Apex Legends Season 20: Breakout is a celebration of the game’s fifth anniversary, and it features some of the biggest changes to hit the game yet. From the removal of EVO Shields in favor of a new « Legend Upgrades » system to some serious Ranked Mode changes and an LTM with near-instant queueing, Season 20 is packed with new features for players to enjoy.

Season 20 is all about celebrating the last five years of Apex Legends, and includes new in-game story features, an easy way for players to get their hands on some Heirloom Shards, and a complete revamping of Replicators, how they work, and what they contain. Keep reading for a look at everything we know about Apex Legends Season 20: Breakout.

When does Season 20 launch?

Apex Season 20: Breakout will go live on Tuesday, February 13 at 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET.

Is there a new Legend debuting this season?

Respawn has confirmed that there will not be a new Legend joining the Apex Games in season 20, though pre-existing Legends will each gain access to a total of four perks to choose from in addition to their class-based perks.

No more EVO Shields

You read that right–EVO Shields are being removed from the game and replaced with Shield Cores, which can only be looted from deathboxes. Shields will no longer spawn in the loot pool. Instead, players will land with a white (Common-tier) shield that cannot be removed. Similar to EVO Shields, this shield will level up when players do damage (including damage to PvE creatures, like the Prowlers and Carthage Spiders on Storm Point).

But damage isn’t the only way to level up your shield. Certain actions–like using Ring Consoles, Survey Beacons, and interacting with other Legend class-exclusive map items (including various class-exclusive Supply Bins)–will give EVO Points to a player’s entire squad. There are also two new map items that can provide EVO Points:

• EVO Harvester: Similar to the way players could previously collect Crafting Materials for their whole team to use in Replicators, EVO Harvesters give EVO Points to the whole squad, regardless of who activates it.
• EVO Cache: EVO Caches give a large amount of EVO Points, but those points aren’t shared among squadmates, and the Evo Caches themselves are much harder to find than Evo Harvesters.

Naturally, the removal of EVO Shields from the loot pool makes the age-old tradition of shield-swapping a bit more difficult to pull off, but it can still be done. Since EVO Shields have been replaced with Shield Cores, shield-swapping can only be done by looting a Shield Core from a deathbox. If you’ve scored enough EVO Points for a blue (Rare-tier) shield and find another blue Shield Core in a deathbox, you can swap your damaged shield for the blue Shield Core, and it will instantly restore your shield to full health.

But there’s a catch: If you pick up a Shield Core above your current level, its protection won’t last forever. For example, grabbing a purple (Epic-tier) Shield Core when you’ve only gained enough EVO Points to level up to a blue one, the extra shield pip provided by the purple shield will be temporary, providing an overshield that runs out after 30 seconds, similar to Conduit’s temporary shield-boosting abilities. While this can certainly be useful in a fight, Shield Cores that are above your level won’t protect you forever the way finding high-level EVO Shields used to, and stopping to dig them out of a deathbox mid-fight may not be the best way to go.

It’s worth noting, however, that EVO Shields have not been removed from Mixtape Mode, and will continue to function as they always have in Control, Gun Run, and TDM matches.

Legend Upgrades system: 100 new Legend perks

Though EVO Shields may be gone, EVO Points still exist, showing how close players are to leveling up their shield. When enough EVO Points are gained to level a Legend’s shield from white to blue, they’ll be given the opportunity to choose one of two Legend-exclusive perks. When their shield levels up from blue to purple, they’ll get to choose from another duo of perks. This gives each Legend four perk options to choose from, adding a total of 100 new perks to the game.

« We are rolling out the single largest change to Legends since the game launched, » Legend designer John Larson said of the new Legend Upgrades system.

When it comes to the perks themselves, Loba’s first upgrade choice allows her to select either a larger range for her Black Market, or the ability to pick up a third item from it, bypassing the standard two-item limit. As for the other Legends, based on trailers and other content shown during previews, it seems that one of Octane’s perks may allow him to place more than one Jump Pad at once, while Lifeline appears to have access to a perk that lets her self-revive–an ability not seen in Apex Legends since the removal of the Legendary-tier Knockdown Shield’s self-revive ability. Additionally, one of the upgrades for Mad Maggie’s Wrecking Ball ability causes the ball to explode into flames, scorching the ground similar to a thermite grenade.

New LTM: Straight Shot

Straight Shot is a fast-paced limited-time mode that throws players right into the action. Players load into a match, but spend no time on the dropship. Instead, they are instantly dropped onto a random POI alongside one other enemy squad. The ring is smaller in this mode, leading to quick, heart-pounding matches. Weapons come fully kitted at various levels, but only optics may be swapped or looted–no other attachments can be removed from weapons. Once the match ends, players can choose to re-queue instantly, quickly dropping into a new match without having to exit to the lobby screen and wait for matchmaking.

The Straight Shot LTM will go live alongside the 5th Anniversary Collection Event when Season 20 launches.

