Season 14 of Apex Legends releases tomorrow, which means that precious few secrets about the new season are left to be revealed to players. Respawn pulled back another veil today, with the release of the Hunted battle pass trailer.
While the trailer mostly showed off a variety of skins and other cosmetics that players can earn if they purchase the premium battle pass for the new season, there was also a news that one particular mechanic in the game is changing: there will no longer be any Arenas-specific challenges for players to finish their battle pass. These challenges are going away in favor of a new category of challenges, titled Non-Battle Royale, or NBR.
Over the past several seasons, Apex split the daily and weekly challenges players could complete to earn more stars and progress quickly through the season’s battle pass between battle royale and Arenas challenges. Many players were never fans of the change, due to the Arenas’ lack of popularity among the player base. Players felt like the game was telling them that they “needed” to play certain modes of the game that they didn’t want to play if they wanted to finish their battle pass.
Season 14 is changing that, albeit slightly. There are still challenges players can only complete in game modes other than battle royale, and those challenges will get the NBR tag affixed to them. Presumably, players will be able to complete these challenges in Arenas, as well as in other limited-time modes that will come to the game that aren’t battle royale, such as Control.Â
The battle pass trailer emphasized that the challenges could be completed “your way,” and the change should, at the very least, make players not feel like they absolutely must play a game mode that they don’t want to play.
The Hunted battle pass will feature an array of “survivalist” skins, inspired by new legend Vantage and her upbringing. While Vantage was born and raised on the frozen planet of Págos, the skins in the Hunted battle pass look far more inspired by survival in warmer climates, as it features an abundance of animal prints and drab green tones, presumably for players to blend into Kings Canyon’s similar color palette.
Players also got a better look at the season’s level 100 and 110 battle pass rewards, the reactive Triple Take skin. The Fortune Hunter comes with a throwback hunter aesthetic, and knocking down enemy players activates an orb of spinning metal rings and blue-ish energy that looks like it could either be electric or fueled by the Void energy that Wraith and Ash use in their abilities. Either way, it looks like something Nikola Tesla might’ve come up with if he had too much time on his hands.
Players will be able to unlock the premium battle pass, if they so choose, when season 14 of Apex releases tomorrow, Aug. 9, at 11am CT.
