Apex Legends has themed events to celebrate all sorts of occasions, and Respawn Entertainment wouldn’t miss the chance to bring Halloween to the shooter. Apex‘s Fight or Fright event is one of the game’s oldest rotating events, taking place every October since the battle royale’s debut in 2019, though players wouldn’t experience the Shadow Royale limited-time mode until the following year.
Fight or Fright 2019 was the first canon appearance of Revenant, before he was officially inducted into the cast of Apex. The nightmare simulacrum makes a short appearance in the event trailer, just months before his official release in season four. And once Revenant was fully introduced to the game, the 2020 edition of the Halloween-themed event gained a new host—as well as Shadow Royale, a new limited-time mode that features in the event to this day.
Here’s what you need to know about the mode.
Apex‘s Shadow Royale limited-time mode, explained
Shadow Royale takes place in an alternate dimension (the same one players went to during the season five quest, The Broken Ghost). In this dimension, Shadow Revenant is the king, and he doesn’t abide by the rules in the Apex Games—or the laws of the universe, for that matter. Like its predecessor, Shadowfall, Shadow Royale is also set on nighttime versions of the major maps, named “After Dark” versions. These versions are considerably darker than their base counterparts, similarly to the treatment King’s Canyon received during the hunts in The Broken Ghost.
In Shadow Royale, players who die don’t go back to the lobby. Instead, as long as there is one squadmate alive, players can come back from the dead as shadows, and get a few extra tricks up their sleeves. Shadows can wall run and double jump, and if you’re ever caught within melee range, you’ll see they deal more melee damage than a regular legend. To offset that, however, they also have less health than their living counterparts.
Shadows can respawn indefinitely as long as there’s one living squadmate, but keep in mind there’s a short respawn timer between each reincarnation. Shadows can use their movement abilities and increased melee damage to ambush unsuspecting opponents, approaching rivals from angles they couldn’t imagine. Shadows can also serve as a diversion or as bullet shields for their allies, letting armed teammates land valuable bullets on enemies. The team with the last living squadmate wins the match, but they’ll have to be on the lookout for shadows lurking in the darker corners of the map.
