This Monday, January 31, 2022, we had the chance to participate in a live broadcast from the developers of Respawn Entertainment so that they presented us with several elements of Season 12 of Apex Legends. The major axes were the Control Mode, the major balances introduced in game and the new version of Olympus.
In this article, we offer you a condensed and summarized version of the elements that were presented to us.
Control mode
First of all, you should know that Control Mode will only be available for three weeks when Season 12 launches on February 8, 2022. It is a 9v9 mode that players can join by squad of three, as for the Battle Royale. In doing so, they join two other squads consisting of three players in order to deal with nine enemy players.
The objective is rather simple since it consists of capturing three points present in various places in the arena, a “king of the hill” mode in a way. As long as these points are under a team’s control, that team generates score points. The greater the number of points checked simultaneously, the faster the score climbs, of course! And it is only when 1,250 points have been amassed by one of the two teams that the match ends.
This very particular mode aims to allow players to focus exclusively on combat and capturing objectives. To do this, several features have been added:
- Infinite ammo for all
- Automatic shield regeneration
- Faster use of medkits
What’s more, when a player is defeated he is not “knocked” but dies instantly. He leaves behind his weapons, helmet, and armor that enemy players can pick up if these are of a higher level than their current gear.
To obtain new weapons, players have the opportunity to participate in bonus events every few minutes at certain points of interest in the arena. One of these “events” is the arrival of a drop with a chance to offer higher quality armor but also more powerful weapons than the basic ones. The second event available is to take control of an area for a predefined duration. If a team succeeds, then it gains an interesting bonus to its overall Control score but also to the rating of its players.
The rating, moreover, is a system allowing the Legends to improve their weapons but also to access their ultimate technique. It can be increased by performing actions beneficial to your team, neutralizing an enemy or capturing an objective for example. By reaching a sufficient rating, your weapon thus automatically evolves to a higher rank: if it is Blue, then it instantly becomes Purple for example, implying the automatic addition of the hop-ups associated with the weapon in question.
Finally, and this is not the least interesting novelty, the number of respawns is unlimited in Control Mode. When you die, you instantly come back to life, but you can also choose a new Legend and new weapons. The fight never stops!
Olympus
One of the major problems the developers found with Olympus was that it was designed in a circular fashion. The players therefore found themselves prioritizing the center of the island mainly in order to throw themselves into intense fights in the “kill zones” well known by all.
To counter this phenomenon, the development team has expanded Olympus in the southern part of the island with a total of three new bridges of interest, each with particularities that greatly encourage players to venture deeper into these areas rather than go get the fight in the center of the island.
In addition to these additions, multiple points of interest, Oasis for example, sees the loot they offered adjusted in order to be more attractive or on the contrary less subject to intense perpetual fights from the start of the game. Overall, the developers believe that the loot should be better distributed, allowing players to spread out more and suffer less from landing, dying instantly after taking a pair of punches and restarting a game being frustrated.
Eventually, an interactive teleportation device also makes an appearance in Olympus. Unfortunately, it has been sabotaged and malfunctions, however players can still use it by activating control panels near this device. In doing so, the device spawns one of three available loot drops. Of these three loot, one is always Golden while the other two have a chance to be Blues, Violets Where Gold. This new mechanism aims to increase traffic around this machine, but beware: when a player activates the teleporter, a loud noise is also heard at places around, warning other teams that a player tries to grab this loot. It is also important to know that the device has a cooldown of 45 seconds before being able to offer loot again.
Balances
Legends
caustic
- Nox Gas Traps can now be destroyed even after being triggered: they are no longer invincible.
Crypto
- Improvements to the Surveillance Drone HUD.
- Added a “Drone Launch” option for deploying the Surveillance Drone.
Hop ups
Kinetic Charger
- Dedicated to Triple take and Peacekeeper
- Automatically loads ammo when the player slides.
- Reduces weapon choke time when player slides.
Hammerpoint Rounds
- Dedicated to Mozambique, P2020 and RE-45
- Increases damage inflicted on players not equipped with a shield.
Shatter caps
- Dedicated to Bocek and 30-30
- Now automatically alternates between precision mode (while aiming) without bullets splitting and shotgun mode where bullets split into multiple fragments.
Weapons
- The Flatline and Longbow will now only be available in Replicators. They completely disappear from the map.
- The Alternator is once again found on the ground on the map. It is also purchasable in the arena.
- The Volt will now only be found in Drops.
Information from the Q&A session
- Multiple other Hop-up balances than those announced in this article are happening with Season 12. The developers hope this will change the “meta” of the most used weapons.
- The damage dealt by the Triple Rifle has been significantly reduced.
- Lifeline’s Ultimate Technique (Support Pack) is the primary source of Enhanced Armor and Helmets in Control Mode. It has been redesigned for this mode only to ensure that the gear obtained is always greater than or equal to what Lifeline currently has.
- Control Mode does not currently plan to allow players to queue in groups of 6 or 9 players. It’s a feature that the developers are thinking about introducing, but it’s not on the agenda at the moment.
- According to the developers, the changes to Olympus in Season 12 are the biggest and most ambitious in Apex Legends history.
- For developers, Bangalore has a very interesting kit and currently does not deserve a redesign. They are happy with their state in the current meta.
- For the moment, nothing is planned in terms of changes on Gibraltar’s side. Still, the developers are aware that his style of play isn’t the most exhilarating out there and is a must-have in most top-tier comps. They are thinking of a good way to change all that.