Rather than bringing a new playable Legend with the season, Respawn is instead working on reworking its Class system. When Season 16: Revelry hits Apex Legends on February 14, the game will feature five classes: Assault, Recon, Skirmisher, Controller, and Support.

The unique perks for each class is supposed to bring about fundemental differences between the classes, including with aspects such as how a Legend interacts with new loot bins, or even how the Legend goes about reviving teammates.

The update will also bring in new buffs and nerfs for balancing for Legends like Lifeline, Seer, and Wraith. More details are slated to be revealed when the patch notes are released closer to the new season.

Season 16 of Apex Legends is also going to bring with it a team deathmatch mode.

Xbox Series X/S players will automatically be upgraded to the best version courtesy of Smart Delivery. For PS5 players who have the game installed, they need to go to it on the dashboard. Select “Options” right next to “Play Game” and then “Select Version.” Download the PS5 version and voila. Once this is done, the PS4 version can be safely deleted.

As for the Warriors Collection Event, it will be available until April 12th and features the return of the 9v9 mode Control. It will also add new Legendary skins for Octane, Ash, Lifeline and Horizon along with a new Heirloom, Crypto’s Biwon Blade, and a new Arenas map called Drop Off. Stay tuned for more details in the meantime.

Along with all of the new content, the increased player count could also be attributed to the third year anniversary celebration. Respawn Entertainment is doling out free characters and themed packs each week until March 1st. Octane is currently available this week with Wattson being free to claim on February 15th to 22nd and Valkyrie available on February 22nd to March 1st.

Apex Legends is currently available for Xbox One, PS4, PC and Nintendo Switch. The Xbox Series X/S and PS5 versions could be releasing soon based on recent ratings in Taiwan and Europe so stay tuned.

Aside from the usual music packs, emotes, holographic sprays and loading screens,the Battle Pass offers cosmetic sets for Seer, Ash, Loba, Lifeline, and Crypto. These offer character skins, weapon skins, weapon charms and banner frames befitting each character. As for the free rewards, an Octane character skin, Apex Packs, win trackers, Apex Coins, weapon skins and more will be offered.

Those who login to Apex Legends can also claim some free rewards to celebrate the shooter’s three year anniversary. A free character and themed packs will be offered each week from today till March 1st, starting with Octane, then Wattson and finally Valkyrie. Stay tuned for more details on Season 12: Defiance in the meantime.

It also provides increased movement speed when Maggie is carrying a shotgun, making it that much easier to hose down fleeing enemies. When dealing with enemies hiding in Gibraltar’s shield dome, the Riot Drill comes in handy. It attaches to an obstacle and burns anything on the other side.

Finally, there’s her Ultimate, Wrecking Ball. It’s a bouncing, rolling ball that unleashes speed-boosting pads for players that walk over it while also detonating near enemies. For more details and gameplay of Apex Legends: Season 12 – Defiance, head here. Stay tuned for more details when it goes live next week.

Control sees two teams battling it out to occupy three key points on the map (much like Hardpoint in Call of Duty). Control the points, accrue points and fight off your opponents in the process. The mode offers respawns for slain players to get back into the action quickly. As for Mad Maggie, her abilities are briefly showcased, from a device that fires through cover with flames with a bouncing bomb that unleashes smaller cluster bombs.

Olympus has also changed with several buildings being teleported into a different locations, rearranging the structure of the map. Along with all of this is a new Battle Pass, the three year anniversary celebration of the shooter (which confers free rewards) and the 3rd Anniversary Collection Event which offers several new skins. Season 12: Defiance begins on February 8th – stay tuned for more details in the coming week.

Along with random destruction and rubble, the map now seems to be situated in a completely different location. Of course, time will tell if this is actually the case so stay tuned for more detailed changes in the coming days. As for Maggie, her abilities are briefly showcased like sticking a deployable flamethrower to surfaces.

Apex Legends: Season 12 – Defiance also adds a new limited-time 9v9 mode Control along with a new Battle Pass and Ranked Season. It goes live free for Xbox One, PS4, PC and Nintendo Switch. Along with Defiance, Respawn will also celebrate the shooter’s three year anniversary by releasing a free character and Themed Packs for three weeks starting February 8th.

From February 15th to 22nd, Wattson can be unlocked permanently for free (along with three Thematic packs for her). February 22nd to March 1st is Valkyrie’s turn and players not only receive three Thematic Packs as well but also one Legendary Pack. Those who already own the characters will receive their Thematic Packs and Legendary Pack for free.

Apex Legends: Season 12 – Defiance begins in February and introduces a new 9v9 limited-time mode called Control, changes to Olympus and the addition of Mad Maggie as the newest Legend. The launch trailer for the new season arrives on January 27th so stay tuned for more details in the coming days.

The launch trailer for Season 12 – Defiance arrives on January 27th but the first details for the same have already been revealed. A new limited-time 9v9 mode Control will be available for the first three weeks of the season and sees players battling to hold control points. Respawns are unlimited and loadouts can be chosen from the outset.

Olympus also makes a return with something about the city being touted as “different.” We’ll find out more details in the coming days so stay tuned. Apex Legends: Season 12 – Defiance begins in February on Xbox One, PS4, PC and Nintendo Switch. Stay tuned for more details in the coming weeks.

Complementary weapons skins are also offered and can be obtained in either the store or through the prize track (with 1,600 points doled out via challenges each day). There are 24 new limited-time cosmetics in the event and unlocking all of them rewards the newest Heirloom – Wattson’s Energy Reader.

As for the Winter Express, it’s a limited time mode which sees three squads boarding the train on World’s Edge to capture it. This time around, players can choose load-outs before venturing forth, thus adding some strategy to the experience. Check out some of the patch notes below, which details upcoming fixes for Legends like Wattson, and full patch notes here.

Patch Notes

Legends

• Wattson: Fixed the issue with fences “sticking” when trying to place a node near a fence.
• Wattson: Fixed bug for cases where Wattson’s Fence nodes ignored player collision.
• Wattson: Fixed bug with the blueprint line not showing up to signify where the fence will be created.
• Wattson: Fixed issue where Caustic’s Ultimate isn’t zapped by the Interception Pylon.
• Wattson: Fixed bug where Arc Stars could stick to and damage the Interception Pylon
• Ash: Based on feedback we’ve increased the audio presence of Ash’s Ultimate.
• Ash will no longer “bleed” when shot and now displays sparks [like Pathfinder and Revenant].
• Ash: fixed cases where a grid pattern would show on some rare and common skins.
• Valkyrie / Revenant: Fixed a bug where using a Skydive with Death Totem at a specific time caused Valkyrie’s skydive to enter a bugged state.
• Valkyrie: Fix for Birthright Skin where Valk’s jetpack control clips into her hands in first person.

Arenas

• Arenas: Fixed bug where Seer could continuously charge his tactical after it’s reached zero uses.
• Arenas: Reduced reconnect times since the matches are shorter than a Battle Royale match.
• Arenas: Fix for missing ammo UI on the common, rare, or epic, CAR.
• Arenas: Fix for missing horizontal black bars while spectating.
• Arenas: Fix for cases where the Death Tab is missing from the shop window.