Apex Legends Season 14 update reconfigures the King's Canyon map

The new season of Apex Legends begins August 1, at 10 a.m. Pacific / 1 p.m. Eastern, and with it come a myriad of changes. The official patch notes for Season 14, referred to as Hunted, were just released by developer Respawn Entertainment, and they give fans a much clearer idea of what to expect when dropping in for the rest of the season. With so much to sift through in the expansive patch notes, here are the 5 biggest changes to look out for.

6. Balance updates

As with every season, Hunted is bringing balancing changes to many of the game's weapons and heroes. Barrels on SMGs and Pistols are being replaced with a new attachment called Laser Sights that brings a reduced hipfire speed.

The Bocek Compound Bow is receiving a damage increase from 70 to 60 at full draw but fired arrows can no longer be collected. The Wingman now uses sniper ammo and magazines, and sniper ammo can now stack to 28 and each ammo box contains 14 rounds instead of the previous 12. These are just some of the changes, for a full list check out the official patch notes.

5. New battle pass

A new season means a new battle pass with pretty things to unlock! The Hunted battle pass includes new legendary skins for Wraith, Caustic, and the Wingman sidearm. Vantage, Bangalore, and Horizon all have Epic skins to unlock, with full sets that complement their new heroic looks. The battle pass also features a new music pack, loading screens, emotes, banner frames, and weapon charms, and for the first time, certain challenges can now be completed in the mode of a player’s choice.

4. Increased level cap

Players can now level past account level 500 through three additional tiers of 500 levels bringing the effective maximum level maximum to Level 500 Tier 3. This increase adds 345 additional Apex Packs earnable via account leveling and ensures that everyone can earn an heirloom just by playing the game. The total number of Apex Packs earnable via account leveling is now 544.

3. Public matches map rotation

The maps rotating for public matches during hunted have also been announced. Season 13’s map rotation was Storm Point, Olympus, and World’s Edge. Hunted is keeping both World’s Edge and Storm point while Olympus is getting the chop. Kings Canyon will replace Olympus in the public matches map rotation, coinciding with the map getting a major rework.

2. Kings Canyon reforged

The return of Kings Canyon also sees the classic map gaining a major update, in fact, Respawn is referring to it as the Reforged Kings Canyon. Since season 5 both Skull Town and Thunderdome were not part of the map, having been sunk by a massive explosion caused by Loba. But with a salvage operation complete the areas have been rebuilt. The iconic skull remains the centerpiece of what is now called Relic.

The main reason for bringing back this large area is in response to player feedback that Kings Canyon has felt smaller and smaller as the game evolved. To combat issues where squads were often too close together in the early game the team created Relix to combat this issue. The design mentality when redesigning these areas of Kings canyon looks to be equality. Positions that were once extremely favorable to defending squads are now more open and give attacking squads more opportunities to put pressure on the other team. Overall, the new Kings Canyon looks to return the map to a more substantial size to let squads breathe while still allowing for fair firefights that don’t favor certain positions of power too much.

1. Vantage

Of course, the biggest addition to Apex Legends coming in season 14 is the introduction of the game’s newest legend, Vantage. Vantage specializes in sniping and her kit revolves around long-range combat and buffing her squad. Here is the full kit.

• PASSIVE: Spotter’s Lens - Aim down sights to scout with your eyepiece (unarmed or with mid- to long-range scopes) and use a bullet drop indicator to see where your shots will land.
• TACTICAL: Echo Location - Position your winged companion Echo and then Launch toward him. Must have a line of sight to Echo for Launch.
• ULTIMATE: Sniper’s Mark - Use your custom sniper rifle to mark enemy targets which applies a damage bonus for you and your team.