Many of you might be wondering why Respawn did what they did in terms of game mode changes for Apex Legends Season 16 Revelry. In this article, we’ll go through the interviews Respawn devs conducted when asked about all the changes.
Let’s start with the decision to sunset Arenas.
Removal of Arenas
Respawn Entertainment made the painful decision to sunset Arenas. Their decision was based on the fact that the mode itself wasn’t hitting their goal of being a good place to practice the core combat of Apex Legends. Additionally, the devs noted that players going into Arenas felt like they couldn’t afford to make mistakes and that every defeat cost them dearly in some way.
According to Design Director, Even Nikolich, “BR is the high stakes competitive space and Arenas overlaps a little too much with that space. We want to bring in something that allows players a little more relaxed play. And that’s why we’re introducing the new season LTM – mixtape.”
Introducing Team Deathmatch Mode
Team Death Match is a 6 vs 6 kill-based fast respawn mode. Players won’t be downed after losing all their health. Instead, they’ll immediately respawn a few seconds, ready to fight again.
Get 30 kills to win a round. The team who wins 2 rounds out of 3 will be declared the winner.
There will be a loadout selection process at the start of the game. Much in the same way as Control, and you’ll be able to swap out Legends and load-outs whenever possible.
It is also worth noting that random airdrops will arrive on the map on occasion. They will most likely contain heirloom weapons and Level 4 armor.
At the launch of Revelry, you’ll be able to play on the following maps:
- Party Crasher
- Habitat
- Skulltown
Team Death Match will remain in its Limited Time Mode for 3 weeks at which point, the Mixtape mode will go online.
Why bring Team Deathmatch into Apex Legends Season 16 Revelry?
“Arenas was supposed to be our smaller slice of BR mode,” said Marty Wong, Game Mode Designer. “What ended up happening was it becoming a sweater mode – kind of high stakes. A lot of players would go into it feeling like they couldn’t make mistakes, or couldn’t really experiment. They always had to play really hard.”
“We hope that TDM comes in and provides a place where players to die fast and feel comfortable making mistakes. Hoping that it gives Apex a lot more accessible for newer players so they can bring their friends in so they can experiment, and hopefully be able to bring those skills back to ranked games.”
Mixtape Game Modes
Mixtape was another feature the Apex Legends developers have seen the community ask for a while now. It’s going to be a permanent rotating LTM queue.
On its launch, it’s going to include the following game modes:
- Control
- Gun Run LTM
- Team Deathmatch
It’s going to rotate between all the modes, the same way maps do. Every 15 minutes, it’s going to shuffle between them. And as a permanent mode, it’s going to be available every season, all the time.
“We want people to be able to take a break and always have access to these lower-stake modes. And hopefully, be able to bounce back in between them. And play whatever they like.”
When asked if the Apex Legends team has any plans on introducing new modes to Mixtape, the answer is yes. They will be introducing new modes as seasons go on. They also said that they don’t have any hard rules about what goes into Mixtape at the moment. But if there’s an LTM that people really enjoy that comes along, it will be put up for consideration.
There’s potential for new modes to come in as well as old modes that the team wants to bring back. It’s mostly conversation around does it make sense for Mixtape.
All New Welcome Challenges
“We’ve seen that our training and firing range get players really familiar with the core movement and shooting mechanics”, said Aaron Rutledge. “but we’ve added a new set of ten challenges that’ll help new players start to learn the advanced mechanics that we’ve seen come to develop in Apex, like shield swapping, breaking down doors, etc.“
These challenges aren’t just for new players. Every player, new and old, will have access to them. And once they complete all ten, you will earn an Apex 101 BADGE for their collection.
What does Respawn have in store for new players coming in Apex Legends Season 16 Revelry?
“We’ve added something new this season that I’m pretty excited about. For people who are just starting to try Apex for the first time, they will now have access to Orientation matches.”
This is a set of matches that’ll happen before they get match-made into full-on 20-team battles. They’ll match up new players with a server mostly full of bots. And this will take the pressure off, making sure they are not third partied two seconds after dropping. (At least they hope so.)
