Mags blew up a chunk of Kings Canyon in Apex Legends’ season eight launch trailer today, but a hidden thumbnail in the video may deliver a first look at what a section of the new landscape could look like.
The launch trailer ends with a promo screen and a link to Fuse’s episode of Stories from the Outlands, “Good As Gold.” But a YouTube annotation conceals a screenshot of the updated area near Slum Lakes, according to data miner Shrugtal.
The image shows an areaāa ābigger POI with better loot and better combat space,ā according to design director Jason McCordā with two small industrial facilities opposite each other: one on the west and another on the east. They seem to have more than one story and a series of walkways and stairs that will allow players to navigate through the outside. The top floor of one structure contains a series of small house-like buildings, likely connected to each other, while the other appears to resemble the snake-like houses in Geyser or Survey Camp.
Visually, the area is reminiscent of more modern additions to Apex Legends, including the clean industrial style of buildings in World’s Edge, and, more recently, in Capacitor in Kings Canyon. The surrounding POIs, including the Pit and Runoff, seem to be in one piece.
Slum Lakes was a Skull Town-like maze, a concentrated, loot-filled shanty town that would normally benefit close-to-mid-range encounters due to the sheer amount of cover and visual obstruction. It seems like its substitute will change that dynamic and make for clearer combat opportunities inside the buildings, and make it easier for mid-to-long-range combat across the POIāan unlikely scenario with Slum Lakes.
The updated Kings Canyon will come to Apex when season eight, Mayhem, lands on Feb. 2.
