Apex Legendsis no stranger to change. Respawn Entertainment has spent the past year upending nearly every system with meaty reworks that you seldom see with Battle Royale games this tenured.Legends have been reworked, time-to-kill values have been radically shifted, and class overhauls have been implemented to keep the meta fresh for rusted-on veterans. Innovation through iteration would describe the last year best, yet iteration was never enough to convince me to give Apex another try as a lapsed BR player.
Season 25 is making me reconsider, though. Arenas are back; the weapon sandbox is looking healthier than ever. And for the first time in just over a year, a new Legend will be entering the Apex Games.
Sparrow, The Latest Legend
Meet Sparrow, Apex’s latest addition to the Recon class, although I’d argue he plays closer to a Skirmisher and Recon hybrid. This is the first Legend to receive a double jump for a passive, functioning exactly as it did inTitanfall 2. For a movement shooter that’s all about preserving momentum, having a midair boost like this is a gateway to some truly absurd movement tech I can’t even fathom.
His tactical ability is Tracker Dart, a projectile that embeds into surfaces and scans for nearby threats. Enemies who enter will be outlined for your squad to see, similar to Bloodhound’s tactical scan. This information can help place your Stinger Bolt ultimate, an energy turret that releases six consecutive energy blasts that damage any Legends in its line of sight.
Pathfinder Buffs
Pathfinder is also receiving some much-needed love this season. Zipline Zen is back and grants 50 percent damage resistance while in use. Variable cooldowns on his zipline also return.
My limited knowledge of modern-era Apex makes me ill-suited to discuss the meta ramifications of Sparrow’s kit. What I can confidently say, though, is that Sparrow seems tailor-made for less experienced players like myself. Getting acclimated to double jumping only took a few minutes, and the abilities in Sparrow’s kit are potent without requiring deep mechanical skill to leverage effectively.
Respawn wants to get this character into as many players’ hands as possible, so during S25, Sparrow will be an unlockable character through a series of free in-game challenges, no legend tokens needed. Hopefully, this will serve as a good onboarding experience for newer players and can incentivize them to practice advanced maneuvers, notably wall bouncing and bunny hopping.
Nocked And Loaded
Last season saw a massive rework to Apex’s time-to-kill values, encouraging frantic gunfights that demand mastery of the game’s deep movement mechanics. Respawn isn’t aiming to reinvent the wheel with this update. Rather, Season 25 will be bringing back some fan-favorite weapons and attachments to shift the meta more towards long-range gunfights. Akimbo P2020s have finally caught the much-needed nerf hammer.
No longer a care package drop, the Bocek Bow has been reprised with a reworked ammo economy and new synergy with Frag Grenades. You’ll find the Bocek as ground loot but with a fixed ammo supply that you cannot restock. The ammo you do have can be augmented with Frag Grenades, which will convert a portion of your arrows into high-explosive projectiles that detonate on impact.
The splash damage is immense and can wreak havoc indoors, provided you’re able to avoid the blast radius yourself.
If you aren’t lucky enough to find the Bocek to drop in your game, you can take the weapon for a spin in Arenas. Respawn is bringing the one-life deathmatch mode back in Season 25 with some small changes: shorter matches, economy updates, and Arena playlist variants we’ll see later in the season.
Arena was my favorite playlist when it was available during 2022, as it gave me a low-stakes environment to hone my skills and experiment with weapon loadouts. Now that it’s back, I’m seriously considering jumping back into Apex Legends for the first time in years.
Ranked Changes
Ranked play is also getting some changes in S25. A new ranked ladder system will offer unique cosmetics as you climb the leaderboard. MMR carryover will also be added to ranked, influenced by your past seasonal performance in all playlists.
An Apex Of Skill
I fell out of love with Apex Legends years ago due to how skilled the community was getting. Call me a journalist all you want, but Apex has one of the largest skill ceilings I’ve ever seen in a modern shooter, let alone a BR title. Movement shooters demand mechanical proficiency,mastering the idiosyncrasies of the game’s physicsto get a small leg up on your opponent.
Skill creep is an inevitable consequence of the game’s input-intensive movement and arsenal of precision weaponry. I would never ask Respawn to compromise the game’s identity to appeal to a lowly casual like myself—the skill gap is whyApex is fun in the first place.
Rather, I simply want an environment where I can learn the ropes again and build muscle memory to compete in the Apex Games. Now that Arenas and a fairly accessible Recon Legend are dropping on May 6, I might finally be able to muster the courage and jump back into this previously insurmountable Battle Royale.
