Apex Legends seems to be doing pretty well. While the number of active players remains a jealously guarded secret, the popularity of the title can be gauged by the craze surrounding the release of its new champion. With such a receptive community, it's no wonder Respawn isn't resting on its laurels. Several major changes have been announced for Season 6.
The most interesting of them is the crafting system. Opening a chest now gives you a small amount of material. Bring these materials to different workshops across the map to build the weapons and armor you dream of. It may sound like a prop, but it's not at all: it means that a player who made the mistake of dropping in the middle of nowhere and didn't run into anyone else in the whole game is no longer condemned to being blown into the final square by a guy 15 times better equipped.
In every battle royales, a fascinating phenomenon takes place: the right equipment is brought back by the players to where the circle closes. If you eliminate someone in the last circle, it's suddenly a shower of golden pistols, five stars armor and other ultra rare bonuses.
This system offered a huge advantage to the most aggressive players. With the addition of resources and crafting, this may be the end of the "we haven't seen anyone in the game, we're going to get slaughtered by the first guys we meet". If you empty every chest in your lost corner of the map you should have enough resources to make it to the final square with the stuff of your dreams and you explain on equal terms with the kill leader.
Is that fair? Doesn't the player who's been through lead and smoke as he makes his way through the blood-stained path halfway through the game deserve to have the best stuff? Yes and no. Fun comes in many different ways in a battle royale. Fighting for ten minutes of uninterrupted fury is fun, but going through the map always keeping an eye on the horizon, wondering if the next village has an ambush and feeling the tension slowly rising as the number of players decreases is fun too.
Both styles deserve to have fun, both deserve the final apotheosis of the last duel without being handicapped by the way they chose to play, because each team has already been rewarded in its own way, one in thrills and one in pressure, so winning is just a bonus that completes a well-filled game.
There are also more important goals than rewarding kill leader, such as evenly distributing players across the map to ensure that everyone doesn't get bored for the first minute and then get bored for the next 15 minutes. If players are assured that they're well stuffed even without going to the hotspots, they feel free to try out less popular areas of the map, which helps Respawn spread them out.
It's still unclear whether the same workshop can be used as many times as desired, or whether each player can only create one item. The second option would be more interesting, forcing players to hurry from one workshop to another to complete as many as possible before the ring swallows all the workshops.
Rampart is the latest legend to join Apex Legends for Season 6, bringing with her a minigun, portable shields and lots of custom weapons.
