Apex Legends Season 5's New Kings Canyon Hatches Will Unlock Later Down The Line

Respawn has continued to make bold storytelling decisions when it comes to Apex Legends and that trend has continued in Season 5: Fortune's Favor as the battle royale game moves towards a true episodic experience. Apparently Season 5 is already hinting at upcoming content with the map changes made to Kings Canyon, like the addition of mysterious hatches that seemingly lead to bunker-looking areas that can't yet be accessed.

"The hatches are a fun way to sprinkle changes throughout the map," Apex Legends design director Jason McCord said, according to VG247. "We don't have to make massive changes everywhere, we can sprinkle these things around. We're doing something kind of new, where we have some stuff that is there, but is not unlocked yet. And we're going to unlock it at a certain time, that lines up with some other stuff that we have coming."

Some of this content could have already been teased in Season 5. McCord said he thinks there are still Easter eggs and secrets tied to the new content in Season 5 that fans haven't yet discovered, which may or may not be hinting towards Season 5's "pleasant surprise" for Titanfall fans.

At the very least, we know it won't be Titans. Grenier told VG247 that an early build of Apex Legends included Titans and Pilots and wallrunning, but it was a "huge challenge" to balance Titanfall's fast gameplay and massive mechs into a battle royale. "How do you design a map that supports both big and small?" Grenier asked. "How do you balance a game where you have Titans and squishy pilots? How do you have a competitive game where everyone can move around the map at a high rate of speed with the wall running?"

McCord added that there are other mechanics and features that Respawn tried in Apex Legends that ultimately didn't work out but may make it into the game down the line. For example, Respawn tried adding molotov cocktail-like grenades in the past and though it didn't work out before, the team hasn't completely dismissed the idea.

When I spoke to McCord and Apex Legends game director Chad Greiner, both explained that Respawn is already looking ahead when it comes to content coming in future seasons--the team is finalizing the new legends for Seasons 6-8 and working on content as far out as Season 11. "They've got models--not fully, some of them aren't fully fleshed out--and personalities and we know what they look like, their backstories," Greiner said.