The 20th season of Apex Legends is coming with a bunch of changes let's take a look at what's new.

  • A brand new 'Legend Upgrade' system is introduced, allowing players to choose upgrades for their legends as they increase armor tiers.
  • Body Shields are replaced by Legend Armor, shields will no longer spawn as loot.
  • More ways to earn EVO other than damage dealt with some of them granting EVO to your entire squad.
  • Ranked changes level requirement back to 20. Splits and season resets also make a comeback. 

The Breakout update has also revamped the Ranked mode, bringing it closer to what long-time fans might remember. This includes returning the level requirement to 20, bringing back season resets. Scoring will be more transparent similar to the way past seasons did it with a heavier emphasis on eliminations over placements.

New Mixtape map, 'Thunderdome'. Designed for fast-paced matches, the map is inspired by the first arena Kings Canyon.

A new Performance Mode on current-gen consoles for 120Hz. Clubs will be retired in favour of a new 'Tags' system they are 3-4 characters long and can be changed whenever you want in the social tab.

A special 5th Anniversary Collection Event featuring community-created rewards and a brand new Limited Time Mode: Straight Shot designed to be a smaller and faster paced battle royale experience.

Throughout the season six legends will be unlocked for everyone the unlocked legends will have challenges rewarding players with unlocking the legend permanently as well as a Flatline and Wraith cosmetics.

Quote From Respawn

The Games are going into overdrive, legends. Drop hotter and hit different with Legend Upgrades—a new system that puts the meta in your hands by unlocking enhancements for armor and abilities. Each match is a fresh start and there’s no better time than now to try new strats on for size. Ranked returns reloaded and ready, tuned to a high-risk high-reward system that incentivizes combat through each split—yup, splits are back. Plus, make your Thunderdome debut in Mixtape, the Frontier’s deadliest entertainment venue. And that’s not all—Performance Mode, Breakout Rewards, a 5th Anniversary Collection Event, and even more. We’re bringing the noise for a fantastic 5th Anniversary season.

LEGEND UPGRADES

Introducing the Legend Upgrade system—an in-match progression system that deepens the Apex Legends Battle Royale experience by allowing you to tailor your Legend to your playstyle. This new feature will restart with each match, giving you the opportunity to try different upgrades on for size.

Earning EVO will now Level-Up your Legend over the course of the game, improving your armor tier and unlocking unique upgrade selections at Levels 2 and 3. Choose wisely, as your decision can impact your whole squad’s strategy.

Legend Upgrades and EVO changes will be limited to Battle Royale modes with Breakout. Stay tuned for our Breakout Patch Notes blog on February 12, 2024, for each Legend’s upgrade tree.

LEGEND ARMOR & SHIELD CORES

Body Shields are no longer a loot item and won't be found on the ground in Battle Royale. Instead, all Legends have inherent Legend Armor that increases in capacity permanently as they Level-Up.

Legend Armor is fueled by a Shield Core which contains the current shield HP. Shield Cores can be swapped or dropped at any time as with previous armor systems, however, fallen enemies will now drop Shield Cores in their Death Boxes.

OVERCHARGE

Picking up a higher level Shield Core will temporarily overcharge your Armor—adding extra shield health that is held for 30 seconds before returning to your Legend Armor’s max capacity.

EARNING EVO

Players will earn EVO points from many core actions, like dealing damage, that help you succeed in the Battle Royale—with some actions also rewarding EVO to the whole squad. Earn EVO from the following Sources:

  • Personal Gains
    • Damage
    • Knocks and Knock Assists
      • Knocks against a legend of higher level will net an underdog XP bonus
    • Finishers
    • EVO Cache (Care Packages, Vaults etc.)
  • Team Gains
    • Squad Wipes
    • Revives
    • Respawns
    • Class Interactions (Survey Beacons, Ring Consoles, etc.)
    • World Interactions (Wildlife, Trials Completions, etc.)
    • EVO Harvesters

EVO HARVESTERS

EVO Harvesters will randomly spawn on every BR map with a delayed activation during the first ring, allowing players time to loot up before seeking them out. Any squad member can interact with them to award a large amount of EVO to the whole squad. Every team can interact with each EVO Harvester individually, as with Crafting Harvesters in previous seasons.

Legend Upgrades and Armor will only impact Battle Royale modes. Mixtape modes will not have upgrades and will continue to use Body Shields this season.

EVO CACHES

EVO Caches are a new rare loot item that contains raw EVO and will award a full level when collected. They can be found in the world's more highly contested locations such as vaults and supply drops. If a player is already at max level, they will not be able to pick up the EVO Cache.

RANKED RELOADED

We’re passionate about delivering the world’s most fun and rewarding shooter experience, and we recognize that not everything we try works as intended. Take for example our Ranked experience—it’s one of the most important in our game. We’ve heard you, and we agree that there are a few things that need attention.

