Apex Legends Season 26 is removing a core gameplay feature from ranked play

With Apex Legends Season 26 fast approaching, Respawn has started drip-feeding players information about all the changes that are coming with the update. As long as my bestie Bloodhound isn't nerfed any more than they already have been, I'll be happy. Today, Respawn officially unveiled the brand new permanent mode, Wildcard, as well as detailing buffs for Caustic and Bangalore and a huge rework of the RE-45 which could make it one of the best guns in the game. However, there's one little footnote about ranked mode that I couldn't help focusing on: the fact that Apex Legends is basically removing the dropship from ranked.

As one of the best battle royale games around, Apex matches tend to follow a similar pattern: you choose when you jump from the dropship, you loot, you fight, you fight again, you win or lose. Repeat from the top, ad infinitum. However, changing the dropship changes the entire game.

The dropship still exists, you just can't choose when or where you jump from it. Players will be randomly assigned POIs, and fall to them immediately on the match starting. It's a move taken directly from the Apex Legends Global Series, the game's esports arm, and has seen great success at the highest level.

Ranked players will also get new auras as a reward. These halo-like effects work similarly to the old dive trails, but should hopefully stave off some of the toxic play associated with the former prize.

Away from ranked, Respawn is introducing a third permanent mode to the game. 30 Wildcard players will juke it out on a smaller version of Kings Canyon—already the game's smallest map—and have numerous quality of life improvements to get them into the fight quicker.

You can now toggle automatic looting, just needing to slide over a piece of ground loot to pick it up. You can also automatically respawn if one of your teammates is still alive in a similar manner to the Revivals LTM, and picking up Evo Orbs will speed up that process. Evo Orbs spawn on the floor and death boxes, and grant a little boost to your shield charge, weapon level, health regeneration, and Ultimate ability recharge timer. Put simply, they're really handy for making you do all the things you like doing, more often.

The mode also adds the eponymous Wildcards to matches. These buffs can be crafted at Wildcard Crafting Stations, and can give you perks like wall-running, unlimited Shield Batteries, or even other Legends' abilities. There will be caveats to all these perks, but it should shake up the game nonetheless.

As for weapons, the Peacekeeper has been replaced in the Care Package by the akimbo P2020, which now has the Kinetic Feeder hop-up built in. Hop-ups are now also 'locked' until you hit a certain damage threshold.

Bangalore and Caustic are getting some buffs, as is the Controller class perk. We'll also get to see e-District in the daytime, with a skybox drawing ample inspiration from Angel City—Titanfall 2 fans, you'll know what I'm talking about.

If all this gets you excited to jump back into a shooting match, check out our picks for the best multiplayer games or the best free Steam games. Spoiler: Apex appears on both lists, and I know that's what I'll be playing for the foreseeable.

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