The whole experience allows them to get their bearings a little bit before they move into full rounds of Battle Royale. They can get used to things like drop ships, the ring, rotating towards the center as the game proceeds, etc.
Overall, it’s to reduce that early-game pressure.
A lot of players are joining Apex because their friends play. With that in mind, the new mode allows you and your friends to tag along and help you complete your orientation matches.
Along with the Welcome challenges, these new Orientation matches should help new players prepare more before they head on into the full Apex games.
What these Orientation Matches are going to look like in Apex Legends Season 16 Revelry?
As it stands now, an Orientation match will pit 16 teams of bots against up to four squads of new players and whatever friends decide to tag along. They’ll be sent to King’s Canyon. And once that player either wins first place in a match, comes into the top 5 a few times, or just puts enough reps in Orientation matches, they’ll be graduated out and then will be able to select the normal Duos, Trios, etc. with full human servers.
It is also worth noting that the bots will become progressively more advanced, the more the circle closes. They won’t be on the level of Platinum players though but they will prove to be a challenge for newer players, nonetheless.
Firing Range Changes
“To stick with our theme of being more accessible and evolving the game to be more inviting,” said Evan Nikolich. “we’ve added multiple options to improve the experience and practice your skills in the firing range.”
For what it is right now, the firing range is a great place to get used to every single weapon in Apex, get some reps in, get warmed up, or even just learn weapons most players don’t bother picking up in a match.
To expand on its capabilities, the dev team has added the following list of options:
- Dummies can be set to strafe either left or right, so you can practice tracking targets.
- Control how fast dummies move, whether they crouch or not, and what their shield level is.
- We’ll also have dynamic stats that appear any time you deal damage, letting you track your performance with hard numbers you can understand.
- Hit indicators so you can learn spray patterns a little easier.
- Unlimited ammo so that means no more trips back to the gun racks to pick up more ammo.
This is actually the first of several iterations to the firing range the team is actually planning for the firing range. So they’re looking forward to people getting in there and keeping an eye on what the players do and getting their feedback on what changes they want to see next.
Season 16 Anniversary Plans
Last but not the least, we have Jeff Shaw, Lead Map Designer, telling us about what to expect with Apex Legends and its 4th-year Anniversary.
“For us this season, it’s all about Celebration. It’s Apex’s fourth Anniversary and we wanted to share this milestone with our community. So this time around, we wanted it to feel like a really big event across the game. And the maps team had a blast decorating all the environments this season.”
“As you may have seen already, we have some Chibi parade balloons of our Legends, in the sky as well as a bunch of other Apex Anniversary decorations across all of the maps. And we even went the extra mile and added an air show to celebrate this season at the start of each match. Jets will fly overhead, leaving colorful smoke trails in the sky. So that’s big. And on top of that, everyone’s favorite party boat is making a return.”
The elegantly dubbed the “Mirage-a-Trois”, this POI provides a loot party like no other. The boat has been upgraded, it features new elements, including a dance floor and a golden Mer-Mirage masthead.
After crashing the original Mirage Voyage on Solace, the devs had to themselves, “Why does Mirage even be allowed to have another boat?” And “Why does the Mirage a Trois appear to be his third boat?”
They don’t exactly know either But regardless, it’s a limited-time POI and it’ll be available for the duration of the season.
On a final note, The Mirage a Trois will be featured on Broken Moon, Storm Point, and World’s Edge.
What is the current Apex Legends Season 16 Map Rotation?
This season the map rotation we’re going to have the following maps:
- Broken Moon
- Storm Point
- World’s End
But new for this season we’re going to be moving Ranked to the map rotation as well.
The rest of the Ranked season will be familiar with Splits and Resets. But the maps will rotate every 24 hours for the duration of the whole season.
Apex Legends Season 16: Revelry is coming to PC (via Steam) and all mainline consoles starting on February 14, 2023. Check out the launch trailer here.
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