Apex Legends to add permanent duo mode and map rotation starting April 7th by Nick Statt

Apex Legends to add permanent duo mode and map rotation starting April 7th – Image: Respawn

Respawn’s battle royale title Apex Legends will add a permanent duos playlist to the game starting April 7th, the developer announced on Thursday. The decision is a welcome one for fans of the game who have long clamored for more variety in how the game can be played without needing to login for a special, limited-time event.

Also starting the same day is permanent map rotation, so players will be dropping into both Kings Canyon and World’s Edge. It’s not clear if players will be able to choose — Respawn doesn’t say explicitly how the map rotation will work. It’s likely it will be random, and it appears the map rotation and duos playlist will be for casual, noncompetitive play to start. The competitive mode still requires three-player squads and currently remains fixed on Kings Canyon after the first half featured only World’s Edge play.

Regardless of how it works exactly, it’s now clear Apex Legends is following more in the footsteps of Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds, which built out a selection of maps and offers only a few different game modes, than Epic’s Fortnite, which has just one ever-changing map but offers numerous game modes at any given time and lets players play in groups ranging from solo to as many as 50.

Image: Respawn

While April 7th will see the permanent addition of duos, there is in fact a limited-time event launching the same day. Called The Old Ways Lore, the Bloodhound-centric event will feature a new playlist called Bloodhound’s Trials that pits participants against AI enemy beasts, as well as other human players. The event will also feature a slew of new weapon and character skins, a redesigned event prize track so you can earn exclusive cosmetics without paying any real money, and a special direct purchase shop for players comfortable with dropping cash in exchange for new items.

This story was originally featured at https://www.theverge.com/2020/4/3/21207093/apex-legends-duos-permanent-playlist-mode-map-rotation-april-7