Apex Legends update: what’s new in Season 14
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The Apex Legends update for Season 14 is here, and the changes bring another facelift to the highly frenetic battle royale.
Every drop in Apex Legends is a new experience: hunting every last chest for the best loot, scrambling to beat the other squads to your favorite spots, and trying to keep cool under fire. But unlike other big battle royale hits like Fortnite or Warzone, Apex Legends has prioritized its own style of high-speed movement and character abilities. So, while you do spend time messing with gun attachments, you won’t have anyone turn into a house when you shoot them or have to brawl it out in the gulag to get back into the fight.
With Apex Legends season 13, we saw some ranked changes (that felt awful for lower ranks initially), changes to Stormpoint, and the new legend Newcastle – and Apex Legends season 14 isn’t being stingy with its Hunted update. Whether you’re coming back to Apex Legends, never left, or just decided to pick up one of the best free games recently: there’s a lot to take in, so let’s get to it.
Apex Legends update: cut to the chase
- What is it? Season 14 of Respawn’s high-speed battle royale
- When can I play it? August 9
- What can I play it on? PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC
Apex Legends season 14: release date and platforms
Apex Legends Season 14 Hunted went live on August 9 at 1PM (EST)/10AM PST/6PM BST, 03:00AM ACT (on August 10).
You’ll be able to drop into Kings Canyon on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC with full crossplay, as before.
If you’ve been holding off and playing on PS5 or Xbox Series X, there is now an Apex Legends next-gen update live as well!
Apex Legends season 14: trailers
There are a pair of trailers to catch up on with the Apex Legends update, and they give a glimpse into the story beats for Hunted. Below, you’ll find both the gameplay and launch trailer.
Apex Legends season 14 gameplay trailer
Some big Kings Canyon changes get shown off and you’ll also get to see the new legend Vantage in action, who is a long-range terror. Check it out below:
Apex Legends season 14 launch trailer
With the launch trailer we get a bit more backstory for Vantage, seeing her first moments as a rookie in the Apex Games, and more about her imprisoned mother Xenia. Take a look, below:
Apex Legends season 14: map updates
The venerable Kings Canyon has been overhauled and is now being called Reforged Kings Canyon. Respawn hasn’t been conservative with changes either, and from our time with it, it brings more openess alongside a splash of more color. Hunted is a big improvement, so here’s what’s been changed:
Major Changes
- Relic (New POI): Replacing the giant hole left in season 5 by Skull Town and Thunderdome, Relic is a sprawling collection of buildings under and around the original iconic skull.
- Cage (Modified POI): The giant tower is now far less of a cage like its name suggests, and the entire top is now open and easy to get access to.
- Hillside (Modified POI): The hillside bunker near Containment has gotten a facelift, with the building being removed to get rid of the interior spaces.
- Basin (Modified POI): Formerly Broken Relay, Basin has had the removed buildings and ziplines restored, and its name updated to reflect.
- Map Center (Rotations changed): The path through the mountains once connected Destroyed Bridges, River Center, and Hillside, but the path to Destroyed Bridges is now gone.
- Caves (Rotations changed): The cave that connected Marketplace and River Center is now gone.
- Caves (General change): The cave entrance at Marketplace has been widened and made more obvious.
- Chokepoint near Cage (General change): The path through the mountains has been opened up, giving much better visibility for players.
Loot around Reforged Kings Canyon has also been shaken up. Distribution between different POI has been rebalanced, with Crash Site and Spotted Lakes getting weaker loot and Runoff, Hydro Dam, Swamps, and Octane’s Gauntlet getting stronger loot.
Overall, the amount of loot present has gone up – especially in buildings – and the quality of loot should more intuitively match how prominent the POI is.
Other Changes
There have also been various smaller changes to Reforged Kings Canyon, which you can check out below:
- Added a new raised walkway to help players rotate between Destroyed Bridges and River Center.
- Added two sets of stairs and two ziplines to help non-movement Legends access the walls at Repulsor.
- Added one vertical zipline to help non-movement Legends access the wall at Artillery.
- Added two vertical zip lines to help players access the walkways at Swamps.
- Added a new explosive hold at Swamps.
- Removed a number of trees at Forest to improve visibility.
- Removed two of the three Charge Towers at Capacitor.
- Removed five Jump Towers in areas that would benefit from slower rotations.
- Fixed many bugs and bad end circles.
Apex Legends season 14: new legend
A new season brings many changes, and in this case another new legend. Vantage is a teenager and a rookie to the Apex Games, but a deadly sniper with a rocket pack and an adorable bat friend to help her out. She was born on a deadly ice planet, and at 18 found out her mother was not a native, but a prisoner who had crash-landed.
Unfortunately for them both, Vantage was injured, and her mother saved her by calling in the same people who had imprisoned her – saving Vantage, but putting her mom right back into space jail. So now Vantage is taking the fight to the Apex Games to try to bring attention to her wrongfully convicted mother, and the best way to do that is to win them, of course.
So let’s take a look at what Vantage can do:
- Passive Ability (Spotter’s Lens): Whenever you aim down sights while unarmed or equipped with a mid to long range scope, you get a bullet drop indicator to help you with figure out where your shots will land.
- Tactical Ability (Echo Relocation): Lets you aim your bat pal Echo before launching towards the spot you send him to with your rocket pack.
- Ultimate Ability (Sniper’s Mark): Marks enemy targets and applies a damage bonus for you and your team.
With the ability to nail long-distance shots with ease, help your squad confirm kills with a damage buff, and relocate quickly, Vantage is set to be an excellent pick for the sniper in all of us.
Apex Legends season 14: battle pass
A new season means a new battle pass, and Hunted is bringing one for Apex Legends season 14. Access to the premium version of the pass will run you 950 Apex coins ($10/£8/$AU11.95).
Cosmetics-wise, you can see a few of them shown off in the trailer above, including new skins for Caustic, Wraith, and Horizon.
Apex Legends season 14: game changes
There’s also a suite of other changes in Apex Legends season 14, including a level cap increase which a lot of the more devoted players have been asking for. Here are the game changes you need to know about:
- Level Cap Increase: The level cap has been raised from 500 to 2000, so now when you level up at 500 you’ll be restarted at 1 with a new gilded border, up to two times.
- Skullpiercer: The rifling hop-up attachment is back, giving you a headshot damage bonus. It’s also now compatible with the 30-30 Repeater.
- Laser Sight: A new barrel attachment is here specifically for pistols and SMGs, improving their hip-fire accuracy.
- Guardian Angel: The gold backpack perk is moving over to gold knockdown shields, and backpacks now have a new perk called Deep Pockets, which lets them stack one extra shield battery, medkit, and phoenix kit per slot.
- Resurrection: The old knockdown shield perk has been removed entirely.
- Rampage LMG and Bocek Bow: Both weapons are now Supply Drop weapons.
- Volt SMG and G7 Scout: Both weapons are now ground loot.
- EVA-8: Has an increased fire rate, boosted even further with upgraded bolt attachments.
- Wingman: Now takes sniper ammo and magazine attachments.
- Spitfire: Now takes light ammo and magazine attachments.