Everything you need to know about Apex Legends Season 12

Apex Legends Season 12, titled Defiance, starts in early February. That means leaks and official information about the upcoming battle pass are slowly starting to trickle in. In the spirit of letting all our Legends fanatics know everything about the next season, here’s the latest on the Season 12 release date, balance updates, and, most importantly, its featured character.

When is the Apex Legends Season 12 start date and time?

According to the countdown visible on the Season 11 battle pass screen, the Season 11 battle pass is set to expire on February 8, 2022. Obviously, this date may change and the countdown can be easily adjusted, but this appears to be the Season 12 start date that Apex Legends’ developers at Respawn Entertainment have settled on for now.

As for the precise timing, we expect the update to go live around 1 p.m. Eastern on February 8 given that most recent seasons have debuted at this exact hour. While the Season 12 date may fluctuate, we suspect this timing is pretty much locked in.

Is there an Apex Legends Season 12 trailer?

Yes! The first trailer for Apex Legends Season 12 dropped on January 24 with a Stories from the Outlands episode titled “Judgment.” Following months of leaks, the three-minute clip confirms Mad Maggie will make her way to the Apex Games as a form of punishment for her crimes in the days after Salvo joined Syndicate Space. A mysterious cloaked man named Mr. Silva is the one responsible for making the final call.

The Season 12 launch trailer also debuted on January 27 as expected.

In the three-minute clip, we learn a little bit more about the mysterious Mr. Silva. He’s seemingly taken control of the Apex Games, and he feels that Maggie is the kind of villain Syndicate needs to keep the arena combat narrative going. Later in the trailer when Maggie tells the others that Silva put her up to it, Octane says “papa...what is he doing” in Spanish. This dialogue confirms fan suspicion that Silva is, in fact, Octane’s father.

Aside from a sneak peek at Maggie’s abilities, which will be described in more detail below, the trailer also features a look at the Sabotaged version of Olympus that has a bright red skybox.

The Season 12 gameplay trailer debuted on January 31.

The clip features large swaths of gameplay for the 9v9 Control mode as well as the redesigned Sabotaged Olympus.

The Season 12 battle pass trailer released February 7 as expected, and it features the following highlights.

• Seer Legendary Ace’s High skin
• Loba Legendary Breaking the Law skin
• Items and trackers to match the aforementioned skins
• Epic skins for Ash, Crypto, and Lifeline
• Gentleman Baller and Scream Machine Reactive Hemlocks
• Music Packs, loading screens, charms, and emotes

Who is the new Legend and character in Apex Legends Season 12? What are Maggie’s abilities?

As confirmed above, Mad Maggie is officially the new Legend set to debut during Apex Legends Season 12. Here are her abilities according to the gameplay trailer that debuted on January 31.

• Riot Drill [Tactical Ability]: Fire a drill that burns enemies through obstacles.
• Warlord’s Ire [Passive Ability]: temporarily highlight enemies you’ve damaged and move faster with a shotgun.
• Wrecking Ball [Ultimate Ability]: Throw a ball that releases speed-boosting pads and detonates near enemies.

The launch trailer features a look at these concepts in action. In the three-minute clip, Maggie fires her Riot Drill. When it lands, it features an incendiary effect that blinds her opponents.

She also decimates Fuse with a Wrecking Ball.

The rest of Season 12 - Control mode, leaks, and more

Despite most Season 12 leaks being either confirmed or dispelled at this point, we do have one potential tidbit with regard to heirlooms. On December 5, Apex Legends YouTuber Thordan Smash leaked a first look at Crypto’s heirloom. The weapon is identified as a neon green Jikdo blade that folds out when it's ready for action. With Wattson’s Heirloom tied to December’s Raiders collection event and more possible Heirloom sales happening on Apex Legends’ anniversary date of February 4, the assumption is that this collectible will possibly debut sometime during Season 12.

In the footage, Thordan is also quick to point out evidence of an unreleased energy pistol and Maelstrom LMG. It’s possible one of these weapons could be featured in the Season 12 battle pass as well. However, because the source clip has since been deleted, fans should take that information with a grain of salt.

Outside these guesses, the only other details we know about Season 12 arrive courtesy of EA’s own Apex Legends Season 12 website. Here are some major feature additions worth keeping an eye on.

• Control LTM: Select your loadout and drop into a 9v9 experience where teams battle to hold control points with infinite respawn. Players can customize loadouts and have multiples of Legends on each team. Maps include Hammond Labs on Olympus and Barometer on Tropic. There’s a separate ranked list for the mode as well.
• Sabotaged Olympus: Olympus is getting a redesign tailored to improving rotations and making the entirety of the map more interesting to play. Phase Driver is a brand new PoI in the southern part of the map that connects everything together. When activated by players the Driver drops three Loot Rollers phase in with one guaranteed Gold-tier ball. As a penalty, looting from the Driver will alert others to your presence. Terminal is the name of a new central routing area for the map with five entry points designed to direct flow of players to different areas. As a result of these changes, Solar Array’s, Icarus’, and Bonsai’s platforms were shifted away from the center of the map.

There are also balance changes that include:

• Caustic Nerf: Caustic’s Nox Traps can now be destroyed when players shoot them. Gas will linger for a while when a trap gets destroyed.
• Crypto Buff: Crypto can now throw his drone in addition to manually controlling it, marking targets in a straight path. This acts as a slower version of a Bloodhound scan. Throwing a drone at a wall also transforms it into a stationary webcam.
• Weapons: There’s no new weapon in Season 12. Volt is going into Care Packages. Flatline and Longbow will be removed from floor loot and will instead be craftable at the Replicator.
• Hop-Ups: Hammerpoint Rounds return as an attachment to the underused RE-45 Auto. Enhanced Shatter Cap spread will only fire from the hip. A new hop-up called Kinetic Feeder auto-replenishes ammo for the Peacekeeper and Triple Take when sliding.