Apex Legends Season 14 breathes new life into Kings Canyon
Skull Town has risen from the dead, plus lots of important weapon updates
Apex Legends: Hunted is shaping up to be one of the most substantial updates to Respawn's beloved battle royale in recent times. The Season 14 update will drop in just over a week's time, and as well as the customary new Legend - youthful sharpshooter Vantage - we'll also be seeing lots of weapon updates, and some important changes to Apex's oldest map, Kings Canyon. Remember Skull Town? Well, it's back. Sort of.
The Syndicate has finally rebuilt Skull Town after its destruction way back in Season 5, but now it is known as Relic. The large new point of interest is nestled between Caustic Treatment, Market, and Octane's Gauntlet on the south side of Kings Canyon, and looks very much like a spiritual successor to the beloved Skull Town from the early days of Apex. A packed town area beneath a giant red beast skull, it looks to provide exactly the same kind of chaotic early-game fighting, both on street level and across rooftops, which made Skull Town so popular.
That's not the only change we're seeing to Kings Canyon, either. The Cage POI is being opened up so that it's less of a nightmare to push enemies that have hunkered down inside the tower. We'll also see a handful of new buildings added to Relay (which will be renamed to Basin), to encourage more player interest there. And the complex at the bottom of Hillside has been altered quite a bit as well, the closed off interiors removed to try and allow fights there to end more quickly instead of becoming drawn-out fireworks displays that attract every other team on the map in the mid-game.
The season changes aren't purely geographical, either. The weapon meta is seeing a few rather drastic changes with Apex Legends: Hunted, starting with a brand new attachment - Laser Sights - which can be affixed to various SMGs and Pistols in place of a Barrel Stabilizer to drastically lower the hipfire spread of those weapons. You can customise the colour of your guns' laser sights, too, which is pretty sweet.
The Wingman is changing from Heavy to Sniper ammo, and it's getting the Skullpiercer Hop-Up back. Meanwhile, the ever-deadly Spitfire is switching from Heavy to Light Ammo. It's a good decision - the late-game weapons have been dominated by Heavy Ammo weapons for ages now. Another thing that will help inject some variety back into the late-game meta is that the Volt and G7 Scout are coming back out of the Supply Crate, and taking their place are the Rampage LMG and the Bocek Bow. I shudder to think how powerful the Bocek is going to be this season...
Goodness, there's even more. The EVA-8 is getting some much-needed love with a fire rate buff and the addition of Stock attachments; and amazingly, self-revives are gone from the Gold Knockdown Shield. Instead, the Knockdown Shield will have the effect of the Gold Backpack (revived allies get extra Shield and HP), and the Gold Backpack is getting the all-new Deep Pockets perk, which allows Batteries and Medkits to stack up to 3, and Phoenix Kits to stack up to 2.
All this sounds very interesting to me, and it makes me think Season 14 is going to be a real game-changer for Apex Legends. Particularly when you factor in that we're also getting the new Legend to play with - more information will be revealed around Vantage closer to the season's release - and a brand new Battle Pass. If you want to brush up on your skills before you hop back into Kings Canyon, be sure to check out our Apex Legends tips and tricks guide.