Apex Legends Season 6 is Live Now, Here’s What’s New (A Lot)

While the thermometer has not yet heralded a change of season, Apex Legends is not bound to any orbiting celestial body… that I’m aware of. Hence, at 10pm Pacific last night Season 6, dubbed “Boosted,” debuted on Xbox One (you’ll know you have it when the EA splash screen bears a bright, new shock of color).

While new character addition Rampart has been getting top billing, all players will notice significant changes to gameplay, weapons, armor, and the map itself. Where to begin? With Rampart, of course!

In my first few matches with Rampart (assuming I could select her; she’s a popular choice), I found the most success when holding down an area in a pitched battle. Cover-barren high ground like the Skyhook rooftops are significantly more defensible when Rampart strategically places her Amped Cover. She’s able to deploy multiple sections of waist-high cover, enough to support your whole trio – and then some. Pair those portable walls with Wattson’s grenade-nullifying Ultimate and… that’s going to be a tough wall to breach.

Even better, the see-through portion of these barriers ‘amp’ your shots; I felt the difference when taking out a distant competitor with a single salvo of four amped G7 body shots. A good Rampart doesn’t just help herself, she improves the whole squad.

Likewise, her Ultimate, a deployed minigun (named Sheila) can be utilized by anyone on the team, though Rampart does reload it faster. Indeed, her passive skill both increases the magazine and decreases reload time on all LMGs. This is good news, as the Devotion is back in the rotation, as well as its near-mandatory Energy mags and Turbocharger, which were on hiatus in Season 5. Lastly, it’s nice to see another character that doesn’t take themself too seriously (I’m looking at you, Bloodhound/Bangalore). Rampart’s battle chatter drew a few chuckles out of me, giving Mirage, Octane, and Pathfinder a run for their money in the entertainment department.

Onto those changes that affect *all* characters…

All shields are now Evo Shields, the kind that get stronger as you deal damage, but it’s not as radical a change as it sounds. The addition of crafting ensures that you don’t have to seek out early battles to build up your defenses. If you’re a player that likes to land in a quiet place, you can now gather crafting materials from bins and special new receptacles to spend at Replicators, which are now spread around the map (with more dropping in as the round progresses).

At these Replicators, players can level up shields, print new ammo, or choose from a rotating selection of weapons and attachments. There’s an element of risk as players have to wait while their item is fabricated, but it’s not much worse than waiting for a supply drop to land. The end result is that I didn’t have to cross my fingers when I was low on sniper rounds, and more importantly, that I didn’t roll into endgame engagements with underpowered shields.

And that’s just the start of Season 6. There’s a ton of other tweaks and changes, large and small, including a new energy SMG, called the Volt. Personal favorite: I’ll never have to hunt for a Precision Choke hop-up for my favored Triple Take sniper rifle again; it’s now built in. Seriously, check out the patch notes – there’s a high chance your favorite character or weapon behaves just a bit different than before.

Apex Legends Season 6 is live now. Oh, if you want to check out Season 6 gameplay, Xbox will be streaming live today, 8/18 at 1pm PT on Twitch.tv/Xbox with host @kelllombardi and special guest @MoonLiteWolfPro. Tune in to see Rampart in action and keep an eye out for raffles, we have some Apex coins to give away during the stream. See you then!”

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Source: Xbox Blog
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