Apex Legends Reworks New Legend Releases in Season 23

Respawn Entertainment is changing the way it introduces new Legends to Apex Legends. They seem to be slowing down the release schedule and revisiting past concepts and abilities.

You must have noticed a significant decrease in the frequency of new Legends in recent seasons, with new arrivals now only debuting every few seasons. Since Alter’s release in Season 21, no new Legend has joined the roster, and Season 23 will follow this trend with a focus on reworking existing Legends instead.

This season sees a major rework of Lifeline, one of Apex Legends' original playable characters, whose tactical abilities are getting a fresh new update.

As it happens, Lifeline's new drone, which follows teammates around to heal on the go, hails from a previously scrapped Legend concept.

The feature, in fact, mirrors the abilities of Uplink, a leaked Legend from Season 12, whose tactical was a mobile drone that healed shields.

It's since come to represent an implication that Respawn really does draw ideas and inspiration from these older leaks to renew existing legends rather than always introduce new ones.

This trend is not limited to Lifeline. Revenant's recent rework is said to be inspired by a leaked character from Apex's past, Phantom, which suggests Respawn's team may be looking at early concepts for inspiration.

This echoes further into the expanded universe at Apex, too, as EA has hinted at a connected experience between Apex Legends and its mobile spin-off.

EA's CEO, Andrew Wilson, has mentioned that the universe of Apex Mobile might merge with that of the main game, and this could spell the return of mobile-exclusive Legends like Fade, whose abilities have already been tested within the main game.

Returning to old ideas is an incredibly retro way, especially as the theme of the Apex Multiverse took center stage for Season 23. It has been a beautiful way while Apex brought back modes that were in the legacy, classic weapons, and even Titanfall-linked features such as double jumps and wall running.

The rumored fan favorites include the likes of Jester, a more fun Legend who wields explosive grenades that become proximity mines, and Scrier, who had a kit of abilities reminiscent of a cheater's toolkit with tracking and spectating skills. Jester, once believed to have been scrapped, still has yet to appear, but the theme for Season 23 does bring hope to fans of those concepts.

While these legends will most likely never see the light of day, their abilities continue to inspire contemporary gameplay as Apex continues to rework the core of the game to keep it competitive.

Perhaps this is a consequence of the developers wanting to keep the pool of Legends streamlined since balancing each new character with the previous ones is always a challenge. Instead, we might see leaked abilities repurposed for reworked legends in an effort to enhance the gameplay without overcomplicating the roster.

While chances are slim, with how cool the leaked character kits look, it's hard not to wish for them to be added to the game. Season 23 really nails down the idea that Respawn has no issue folding in old concepts with new updates while nodding its head to Apex's past and keeping things feeling brand new.