Apex Patch Notes: Everything New in Season 13
Earlier in May, Respawn dropped a new season update, titled Saviors. In addition to many rebalancing decisions, there is now a new Legend, some map changes, and a Battle Pass. After reading the latest Apex patch notes, this season is sizing up to become an exciting content drop.
In particular, the new arrival, Newcastle, brings a lot of defensive abilities to the table. He’s not overpowered by any means, but this Legend is perfect both for pushing your enemies and holding up on a high ground. There is a lot of room for experimentation, and we’ll soon see how the new Legend in Apex Legends season 13 fits into the current balance.
Newcastle Abilities
Let’s start the overview with the new Legend of Apex— Newcastle.
The character is a hero, who defended his hometown from all manners of threats. This cements him as a nanny character, and he often plays like one, thanks to his shield abilities. His skills allow you to prolong the life of your friends and your own. If you want to be effective, it’s only logical to place barriers strategically and timely.
Mobile Shield
The Mobile Shield ability is a throwable tactical skill. If you tap Q it will deploy a tall energy barrier, which will stop any enemy projectiles coming its way. It will be deployed at the point where its throwable lands, and if you press and hold the tactical key, you can see where the projectile will land, and the shield will face the way you were looking at the moment of throwing.
It occasionally freaks out and faces to the side, if thrown right in front of you, but it’s easily remedied. By clicking Q, you will direct the shield to a new position on the ground. As a result, it will move slowly in that direction, as well as start facing towards it with a very short delay.
The shield will stay active for 20 seconds, then vanish and start reloading. It needs 14 seconds to be available again, so use these with a measure of strategy. It can be both a great defensive measure (you can use it to cover wounded players) and a good offensive tool (because Newcastle can push with his shield, by moving it around).
Retrieve the Wounded
Retrieve the Wounded is a passive that grants Newcastle a Knockdown Shield, when he’s busy reviving the teammate. It comes at a cost of half his actual Knockdown Shield and blocks as much damage. And that’s not even it. Newcastle can also drag wounded players away, while reviving them.
Ideally, you’ll want to be the one to revive your friends, when they fall. You can both move them to a better position and shield them from incoming damage. Paired with Mobile Shield, you can safeguard wounded players from a lot of harm. But it also means you need to be close to both your teammates, when it comes to fighting.
Castle Wall
The season 13 Apex character has a powerful defensive ultimate. This skill allows you to jump forwards to the point of your choice (quite far away from your current position) to deploy an extensive wall of metal in front of you. The wall will face the way your character is looking right before he lands, meaning you’re able to choose the wall’s directions while airborne.
The Wall is a wide impenetrable barrier with a curved shape. It has three tall sections, able to shield players entirely, in the center and on the tips. Between them, there are halved sections, which only cover players partially. This ultimate reloads for 100 sec, so you’ll want to deploy it at a position you mean to hold.
Storm Point Update
In the new season 13 of Apex, Respawn introduced a new location to Storm Point, called the Downed Beast. At the Northwestern part of the map (between North Pad and The Mill), there is now a POI with high-tier loot. It’s a corpse of a giant sea monster, and you can go inside it.
There are some platforms with buildings near the body, but the corpse is where the best drops are. It’s not just a grotesque interior inside it — there are several platforms with zip lines, chests, and a few main exits. A perfect place for early-game shootouts. It’s still slightly grotesque inside, which is actually pretty unique for this game.
The reason why this corpse is there is explained in trailers. While you weren’t looking, some Legends battled a sea monster on this beach. Apparently, they won, and there is now a rotting carcass of a huge underwater creature on the beach. If you’re quick, you can drop near the entrance and claim some early loot from the chests.
Because of this map update, Storm Point has become the main option in the new Apex map roster for 1 week. It’s joined in this season by World’s Edge and Olympus, the former also being slightly reworked (mostly in the Lava Siphon area).
Armories
In a new Apex update, Armories were introduced all over the maps. They were buried a long time ago and designed as supply caches for titan pilots long ago. Since you’re no pilot, the security will try to beat you up if you enter an Armory. If you survive the waves of bot enemies for 1 minute, the loot is yours.
