Head back to Kings Canyon for some Halloween action.
Respawn Entertainment
Apex Legends season 3, dubbed Meltdown, started on Tuesday. The battle royale game has a new map called World’s Edge, a new weapon and another Legend that could potentially change the meta for the game.
The third season gives players a slew of new content with many changes from the top to the bottom. Players will have to not only learn a new map, they’ll also have to mix in all the other updates in season 3 if they want to win.
Season 3’s first event will give players new Halloween-themed outfits and has a mode that lets players act like zombies. Apex Legends Fight or Fright is a limited time event that started on Tuesday and will run until Nov. 5.
Shadowfall is a match available during Fight or Fright that will have 35 players drop into a nighttime Kings Canyon. Once a player is eliminated, they’ll join the Shadow Squad, which means they have improved mobility and unlimited respawns but can’t use weapons. The last 10 players will have to work with each other to reach an evac ship to escape the squad.
Along with the new match, the event will have limited-edition Legends outfits, weapon skins and other in-game cosmetics available only during this event. Some will be made available via challenges or purchased outright.
There will also be a double XP weekend during Fight or Fright starting Oct. 25 at 10 a.m. PT and going until Oct. 28 at 10 a.m. PT.
Apex Legends season 2, which started in July, was full of highs and lows. Players finally received a solo mode in addition to the default three-person teams, but some weren’t happy about the inclusion of new loot boxes. This sparked a backlash from the Apex Legends community, and in turn, members of the development team at Respawn Entertainment fired back their own insults. The developer later apologized for its team’s behavior.
When does Apex Legends season 3 start?
Apex Legends season 3 started on Oct. 1 for PC, PS4 and Xbox One. Respawn Entertainment revealed the date for the next season earlier in September when it officially introduced the newest character, Crypto.
Who’s Crypto?
Crypto is the 10th Legend in the roster. According to his origin video, Park Tae Joon was a hacker with his stepsister Mila Alexander. The two came across a program that could determine the winner of the Apex Games. This made them a target of the organization behind the game, The Syndicate. Tae Joon was framed for the disappearance of his stepsister, and he’s been on the run ever since.
Tae Joon joined the Apex Games under the name Crypto. He’s out to sabotage the event while looking for those who abducted his stepsister.
On the character page for Crypto, he’s labeled as a “surveillance expert” and for good reason. His tactical ability is Surveillance Drone. When activated, a drone will fly into the air and begin scoping out other teams. That info is then shared with Crypto’s teammates via his passive ability Neurolink.
Then, to deal with players who fortify themselves, he can use his ultimate ability, Drone EMP. The blast from his drone will deal 50 damage to other players’ shields, slow them down and destroy any traps in the area.
Crypto’s first appearance came during the season 2 trailer, where there’s a brief shot of him destroying a tower in Kings Canyon with an EMP blast.
🚨🚨🚨BREAKING🚨🚨🚨
New UNRELEASED trailer showcases Crypto, a legend leaked by me, to be the cause of the Repulser EMP!
This lines up with the Crypto computer we saw earlier today!
(more info below)LIKE + RETWEET 🤩🔥 pic.twitter.com/VoeSqcDTEM
— Apex Legends ~ Leaks & News (@ApexLeaksNews) June 27, 2019
Days after his reveal, the Apex Legends Twitter account had multiple tweets showing someone hacking a computer system: one time failing and the other time succeeding.
There was also a cryptic message that at first seemed unrelated to the story, but words in the message changed and Crypto’s name was seen briefly. It gives some insight into his motivation for joining the Apex Games.
On Sept. 25, certain Twitch streamers playing Apex Legends had their streams “hacked” by Crypto. The hacking only appeared for viewers watching the streams and not seen by the streamers themselves.
What’s new in season 3?
The big change in Apex Legends season 3 is the World’s Edge map. From the trailer released Friday, the center of the map appears to have a frozen tower. We also see what looks like a volcano and some fairly green landscape, which is unlike the mainly rocky terrain of Kings Canyon on Planet Solace.
Rodney Reece, a senior level designer at Respawn Entertainment, tweeted the new map Monday. The frozen tower seen in the trailer is called The Epicenter and it appears lava is flowing from a spot called The Dome.
According to Respawn Entertainment, the in-game story explaining the map switch is that the Syndicate, who puts on the Apex Games, is rebuilding Kings Canyon so the organization decided to move the event to World’s Edge. It will be the only map available throughout the season, but the developer is interested in feedback on how Kings Canyon should return.
The Charge Rifle is the new weapon for the third season. This weapon has direct ties to the Titanfall games — Apex Legends is in the same universe — as it was used by players to deal damage to the giant Titans. It acts like a rifle and a sniper, but it only does big damage if players charge the weapon while aiming at an opponent.
There’ll also be a new Battle Pass for season 3 to give players a slew of unlockable content for the price of 950 Apex Coins, or approximately $9.50. There’s also a Battle Pass Bundle for 2,800, or about $28, that will unlock 25 levels on the pass.
New for this season’s Battle Pass are unlockable gun charms to give weapons a little flair, skydive emotes to let everyone know you’re landing, quips for some trash talking, music packs and loading screens. There’s also the mainstays of legendary outfits and weapon skins.
The Ranked series is returning too. This mode allows players to compete with others at similar skill levels and climb the ranks to see who’s the best. For Series 2, scores are getting adjusted and now assists will count toward a player’s score. Those who played Ranked mode last season will have a reset of 1.5 tiers so a Gold II player will drop down to a Silver IV player rather than have all players start off at the bottom rank. There’s also a new Leaver Penalty for those players who leave a ranked game early. These quitters will find themselves unable to start another game for a set amount of time. The more they quit, the longer they’ll have to wait.
Rounding out the season 3 changes are various updates to the characters and bug fixes. Respawn Entertainment listed the changes on a Reddit thread on the Apex Legends subreddit Tuesday.
Originally published Sept. 27 and updated when new details are revealed.
Correction, Oct. 8, 2:30 p.m. PT: An earlier version of this story misstated the start date for the double XP weekend during Fight or Fright. It starts Oct. 25.