Apex Legends: From The Rift reworks Lifeline

The fifth anniversary of Apex Legends isn't just about moving forward with new and exciting content. That's certainly a big part of it, but there's more to it than that. It's also about celebrating what helped make the game a phenomenon in the first place. Part of that involves celebrating some of the game's original characters. One of them will be receiving a major rework as part of Season 23, titled From The Rift, and it's the combat medic, Lifeline.

Apex Legends: From The Rift offers an exciting new rework for Lifeline. She's the second member of the game's original roster to get revamped following Revenant all the way back in Season 18. As part of Lifeline's rework, she'll receive updated skills to make her a more effective teammate. Part of that means making D.O.C., her healing drone, a more helpful tool.

Lifeline can now use D.O.C. as a passive skill, allowing her to pick it up and use it as a glider. Legend Designer Evan Funnell noted that Lifeline has used D.O.C. in this way in animated shorts and trailers, so the team worked to make this possible in-game as well. Gliding with D.O.C. will make it easier for players to maintain close proximity with their more mobile teammates and keep them healed up.

D.O.C.'s individual actions have also been given an upgrade. Lifeline's Tactical move can now assign her drone to follow a specific teammate, ensuring they stay healed. It's possible to reassign D.O.C. to a different ally at any time, which can prove helpful whenever an ally it's tied to meets an early demise.

Similarly, D.O.C. has been spruced up to be part of Lifeline's Ultimate. Respawn has scrapped Lifeline's previous Care Package and replaced it with a D.O.C.-produced halo. The halo is capable of neutralizing all outside fire, protecting anybody inside. Anybody inside the D.O.C. halo will be healed rapidly. That's anybody, so even if opposing players somehow break into the the halo, they'll also be healed quickly. With all of that said, this is a halo, not a dome. That means foes can still attack from above by either positioning themselves above the halo for a midair strike or tossing a grenade inside.

All Apex Legends characters stand to benefit from Lifeline's upgrades. A new Heal Expert Perk will be made available for Support Legends, which will increase a character's speed if they're actively healing teammates. Meanwhile, a Revive Speed Perk will prove helpful for anybody looking to resurrect teammates, bringing them back into the fight 25 percent faster and with a health regen boost.

There's more for Apex Legends players to be excited about with Season 23. A balance patch will tweak several characters, Rift Relics will pop up during sessions with special weapons and Boost Kits, a new Battle Pass will launch, and Respawn will continue working to implement additional anti-cheat measures. Plus, look for Trios Revival and Straight Shot Revival modes to return at some point during this next season for a limited time. The latest additions can all be found on the Apex Legends website. Look for Apex Legends: From The Rift to kick off later today.

This preview is based on a developer briefing held via Discord.

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?