Apex Legends’ Fight Night event kicks off on Jan. 5

Apex Legends will pack a punch in 2021—literally.

The battle royale is getting a Pathfinder-themed event called “Fight Night” next week. The event is bringing a series of new additions to kick off 2021 with a blast, including a new collection, Gibraltar’s heirloom set, a boxing ring for a Pathfinder Town Takeover, and a new take on limited-time modes—and it launches at 10pm CT on Jan. 5.

Get in the ring

Respawn has big plans for Pathfinder. We recently saw the Forward Scout get his own episode of Stories from the Outlands and now he has his own event—complete with a Town Takeover.

The event will place a boxing ring in Olympus near the intersection of Docks and Power Grid, and the only way to defeat your enemies there is with your bare hands. “Entering the ring will prevent any player from using their weapons and any of their abilities,” the official blog says. “and don’t worry about any outside ring interference—no outside projectiles, grenades, or abilities can penetrate the ring’s force field.”

Game type takeover: Airdrop Escalation

Fight Night is bringing in a new game type and overhauling how Apex handles LTMs. Airdrop Escalation will be available for the duration of the event and will take over the matchmaking queue. Instead of choosing between casual modes and the new LTM, players will only have the option to queue into Airdrop Escalation.

The limited-time ruleset will drop an increasing number of supply drops from the beginning of every match, each with a fully-kitted weapon. Earlier rounds will have lower-tier guns, but the later stages of the match can drop red Evo Shields and care package weapons. Normal weapons will still appear as ground loot, however.

The new takeover model is another experiment by Respawn. Instead of dividing players into two separate queues, the game will temporarily shift exclusively to the new game mode. Airdrop Escalation isn’t as much of a departure from the core gameplay as other limited-time modes (such as last year’s Flashpoint), which may make it a good candidate for the experiment.

New collection and Gibraltar’s Heirloom

It wouldn’t be a collection event without new cosmetics, and Fight Night is bringing a truckload of them. The event-exclusive visuals include new outfits for Wattson, Mirage, Crypto, Revenant, Loba, Lifeline, and others—including the star of the show himself.

Pathfinder’s new visual is a reference to the Fight Night cinematic short when the MRVN disguised himself with a trenchcoat and fedora to avoid detection. Based on the trailer, the new cosmetic could have a unique character select animation that has him fight a Specter—similar to how other visuals from the Stories from the Outlands series, like Wraith’s Voidwalker and Bloodhound’s Young Blood, come with their own animations.

Getting all 24 cosmetics in the collection will reward players with a special item: Gibraltar’s heirloom set. His heirloom weapon first appeared during the season seven quest. In Family Portrait, Gibby appears to be holding an ax-like object called a Patu. The quest revealed it was custom-made by his then-boyfriend Nik and Gibraltar kept it after all those years. Players who don’t complete the set during the event, however, can still snag the battle-ax with the elusive Heirloom Shards.

Loot-dropping MRVNs

The ending of the season seven quest saw the legends recover an antique battery from Lifeline’s father and players will be able to use it in-game. Interacting with the friendly robots will drop some items based on the tier displayed on their built-in monitors. Players who shoot MRVNs can grab their arms and transplant them into another robot to get some loot—but if you do this, you’re probably a bad person.