Apex Legends – Season 9 is here!

Season 9 of Apex Legends began on May 4th and will continue until August 3rd. It has just been a few days, but so far, this new season has been mostly successful overall. However, there have been some serious issues. For starters, quite a few players complain about loot not dropping correctly, as rare armors and backpacks are almost never spawning as drops, while shield cells are overwhelming the most common drop.

The new weapon being added to Apex Legends is the Bocek Compound Box. This marksman weapon fires arrows very accurately, does incredibly high damage, and is especially more silent than any other weapon, allowing the wielder to fire on enemies without giving away their location. In addition, because the weapon has no magazine (such as a gun would), it means that you never have to pause to reload. You can just keep firing. It’s only weakness is in close combat. However, some players with epilepsy have complained that the weapon is essentially unusable for them because the glittering shimmer of arrows on the ground can trigger a seizure. However, the developers have taken note of that criticism and have promised to address it at some point soon.

The Arena is a new 3 vs. 3 game mode for Apex Legends. Similar to gameplay in Valorant and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, competitors in the Arena buy the weapons and equipment of their choice before the beginning of each round. This allows players more freedom of choice and teams the flexibility to strategize the best way to counter their opponents collectively. At the beginning of each round, players are given crafting materials that are used to purchase the items. Any unused materials are saved for the next round, although the maximum amount of materials a player can have is 3500. Each elimination will earn the player 75 crafting materials, and interacting with a Material Canister earns the entire team 200 crafting materials. Keep in mind when purchasing your equipment that they do not carry over to the next round, and you will need to buy new items at the beginning of each round.

Legend abilities are limited in the Arena. While passive abilities and a set number of tactical charges are free, additional tactical charges and Ultimate ability charges must be purchased. However, be careful about purchasing charges because any unused charges will not carry over to the next round. Only buy an ability charge if you know that you will be using it.

Gameplay in the Arena takes place over multiple rounds in which the objective is to eliminate all members of the opposing team. Downed players cannot respawn, although they can be revived. In order to win, a team must win at least three rounds and win two more rounds than the opposing team. This means that if one team is totally dominating, the game will be over quickly. Still, if the teams are very evenly matched, the game can go on for as many as 9 rounds, at which it goes into “sudden death” where the winning team of that round is declared the winner of the game. The Arena has two maps unique to the game mode, called “Party Crasher” and “Phase Runner” and were specifically designed for it. The Arena also used the “King’s Canyon,” “World’s Edge,” and “Olympus” maps from the Battle Royale mode.

Finally, a new Legend is joining the roster! Valkyrie is a high-flying and missile-firing reconnaissance fighter. Players have already found an exploit that allows Valkyrie to fly much further with her jetpacks than the developers probably originally intended, so enjoy it now before it gets nerfed. Valkyrie can be purchased for 12,000 Legend Tokens or 750 Apex Coins.

Despite the less than a spectacular start, the new content that’s been added for this season is overall very impressive. Apex Legends is available for Windows, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch.