^{Image: Respawn Entertainment}

Apex Legends Season 18: Resurrection adds long-awaited Ranked changes, more Mixtape stages and an all-new Revenant.

Respawn has officially unveiled Apex Legends: Resurrection, the battle royale game’s 18th season of content. Resurrection is named after one of the game’s newly-refurbished legends Revenant, who sports a cosmetic makeover and an all-new ability kit for players to try out in the new Ranked season and Mixtape stages.

The big ticket item: Revenant’s rework

Revenant has been one of the game’s least-used Legends for some time now, as later additions to the game’s playable roster and assorted balance changes have practically shoved the poor killer simulacrum into irrelevance. Resurrection changes that, giving Revenant an all-new ability kit in a way that actually factors into in-game lore. If you’ve been keeping up with Apex Legends’ animated YouTube series Kill Code, you’ll know that a shattered mind has infected Revenant, bringing a much more rage-fuelled ability kit and cosmetic makeover to the legend.

His new Passive ‘Assassin’s Instinct’ allows him to see nearby low-health enemies, and gives him faster crouch-walking and better wall-climbing. This allows him to get around faster, be more mobile and act more aggressively when his team makes a push. His Tactical ‘Shadow Pounce’ works almost like Octane’s jump pad, allowing him to leap into the air and close in on enemies quickly - or cling onto a wall and start scrabbling up. His Ultimate ‘Forged Shadows’ builds a shroud of shadow-like shields that regenerate over time and block incoming damage. Knockdowns will reset his shadows and Tactical immediately. As a small drawback, it also increases his upper-body hitbox.

During a press event GosuGamers was present for, Respawn’s narrative lead Ashley Reed said that they’re telling, “a bigger story than we have ever before,” this year through cinematics and in-game events. The developer called this a, “serialised narrative arc.” Kill Code for example, involves Lifeline, Mad Maggie and Loba infiltrating a secret facility in a storyline that gets followed up on via an in-game event where players control Loba. Resurrection’s story will ultimately, “shake the Legends to their core.” Reed hinted that “relationships will be tested and shattered, and maybe not everyone will make it out alive. Seriously.”

Kill Code might have started in Season 17, but it looks like its story will continue well into Resurrection and beyond. Reed explained that Kill Code’s cinematic and in-game events are, “the first few pieces of a story that will last for the rest of 2023, arriving over the next two seasons.” This season, however, most of the story will likely revolve around Revenant’s big overhaul. You won’t have to wait long to try out the new and improved legend either, as Season 18 is unlocking Revenant for everyone to play for the length of the entire season. Players can also complete a specific set of challenges during this season to permanently unlock Revenant.

Ranked changes

It’s no secret that Apex Legends’ Ranked mode has had its ups and downs. Resurrection brings a few updates to Ranked to tighten up the competition at all skill tiers. To prevent a huge spike of players making it into Masters early like in Season 17, Respawn is making it more difficult to climb tiers in Season 18. To this end, ladder point (LP) gains have been adjusted down across the board and Diamond+ has received a new set of rules. Players in this rank will now have increased LP losses, decreased rating bonuses and lower loss mitigations.

Respawn is also introducing a minimum bonus for eliminations in all ranks, so even if players find their rating bonuses going down, their eliminations can still contribute to climbing up in Ranked. Ranked should now match players with teammates closer to their skill level. Rewards for this mode are also getting a few changes, such as the removal of Dive Trails. Lead game designer Chris Cleroux attributed the removal to, “toxic behaviours,” such as, “players using Trails to target and punch out players at the start of a match.” Instead of Dive Trails, players will be rewarded by banner frames showing off their rank, which can be shown off at the start of a match and whenever players get eliminated.

Rings will now move more often, causing more damage in the early game and less in the late game, speeding up the pace of matches overall.

Mixtape and weapon changes

Broken Moon is coming to Mixtape in Season 18. Gun Run and Team Deathmatch will get a slightly bigger version of The Core, with more zip rails for rotations and sightlines for different styles of play. Control is getting the Production Yard, which aims for more frenetic close-combat encounters.

The Charge Rifle is getting a big change in Resurrection. Lead weapons designer Eric Canavase said the gun was, “an outlier with its mechanics and resulted in some unintentional gameplay loops,” which made it difficult to balance with every other weapon in the game. In Season 18, the weapon gets its pre-beam laser removed and becomes a projectile-based weapon with a bullet drop. Its reload and draw timings will be adjusted, and you now have to charge a shot up before firing it off. Canavase assured fans of the weapon that it will remain, “our most effective long-range sniper,” now dealing, “more damage the further away the target is.”

Other weapon changes include the Prowler entering the Care Package with select-fire back, Hemlock returning to the floor with a damage and recoil buff, and the R-99 getting a few nerfs with increased vertical recoil and lower ammo capacity. According to Canavase “all SMGs are getting a bit of a hit. Their strafe speed is being reduced and they're getting a headshot and multiplier reduction as well.” Respawn wants to make room for the game’s shotguns to shine this season, with the Mastiff getting a tighter blast pattern and Disruptor Rounds from Season 2 returning for the Peacekeeper.

When does it start?

Apex Legends: Resurrection launches on August 9, 2023. Additionally, A Death Dynasty Collection Event will kick off pretty early in the season, giving players Double XP in Battle Royale from August 8-15, and then Mixtape from August 15-22. 24 limited-time cosmetics will be available, with a ‘Death Grip’ Heirloom for Revenant as a reward for collecting them all.

And as a sidenote, you might be wondering: what are the chances of Respawn taking a page from Blizzard's playbook and making a sequel to Apex Legends, or an Apex Legends 2.0? On this, design director Evan Nikolich immediately told press:

We will never make Apex Legends 2, we're always going to be building on top of the Apex Legends platform. And Apex Legends 2.0... that will happen over time. I don't think we will ever call it [that], but we will keep evolving the game and I hope when we come to 2024, 2025, each year, when you look back at the 2024, even the 2023 version that we have now compared to what you saw in 2019, you can see the evolution. It's all about steady, deliberate progress, and not trying to commit to one big swing and make a sequel. I've made sequels in the past. They're hard, they're challenging, and they don't always service what players are looking for.

There you have it - don't count on there ever being an Apex Legends 2, but the battle royale game is still here to stay.

Preview: Apex Legends Resurrection brings Revenant rework, Ranked changes