Apex Legends Season 20 Brings Game-Changing Updates And Next-Gen Performance Mode

Apex Legends is celebrating its 5th anniversary alongside the start of Season 20 this week. Dubbed Breakout, the free-to-play battle royale’s latest season will be breaking out new mechanics, a new map, a revamped ranked mode, and a performance mode for next-gen consoles.

First up are the new gameplay mechanics which will include the ability to upgrade your chosen Legend during a match as you earn EVO, including those obtained from Season 20’s new EVO Caches and Harvesters. Body shields will also be removed from the game and will be replaced by Legend Armor which everyone will have and will be fueled by replaceable Shield Cores.

Season 20 will also open up Mixtape Mode’s new Thunderdome map and will introduce a revamped Ranked experience called Ranked Reloaded, which will focus more on how many enemies you’ve killed instead of your overall performance during the match. Sounds counterintuitive, but I love a good shoot fest as much as the next player.

The elimination cap will be removed from the points system and you’ll continually be able to earn ranked points for every elimination but will only be awarded half points after your sixth kill. Don’t worry, match placement will also count for something as you’ll earn bonus rank points for getting fifth place or better several times in a row. Matchmaking will also be tweaked to rely more on ranked points.

Finally, Season 20 will also introduce a Performance Mode for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S which will allow next-gen console users to play the game at 120hz on supported displays. To remove any undue advantage, the developers will also be adjusting decreasing the aim assist strength to account for the higher refresh rate.

Season 20 officially begins on February 13 at 10 a.m. PST. In the meantime, you can dive into the gritty details on the Apex Legends official site.