Apex Legends: Breakout overhauls in-game character and ranked progression

Apex Legends has a lot to celebrate in 2024. This is the game's five-year anniversary marking a milestone anniversary since Respawn Entertainment took the bold step into battle royale shooters. The game continues to thrive today, but the team is fully aware that it's time to keep the game feeling fresh. That's the goal with the upcoming Season 20, Apex Legends: Breakout. To learn more about what's coming, Shacknews recently took a trip to Respawn in Southern California to learn more.

One of Apex Legends' biggest changes will come in the form of new Legend Upgrades. The Breakout season will debut a new in-game progression system that's going to apply across every character. The idea is that players will advance through EVO Shield tiers and unlock new ability upgrades. Players can select between two different upgrades and pick the best one for their specific play style and also which one fits best for their particular squad.

This should help players work towards Apex Legends' totally revamped ranking system, which Respawn is further refining following Season 19. This new system will reward users for number of kills, match placement, and for finishing ahead of higher-ranked squads. Respawn wants to see how this all works, so the team is going to reset all players to 1 RP and throw Provisional matches out the window. Matchmaking will be based on a user's RP total with players able to jump into Ranked matches at Level 20. Respawn hopes that Ranked Splits will make competition even more intense.

Respawn is anticipating an influx of new players with Breakout and those players will be welcomed with free-to-play characters. A new Legend will go free-to-play for the remainder of the season roughly every two weeks, but if players complete a series of challenges with that Legend, they'll unlock them permanently. Expect to see Fuse, Seer, Rampart, Mad Maggie, Loba, and Valkryie hit this playable Legend list over the course of Breakout.

Lastly, Apex Legends will usher in the beginning of this year-long celebration with the 5th Anniversary Collection Event. It begins with the introduction of Straight Shot, a new limited-time mode that starts ten squads at ten different predetermined points. Guns will be fully loaded, the map will be smaller, and the ring will close in faster, making this one of the game's fastest-paced modes to date. Players can even re-queue without going back to the lobby.

Respawn has plenty more in mind for Apex Legends throughout 2024. Come back to Shacknews tomorrow, as we speak with members of the development team about what's to come in Breakout, the Apex Legends story so far, and a flashback to those tense few days prior to the game's original reveal. We'll be watching for more big Apex Legends announcements, so keep it on Shacknews for the latest updates.

Ozzie Mejia

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?