It can be somewhat challenging, especially if you don’t have any gear to speak of. Although there are 6 guns inside the Armory, it’s better to get all the stuff before you go in – the Armory will analyze your equipment and reward you with dedicated upgrades from smart loot bins. The bots can appear all over the place in these Armories: from the ceiling, big crates, etc. You’ll want to defeat them fast because they’ll just keep coming. After a minute inside, the high-tier rewards will become available. The more bots you fight – the more bins you get.
The good news is that no one will interfere, while you’re sweating inside. After entering the building, it’ll close behind your squad. After the deed is done, you can exit through the same entrances or evacuate through the ceiling. The last one boosts you high up in the air, granting a mobility buff, but revealing you to the enemies around.
Battle Pass
Besides the season 13 Apex Battle Pass, the update is free for everyone, who has a copy of the game on Steam or Origin. You need 950 Apex coins to get one, and it means you have to spend 9.5 USD in real money. The content you get in exchange is arguably worth it, but even then it requires some grinding.
New Character Skins
There are now 6 new skins in Apex Legends, added in the 13th season. 5 character skins are Battle Pass rewards, but one is a free skin set that everyone can get. Besides Legend skins, there are also several reactive weapon skins, an airborne emote, and some other content. But the character skins are likely what you are looking for.
Legendary skinsinclude Bloodhound and Fuse sets. The former gets a magnificent metal armor with a pagan, practical look and a massive helmet that resembles a beast’s head. The latter is a set of elegant knight armor — a fusion between futuristic and medieval styles.
Epic skinsare three appearances for Newcastle (a hulking red armor with fiery motives), Mad Maggie (a bright, lava-themed skin), and Pathfinder (streaks of gold all over his metal body). There is also a rare skin for Crypto that you may get without a Pass. It’s essentially a blue coat with some additional accessories.
Apex Legends has new gun skins now, as well. 5 of them come with legendary and epic skin. Besides that, there are 12 more skins that you can get by playing the game, in addition to other rewards in this season. To earn the biggest prizes, you need to buy a Battle Pass and go through its several levels.
Ranked System Rework
Last but not least, Respawn decided to rework the ranked system in the new Apex event. There are many changes, and if you truly care about ranked, you’ll want to go through the patch notes yourself. If you don’t care how the RP are awarded, but still want to know the changes, here’s a brief rundown.
Team cooperation is encouraged
Some changes make working as a team more rewarding. Now, by downing the enemy, everyone on the team gets some RP. But then, you’ll also want to stay alive with your full team for longer, because scoring lower on the leaderboard gives you fewer points, even if you have a lot of frags.
Per-frag RP are reworked
In addition to that example, they reworked several other instances of rewarding frags. Most notably, they removed the RP limit on them — now, you get gradually fewer points, but they’ll never stop arriving. Also, you get less after downing lower-tier enemies, and you are welcome to assist for slightly longer.
Skill control
Ranked tiers changes in Apex patch for today. There are two particular updates: demotions & entry costs. Demotions mean you are now can be demoted to a previous rank halfway down to the previous division. It’ll be done automatically if you lose three games after getting a tier. But on a bright side, there is a 100 RP Tier Promotion Bonus.
Entry costs are more complex. They adjusted the number of points you need to enter higher divisions. They are now gradually higher, creating a more logical player distribution, and offer harder tier progression. Many players now find it harder to go up in the ranks. If you do, you can subscribe to ranked boosting services.
Other Changes
There are almost no new mechanics added to the game. Instead, there is a long list of buffs and nerfs in Apex season 13, mostly related to effects, weapons, and loot drops. The Old Legends are reworked only a bit, which is understandable because the meta is pretty adequately balanced right now.
In terms of game mechanics, the only semi-big change that happened on that front is that being in locations that devs didn’t mean you to visit (out-of-bounds) will now disable heals, weapons, effects, abilities, and nearly everything that allows you to play. This is meant to battle various exploits, related to these areas.
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