Batteries and gun attachments and overall better loot. Fuse’s Knuckle Cluster now has two charges, Loba’s Teleportation Bracelet has been adjusted so she can move at full speed while tossing the jump drive, and Crypto can open care packages with his drone.
Apex Legends: Legacy update drops May 4 and the official patch notes will arrive soon with more in-depth information about all the smaller meta changes. What are you most excited about in this next season? Will you be a Valkyrie main? Let us know in the comments below and for more on Apex Legends, keep it here at IGN.
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