Apex season 14 launch trailer shows off new Skull Town, Vantage’s abilities, and more

Apex Legends players finally got a glimpse of Vantage in the Apex games today, with the release of the Hunted launch trailer. The game’s 14th season will also heavily feature Kings Canyon, and players got a good look at a few of the major map changes coming to the map.

The trailer focuses on Vantage finding her feet in the Apex games and overcoming some of the doubts of her teammates, Fuse and Horizon. Once she gets going, however, her abilities begin to shine through, and players got their first looks of some of the leaked and teased abilities for the character in action.

Firstly, Echo is here and ready to fight. Vantage can be seen with her pet bat throughout the trailer, but toward the end, Vantage actually uses Echo to great effect, using some sort of jet pack to boost quite a long distance to the bat. It also appears that Echo distracts an enemy in the trailer when flying past them. This would be a new part of the “Echo Launch” ability that wasn’t included in the leaks but could reasonably have been included as part of Vantage’s tactical ability.

We also see Vantage’s passive in action, with her ability to more easily see legends, their distance from her, and what legend the enemy actually is either using an unarmed sight that she can flip down in front of her eye, or while looking through a sniper scope. And then there’s her custom sniper rifle, which should be her ultimate ability. While the rifle clearly does damage to opponents, it’s also interesting to note that Vantage appears to give Horizon a scan on an enemy Bloodhound by targeting the Bloodhound through a rock, and not actually shooting them. This might end up being flavor or may just be a scan available to Vantage’s eyes.

Additionally, players got their eyes on two POIs that look quite different than they did before. Most obviously, Salvage is officially gone from Kings Canyon, and a new-look, smaller Skull Town is in its place. There are also now walls surrounding the new POI, as well as more rock outcroppings and trees, and fewer open areas on the outskirts of the buildings compared to the original Skull Town. The Cage has also gotten an overhaul, with the top portion of the structure no longer walled, which makes the area feel more open as a result.

We’ll have to wait and see exactly what all these abilities and map changes look like in the gameplay trailer, which is set to release on Aug. 1. Season 14 of Apex Legends will go live on Aug. 9.