Apex Legends Season 8: Patch Notes, New Character, And Everything You Need To Know

Apex Legends Season 8: Mayhem has officially begun (see the Apex Legends Season 8 patch notes), adding playable character Fuse, new battle pass rewards, in-game balancing adjustments, the 30-30 Repeater, and some welcome map changes to Kings Canyon.

Season 8 begins days before Apex Legends second birthday. Apex Legends has had a transformative second year, and Respawn is celebrating its fans with the Anniversary Collection Event, which begins February 9 and continues to February 23. The limited-time event offers a second chance for players to acquire 24 fan-favorite character and weapon skins that have come and gone over the past two years, as well as earn any of the existing legend heirlooms. Following the event, Apex Legends will release for Nintendo Switch.

New Character: Fuse

Fuse is known as the "Bombastic Explosives Expert," possessing special abilities that allow him to aid his squadmates with explosive style. His passive ability, Grenadier, allows him to stack two grenades per inventory slot and naturally fling grenades further, faster, and more accurately. Fuse's tactical ability, Knuckle Cluster, fires a cluster bomb that's great for dealing damage and explosively breaking closed doors. And finally, his ultimate ability, The Motherlode, fires a bombardment that encircles an area in fire, both dealing damage and trapping foes.

• Fuse Guide: Tips For Best Using Season 8's New Character

New Weapon: 30-30 Repeater

Season 8 adds a new heavy ammo assault rifle to the Apex Games: the 30-30 Repeater. This gun functions similarly to the G7-Scout but fires with an additional punch at the cost of fire rate and reload speed. Additionally, while aiming down sights, the 30-30 Repeater will begin to charge, allowing you to fire a more powerful shot. This puts the 30-30 Repeater into a mid- to long-range role, encouraging players to carefully take their shots from a distance as opposed to rapidly firing in the midst of a hectic firefight.

Map Changes: A New Kings Canyon

Kings Canyon gets its third major remake at the start of Season 8, with Maggie's terrorist attack on the arena causing the destruction of the entire northern portions of the map. Structures have been built in the aftermath, with brand-new areas now connecting to damaged portions of Runoff, Artillery, and The Pit. Slum Lakes is also just gone now--it's been replaced by Spotted Lakes.

• Apex Legends' Kings Canyon Has Been Fixed With Season 8: Mayhem

New Battle Pass

At the start of Season 8, you'll have a brand-new battle pass to work through and more sets of challenges in order to do so. Per usual, the premium track of the battle pass includes two brand-new legendary skins--Bad to the Bone for Lifeline and Radical Action for Bangalore--and new legendary reactionary weapon skins for reaching level 100 and level 110. This time around, the weapon in question is the Longbow DMR.