The end of Apex Legends’ season five quest, The Broken Ghost, set the legends on a course to Olympus. All the roads in Apex seemed to lead to Psamathe, the place where Revenant murdered Loba’s parents, the home planet of Octane and Lifeline, and the location of the simulacrum’s source code.
Fans were quick to expect a new map in the battle royale, complete with cherry blossoms, skyscrapers, and the brutal competition of the Apex Games. The new season isn’t bringing a new arena, but Boosted will usher in a series of far-reaching changes to World’s Edge. And updating the Talos map has always been the plan, according to lead game designer Carlos Pineda.
The changes to World’s Edge aim to overhaul how players fight in the arena while making the map easier to traverse.The rationale behind the update was part of a two-folded process: “We try to shake things up, and then solve problems that we’ve seen in the past,” Pineda told Dot Esports.
Sculpting the new arena involved getting rid of certain choke points, creating more pathways, and giving way to new rotation options. The train was one of many casualties in the process.
The train created “a lot of dead space” around the map, Pineda said. Keeping the train going required the tunnels to be cleared, which prevented players from moving through them. With the train gone, the tunnels can be used as passageways—for instance, the new cut-through between Skyhook and Survey Camp, which seamlessly connects the northeast and northwest side of the map.
Ditching the train freed up some prime real estate, but Respawn also found a way to reuse the debris and align it to the dev team’s vision for World’s Edge. The old wagons were spread out over the map to create small “train cart towns,” Pineda said. Previously inaccessible areas, such as the tunnels, now house some loot and have train cars that serve as cover. “Even running along the train tracks can be pretty comfortable,” according to Pineda.
The new World’s Edge, with its several pathways and cut-throughs, is easier to traverse than ever. But the map update isn’t just about opening up new avenues. Players can also restrict or control the flow of competitors to certain areas through fortified blast walls.
The blast walls are in the three new POIs: Launch Site, Countdown, and Staging. Activating them will raise a fortified platform that can shut off access to several pathways, forcing players to find their way around the blockades—or over them if their squad has an Octane or Pathfinder.
The new feature was born out of Respawn “trying to shake things up,” according to Pineda. The blast walls add to the spice of the new, fortified Hammond POIs and will help create an “interesting kind of play that we haven’t seen in the past.”
Despite the rumors of a new arena, overhauling the map was already in Respawn’s sights. “World’s Edge has always been planned for season six,” Pineda said. “That hasn’t been pushed back.”
Updating World’s Edge is a surefire way to shake up matches as part of the two-folded design process. And based on the sheer magnitude of the update, the new version of World’s Edge will certainly change how players fight in the Apex Games—even if it’s not in a new arena.