Heirloom Shards

Season 20 will launch alongside the 5th Anniversary Collection Event. Players who collect all 24 event cosmetics will unlock 150 Heirloom Shards, allowing them to purchase any Heirloom Weapon or Prestige Skin they want from the Mythic Store.

120 FPS on console

Console players will be thrilled to learn that a 120 FPS performance mode will be available for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S upon launch, a feature players have been requesting for years.

« We’re also adding haptics and adaptive triggers on controllers, » game designer Evan Nikolich said during previews.

Ranked Mode reloaded

According to developer comments made during previews, changes made to Ranked Mode in previous seasons haven’t been working, and Respawn is confident they can do better. Season 20 will see the competitive mode undergo number of significant changes based on three goals Respawn set for the mode’s design:

Trust: Ranked Mode is meant to reflect skill, and scoring should be transparent.

Accessibility: Ranked Mode should be easy to hop into and easy to understand for both veteran players and those who are new to the game.

Fun: Though all competitive modes have the capacity to frustrate players, at the end of the day, Ranked Mode should still be an enjoyable experience.

With those goals in mind, Respawn has made the following changes to Apex’s Ranked Mode:

• Provisional Matches removed
• Promotional Trials removed
• Ladder Points (LP) are once again Ranked Points (RP)
• The mid-season Ranked split is returning, which will see players’ RP reset to 1 RP
• Players no longer need to be level 50 to play Ranked, they can now access it at level 20
• Rank tier widths have been increased
• Kills have more RP value the higher your squad places in each match
• Players will be able to see more information about the player who killed them

Other changes have been made as well. Matchmaking is based on RP, and premade squads are now matched based on whichever squad member has the most RP. But perhaps the biggest change is the post-match score page. Instead of the standard list of damage/kills/assists, how many RP a player gained/lost, and where they placed, players will now get an extremely detailed breakdown on every aspect of the match, allowing them to see exactly when and how they gained or lost RP.

Replicator revamp

« We’ve been looking for ways to streamline crafting for a while, and felt the release of the Legend Upgrades system would be a good time to pair [them], » lead battle royale designer Josh Mohan explained during previews.

So what’s changed? Well, for one, Crafting Materials have been entirely removed. Instead of running around a Replicator frantically trying to collect them in time to craft an item, players can simply waltz right up to a Replicator and start crafting. They won’t have to wait long, either–instead of putting a target on the backs of any players using them, Replicators now work near-instantly.

But with free, super-fast crafting now in play, Respawn had to balance things out a bit. As of Season 20, each player can only use each Replicator on the map once per match, so the days of racking up Crafting Materials and Replicator-ing yourself into a Mythic-tier body shield are over. Additionally, the contents of the Replicator itself have been drastically reduced.

Support-class Legends (and any players with one on their team) will still be able to use Replicators to craft Banner Cards, even if a dead player’s banner card has timed out. But the contents of Replicators will now consist mainly of consumables and healing items.

« We’ve focused the items down to just Med Kits, [Shield] Batteries–you can still craft ammo, and you’ll be able to craft squadmates’ Banner Cards, » Mohan explained.

This means that both weapons and weapon attachments will no longer be craftable via replicators. Preview attendees were told that one of the reasons for this change is simple: « Weapons getting jailed in the Replicator each season » isn’t a particularly enjoyable experience for players, and often leads to them forgetting or ignoring those weapons entirely in the heat of battle.

Clubs closing down

Clubs are being removed in Season 20 and replaced with Tags. A recent Respawn blog post explains the change:

« Cheers to all of you who participated in a Club or maintained an active one. You’ll still be able to rep the same flare with our new feature: Tags. This new visual indicator will appear ahead of your username wherever it is shown. Tags are 3-4 characters long, are limited to alphanumeric characters, and can be updated as often as you’d like via the Social page. »

It’s unclear if Tags will function similarly to Clubs, or only serve a cosmetic purpose, i.e. identifying members of the same team in competitive esports.

New Mixtape map: Thunderdome

Available only in Mixtape Mode, the new Thunderdome map pays homage to the past of the Apex Games (which started in the Thunderdome on Kings Canyon). The map gives the original Thunderdome a massive makeover, complete with an enormous metal Predator skull that shoots fire from the hole where its nose should be and an arena with a dynamic crowd that reacts to skilled gameplay with cheers. (It’s unclear if they’ll boo you, however.)

New story chapters and animated series

Lead writer Ashley Reed revealed during previews that Apex’s seasonal in-game story chapters are being altered (and upgraded) this season. Instead of the standard lines of written dialogue and light sound effects, players can look forward to a new in-game storytelling method Respawn is referring to as vignettes. Vignettes feature fully-voiced dialogue lines with « some animated bits » to breathe a little more life into the game’s seasonal lore drops.

Reed also teased a new animated series similar to 2023’s Kill Code saga. It’s not clear if the first episode of this series will launch during Season 20, but she did confirm that, like Kill Code, the story is expected to be a year-long event, with updates dropping periodically. For more information on vignettes, the new animated series, and what it’s like to write a story with 25 main characters and no end in sight, check out our interview with lead Apex Legends writer Ashley Reed.