Apex Legends is rolling out its Season 27 update next Tuesday, November 4th, and RPS has been furnished with an overview of its meatiest rejigging work. I haven’t playtested this megapatch so unlike with Season 25, I can’t say from experience how any of these changes will get you killed. Still, since it tweaks my favourite map, my favourite playable Legend, and my favourite hovercar, I feel uniquely qualified to declare without evidence whether they’re good or not.
No new characters or guns in this one, though it arguably plays to Apex Legends’ strengths by making two of its most mobile Legends more mobile – and egging on one of its more sedentary defenders to muck in. Whether or not this is to see off the challenge posed by the boots-on-the-ground Battlefield REDSEC (perhaps notably, an EA stablemate), past seasonal updates based around movement and aggression have typically been some of ApeLegs’ better ones. Could Season 27 do the trick again? Let’s consider, line by line.
Attribution
Olympus map updates
Somers University – Built by Horizon to explore the mysteries of the universe and honor her son Newton, Somers University replaces Orbital Cannon and brings bold architecture and high-flying lifts to Olympus. Relics from the crash site giving insight on the mysteries of this Olympus can be seen here.
Soul-blackening implications of designing a university around gunfights aside, I can dig this. Orbital Cannon’s flatness makes it a dull battleground, and I like the trio of sloped buildings forming a pointy fortress in the new layout’s centre.
Gravity Engine – The new beating heart of Olympus, Gravity Engine replaces Energy Depot and harnesses the power of Branthium to keep the city afloat. Lifts, zip rails and verticality collide making this POI the next hot spot on Olympus.
Ah, nevermind, they blew up one of Olympus’ best bits. Energy Depot wasn’t flashy but it easily delivered a fun mix of point-blank chaos and sniper-friendly sightlines, with a hidden catwalk section that regularly played host to tense cat-and-mouse chases as weakened survivors escaped from the bloodshed above. Gravity Engine looks like it still serves as a risky nexus for travelling teams to cross paths, though that’s an awful lot of environmental mobility gimmicks to squeeze into what already sounds like another meatgrinding spot.
Stabilizer – This platform in the sky replaces Docks and is responsible for keeping Olympus properly aligned. Floating rocks from the planet below provide a path to its outer ballast structure.
A big ring replaces a different big ring. Docks always gave and took, being loot-rich but also a bit too heavy on enclosed buildings to encourage more dynamic late-game fights. Stabilizer looks both more open and easier to traverse, so hopefully should coax defenders out of their shells.
Dockyard – This camp near Hydroponics gets a massive upgrade, combining nostalgic elements from the original Olympus with a new emphasis on vertical gameplay.
I, uh, don’t have pictures of this one. I was also ready to dismiss its nostalgia credentials on the grounds that it effectively replaces Elysium, the dinky floating mini-Olympus that previously served as one of the map’s defining idiosyncrasies. Happily, Season 27 doesn’t lop Elysium off the main sprawl like a frozen verruca – it’s just drifted over to where Somers University (née Orbital Cannon) now sits.
Legend updates
Valkyrie is ready to dominate aerial combat: her VTOL Jets get a speed boost and recharge three times faster, plus a shorter takeoff time for her Skyward Dive Ultimate. Her Missile Swarm Tactical gains utility: zero self-damage, no height restrictions, and it now scans enemies on hit and puts movement Passives on cooldown.Her upgrades can expand missile patterns, reduce fuel consumption while improving horizontal speed, and significantly boost her Ultimate takeoff time.
Like Siegfried in Der Ring des Nibelungen, I’ve never been scared of Valkyries. As such I’ve little issue with her jetpack becoming more impressively jetpack-ish, and zipping right up to an enemy to safely dump an entire Missile Swarm payload down their gullet sounds like a delightful all-or-nothing gambit. That said: Respawn, I am once again begging you to stop adding scans to everything. I’d have thought that investing in anti-cheat tech and excluding Steam Deck players would be in the name of removing wallhacks, not giving yourselves the monopoly on them.
Rampart locks down the map with an improved Amped Cover Tactical that evolves with gameplay. Her walls gain health as Evo level increases, grant speed boosts, and include a roof! Improved upgrades take it further—adding fast reloads and infinite ammo when shooting from behind Amped Cover, and regenerating wall health out of combat.
Nice try, but I’m still not playing Rampart.
Fly higher with Horizon buffs: her Gravity Lift Tactical now has a shorter cooldown and lift speed improvements, plus more health for Black Hole Ultimate. And her improved upgrades create more opportunities for aerial movement: fast-fall by crouching mid-air or glide out of gravity lifts for extended aerial control, and gain bonus Gravity Lift charges on knockdowns.
Yesss, once more shall Science Mum reign supreme. I’ve always loved the versatility of Gravity Lift, which at first appears to be just a big upwards jumping aid, and yet even under its heaviest nerfs could do anything from doorway area denial to air-ambulancing downed teammates out of trouble. And more Black Hole Generator health could mean that after hundreds of hours, I might finally get to deploy one for its full duration. A lass can dream.
Weapon and movement changes
The “Double Tap” Hop Up arrives with new and more devastating close-range firepower to the Alternator! Fire both barrels at once and watch enemies drop before they know what hit them. The perfect weapon for quick and deadly fights—so close the gap and double tap.
Assuming this genuinely grants the Alternator double damage per shot, this could be another Season 2 Disruptor Rounds: not so much a lucky find as a must-have powerup that elevates the Alternator from dogshit machine pistol to godkilling force of primordial terror. There’s an awful lot of “close range” chat in this description, mind, so maybe (hopefully) it knackers the accuracy in exchange?
The new Mantle Boost gives players a forward movement boost when climbing up from ledges or walls, helping Legends dive into the next fight. The Trident gets improved collision and dedicated vehicle health (including visual effects), making them more fun to drive and more satisfying to fight.
Mantle boosting (or mantle jumping), if you’re unaware – and I’ll freely admit I was – is one of those excessively complicated movement tricks whereby mashing a very specific combination of keys with very specific timing in very specific conditions lets you get sick air when bouncing off a ledge. I don’t believe I’ve ever died to an opponent mantle jumping over my bewildered head, Free Willy-style, but Respawn evidently think it’s a cool enough move to simplify and democratise the process. The update even adds a “Mantle Boost indicator” that will tell you when you’re in a prime boinging position. I mean, sure? I’ll give it a go, at least.
But those Trident changes, no, nuh-uh. Apex’s sole vehicle is fun because it’s barely driveable: it’s a roided-up American cow of a car, constantly bumping into things and possessing a turning circle only slighter tighter in diameter than Olympus itself. And that’s exactly why I love it. If I wanted precision, I’d use my feet.
Making the car itself destructible, as opposed to just feeding damage into its occupants, also spoils how I most enjoy deploying the Trident. Specifically, in solo mode, conspicuously blasting past full three-man teams to goad them into giving their positions away – and, if I make the top two, honking the horn as a gesture of peace, conceding the match to the squad that played it properly in the hope that we can part as friends. Healing off any personal damage in the meantime is easy enough, but if non-friends can just blow up my ride directly, I won’t even have a horn to honk.
I’m still encouraged by the Horizon buffs and general emphasis on zipping around, while the changes to Olympus – which for my money has always been the most structurally interesting, enjoyably traversable, and visually pretty map of Apex’s bunch – seem, at the very least, unlikely to spoil it. That’s tinged with the soreness of my beloved Trident becoming temporarily unscrapped scrap metal, but then hey, I didn’t even know what mantle jumping was until a couple of days ago. Some Apex Legend, huh.
