Re: Fill me in
@1ronKeys Alright, there's a lot to cover. So, most of this, I'll refer you to the patchnotes for each season.
Patchnotes:
- S21 (Alter's Season)
- S22 (New Map Called "E-District")
- S23 (Lifeline Revived & Current Season)
S22 Changes:
- Gameplay Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQkYabjDIrM
- The battle pass was split into two passes, both are 60 levels each, with 40 bonus levels each, (which is just upgrading the season badge. After 60 levels, you would have all the other rewards for the split). This means that both splits are 120 levels, (or 200 levels if you grind out the bonus 80 levels, which in my opinion, isn't worth it). The pass was going to cost real money, but the community gave their feedback, and this was switched back to 950 Apex Coins, but buying the pass with real money does give more rewards.
- Jump into a new city style map. This map is the home of both Crypto and Caustic, (Suotamo). The map has a ton of buildings and vertical/horizontal cannons scattered throughout.
- (Supply Bins) All supply bins will re-stock in the late/end game, (where some bins will become Legendary, with one becoming Mythic). All the other bins will be normal bins, and they will have an animation across the bin's seal to show they're re-stocked. The Legendary bins will give you more Legendary items, while the Mythic bin can give you things such as a Care Package weapon and a large EVO Cache.
Note: Only bins inside the ring will be re-stocked, (and if a player is nearby a bin during the re-stocking process, the loot will be ejected out of the bin). The Mythic bin will also be displayed to EVERYONE on the map, (and it will take several seconds to open).
- Akimbo P2020's and Mozambiques were added, (two guns, one weapon slot)
- Health bars now show up on enemy players when damaged
- (Recon Class ONLY) Enemies now light up when aiming down sights or when flying with Valkyrie's jetpack, (oh and Valkyrie is now a Recon legend). Survey beacons are now faster to use and only scan a small area on the map, (not the whole map), and provides more of a live update of enemy player movement for about 5 seconds.
- (Valkyrie) Now Recon, (as mentioned), movement speed perk moved to base kit, moved the 5x3 missiles tactical pattern, (base should be 3x4), from purple armor perk to blue armor perk, (the one replacing the perk for purple armor is now a skydive that scans anyone nearby, (including those hiding under cover))
- (Controller Class ONLY) When inside the next ring, you gain 25 extra shields, (does not stack onto Red EVO armor). They can now also pick up their tacticals long distance, (such as Wattson's fences, Caustic's traps, and Rampart's walls).
- (Cosmetic) Stat trackers and their artwork are now separated and any legend tracker can now be used on any other legend. (This means that if you want to use a artwork tracker set that's for one legend on another, you can. These artwork can also be applied to any tracked stat. No longer will a tracker of a legend be locked to kills, damage, and wins, it can now be any other unlocked stat tracker!)
- Various other changes, buffs, and nerfs. Read the patchnotes for more details!
S23 Changes:
Okay, so there's a lot to cover as well, so your best bet would be reading the patchnotes, but anyways:
- Gameplay Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxOCScALl1M
- For a limited time, they added back the original mode of Apex, (S0 to S2), which is called "Launch Royal". This mode should end in about 24 hours from this post.
- Lifeline's kit was reworked and its awesome! She can glide with her drone, send her drone to any teammate to heal them, and put up a barrier around the squad for faster heals, but the roof of the barrier is open to attack!
- (Pubs Trios/Duos ONLY) During the season, purple packs will spawn across the map. These packs are called "Rift Relics", and they bring back weapons from Apex's history, (such as when the Spitfire was a heavy weapon), along with Rift Kits. These Rift Kits are things such as "Squad Heal", where when within a limited range of a teammate, you can apply healing to them as well. There's also "Void Reflex", where when you're about to go down, you will instantly phase like Wraith.
Note: Due to the Rift Relics LTM takeover, the damage and kill badges are currently disabled in Pubs Trios/Duos.
- (Support Class ONLY) Syringes and Shield cells now heal twice as much and revives are now 25% faster. Also, when reviving as a support legend, (and being revived while playing as a support legend), the player getting revived would regen HP as long as they don't take damage by enemy fire. This regen doesn't appear to stop if the ring is dealing damage to the player who got revived. Teammates of support legends will now have a mobile respawn beacon spawn inside their boxes on death, and these mobile respawn beacons can be seen above the box by the support legend, (even on an enemy's box).
- Crafting teammate's banners can now be done by ANY legend, (no more Support legend required at all!)
- Rank now shows you the current rank of all players in your match at the start of the game.
- Your legend will now mention when you need to heal your health, repair your shields, and when you are low on ammo. (Your current selected healing item will also flash red when you need to heal).
- Various other changes, buffs, and nerfs. Read the patchnotes for more details!
Current S23 Meta:
- (Legends) This season, the Support classes take center stage. By that, I mean its a lot of Lifelines and Newcastles due to the new buffs and reworks. (Newcastle's changes are also very overpowered as his tactical can no longer be destroyed, amongst other changes to his kit and perks that makes him a force to be reckoned with).
- (Weapons) Didn't seem to change a whole lot, but the Devotion returns to ground loot as it got replaced by the Havoc. Golden weapons also rotated to be the Car, Hemlok, L-Star, and Mastiff.
Extra Information:
- This is more of a lore/story type of trailer, but its really good, so I recommend you give it a watch! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-kNd1_xG9Q