Apex Legends Season 14 features a major Kings Canyon update
Respawn has detailed a significant number of changes coming to Apex Legends’ Kings Canyon map later this month.
A major update to the game’s original map forms a key part of Apex Legends Season 14, Hunted, which is set to launch on August 9 and also adds new hero Vantage.
It will include a new point of interest (POI) called Relic, which introduces a large landmass in the area formerly known as Skull Town prior to its destruction in Season 5, plus a visual upgrade for the map.
During a recent Apex Legends developer panel attended by VGC, lead level designer Jeff Shaw said Respawn was taking a new holistic approach to map updates.
“We’re looking at all the facets of the map and focusing on the health of the map, really identifying problems in the map, and coming up with good solutions to them,” he said.
“We’re trying to touch more areas of the map than just a single corner or something like that. So, it’s something we’re really excited about and it’s definitely a new philosophy that we’re going to be leaning into for future map updates.”
Shaw said key elements of map health Respawn has looked to improve include pacing, “which is like the heartbeat of the match”, so squads clash in a timely manner, and loot dispersion, “to ensure that players get this steady power curve over the course of a match”
Season 14’s map update has also been designed to encourage “balanced landing” at the outset of matches so that the action is spread out across different POIs.
The headline addition is Relic, a mid-sized POI which encourages close quarters town-based combat under a giant skull.
“One of the biggest changes we’ve made is we really increased the landmass to improve the map’s flow and pacing, so that’s where Relic comes into play,” said Shaw,
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