Apex Legends Season 17: Arsenal is almost here, and while some of the season's details are still under wraps, developer Respawn Entertainment has unveiled the majority of the numerous new additions scheduled to hit the game when Season 17 goes live.
In addition to confirmation that players will get to meet a new legend for the first time in six months, we've got the scoop on Ballistic's background and abilities--plus details regarding all the changes coming to Ranked Mode, the introduction of the new Weapon Mastery system, and the enormous physical transformations of both the Firing Range and World's Edge. Dataminers have also uncovered some interesting tidbits, so keep scrolling for an up-close look at all the new content heading to Apex Legends in Season 17.
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Now Playing: Apex Legends: Arsenal Cinematic Launch Trailer
Stories From The Outlands: Encore served as players' initial introduction to Season 17's 63-year-old debut legend--the animated short painted a picture of a lonely father who is estranged from his son, living a lavish but reclusive life for decades before deciding to step back into the spotlight. Encore explores the reasons he left his life as a bloodsport competitor in the first place, and reveals his interesting motives for returning to the ring.
But familial strife isn't the only demon he's battling--he appears to be addicted to alcohol and is implied to be dependent on an anti-aging medication produced by Silva Pharmaceuticals. For the full story on the new legend's background and abilities, check out everything we know about Ballistic--including his abilities, his past, and his personality.
Players will finally get to meet Ballistic on May 1.
Respawn has rebuilt the Firing Range from the ground up, completely redesigning the map and drastically increasing its size. According to Respawn, the new range features a "reorganized Core" (the central location where all weapons, armor, and attachments can be found), a new Agility Course, a Duel Pit, and POI-sized town. Simulated death boxes are also scattered around the area, allowing players to access new gear wherever they happen to be practicing.
The new course also includes customizable Firing Range dummies that can be configured to spawn, move, and shoot at players in a variety of ways. That's right--players will no longer have to activate a complicated Easter egg to get the dummies to attack. Instead, the addition of a "Full Combat Mode" option gives players the opportunity to simulate a real match, fighting to survive as the dummies aggressively chase and fire upon them.
Non-humanoid targets have received an upgrade as well, with color-changes that give players a better idea of where their shots are landing. Additionally, players can turn on Hit Markers (located in the "Customize Range" section of the settings menu to familiarize themselves with shot patterns from each weapon. Lastly, the Dynamic Stats function can now be reset manually at any time, allowing players to track their real-time performance with more flexibility.
Evac Towers should be used with caution, however--they take a bit of time to deploy, and the massive explosion is bound to attract attention from enemy squads. Additionally, they don't last forever, taking damage over time before eventually disappearing altogether. They can also be damaged and destroyed by enemies, so make sure the coast is clear before you make use of Apex's newest Survival Item.
An Evac Tower will make escaping enemies a cinch (as long as none of them shoot it down first).
Though the lava fissures still exist, they appear considerably smaller from what we've seen in the trailer. They also no longer have an updraft to blow players who fall over the edge back up to the surface. Instead, the depth of the lava fissures has been significantly reduced, and instead of being blown upward, players who fall in will land in the lava itself, taking damage the longer they stand in it. Luckily, there appears to be some boxes and crates available to help players climb back up to the surface.
The Apex Museum housed within the Monument POI tells the history of the Apex Games, from their original inception as the Thunderdome Games to the present day. The museum contains an expansive gift shop full of legend-themed merch, and is also home to several exhibits listing former Thunderdome competitors, along with bios for all of the current Apex Game competitors. Interestingly, each of these bios reveals what year each legend joined the Apex Games--an interesting lore tidbit that, until now, has never been revealed by Respawn.
"From a design standpoint, Monument is a deep bunker with a quick access sniper nest for positional control and scouting," Respawn's blog post about the new season said. "The glass ceiling brings an interesting component to the vertically layered fights this space offers. It’s a different pace to the familiar collapsed map center."
The Monument POI is stuffed to the gills with Apex Games history--and merch.
"In our efforts to balance the map’s landing distributions, the tower of the sweat lords had to go," Respawn stated in their Season 17 game updates blog post. "You know the one, built like a stack of pancakes with two ziplines on either end: Fragment’s infamous Construction Stack."
But technically, the structure hasn't disappeared--it's just been moved. Lava City is no more, with the "new" Stacks POI taking its place not far from Rampart's Big Maude Town Takeover. As the gameplay trailer revealed, "World's Edge is healing." It certainly looks like Torres "Duardo" Silva and the rest of his Syndicate goons have put significant effort into repairing the damage done to World's Edge by the Planet Harvester installed by Hammond Industries in Season 4. But an in-game transition screen has suggested that the Climatizer (located in the POI of the same name) Hammond installed to mitigate the damage is, in fact, for show. It's possible that the Climatizer has since been repaired and Silva is telling the truth, but based on everything players know about the main villain of the Apex Legends universe, the man lies like he breathes: constantly. Only time will tell whether the health of Bloodhound's beloved homeworld really is on the upswing.
The Harvester POI also has some new shortcuts, including a zipline that stretches across Havester's circular arena from below, and an open window that will allow players to jump down from the POI's center room, landing on the platform below. The latter is a risky move, but can be a life-saver when an instant escape route is needed.
This seems to suggest that, against all odds, Torres Silva is telling the truth--the Climatizer is now in working order, and it appears that World's Edge is indeed "healing" after all.
There are 100 levels per weapon in total, and players can gain Weapon Mastery XP by doing damage, securing kills, and even simply equipping the weapon. Every 20 levels, players will be presented with a weapon-specific trial, which will reward them upon completion. Players who reach level 100 and complete all five trials will earn weapon-specific badges, lifetime performance trackers, Legendary weapon mastery banner frames, and a guaranteed Legendary skin for each weapon mastered.
Season 17's new Weapon Mastery system provides players with long-term challenges to show off their firearm skills.
A new scoring system has also been introduced, with Ranked Points (RP) being replaced by Ladder Points (LP). According to Respawn's recent blog post on the topic, the new scoring system "revolves around Bonuses that amplify your LP gains and mitigate your LP losses."
There are several types of Bonuses, but perhaps the most interesting type are Skill Bonuses. Skill Bonuses are applied when a team is facing off with enemies that are significantly stronger than them, or when a team "performs exceptionally in an unfavorable match."
It's also worth noting that any players who have not yet received their Ranked Arenas rewards must log in before Season 17 goes live on May 9 if they wish to redeem their ranked rewards. Ranked Arenas will obviously not be returning, as the mode was permanently sunset, so anyone wishing to claim their final Arenas rewards should mark their calendar and make sure to fire up the game to redeem them before the end of the season.
Developers say a serious plot development is arriving in the latter half of Season 17.
That said, all leaks should be taken with a grain of salt, and until Respawn confirms the existence of the new Heirloom weapon, fans of the time-traveling astronaut shouldn't get their hopes up--especially since dataminers have not yet been able to uncover an actual 3D model of the weapon.
We'll know more about Season 17's content as launch day draws nearer, so check back regularly (and take a look at the patch notes) for more updates on what players can expect from Apex Legends Season 17: Arsenal.
Apex Legends is free to play on console and PC. A mobile version of the game, Apex Legends Mobile, is available to play on Android and iOS devices, but will be sunset on May 1.
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