Apex Legends has been out for over 2 months now and to say that it has made an impact on the world of Battle Royale games would be an understatement. After weeks of rumours and anticipation, Respawn Entertainment has finally revealed the most significant update to the game yet. The Season 1 of Apex Legends is finally ready for launch and it is coming to PS4, PC and Xbox One on March 19th. The Season 1 brings many changes to the table, the most significant ones being a Battle Pass and the first new character addition to the game since the game launched way back in February.
New Additions:
Respawn revealed their year-one roadmap for the game’s battle passes last month. According to the roadmap, all four battle passes to be released during the first year will include new loot, cosmetic items, weapons and Legend characters. In addition to that, each battle pass will also include 100 rewards in the form of character skins, weapons, apex coins and more.
As far as Season 1 is concerned, players can get Wild Frontier skins, 18 Wild Frontier stat trackers and 5 Apex Packs by just playing the game. People who buy the battle pass can get additional loot, Wraith Survivor skin, Lifeline Revolutionary skin and the Mirage Outlaw skin. Players can unlock rewards by leveling up the battle pass with XP. Players can also earn 1,000 Apex Coins if they manage to grind up to level 97. This would let them buy the next battle pass without spending any money using Apex Coins.
Sadly, no new weapons have been announced for the start of Season 1. However, since the roadmap mentioned new weapons, we might eventually get some new weapon additions later down the line. A new gun, Havoc, was already added last month in an update out of nowhere so Respawn might continue this practice and add new weapons randomly.
How to get the Season 1 Battle Pass?
There are 2 tiers of the battle pass announced for Season 1. For 950 Apex coins or $10, players can get their hands on the standard battle pass and grind for rewards. The second tier, called the Battle Pass Bundle, is going to be available for 2800 Apex coins or $30 and it will grant instant access to the first 25 levels of rewards to players.
PC or Xbox One players can avoid paying full price for the battle pass though. Subscribing to EA Access or Origin access gets you 1,000 Apex Coins. The subscription charges to these services are lesser than $10 so you can subscribe, get the lower tiered battle pass and then unsubscribe to save a few bucks. Afterwards, you can just grind up to level 97 and buy the next battle pass without having to spend any money.
How does the Battle Pass work?
The first battle pass will be all about leveling up and earning XP. There are no Fortnite-style challenges, at least for the first Season. Explaining their approach in a blog post, Respawn explained, “Season 1 is about keeping it focused and allowing players to earn a lot of rewards at a great value (you even get the cost of the base Battle Pass back if you reach level 97). We’ll begin adding more and more innovations each season, as we evolve the Battle Pass.”
In another post made on Reddit, Respawn Entertainment explained, “Basically there are now two progression paths–Player Level and Battle Pass Level. Battle Pass Level is earned similarly to Player Level–via playing the game an earning XP, with a few BP-only bonuses. Both tracks are separate and independent–so two rewards tracks!”
The New Character:
The biggest addition to Apex Legends yet is a new character for Season 1. The new character is Octavio “Octane” Silva and he is an agility based character. Octane lost both of his legs in a gauntlet speed run and looks like he came straight out of Borderlands. His Adrenaline Junkie ability lets players trade health for speed, and he also comes with an unlimited supply of health syringes. His ultimate ability is a Launch Pad that allows for quick vertical movement and can really make a difference during intense combat.
Octane will be releasing with the battle pass but won’t be included in it. Players will have to purchase Octane separately for 12,000 Legend Tokens or 750 Apex coins, just like Mirage and Caustic.
His entry into the game was teased in-game before the announcement when launch pads were littered around the map. This is honestly a really cool way to introduce a new character and we’d like more of the same in the future as well. Octane was also leaked when people datamined the game files finding hints towards several new characters. Respawn addressed these character leaks in the blog post as well.
“There’s stuff in there that is very old, or things we’ve tried in the past and cut. Remember our design process is to prototype and play lots of ideas and some of it may be things we’re still building for Apex Legends,” said the community manager. “Finding this stuff by no means confirms that it’ll ever come out. At best you should treat any posts about this as a rumour and the real info will come from us when we’re ready to show off what’s coming next.”
Impressions:
Let’s be real, the first battle pass announced for Apex Legends is far from impressive. The content in it dwarfs in comparison to other games with similar battle pass structures. For example, Fortnite adds a lot of challenges, themes that change the whole dynamic of the game and a plethora of weapons, vehicles and cosmetic items to keep things fresh.
On the other hand, the content introduced to Apex Legends for the battle pass is just not enough. There is nothing substantially transforming and game changing apart from a single new Legend that doesn’t even come with the battle pass. The battle pass doesn’t add anything to make the game feel fresh again. Therefore, there are no real incentives to players to buy the battle pass other than to support the developer. This means that a lot of players might end up just not buying the battle pass at all and would just buy the new character. There are also fears that the game might start to stagnate with a deficiency of new content being pumped into it.
Respawn can be still given some leeway here though as Apex Legends is a still a new game and we’re still very early in the life-cycle of the game. However, the future needs to look strong for any game to succeed. Apex Legends has a massive user base but if Respawn doesn’t come up with better content for later in the year, it might start to lose ground to Fortnite. Better cosmetics, challenges and meaningful content needs to be the main priority for Apex Legends going forward.
If you feel like you’re lagging behind and want to be better at Apex Legends so you could level up faster, take a look at our comprehensive Apex Legends guide!