The next season for Apex Legends is kicking off next week. After introducing the newest legend joining the fray, Rampart, Respawn Entertainment has released the gameplay for Season 6 – Boosted. The trailer offers a small glimpse at the newest map updates, Rampart and her abilities, the newest weapon, and the reveal that crafting is coming to the game.
Talking about the changes to the map for Season 6, Jason McCord, Design Director said: “partly, a map update is developed to inject some “newness” into the game for the launch of a season – new layouts to learn, new rotations to utilize, and new strategies to master. It also gives the designers an opportunity to improve the overall flow and experience of playing the map, while addressing any pain points we’ve heard from the community.” The main things that were addressed include more (and improved) play on the lava side of the map, better options for rotations out of some particularly sticky chokepoints, and an interesting new map mechanic to promote some new combat scenarios.
New/updated areas of the map include Launch Site which sits underneath the new giant rocketship point of interest. This location has four large control rooms that store a ton of loot for players to fight over.
Countdown replaces Drill Site with another Hammond Industries facility. Players can activate three large walls that will fortify the approach for other players coming from Skyhook, Lava Fissure, and Train Yard. These Rising Blast Walls are a new map mechanic and are also found in Launch Site and Staging. There are large control rooms that stand over a deep center pit that can be opened for better loot but it is dangerous to do so as you’ll be exposed on all sides.
Staging is a new area found in the center of the map that replaces a small town that used to sit directly below the train tracks east of Harvester. The area will have two rising walls that connect to the train tracks across the gap. There are also resting train cars that provide more cover along the tracks, as well as high connections across the center to the control room.
Other changes to the map include a new pathway from the Survey Camp and into Skyhook. Respawn says the new cut-through has been great for rotating out of Skyhook and should make Survey Camp a more viable option to drop or rotate. The train has been dismantled and scattered around the tracks of World’s Edge. “This single change helped us achieve one of our goals of providing more rotational options through some particularly scary chokepoints.” Nearly all tunnels now have static train cars for cover and small amounts of loot.
While Respawn hasn’t said anything specific about crafting, based on the trailer, we see that there will be stations found throughout the map that your team can use to craft better gear. The trailer also had a small snippet of how you’ll get those materials by activating containers that extract the materials which are converted into points that you use to make your selections in the crafting menu. The trailer also showed off the new Volt energy SMG which is the new weapon coming into the game and gave us a look at what may have been Rampart’s Ultimate. She brings up shields for her teammates and Sheila that she or her teammates can use to rain gunfire on the other teams.
Boosted kicks off on August 17 at 10 pm PT.