With the launch of Breakout, we’ve decided to make a series of changes - which members of the Apex faithful will find familiar. The Level requirement is going back down to 20 and splits will be returning, which means that the season reset will be as well. Each player will start at 1 RP with the launch of Breakout. There’ll also be a quick split reset which will drop your ranking by 6 divisions. Players will receive a Ranked Tier Badge for the highest rank they've achieved at the end of the season across all platforms.

TRANSPARENT SCORING

Scoring will be moving to a more transparent model similar to that of past seasons, placing a heavier emphasis on eliminations over placements. Your hidden skill rating will have no influence on either matchmaking or scoring. The bonus system has also been updated to provide more insight and Player Rankings will now be visible. We’ll also be returning to an improved Ranked Point system. 

With these changes, this also means that entry cost will return: 20 RP per Tier starting at Silver.

ELIMINATION SCORING

Elimination score continues scaling with placements—the value of each elimination will increase the higher your team places. There’ll be no hard cap placed on the number of eliminations a player will be scored on nor the amount of points gained from them. Instead, eliminations after the sixth will be worth half of their value.

BONUSES

There are a couple key bonuses that we want to call out with Breakout’s Ranked changes. 

  • Top 5 Streak Bonus: for maintaining a placement streak of 5th or better. Everytime you extend your streak you’ll earn 10RP more than your previous match, up to a maximum of a 40 RP bonus.
    • 2 match streak: +10 RP
    • 3 match streak: +20 RP
    • 4 match streak: +30 RP
    • 5+ match streak: +40 RP
  • Challenger Bonus: earn a 50% bonus on an elimination of a higher ranked player when you’ve personally contributed. This bonus is unaffected by the elimination soft cap of 6 kills.

MATCHMAKING

We will be matchmaking based on RP values as closely as possible, and will not be using a tier-based lobby like prior seasons. Premade parties will be matched by the highest Ranked player’s ranking.

TIER STRUCTURE

This is another area that we monitored closely and considered all of your feedback, so there are a few changes with tiers for Breakouts Ranked:

  • Promotional Trials have been removed
  • Provisional Matches have been removed
  • Demotion and Demotion Protection will remain the same as Ignite’s Ranked
  • Ranked Tier RP requirements will have some increases

NEW MIXTAPE MAP: THUNDERDOME

The deadliest entertainment venue is here: enter Thunderdome. Modernized with killer upgrades, this floating sky stadium is inspired by the first arena in Kings Canyon—capturing the essence of its Thunderdome, all while paying homage to the vast history of the Apex Games.

Thunderdome is geared up for a fast-paced matchup in any Mixtape mode with its three lanes to pursue. Grind for the high ground in TDM, battle to see who can hold B in Control, or find one of many power positions to dominate in Gun Run. This latest map was created with a plethora of playstyles in mind and challenges the expected strats used by many. Win or lose, the dynamic stadium crowd will always keep up the good vibes.

PERFORMANCE MODE: 120HZ

Enable Performance Mode on current-gen consoles for 120Hz output to displays that support it! This new Video Settings option adjusts graphical settings, leveraging recent improvements in the Apex rendering engine to target up to 120 FPS gameplay.

BREAKOUT REWARDS

Six Legends will be unlocked for everyone throughout the season. Complete challenges with these Legends to earn special Breakout Rewards—including permanent unlocks for the featured Legends, the Reactive Top Tier Flatline, and a matching set of Wraith cosmetics.

TAGS & THE RETIREMENT OF CLUBS

We will be retiring Clubs in Apex Legends with the launch of the Breakout Season. Cheers to all of you who participated in a Club or maintained an active one. You’ll still be able to rep the same flare with our new feature: Tags.

This new visual indicator will appear ahead of your username wherever it is shown. Tags are 3-4 characters long, are limited to alphanumeric characters, and can be updated as often as you’d like via the Social page.

5TH ANNIVERSARY COLLECTION EVENT & NEW LTM

Squad up and go loud in the 5th Anniversary Collection Event, with community-created rewards to unlock via the reward tracker and the brand new LTM: Straight Shot. This mode drops you into an even quicker Battle Royale experience that gets you more reps and more action.

SEE YOU ON THE DROPSHIP

Breakout has so much to offer: Legend Upgrades, Ranked Reloaded, Performance Mode, Thunderdome in Mixtape, Tags, and more to come! We’re celebrating 5 years of Apex Legends in a big way and what you read here with Breakout Rewards and the 5th Anniversary Collection Event is just a sample of the details to come. Stay tuned for a full breakdown of Breakout Rewards in our dedicated blog tomorrow, and more details on the 5th Anniversary Collection Event including the new Straight Shot LTM coming this Thursday, February 8, 2024.

Cheers to five years and here’s to many more!

What do you think about the Breakout update? What are you most looking forward to? Share your thoughts in the comments below!