Game-changing new Apex Legends feature is being playtested, according to leaker

Respawn has never shied away from tweaking the core experience of Apex Legends in pursuit of giving its players new experiences. But if leaks are accurate, the devs are about to do it again with a feature that could fundamentally change Apex forever.

According to Oxygen Esports team manager, content creator, and insider Thordan Smash, Respawn is currently playtesting a perks system for Apex akin to the system used in Apex Legends Mobile. If the feature makes it to the full game, it would create an unlockable form of progression for players that doubles as a means to customize each character and their abilities—paving the way for players to create their own custom legend builds and ability sets.

For those who never played the mobile game, the perks system there was full of tweaks to different characters’ abilities. These were separated in the game’s loadout page as perks, which adjusted a character’s passive ability, finishers, which gave legend-specific buffs to characters if they completed a finisher move, and abilities, which tweaked the character’s tactical ability. You could only select one perk for each category, creating choices for how you wanted to play a certain character and what you wanted to do with them in a game.

These perks could be as simple as a character restoring a little bit of extra health from syringes or regaining a bit of shield upon using their tactical, or much more consequential, like Pathfinder being able to use his grapple hook to pull downed teammates to safety, or using a finisher gifting you a better hop up for one of your equipped weapons.

Clearly, the development team is taking cues from the shuttered mobile game for this one, although it’s unclear exactly how much like the mobile game’s perk system this would end up being.

Thordan also noted that even he doesn’t have any clue on a release date for the feature, and as it’s just being playtested, it could still undergo some big changes before it’s released in the live game. But if it does come to Apex, it will give the longstanding battle royale a customization option that could very well see it forward into the next five years of its life.

The feature could also be a significant boon to keeping Apex esports fresh and interesting for both players and viewers. The added wrinkle of coming up with character builds in addition to team compositions opens the door for more player creativity and new synergies to arise. Adding new perks to the character perk pool also seems like a good way to give micro-buffs and nerfs to characters for slight meta adjustments that don’t require a massive balance update.

All told, a perk system could be exactly what Apex needs to keep pushing the boundaries of the game forward and keep players excited to play in the coming years.