Apex Legends Season 23: From the Rift is almost upon us, bringing a host of surprises, from a Titanfall grenade launcher to a comprehensive rework of one of the game's original Legends, Lifeline. Respawn Entertainment has recently reiterated its dedication to making Apex Legends the best it can be, and 2024 has already seen significant changes, such as the introduction of enemy health bars and a stronger focus on combating cheaters. In anticipation of Season 23's major updates, GameSpot spoke with Respawn to delve into the minds of the development team and uncover more about Lifeline's ability overhaul, the new Rift Relics (including the aforementioned grenade launcher), and the studio's vision for Apex Legends' future.
There have been numerous recent changes to Apex Legends, including how Respawn promotes upcoming seasons. Season 23: From the Rift is the first time a season title has featured multiple words. If you had to summarize Season 23 in a single word, what would it be? 'One word? Oh, man, I was just gonna say 'Support,' but that's not snappy,' said design director Evan Nikolich. After some playful deliberation, the dev team suggested 'Revival,' 'Riftception,' and 'Riftruption' as potential one-word season titles.
Season 23 introduces many thrilling game-changers. Are there any specific additions the team is eager to see how players respond to, or are you just excited for players to experience all these new features? 'Definitely excited about it,' said Legend designer Devan McGuire. 'There's some anxiety among the team about how powerful the reset potential is with all the class perks, like being able to revive with health regeneration that gets you back to full health quickly with support characters, and the ability to use small meds or double as a class feature. If you run a support on your team, you're getting back into the fight real quick.'
Season 23 introduces over 25 Rift Relics—new items that seem to have slipped into the game through mysterious rift tears appearing in the world. Is the EPG-1 grenade launcher the only weapon among the Rift Relics, or are there more? 'There are quite a few more weapons in the list,' revealed lead legend designer Mike Button. 'I'm not going to reveal specifically what those weapons are, but as we alluded to in the pre-season preview panel, I think people are going to be pleasantly surprised. There are going to be some Rift Relics that are familiar.'
How does adding over 25 new items—including weapons—affect your ability to balance a game that already has over 25 characters with unique abilities requiring constant balance adjustments? 'It's pretty disruptive, but by design,' Button explained. 'In limited-time events, we feel like we have more room to play with power and disruption levels, to maybe an extreme in some cases, because these Rift Relics will be there one minute and gone the next. Our playground is really outside of ranked. You won't see Rift Relics appear in ranked. That'll remain a pure and balanced experience.'
Speaking of boosts, what else can you tell us about Boost Kits, the new items that can be equipped in a player's Survival Item inventory slot to grant special abilities? 'I could share one more Boost Kit with you,' Button offered. 'We have a Boost Kit called Void Reflex, and the way that will work is as long as that's equipped in your survival slot, if you would otherwise take critical damage or go down, you're going to instead phase out, exactly like Wraith's tactical ability. You'll get a second with one HP to reset. It's not as long as Wraith's tactical—that's part of the balancing element here. If everybody's rocking Void Reflex, we don't want people phasing out for 30 seconds all across the board in combat. But enough time that you can dodge into cover, maybe hop into Lifeline's reworked ultimate ability, heal up quick, and get back into the fight. So that's been one that's really been a game-changer in the playtest where we've had it live. And that's one we're especially excited about as well, in addition to all the rest.'
Season 23 marks the second time a Legend has been 'reborn' with a new appearance and a new ability set. Last time it was Revenant, whose rebirth had a whole storyline behind it. Are we going to see some lore explaining how Lifeline ended up with a metal arm, a new hair color, and a totally different skill set? 'Yeah, you will get the details on the lore behind Lifeline's rework,' confirmed principal writer Kevin Lee. 'It's a bit of a lighter touch than the Revenant rework this time around, just because we wanted to be a bit more agile and on our feet with her rework and not totally overhaul the Lifeline that we know and love. But I will say, after the past years of story and stuff like that, Lifeline played a key role. But lore-wise, I feel like she was sort of being pulled along to all the major story events. She wasn't really pushing them, she was just reacting to a lot of information and kind of just there.'
