Apex Legends’<\/em> season 13 is now live, bringing a new contender to the Apex Games and monstrous changes to Storm Point. The Games’ latest competitor, Newcastle, is a defensive character who will do anything to get his squad out of harm’s way, and fans will step into a different version of Storm Point starting this season.<\/p>
Newcastle, the newest competitor, is coming to the Apex Games to protect his family. After the original Newcastle failed to qualify for the competition and sold his city to a crime syndicate, Jackson Williams\u2014Bangalore’s brother\u2014took on the mantle of Newcastle to protect his city and family.<\/p>
That will to protect others shows up in his kit, with the legend bringing some unique defensive capacities to Apex<\/em>. He can shield and carry wounded allies while reviving them at the expense of his knockdown shield, or he can throw in a mobile energy shield that can be redirected. His ultimate lets him leap toward a position or a wounded ally, giving him the chance to turn a fight around (and make a heroic entrance).<\/p>
Storm Point is also seeing significant changes with the addition of the Downed Beast POI<\/a>, the corpse of the kaiju-like beasts the legends defeated in the season 13 launch trailer<\/a>. The map update to the Gaea arena will also add IMC Armories as a new map toy<\/a>. These completely bulletproof bunkers will have players fight waves of Spectres to get some smart loot after a minute has passed, giving them an opportunity to gear up\u2014but not without a fight.<\/p>
For the more competitive players, season 13 is also bringing in a slew of changes to the ranked mode<\/a>, which aim to encourage teamwork. These include changes to kill points, the addition of a demotion system, and a host of other tweaks to the mode.<\/p>
