Today, Respawn has released the latest Stories from The Outlands – “Family Forever” for Apex Legends. The trailer serves as the official reveal of Crypto who has been teased and leaked over the course of Season 2. Respawn has also shared new information about Season 3, Meltdown, which is set to release on October 1.
The newest Legend, Crypto is cool, calm and collected who can deploy specialized surveillance drones to stay in the fight and out of the spotlight. Meltdown will bring in an all-new battle-pass that will have over 100 exclusive items including Legendary skins, Apex Packs, new Battle Pass content making a Season 3 debut, and more. The newest weapon coming to Meltdown is the Charge Rifle where players can carve their way across the Arena directing obliterating, directed energy at their targets.
Respawn has also revealed Series 2 of Ranked Leagues. Ranked Leagues are Respawn’s way to create a true measure of skill in Apex Legends by using a score-based system rather than a hidden ELO-type system. Respawn has shared what will stay the same in Series 2 and what will change. There will be no changes to the Tiers and Divisions. The level 10 requirement for ranked play will also stay the same. Playing with friends will still continue to matchmake up to the highest-ranked player.
A soft reset of 1.5 Tiers down on everyone’s ranked position will occur at the start of Series 2. For instance, if you end of Gold II, you’ll be reset to Silver IV. There will also be changes to the scoring system. Respawn is 10x’ing all of the points in the system. There has also been a change to the match entry RP cost. Bronze matches are still free, Sliver will cost 12RP, Gold 24RP, Platinum 36 RP, Diamond 48 RP, and Apex Predator matches will cost 60 RP.
Assists will be added to the kill count score. They are defined as dealing damage to a player within 5 seconds before they are knocked down. The assist credit is cleared if a player is revived. Apex Predator ranked players will also now see their standing worldwide. The ladder positions are split by platform.
Cosmetic rewards are coming for ranked performance. Once the Series starts, everyone will receive a badge that shows their highest level reached. Gold and higher players will receive an exclusive gun charm; Diamond and Apex Predator players will receive a custom dive trail.
Leaver penalties are going to be enabled at the start of Ranked Series 2. Players who abandon their teammates will be hit with both a regular and Ranked matchmaking penalty which results in a player being barred from joining a match for an amount of time. An abandon is defined as leaving the game before the match is over for you which includes leaving during character select, leaving while you are alive, and leaving when you are dead but can still be respawned by teammates.
Respawn said, “overall, we’re really happy with how the introduction of Ranked Leagues has worked out, and we’re excited for what we can learn and adjust as the second wave gets out to players.”