On the topic of Lifeline's agency, she can be seen showing off one of her new abilities in the Season 23 trailer. She's holding onto DOC and gliding through the air. What was the thought process behind 'Lifeline should fly?' 'You've probably seen her doing it already quite a bit in previous trailers and stuff. She always has DOC there as her support, to get her out of danger in a lot of those situations,' Funnell said. 'So that was a big inspiration for it. I mean, the gameplay side of it was we were kind of looking for ways to give her more weight, more ways to keep up with her teammates. Because her being that combat medic, she wants to be in the fight, she wants to be with her teammates all the time, she wants to be supporting them and reviving them. That can be difficult when you have people like Revenant or different movement characters that are launching themselves away from you and running away. So that was the inspiration.'
You guys clearly had a great time putting this season together, but there were surely some bumps along the way. What was the biggest challenge Respawn faced when designing Season 23, and how did you navigate it? 'The event stuff and Rift Relics—just the amount of stuff—was a massive challenge for the team, and really everybody rallied,' Button said. 'You know, I think there was a time where we were like, 'Oh man, I don't know if we can come up with something for every week [of the season].' Some of these things that we're going to see go live [this season] are things we might have leaned into individually as a whole limited-time event being built around. Even in the last year, you could have seen the EPG as like, 'That's the event.' In Rift Relics, there are groups of these things and a ton of them.'
What was the team's main goal when it came to implementing all these huge meta changes? 'I would say the disruption, just breaking up the play patterns of players and shifting in surprising delight,' Nikolich answered. 'The biggest thing is breaking expectations. So, you know, taking a Legend that has not really changed—other than moving some numbers—since 2019 is one [goal]. I think also seeing a lot of changes in the weapons meta—and we've got a lot more coming with that and with a lot more frequency. So we're really committed to really hitting not just every season, but every split with something that's meaningfully different for players.'
What aspect of Season 23 are you the most proud of? 'I, from a Legend standpoint, am super proud of Lifeline's glide [ability],' McGuire said. 'I think that's just been a universally beloved addition that fits with things that we've seen Lifeline do in the trailers up to this point, and something that I know I, personally—and a lot of the team—have always wanted to get into the game. That has been a really great landmark to finally achieve. I think finding an ultimate ability that fit Lifeline, it seems kind of obvious now where it landed that it's, 'Hey, we're going to harken back to the old rez shield and fast heals and put that into an ultimate form.' But the journey that we took to get there was wrought with a lot of panic and confusion and chaos and strife along the way, and some highs and lows that we suffered to get there, and pulled it off at the end. So I think that—through all the prototypes that went through to get to where it is now—is a big achievement, even though it seems like an obvious sell at this point. It was a large effort.'
EA recently confirmed that there are no plans for an Apex Legends 2, but we've also heard in the past that EA wants Apex Legends to have a 10- to 15-year lifespan. What are your hopes for the future of the game? 'We want to grow the game with the player base, with the community,' Nikolich said. 'We're not trying to build something in secret and launch it all at once. Over time, some things are going to hit, some things are going to miss. But our goal is to keep curating and tending to this garden and growing it and changing things and reacting to the players. The big thing is there are players that were what, nine years old when Apex came out? And now they're 14 and they're stepping into their first competitive shooter. Why should they choose Apex? So our focus is to get more nimble. We react more. We've always listened to the community, but really get into our community and meet their expectations. You know, the players expect their games to be constantly updated and living, and we have to hit that. So that's our commitment going forward. And yeah, there's going to be a lot more change. What the game looks like today in November 2024 is not what it will look like in November 2025.'
Apex Legends is available to play for free on console and PC. Season 23: From the Rift begins November 5 at 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET.
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