Respawn Entertainment announces changes for Apex Legends' Battle Pass after many complaints. The Battle Pass was released in Season 7 along with many new features, like the Trident. However, the Battle Pass was blasted by players for to be way too grindy, requiring an unreasonable amount of games and experience gains in order to earn its rewards.
Apex Legends kicked off Season 7 with an entirely new map, Olympus. The new map is a giant futuristic city in the skies, giving players a new taste in map design with tall skyscrapers to fight around. There was also Horizon, a new character that introduced unique gravity-based abilities. She is capable of carrying teammates into the skies while pulling enemies away from cover into her black hole. There was also a new vehicle, the Trident, that makes traversing the map a whole lot more fun. While all these new additions were welcomed by the community, players quickly began to complain about the state of the Battle Pass, which saw players gaining levels at a glacial pace.
Respawn Entertainment tweeted out the changes to the Battle Pass in response to the backlash. The XP required to earn each Star - which add up to levels - is being reduced from 10,000 to 5,000, completely halving the amount of experience necessary to progress. On top of that, the weekly challenges were also changed to be easier, as Respawn stated it would take "much less time to complete." Respawn Entertainment also mentioned there were two goals for the Battle Pass. Firstly, it was intended to keep players engaged for the entire season. Secondly, the weekly missions would encourage players to try new characters and strategies. Whether or not Respawn Entertainment has now achieved these goals is uncertain, and only time will tell.
The backlash to the initial Battle Pass started was summed up in a post on Reddit, where user GrubbyLilPaws had complained about the extremely slow grind for the Battle Pass. Players found that it took hours of completing challenges to advance a single level, essentially locking casual players out of ever reaching the top tiers. With the new changes to the pass' experience, it should ideally take half the time to achieve levels, which makes it seem a lot more achievable between a 90 day period.
Apex Legends still has a lot more room to grow, with Respawn Entertainment discussing options to expand beyond the battle royale genre. Respawn Entertainment's fast response to the complaints may give Apex Legends a bright future. Every feature will not be perfect, which is why a game studio developing a strong relationship with its audience is a big step in advancing the game further.
Apex Legends is available on PS4, Xbox One, and PC via Origin and Steam.
Source: Respawn Entertainment