The War Games event in Apex Legends took off, but not without major obstacles. Respawn had to remove three out of five takeovers from the event after a series of issues, including glitches with progression and server outages.
The War Games event was slated to add five different takeovers, each with its own mutators that range from auto banner pick-ups and one free respawn to shield regeneration. Out of the five takeovers, only two made a full cycle in the rotation without major instability, and they will remain in rotation until the event ends. Here’s the updated schedule:
- Armor Regen: Tuesday, April 13 to Thursday, April 15
- Ultra Zones: Thursday, April 15 to Wednesday, April 21
- Armor Regen: Wednesday, April 21 to Tuesday, April 27
The two modes still offer a way to spice up gameplay in Apex. Ultra Zones is a callback to the season six limited-time mode Flashpoint, while Armor Regen gives everyone a (turbocharged) taste of Wattson’s passive.
Armor Regen
Wattson is the only legend that can passively regenerate shields—at least when this mode isn’t in rotation. In this takeover, all legends will regenerate 12 points of armor per second and will start to heal after eight seconds of no damage (16 if it was cracked). There are no Shield Cells in the loot pool, which means that finding a lull in combat might be as important as pushing.
Ultra Zones
This mode is for players who like to drop hot. Ultra Zones introduces the concept of several hot zones in a map and borrows the concept of Flash Points from the season six limited-time mode. Each hot zone will contain high-tier loot as usual. In addition, the Flash Point will replenish players’ health and shields when standing inside them. Healing items, however, will still spawn in the loot pool—unlike in Flashpoint.
Scrapped Modes
The War Games event intended to bring five different takeovers, but only two of them went by without any major hitches. Auto Banners and Second Chance made a brief appearance in the game before being removed, and Killing Time didn’t even reach the rotation. Here’s what the takeovers looked like—and why they didn’t make the cut.
Auto Banners
If you’re not playing Octane, odds are you won’t have an easy time recovering a fallen teammate’s banner. In this mode, however, grabbing a banner is as easy as staying alive. In Auto Banners, whenever a squadmate dies, their card is automatically retrieved and players are ready to go to a Respawn Beacon and get them back in the fight.
The mode made a brief appearance in the rotation on April 19, but Respawn removed it after it caused a series of issues with Apex servers.
Killing Time
Killing Time is the only takeover of the five that never made it to the game. Respawn preemptively removed it alongside Auto Banners to avoid further instability—though the studio has said that it will “save Killing Time for a later date.”
This takeover aims to crank the pace of the game into high gear. The round timer will shrink whenever a legend dies. So if there’s a particularly bloody round, it’s time to pack up and leave before the ring gets you.
Second Chance
Second Chance was the first takeover in the War Games and the first one to get the axe. A bug pulled the brakes on the progression in the game, and any experience, challenge, or Battle Pass progress would not count, according to reports by players. Respawn switched it out for the Armor Regen mode on the same day.
Second Chance offered all legends one free respawn during a match. After each player’s first death, the game would consume their respawn token and send them back to jump from the dropship with all their gear, ready to fight again.
During this takeover, Respawn disabled the Assassin, Wake, and Wrath badges “since these prestigious badges would be far easier to unlock in this mode.” The badges refer to finishing games with more than five kills, killing over 20 opponents, and dealing high amounts of damage.
Although Respawn has hinted at a return of Killing Time, it’s unclear if takeovers such as Second Chance or Auto Banner will make their comeback to Apex or not.
