Apex Legends is celebrating 5 years this year and the team at Respawn Entertainment are not wasting any time with a new season kicking off soon, with the Breakout being both its name and how things are changing.

One way that they are changing is with an all-new mode called Straight Shot, which is designed to get you into the action faster. A new team deathmatch limited time game mode is also coming called Lockdown, which will put the focus on zone control and the return of a fan favourite, Three Strikes later in the season.

Another callout that was made early on by the games Design Director, Evan Nikolich was that the Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5 versions of the game will get 120hz support, meaning even faster response times. For PlayStation 5 owners, there is still more to come as adaptive trigger support and haptic feedback are also being added.

But details I hear you say, well for those around the Legends anyway, we heard from John Larson, the Game Designer for the Legends, who promised that this new update would be the single largest update to them since launch.

“So core abilities stay the same, but over the course of the match you’ll be given the opportunity to augment your Legend as you see fit. Some upgrades improvement the specialisation of the Legend and improve an existing ability. Other upgrades might add something new altogether, for example having to choose between reviving an ally with extra health versus a more special shotgun related buff.”

What that boils down to is being able to make each match feel different, as with over 100 different options, you will never know what you may discover in one round to the next. How it happens though, well that is dependent on you the player, as if you spent the match sneaking around and avoiding combat, then you won’t be able to enjoy these new options.

For those players who opt to get into fights or make use of their characters special abilities, they will be able to build up evo much faster. Once you have enough you will be given the option to choose an upgrade, for example putting extra power onto Maggie’s fireball.

Of course, if you are worried about some options being too strong, the team have stated that if they need to, they can pull an option or modify it and it won’t break the game like applying a character buff or debuff would. The reason, as there are so many options and the ones you can choose from are random, simply removing/modifying one of them, won’t take all your options away.

All that sounds great, but what about if you are not the one getting upgrades, does that mean that these newly enhanced players will be able to run right over you? Well not exactly as with the new levels come new armours and they are tied to the upgrade level you are at.

What this means is that at level 1 you will have white armour, level 2 will get you blue and they go up from there. As you kill opponents or use your abilities and earn evo, not only will you get closer to new abilities to upgrade, but your armour will come along with you.

That sounds pretty cool, but get ready for the other side of that change, there will now no longer be any lootable armour, the only way to get armour is to level up your Legend. But don’t worry if you are someone who takes a more cautious approach during the start of a match, killing is not the only way to earn evo.

Scattered around the map are evo harvesters that can give you a boost of evo, there are even more powerful ones called evo caches, that are hidden that can really super charge you up. There are of course other ways like using your character abilities, interacting with world items and so on.

There are even more changes, the big one is that replicators no longer cost anything to use they are totally free, but they are one and done. Once a replicator has been used, it will be offline for the remainder of the match and now it will drop more consumable related items, so two changes that could make things more challenging for long time players. To see how all of these changes come together, check out the gameplay trailer for the season below.

While those changes are big, there is still more to break out, I mentioned earlier about Straight Shot, so now seems like a great time to talk details. This is the mode that you will want to select to get right into the action, as there are less things to get in the way.

First up is that the mode only supports 30 players, the second big change is that the ring is much smaller and the end ring will arrive in half the time, around 10 minutes. So a smaller player count and smaller play space, sounds like picking the right drop zone will be important, well it would be except in Straight Shot, you don’t drop.

At the start of the round, teams are randomly placed onto the map, but be warned a second team will likely be placed near you, ensuring that you are getting into the action much quicker than you might expect. If you choose to engage, finding a weapon will be a priority, as it should be but in Straight Shot all weapons are fully kitted out and even if you don’t find a gold tier weapon from the outset, they will still be around and also fully kitted.

Perhaps the greatest change is once your dead, now the squad can requeue for another match, without having to go back to the lobby, that means direct from the spectator screen. With this change, along with the ones above, it means that if you only have 10 minutes to spare, you can jump in and get a game done.

There are still more new modes coming throughout 2024 though, but details on those are still under wraps for now. Of course, as a celebration season there are new rewards to earn, a museum to visit and much more, but this is only the start.

Breakout will kick off on February 14th, the 13th for those in the USA, so there won’t be long to wait.