Apex Legends season 9 is just around the corner and Respawn has released new details about the upcoming season’s new playable character, new weapon, and new map changes.
0:14 There’s something strange that could end up being really cool. Apex Legends next season doesn’t have a number associated with it like Season 4: Assimilation or Season 8: Mayhem. It’s not Season 9: Legacy, it’s just called Legacy or the Legacy update. In a tweet, Apex Legends senior writer Tom Cassielo wrote:
So it’s looking like this may not be a traditional new season for Apex Legends. Perhaps this will be a more transformative update for the battle royale, something akin to Season 3 when we got a new map for the first time. Or Season 5 when we got a quest for the first time. Regardless, the focus of the new season is on the legacy of its characters.
And that’s most apparent in the new playable character shown in the stories from the Outlands Northstar trailer. Her name is Kairi Imahara, daughter of Viper, one of the Apex Predator pilots that you face in Titanfall 2. Kairi goes by the callsign Valkyrie which we assume is a Legend name. However, a few Respawn devs have referred to them as simply Valk. Whether that’s shorthand for Valkyrie or the actual legends name has yet to be confirmed.
1:25 Valkyrie is a voice by Erika Ishii who you may know for their wonderful performances as Ana Bray in Destiny 2, Maddy Cho in Marvel’s Avengers, and Info Flash host Ruth in Cyberpunk 2077. We don’t yet know what Valkyrie’s abilities are but have a fairly good idea thanks to a few clues and deductions.
In her character art, Valkyrie is wearing a jetpack that tracks with the Northstar trailer. In it we see Rampart disassembling Viper’s Northstar to build the jetpack for his daughter. Specifically taking the titan’s VTOL Hover kit. This is important, Viper doesn’t fly traditional Northstar. His Northstar is outfitted with a specially modded VTOL Hover kit that allows him to fly higher, longer, and faster than your average titan. Titanfall 2 fans will remember it from a long and difficult boss fight. This likely translates into Valkyrie being the first flight-based legend with the capacity to fly or at least hover in the air.
2:17 In the trailer celebrating Apex Legends reaching 100 million players, we got our first glimpse at who we now know as Valkyrie. Mirage looks up at a shadowy figure jumping from a tower who then begins to hover upwards. If we had to guess that’s Valkyrie’s passive ability. We think that either her jump is naturally longer, higher, and takes her further than other legends, or that she can choose to jump into a hover similar to the Titanfall 2 pilot hover perk.
2:42 Going back to her character art for her tactical ability, we see that her jetpack is armed with the same launcher that the Northstar Titans use for their cluster missile and she’s even firing rockets in the picture. Respawn has taken inspiration from a lot of Titanfall pilot abilities for Apex Legends. It stands to reason that the studio would use Titan abilities also. So Valkyrie’s tactical ability is probably a cluster missile or something similar to it.
Considering it is the only Northstar weapon specifically designed to deal with enemy pilots as opposed to Titans, it would make sense that it’s the weapon that Valkyrie chose to add to her kit.
4:08 We are getting a new weapon, the Bocek Bow. It is the first non-traditional firearm added to the game. Describing the bow, Respawn writes “a powerful and deadly weapon. For those with the skill to wield it, capable of inflicting tremendous damage at medium range, you will need to make each shot count.” Respawn hasn’t made any indication as to what type of ammo the new bow takes.
4:48 On top of all that, Olympus is finally getting a major map change. The only one of the three maps to have not undergone a change yet. Olympus is going to get infested. An infestation has sprung loose strangling the city with roots and natural growth as per Respawn.
5:22 Something else is coming! We don’t know what yet but Respawn Director of Communication, Ryan Rigney, tweeted:
What could be another giant change coming to Apex Legends?