Respawn Entertainment has officially revealed Apex Legends Season 21: Upheaval. It packs in a new time-limited game mode, Legend, and makes some exciting meta changes that everyone will benefit from.
The developer invited me to preview everything Apex Legends fans can expect from Season 21: Upheaval when it launches on May 7, 2024. A brand new Legend for the roster is always exciting, not only because it gives you a chance to try out some fresh tactics but because it could seriously impact the pro scene as well. The addition of a returning fan-favorite game mode, though, makes this season even more special and worth jumping back into the game for.
New Legend: Alter
The new Legend being added to Apex Legends with Season 21: Upheaval is Alter. She’s a dimension-traveling badass who never gives you a straight answer about her past, present, or future when asked. She’s definitely from another dimension separate from the one where Apex Legends is set, but you’ll need to work hard to find out which one through clues in her lore.
One of the most intriguing things about her from her story trailer above is that she’s fixated on Horizon. Respawn Entertainment wouldn’t give me all the details, but I’ve been told that the revelation will be “world-shattering.”
Alter’s Tactical ability is called Void Passage. It allows her to open a portal in walls, floors, and doors for her and her team to pass through. This differs a lot from any other portal ability in Apex Legends already because it’s quick, dirty, and sneaky. You can go from being trapped in a building with the circle closing in to sneaking out from under the enemy without them even seeing you. It’s also possible to launch an assault from an unexpected angle because the possibilities are limitless for where these portals can be created.
Her Passive ability, Gift From the Rift, Lets you see death boxes through walls and take one item from them. I can’t tell you how powerful this is, in the early and late games of every match. Most of the time you’ll spend standing still in Apex Legends is while looting a death box, but this Passive allows you a little extra room to protect yourself from within buildings or behind walls.
Void Nexus is Alter’s Ultimate Ability. When used, Alter will place a device on the map that everyone on her team can remotely phase back to, even when knocked. This, as you can imagine, gives the team a massive tactical advantage when planning a skirmish or ambush.
If you can phase back to a teammate to get healed up and keep reviving and pummeling your enemies, they’ll find it incredibly difficult to take all of you out. The caveat here is that enemies can also phase back to the Nexus for a brief time after teammates’ phase, so the team will need to cover its back while healing up.
Broken Moon gets shattered
This season, we’re getting a new map in the form of a shattered version of Broken Moon. A lot of care has gone into this map rework, adding new POIs so that the map is exploding with places to explore and hunker down. Visually, the map looks incredible too, telling a story of a terraforming effort gone awry and preventing progress.
Solos mode makes a return for a limited time
That’s right, for a limited time during Apex Legends Season 21: Upheaval, Solos mode is coming back. But it’s not quite as you might remember it. Respawn Entertainment has tweaked the rules and mechanics a little to make the mode more enjoyable for everyone.
While the core experience of Apex will always consist of teams of three, Respawn Entertainment is responding to the demand for Solos and wants to gather feedback from this run, to gauge how the mode might return once more.
This time, players will start each match with a single Respawn Token that will revive them if they die within the first four rounds of play. The Token then disappears and is converted to Evo after that fourth round, which should help keep players in the experience for longer.
In Solos mod, players will benefit from the Battle Sense mechanic. This is an on-screen and audio indicator that simply tells you when an enemy is nearby within a 50-meter radius. It’s super basic, just some red text on the screen and a short alarm, but is designed to help you out when you might be used to relying on teammates to give you that information.
Finally, Apex Legends‘ Solos mode players will benefit from their Legends healing to full once they’ve left combat for a short period of time. This works like it does in any shooter, but you’ll need to escape and find somewhere to hide if you want to refill your health bar all the way.
Apex Legends Season 21: Upheaval weapon and Legend changes
The final element of Apex Legends Season 21: Upheaval is weapon changes. The developer makes a few of these each season to keep the meta fresh and push players to learn new ways to take out their enemies and become the best of the best.
This season’s Care Package rotation sees Devotion replace Wingman. Depending on which one you prefer, you will either celebrate or sweat. With Wingman, Respawn Entertainment is finally fixing it so that it’s restricted to 6 bullets, as all six-shooters should be, which I’m a huge fan of in any shooter.
The Longbow is getting a little love this season, too. It’s been buffed a lot so that it feels snappier and much closer to the Sentinel without it actually being a sniper rifle. This should give players something to meet them in the middle between shotguns and snipers when, like me, they’re not great at long-range shots.
Possibly the most helpful change for every match you play is that you’ll no longer need to wait to grab a teammate’s banner before you can access their Death Box. These situations are pressured enough as they are, so you can just loot the Death Box right off the bat.
Moving into Legend changes, the first one to watch in Apex Legends Season 21: Upheaval is Crypto. I know a few Crypto mains who will be screaming about this from the rooftops, because they love him so much. As he levels up throughout a match, he’s so much more useful, with a lingering scan and a lowered charging time for his drone at the top level that will give your team a serious advantage in the endgame.
Newcastle is also getting an upgrade, one that’s been inspired by the combination of his and Wattson’s ultimate. His Castle Wall now zaps projectiles launched at it, but you can still get grenades in from the sides or above.
Catalyst has been given back some of her baseline power. She can also now rebuild doors and reinforce them, which is a huge tactical advantage when you’re under attack and need to create a barrier between you and your foes.
A few other Legends are going to get upgrades, too, but Respawn Entertainment is saving those for the Season 21: Upheaval patch notes.
The last point of note for weapons and Legends this season is Artifact customization. Artifacts are universal Heirlooms any and all Legends can use, and now you can acquire customization options for each part of every Artifact, as they’re added, to make ones that are unique to you.
I was told there are a potential 200 different combinations for the latest Artifact alone, including the Death Boxes you see. You’ll acquire new customizations using a new premium currency, Exotic Shards, which you can either buy or earn from the premium track of the Battle Pass.
