Treasures await in Apex Legends's newly-opened vaults
Open sesame
If you've been happily sliding and shooting your way across Apex Legends's new map this past week, you've no doubt noticed some tantalising secrets tucked away in certain nooks and crannies. A captain's bounty of glistening golden chestplates and helmets, paralysing quantities of purple attachments and phoenix kits, all kept just out of reach by a door on a timer. Well, my plundering friends, today that timer hit zero. Valuable vaults across World's Edge are now ready for the taking.
Only... you didn't think it'd be as simple as opening a door, did you?
The three vaults, located near Lava City, Trainyard and Geyser, have sat dormant since Season 3 went live last Tuesday. The countdown suggested they wouldn't open up until 6pm (1pm Eastern) today, but it looks like vault keys have already begun dropping for lucky legends. Here's one hapless Mirage demonstrating how they work.
Getting out of the vault, however, proves to be far more dangerous for this daring duo.
To get into one of these vaults, you'll need to nab a key from one of those cargo drones buzzing about the place. It doesn't matter what glow the coloured loot orb has when you shoot it down, but only bots sporting a red glowing centre contain a key. There are more than one of these drones flying about per round, too, so don't be shocked if you rock up to a vault and find nothing but cobwebs and bullet casings.
While it's not too hard to pick up purple armour across the arena, golden gear is far rarer. These gems usually come with vital perks like faster item use or self-resurrection. Naturally, some folks have begun complaining that treasure hunting is destroying the balance of their very-quite-serious gaming experience.
I've not had time to jump in and see for myself if Apex is now completely unplayable, of course. It does mean that there will probably be a whole lot more powerful gear kicking about the map. Remember: if someone's wearing a golden hat, they can very quickly be removed of it with the careful application of bullets.
I'm largely just excited to see more esoteric map mechanics slip into the game. With chaotic train lines, geyser eruptions, cargo bots and now secret treasure hunts, World's Edge already feels like a far more dynamic map that ol' King's Canyon. What does the new map get in place of a dinosaur invasion, I wonder?