Apex Legends is just about to hit its 30th season, and with this milestone, some iconic Legends and important gameplay features, like looting, are getting a makeover. Bloodhound has been the main focus this season, as no new Legend has been announced. And with their changes alongside new POIs and a new looting system is coming soon, there’s plenty to discuss.
In an exclusive interview with Dot Esports, the developers at Respawn Entertainment sat down to discuss to upcoming season changes, where the developers found inspiration for this season’s updates, and how the meta might evolve as Apex Legends speeds up.
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A new, improved Bloodhound
Changing a well-known and beloved Legend is a big task, but keeping older characters up to speed with new ones is just as important as Apex Legends enters its 30th season. For Bloodhound, that means improved abilities and an entirely new ultimate.
Dot Esports: Could you guys tell us a bit about why you went in this direction to give Bloodhound more stealth for their ultimate?
Devin Weise, Senior Technical Designer: It was time for a Bloodhound refresh. We tried three different versions of an ultimate, so we tried to prototype different ideas to find what’s going to be the best, what’s going to feel unique, what’s going to sort of make the kit still feel cohesive?
So that’s where we landed on this idea of cloaking. It felt like it actually added something new. We’ve touched a little bit of cloaking with Mirage and Crypto having some aspects of that, but not really something that everyone can access. It felt new, it felt unique, but also it kept the identity of Bloodhound, which was very strong and people liked.
Previously, it was sort of like you can get some scans off, but you’re sort of more reliant on your team to create openings, and maybe you can try and clean some stuff up. With this, you can sort of have your own go button if you spot some weakness with your tactical or your passive, like let’s throw this down and let’s go.
Dot Esports: You guys have said in the past that you don’t like direct counters, but I was wondering if this was a counter to more of the scan-based meta, like Seer?
“Cloaked elements can also create a little bit more uncertainty.”
Devin Weise, Senior Technical Designer at Respawn
Devin Weise, Senior Technical Designer: I think a big reason Seer went up [in the pick rate] was less about the scan, it was more about the big slow and then, with that one upgrade, you can fire off a lot if you’re within your ultimate. So I think those sort of conversion to the scan was there, but it’s also you’re getting a heavy slow pretty frequently. Because honestly, scans are sort of one of the counter, or soft counters to the cloak. If someone is cloaked around you, like Seer or Bloodhound can scan you. They don’t have the full body highlight, they don’t have wall hacks, but they will have a diamond scan or something to give you the indication that someone’s there.
So there is a sort of soft counter to scanning, if anything, I think it’s the cloaked elements can also create a little bit more uncertainty, where now it maybe slows down some of the speed-based comps. If you’re an Octane team, an Axle team, just trying to dive on everybody, well now maybe you dive in and you didn’t realize, because you were moving so fast, you didn’t see there’s a cloaked squad next to you.
So adding some uncertainty to that might also help almost slow down the meta and play against the movement characters some more. So that’s where we felt like adding this element can really create new gameplay opportunities that really haven’t been seen in Apex yet.
New look for World’s Edge
With a reworked Legend comes an updated map, as World’s Edge gets a new night sky–bright with aurora borealis–and three new POIs (points-of-interest), including some created by Bloodhound’s tribe. These new locations bring a new aesthetic, something that hasn’t been seen in the Apex Games before.
Dot Esports: I was wondering what the design process was like for those POIs and if you had any real world inspirations to share?
“One of the really different inspirations that I was able to find was actually Valheim player builds on YouTube.”
Michael Shannon, Senior Level Designer at Respawn
Michael Shannon, Senior Level Designer: We tried to align this update with the Bloodhound rework, so this update is really driven by Bloodhound’s story that we’ve been telling with World’s Edge for a few years now where Bloodhound’s tribe has been struggling against the industry making the planet unlivable.
So we started from the stories from the Outlands trailer, which actually showed Bloodhound’s tribe and some of their buildings to our players for the first time, and we started from there, and then we branched out to different Nordic architecture and a few other places as well. One of the really different inspirations that I was able to find was actually Valheim player builds on YouTube.
What really excites me about it is just how different it looks from what we’ve done, you know, not only on World’s Edge, but just in Apex in general, because for us the competitive sentiment on World’s Edge is pretty good, the casual sentiment is pretty good as well. The map’s just a little stale. So for us, bringing something that looks really, really different and feels really different was something that we were really excited to do.
Revamping Apex’s loot system
Two major changes coming in Season 30 of Apex Legends are the addition of corrupted attachments and an overhaul to looting–something the team at Respawn has been tweaking over the past few years. This overhaul means the removal of extended supply and weapon bins, something that the Assault and Support classes uniquely benefit from (though no longer).
With this in mind, we asked the developers at Respawn about the design process behind these changes.
Dot Esports: What about weapon attachments made the design team feel they needed a major overhaul?
Casey O’Brien, Game Designer II: The attachment conversation kind of came out of early explorations of what does Apex look like if it were just completely different? What if we completely changed how weapons and looting looked? We spent a long time exploring that, looking at different games, and kind of feeling out how Apex could change from that standpoint.
During that process, the one thing we really found was the idea of a kiss-curse felt good in Apex. Adding in that extra wrinkle, that extra layer of complexity when looting, to ask yourself not only ‘hey, what weapon do I run? But if I find one of these, which one do I want to find? Which benefit do I want to take? Which negative do I want to try and overcome?’ So it really came from exploration, looking at the whole picture, and then we narrowed in on corrupted attachments as this really interesting layer.
