Apex Legends has arrived on Steam with Season 7
Unfortunately, changes to the battle pass have made the game whole lot more grindy
Apex Legends has a cute new character, a lush new map and a cool vehicle now. Oh, and it's on Steam, too. The battle royale’s seventh season, Ascension, launched last night, dropping players on Olympus. It's a gorgeous city in the sky with wide open spaces that are ripe for chasing down enemy squads in Apex's first vehicle, the Trident.
As well as all this, the Season 7 update brought with it the new Legend Horizon, a Club system, and a load of changes to the way the battle pass works - not good changes, unfortunately, because now it's even grindier than it was before.
The new map is a big abandoned futuristic city that, honestly, is a bit tedious to run around. It's clearly designed with the Tridents in mind - they're the quickest and most fun way to get from place to place. You can also place certain Legends' abilities on the Tridents, turning them into weird tanks. I learned about this the hard way during the Season 7 preview when I was assailed by one covered in Caustic gas traps.
Hailing from the city of Olympus is the new Legend, Horizon. She's a scientist with gravity-manipulating abilities - her tactical throws down a gravity lift that boosts players into the air, while her passive allows her to fall gracefully to the ground, maintaining momentum and avoiding the giant thump other characters experience when they drop. Then her ultimate just throws a whopping great black hole that sucks enemies in (a bit like Zarya's from Overwatch).
Next up is the new Clubs system, which lets players form in-game communities of up to 30 players. The creator of the club can pick a name, logo and series of tags to let other players know what sort of club it is. There are options like "LGBTQ+ Friendly" and "Will Help Beginners" to help find the one for you.
The problem-child of this season, however, is the battle pass. Previously, battle pass progress was counted in CP (Challenge Points) which you earned from doing your daily and weekly challenges. Now, this progress is awarded in Stars. Each star is 1/10th of a battle pass level, and you can earn varying numbers of Stars from each challenge.
Respawn says these changes were designed to make the battle pass "more streamlined and rewarding", but it actually seems to have had the opposite effect.
Proud to announce that after all 5 daily challenges, 20,000 xp, 3 Top 5s, and 1 win with 8 kills, I have finally hit battlepass level 2. from r/apexlegends
Challenges that would've previously earned you an entire battle pass level now only give you around two to five Stars. It looks as though the progress you earn through this new system is less than half of what it was before. Yikes. Whether this is intentional or not is yet to be seen, but here's hoping Respawn address it soon.
Apex Legends is free-to-play on both Steam and Origin. It has cross-platform progression and play between the two platforms.
Here are the Season 7 patch notes.
To prepare yourself for the new season, make sure you brush up on our Apex Legends weapon guides.