'Apex Legends' Season 2 Map Changes Include a Monster Invasion

Apex Legends Season 2, released Tuesday, revamped the playable map following a devastating event, and now King’s Canyon feels like the untamed wilderness. It also appears there’s been a significant time jump between Season 1 and 2 to allow wildlife to regrow.

Late last week, Respawn dropped the Season 2 launch trailer, and it showed a cataclysmic event where a new character destroyed the Disruptor preventing the native wildlife from entering King’s Canyon. (Watch that above.) The official Season 2 description from Respawn puts that trailer in context and confirms a time jump between seasons:

After a shadowy figure brought down the Repulsor Tower, the Apex Games were forced to shut down for a brief period. During that time, the lack of the Repulsor Tower allowed beasts to once again take their natural place in Kings Canyon, and in doing so brought with them a level of destruction that has left certain areas of the map unrecognizable. Crews setup base camps and worked around the clock to repair the map, also taking this time to add new features to the arena, while the lack of Legends have allowed certain areas of Kings Canyon to stabilize and grow.

A second gameplay trailer (above) also hinted at the event’s aftermath. A smattering of newscasts from inside the universe overlap, offering snippets like “beasts have once again taken their native place on the island” and “the absence of Legends has allowed certain areas to stabilize and regrow.” There’s also a bit about how construction crews are adding new features to the games and establishing outposts — a lot of recycled phrases from the official text description.

Respawn followed all of this up with an in-universe blog post from a reporter with The Outlands Journal. She writes about how two Leviathans have now taken up semi-permanent residence on the island (you can see them on the map below). The report also notes how Flyers have made Shattered Forest their nesting ground — this is one of the major areas that has seen a resurgence in plant growth. It’s also become a much better place to find good loot.

The Syndicate is the name of the organization that manages the Apex Games, and this reporter theorizes that a rumored “rival organization on the planet Talos” could be responsible for the bombing that led to the start of Season 2.

Two new named locations in Season 2 are “Containment” and “The Cage,” both close to the center of the map that have replaced Cascades and Bridges. Containment has cages for housing some beasts like the Flyers, and the Cage is a “six-story behemoth is meant to draw competitors to supplies like moths to a grisly flame.” They’re both adjacent to the two Leviathans, also centrally located.

These are the only major map changes in terms of named locations, but almost the entire map has been adjusted at least slightly to show how native creatures have regained control over the island. There’s no telling what might change as Season 2 unfolds over the coming weeks, but so far all of these Season 2 map changes have made Apex Legends almost feel like a brand new game.

Apex Legends Season 2 is now available.