We wanted to add in this extra layer of looting, this new experience, to really complement with everything what was going on with our looting changes and kind of having these exciting moments of ‘I found this cool new item, I found this corrupt attachment’. It feels good again, because we’ve restructured how looting looks.
Dot Esports: Is there any concern about RNG being a factor? If a corrupt attachment becomes extra meta, are there any concerns about it not being as available?
Casey O’Brien: I think it’s always something to look at, to pay attention to how our players react, how our pros react. We’ll definitely be watching, definitely be evaluating.
As for the RNG aspect of it, I will say that one of the things we were able to do with this looting experience is while we were stripping back some of the layers of complexity, some of the layers of giving you quality loot. One of the things we haven’t taken away is, I think, a lot of the quality of life improvements that we’ve made to our looting over the years. With this new update, one of the things we wanted to do is say, you’re gonna know where you’re going to get good loot.
“It feels good again, because we’ve restructured how looting looks.”
Casey O’Brien, Game Designer II at Respawn
Dot Esports: With loot being overhauled, and extended supply bins and weapon bins going away, will the assault and support classes get any different benefits to replace?
Casey O’Brien, Game Designer II: That is a really good question and something we are aware of and are going to be monitoring. Currently, no, they will not receive any extra benefit because of the removal of those two loot bins.
Assault and Support classes are both two of our very powerful classes in Apex–we’re particularly talking about EVO Gains here–they’re already quite strong, they already gain a lot of different EVO sources and power through their core kits and core gameplay, when you compare them to, say, a Recon or Controller in how the current landscape is. We’re gonna see how it shakes up. Currently, they will not receive any extra benefits, but we have not forgotten about them.
A look back on 30 seasons
With so many seasons under their belt, and the constant changes that come with tweaking a live service game, a look backwards at what Apex Legends once was seemed prudent, along with a sneak peek into what the developers think will make the biggest impacts in the upcoming season.
Dot Esports: In Season 30, were there any small changes that you guys think will have a big impact?
Casey O’Brien: I think, not necessarily a small change, but an impact that might go under the radar is the change to looting, and how that specifically affects Loba. As loot has progressed throughout the years, we’ve kind of been in the loot inflation. There’s been a lot of rare items–purples, golds–that have been injected into the loot pool at a higher cadence. So Loba’s ability, her passive of being able to track down all these items to steal them all from the market has been falling a little flat.
When you play the game today, there’s just good loot everywhere. With this overall change to looting, with us bringing the quality down, kind of stretching that phase out over the course of the whole match, instead of just giving you all the good stuff at the beginning, Loba’s power certainly has spiked with this change.
Devin Weise: Another thing I’ll just point out is the Bloodhound passive, where you can now activate white ravens just by looking at them, similar to the care package and sight perk. That seems small, but being able to do that just feels so good and, in terms of gameplay, it really helps you track enemies pretty frequently.
“Loba’s power certainly has spiked with this change.”
Casey O’Brien, Game Designer II at Respawn
Especially if you get a new upgrade that lets a raven split, it really helps you keep an eye on where are the nearest enemies who can threaten us, who can threaten our rotations, where should we potentially rotate to and cut off some squads? Having quick access to the bird without having to use your tactical to scan the bird helps you not reveal yourself to enemies, and it lets you get this information a lot more frequently.
The 30th season
Apex Legends has hit the milestone of 30 seasons, and with such a high number in a live service game, some reflection and nostalgia is necessary. Looking back at all of the seasons and eras we’ve seen in the Outlands, the developers revealed a few of their favorite pieces of the game from its earlier days.
Dot Esports: Now that we’re in Season 30, do you have any favorite elements from the early seasons that aren’t around anymore that you feel nostalgic for?
Casey O’Brien, Game Designer II: I was a day one player, dropped in, and experiencing it all for the first time is something I do really miss. Something that we would do all the time when me and my squad were first playing is looking at the champion banners around the world, and trying to match the champion, like the squad they’re playing, the skins they’re using, and then we’re out fighting being like, oh, that’s the champion squad! We gotta play, cause obviously the champions were the best of the best, so we have to play extra carefully.
Devin Weise, Senior Technical Designer: I worked on the original version of Ash and her old passive of being able to see where people died is something I really missed, and I think that’s why when I was playing Bloodhound and doing the redesign for Bloodhound, having access to the birds, I think maybe sort of gets some aspect of that, where just seeing where people died and sort of understanding the flow of where are fights popping off, where should we go, where’s the ring pulling.
That aspect of being able to track where fights are and try to predict where we should be. It was some gameplay I really liked and what I like about our game is even if we think, hey those things aren’t working as well, let’s place that passive, let’s give Ash a dash, and that’s something, obviously, that the team or the player base has really liked.
We always have the ability like, okay, let’s bring that back in, like, that can be a new passive for Ash, maybe that can be redesigned and put on for a new character. I think what I like about working on games like this, even if something like that goes away, we can always bring it back if we thought it worked well, and try to bring it back in a different capacity that might suit the game better at that time.
With 30 seasons under their belt, the developers at Respawn have shown that they clearly understand what their playerbase enjoys. So far, that seems to be more speed and a constant effort to bring Legends, maps, and core gameplay functions up to that speed.
Season 30 will be available on August 4, 2026, ready for players to jump in with the refreshed Bloodhound.
