10 of the Biggest Changes in Apex Legends Season 20

Here are the biggest changes in Season 20 Breakout of Apex Legends including a Legend Perk system, Evo Armor changes, and more.

Author:
Robbie Landis
Publish date:
Feb 5, 2024 11:00 AM EST

Biggest Changes in Apex Legends Season 20, Upgrade System, Evo Armor, Digi-Threats, Crafters, Ranked and More.

Season 20 of Apex Legends is finally here and while there isn’t a new Legend, new weapon, or new map being added this time around, there are still major changes happening to the game. Just like the last time a new season dropped without a new Legend, Apex Legends is receiving a major new system that will affect the core experience of the battle royale.

Crypto from Apex Legends by Respawn Entertainment.

You can check out the full patch notes for Season 20 Breakout of Apex Legends, but here are 10 of the biggest changes to look forward to.

10 Biggest Changes in Apex Legends Season 20

Here are the biggest changes coming to Apex Legends in Season 20 Breakout including the Legend Upgrade system, Evo Armor overhaul and more.

Legend Upgrade System

Gibraltar chooses between Big Ups or Killer Handling when his Evo Shield hits Lvl 2 in Apex Legends Season 20. — Apex Legends\Respawn

Apex Legends Season 20 is introducing the biggest change to Legends since the game first launched. Whenever a player upgrades their Evo Shields to level 2 (blue) and level 3 (purple), they will get to select one of two options to upgrade their Legend.

These upgrades will let players customize their playstyle. They will lead to every match having a slightly different meta as players have to adapt to a more dynamic battle royale experience. For more on the Legend Upgrade System check out our full breakdown.

Evo Armor is no Longer Lootable

Shield Cores can now be looted from enemy boxes to refill Legend Evo Armor. — Apex Legends\Respawn

The second biggest change of Apex Legends Season 20 is that Evo armor has undergone a complete overhaul. It’s no longer a lootable object that can be found on the ground. Instead, all players will have to upgrade their own armor by dealing damage or performing tasks related to their roles such as scanning beacons or opening special supply bins.

Evo Shields will also be tied to the progression of the Legend Upgrade System. Finally, shield swapping is changing since there are no shields to swap into. Instead, when a player accesses a death box they can pick up the shield core of their opponent. This will refill their shields and in the case of that core being a higher level than the player has, will give them one temporary overshield charge.

We have a full breakdown of the Evo Shield changes here.

Crafting Replicators Overhauled

Crafting Replicators are getting a lot simpler in Apex Legends Season 20. — Apex Legends\Respawn

The Crafting Replicators in Season 20 of Apex Legend are undergoing a massive makeover and are being simplified. All the weapons and attachments have been removed from the replicators and crafting materials are being removed from the game.

Crafting Replicators now only carry Medkits, Shield Batteries, Ammo, and Respawn Banners. They will craft an item nearly instantly and free of charge, but each team can only use the Replicator one time before it is unusable. Read more about the changes to the Crafting Replicators here.

Digi-Threats No Longer Used on SMGs

Rampart from Apex Legends by Respawn Entertainment. — Apex Legends\Respawn Entertainment

One of the biggest changes to the weapon meta in Season 20 of Apex Legends is the Digital Threat change. 1x Digi-Threat optics can no longer fit on SMGs like the R-99 and Volt. The SMG meta has dominated the game for the past few seasons thanks to the accuracy of SMGs on controllers.

The 1x Digi-Threat optics will only fit on Shotguns and Pistols, which may start to shift the weapon meta toward those arms if Bangalore remains in the Legend meta at large.

Reactive Recolors Coming for Free

Season 20 of Apex Legends brings all new free rewards to players. — Apex Legends\Respawn

When a new season of Apex Legends drops, one of the biggest draws to the Battle Pass is the level 100 and 110 reactive gun skin. These skins change and evolve in a match as you get more kills with it. For Season 20 the R-99 is receiving its second reactive skin, the first gun to do so.

A second reactive will be available for players, but this one is a recolor of the extremely popular Heatsink Reactive Flatline. The only other time a reactive reskin has been offered was when a collection event rewarded a recolor of the reactive Peacekeeper skin for $170, something the player base outright rejected.

In Season 20 players will have a chance to obtain a recolored reactive Flatline skin for free. Check out the patch note details on the fifth anniversary of Apex Legends to see how.

Ranked Splits Return

In Season 20 of Apex Legends ranked splits make a return. — Apex Legends\Respawn

Season 20 of Apex Legends brings a lot of changes to the ranked grind for players, but these aren’t new changes. A lot of the changes coming to ranked will revert rank back to be more in line with how it operated around Season 13. Of those changes, the big ones are a return to Ranked Points instead of Ladder Points and the return of Ranked Splits.

Players will now have their rank reset by 6 divisions (i.e. Platinum 1 becomes Gold 3) at the halfway point in the season.

120 FPS Mode for Consoles

Players dive towards the action in the Apex Legends x Post Malone Event Three Strikes LTM. — Apex Legends\Respawn Entertainment

One of the biggest changes coming to console players in Apex Legends for Season 20 is 120 FPS mode. This is a feature that console players have been waiting for and the developers have been working on for some time. With an increase to 120 FPS for console gamers, they can look forward to better response time and reduced input lag.

More LTMs like Three Strikes

In the Straight Shot LTM all weapons on the ground will be fully-kitted and of random rarity from white to gold. — Apex Legends\Respawn

Following the success of Three Strikes LTM in the Post Malone event the developers have said that players can look forward to limit-time modes that get them into the action more quickly.

The first of these new LTMs is called Straight Shot. In Straight Shot players will be put into a reduced lobby of 10 teams (30 players) on a smaller map. Instead of starting on the dropship players will spawn directly into a POI with one other team. There will be no attachments on the ground, only fully-kitted weapons with varying qualities from white to gold.

If players are eliminated during Straight Shot they don’t even need to return to the lobby to re-queue and can jump into their next match of Straight Shot instantly.

Hidden MMR Removed in Ranked

Mad Maggie adds some heat to her ultimate ability, Wrecking Ball, in Apex Legends Season 20: Breakout using Legend Upgrades. — Apex Legends\Respawn

One of the biggest pain points for players in Apex Legends has been the change to a hidden MMR system in the past couple of seasons. This is finally being removed in Season 20 Breakout in favor of a straight match-making system based on Ranked Points.

Players will always be matched with other players with similar Ranked Point totals. At the beginning of the season, everyone is being reset to 1 Ranked Point, so for the first few days or even weeks, the lower ranks will consist of players of all skill levels but this will even out over time as the Platinum and better players rise to their usual ranks.

Steam Controller Config Cheater Solutions

In the last week of January, a video started making the rounds on social media of a Steam controller config that allowed controller players to use Steam to reduce weapon coil to 0% and automate several movement techniques like tap strafing.

The developers at Respawn have finally taken action to combat this behavior which they see as cheating. These changes went into effect before season 20 officially launched and are something the developers will keep an eye on going forward.