Season 28 of Apex Legends is offering a new defensive option that may shake up the way each battle royale unfolds.
While EA and Respawn has previously focused on characters, maps, and quality-of-life features for previous Apex Legends updates, the big centerpiece of the long-running battle royale’s next update is going to involve a slight change to the way the game itself is played. While teams can still run across an open landscape and take aim at opponents from afar, Season 28 will have something for players who like to establish a position and reinforce their surroundings. Appropriately titled Breach, this next season will introduce a new feature called Hardlight Mesh.
Source: Electronic Arts
Hardlight Mesh is a new form of windows that can be used to reinforce the various buildings planted across the Apex Legends battle royale map. Hardlight acts as a barrier, but it’s translucent, so that players can see through the other side and scout incoming threats. The Hardlight is destructible, so opposing teams can shoot their way through and create different means of entry than simply walking through the building’s front door. For the team building the Hardlight, it allows them to set traps and create obstacles for opposing teams. Certain Legends can gain abilities over the course of a session that will allow them to further reinforce Hardlight Mesh defenses, while shotguns are also receiving some power and fire-rate buffs in order to provide more of a close-quarters advantage.
Players will have a chance to try out Hardlight defenses across all modes, including an improved Bot Royale. The bots that populate this mode have been adjusted to provide more of a challenge to players of all skill levels. Plus, those who are having more fun engaging with CPU bots than human players can enjoy to their heart’s content, because the cap on earned XP in this mode is being removed. Players will also be able to progress through their challenges and Battle Passes against bots. However, in order to earn Badges or increase their lifetime stats, they’ll need to take part in one of the human modes.
Season 28 will see three Legends receive fresh updates, some of which will play into the addition of Hardlight. Fuse, for example, can help clear out entrenched enemy teams with his revamped Motherlode Ultimate, which rains down explosives capable of clearing out dug-in positions. On top of that, Fuse will receive tweaked Upgrades that can further empower his Ultimate, such as Pyro Techniques, which adds extra flames to the explosive onslaught, and Reignition, which recharges Fuse’s upgrade quickly whenever he deals explosive damage.
Source: Electronic Arts
Bloodhound’s Beast of the Hunt Ultimate move will see some new buffs, including a significantly reduced cooldown. Knockdowns will now further extend the move’s duration. Plus, tweaked upgrades can change some of its functions. The Raven’s Flight upgrade will increase the range of Beast of the Hunt’s White Ravens, while the Taste of Blood upgrade will heal Bloodhound for every knockdown. Respawn is teasing further changes with Bloodhound down the road, so expect to see more from this character soon.
Catalyst is the last of the characters to receive a big update this coming season. Improvements to her Piercing Spikes move will help teams bolster their defenses, since she can now throw them farther and deploy them faster. A new Hidden Spikes upgrade will allow Catalyst players to hide their spikes, while the Sole Piercer upgrade triggers them faster and increases their damage. Finally, Catalyst’s Dark Veil ultimate will further reinforce Hardlight defenses since it can now be deployed horizontally for added flexibility.
Lastly, Apex Legends is celebrating its seventh anniversary with a new Community Prize Track that will offer various rewards. Respawn hopes to attract newcomers or lapsed players by offering three new challenges for each of Season 28’s first four weeks. Completing each set of challenges will permanently unlock a playable Legend: Valkyrie for the first week, Revenant for the second, Conduit for the third, and Sparrow for the fourth.
Apex Legends: Breach will begin putting up its walls in just a matter of days. Look for Season 28 to get underway on Tuesday, February 10. It should also be noted that this will be the penultimate update for the Nintendo Switch version of the game. Respawn announced at the end of last week that its focus will move to the Nintendo Switch 2 version of the game starting in August with the Season 29 update.
Senior Editor
Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can’t enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?
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