Apex Legends Is Unlikely To Get Permanent Solos Anytime Soon

With the start of The Old Ways event, Respawn added Duos to Apex Legends, the first permanent mode to come to the battle royale game since the addition of Ranked in Season 2: Battle Charge. Both Solos and Duos have appeared in Apex Legends as limited-time modes before, though Respawn says that the former is unlikely to be permanently added to the game like Duos has.

"When we introduced Solos as a limited-time mode last year we saw it actually negatively impacted the game, especially when it came to new player retention," Respawn writes in The Old Ways update patch notes. "We've also purposely designed legends and their abilities to compliment teamplay and squad composition, but when played solo some legend abilities become useless."

That said, Respawn added that the team hasn't completely given up on the idea of a single-player mode and will continue "exploring ways to allow a solo experience." No further details were provided.

The Old Ways update adds several other permanent features to Apex Legends as well, including a map rotation system. Though Ranked mode will remain on one map at a time (in this case, it's currently on Season 2 Kings Canyon following Season 4: Assimilation's ranked series split), the Play Apex playlist will rotate through several different maps. For now, Play Apex (in both Trios and Duos mode) will rotate between Season 2 Kings Canyon, After Dark Kings Canyon, and Season 4 World's Edge.

The map rotations occur every 90 minutes, though Respawn writes it will be "tweaking" the pace as the developer studies the data. Additionally, Respawn will be "introducing other versions of previously released Kings Canyon and World's Edge maps into the rotation from time to time to keep it fresh." Currently, the missing maps are pre-season Kings Canyon, Season 1 Kings Canyon, Fight or Fright Kings Canyon, Season 3 World's Edge, and Holo-Day Bash World's Edge though Respawn hasn't revealed which--if any--of these maps will ultimately be added to the Play Apex rotation.

The Old Ways makes several adjustments to characters too--most notably giving Revenant a terrifyingly large buff and making Lifeline into a more supportive teammate--as well as adding new epic and legendary cosmetics and a Bloodhound-themed town takeover to World's Edge.