Respawn is finally ready to release the Season 1 Battle Pass for Apex Legends after revealing their plans many weeks ago. 24 hours before the intended release date, Respawn showed us what they had in store for Season 1 over a few social media networks. It included all the details, release date and even a short trailer for the Season 1 Battle Pass.
Our article will cover everything we know about the Battle Pass, including: reward structure, changes to gameplay, value and any other important bits of information so you know exactly what you’re getting into.
Apex Legends Season 1 Battle Pass Price
The current asking price for the Season 1 Battle Pass is 950 Apex Coins, which translates roughly to 10 USD (100 Apex Coins is roughly 1 USD)/£7.99, though this will vary by conversion rate and country of purchase.
This unlocks the ability to unlock all Battle Pass related content. Respawn has also provided the option to buy a ‘Battle Pass Bundle’, which gives you access to the normal Battle Pass, but also the first 25 levels unlocked instantly. Put differently, you’ll start Season 1 at level 25 instead of level one. Whether that’s worth roughly 18-20 USD, is your call to make.
For those unfamiliar with the concept, a ‘Battle Pass’ is a stream of timed rewards that you can unlock as you play. Usually, they’re divided into ‘seasons’ in which a specific set of rewards and cosmetics are available for you to permanently unlock on your account. The most popular example of this model is Fortnite, Apex Legends’ direct competitor and who they’ve heavily modeled their own Battle Pass after.
The biggest deviation from Fortnite’s design system is the lack of quests and challenges (e.g. get three headshots in a single match or do 1000 damage, etc.). Instead they’ve tied progression directly to experience earned via matches, which is the same system we’ve had pre Season 1, instead they’ve now tied it your level for the season. So if you’re looking for a relatively succinct description of the system: it’s the Fortnite Battle Pass design, sans quests.
Apex Legends Battle Pass Challenges & Gameplay Additions (Or Lack Of)
Respawn acknowledged the lack of a challenge system and feel that for their first implementation of the system they wanted to keep things relatively simple. They don’t want the initial addition of the Battle Pass to encourage player choices that deviate from normal while people are still acclimating to the game.
This is an understandable approach, especially considering that Apex Legends has a heavier focus on squad gameplay, which could make splitting off to complete a challenge a little bit more frustrating/risky than in say Fortnite, which has the option for a solo mode.
To compensate for this, Respawn is offering a progression bonus tied to playing a ‘variety of characters’. This means that if you want to maximise your ‘rewards to time spent’ ratio, you might end up on characters you’re not overly fond of (*cough* Gibraltar *cough*). Whether or not this is going to be a well received design choice or not remains to be seen.
Apex Legends Season 1 Battle Pass Rewards
The reward scheme is fairly standard fare if you’ve ever bought a Battle Pass from another game before (especially Fortnite) and is the meat of the entire system. Rewards take these forms: Gun skins, Legend skins, Legend voice lines, Legend banners, Legend stat trackers, badges, Apex Coins, Apex Packs (‘loot crates’) and XP. All of these rewards are cosmetic in nature, so none of them will increase your ability to win games (minus some hedge cases where a skin might provide ‘camouflage’ unintentionally). Finally, there are some free rewards that drop with Season 1: one Wild Frontier Legend skin, five Apex Packs and 18 Wild Frontier stat trackers that all players who log in during Season 1 will receive, no payment required.
The smattering of rewards is fairly dense, but for those of you coming from a game with a more developed Battle Pass system (i.e. Fortnite), you may find some of the rewards a little bit anemic. 20 of the 103 total Battle Pass rewards are simple level badges, which are rewarded every five levels and another 10 are just XP points. Most Battle Passes tend to have less exciting rewards, punctuated by real show stoppers, though usually the ‘less exciting’ rewards are a bit more exciting than a badge every five levels.
Most of the big rewards tend to be either a gun skin (in line with the Season’s theme), an Apex Pack or Apex Coins, which can be interesting in their own right, especially if you’re a fan of loot crates. The capstone of the reward structure is an evolving multi-stage skin for the Havoc that might very well be worth the entire Battle Pass asking price alone. Very similar in essence to the evolving character skins that cap off each Season of Fortnite’s Battle Pass.
Respawn has decided to leave a surprise for us in the actual game that wasn’t present in the Battle Pass reveal. There is an extra set of rewards for reaching level 110 this season. The first is the capstone to the ‘Wild Front’ level badges, featuring an animated beast skull. The second is a recolour of the ‘Silver Storm’ evolving Havoc skin, called the Golden Idol. These ten levels will probably be quite the slog to get, but it gives us hope that Respawn is capable of more surprises in the future.
Apex Legends Season 1 Battle Pass Skins
The Season 1 Legend skins are one of the biggest draws for the Battle Pass. These particular skins have a ‘wilderness’ style theme (so do the guns) and are called ‘Wild Frontier’ skins. Featuring warpaint, camouflage and a ‘space tribal’ look to them. You receive three Wild Frontier skins (Lifeline, Wraith and Mirage) for purchasing the Battle Pass, but there are others that can be unlocked along with the one gifted to every player for free. (THIS ENOUGH? Should I get pictures soon as it’s out?)
Season 1 Battle Pass Value
As noted earlier, the Battle Pass contains Apex Coins within its reward structure, which is the very currency you use to purchase it. By level 97 you will have received enough Apex Coins via the Battle Pass that your ‘investment’ is returned in full (if you bought the 950 Apex Coin option). Assuming pricing remains the same, this means you can reinvest your Apex Coins into next season, making every season essentially free should you play enough. However, if the total experience required to reach level 100 remains the same as pre Season 1, it will still take fair bit of dedicated play make it to level 97. So your dollar investment is heavily linked to your time investment as well.
The value proposition of the Battle Pass is typically leagues ahead of any other purchase you can make in this game (short of absurd Apex Pack luck). However, you must consider that each reward needs to be manually unlocked before the season ends to actually obtain the reward. Purchase of the Battle Pass is no guarantee of actually unlocking the content, so keep that factor in mind when making your decision about which pack to purchase or if to purchase at all. One last thing to note is that the Battle Pass is retroactive. You will continue to earn experience throughout the season even without the Battle Pass, meaning you could feasibly level all the way to 100, then purchase the pass and unlock every single reward at once.
Season 1 Battle Pass: Our Verdict
That covers all the details involved with the Apex Legends Season 1 Battle Pass. As expected, it’s very standard indeed, being as close to a copy as Fortnite’s Battle Pass system as feasible. Respawn has stated that their intention is to keep Season 1 as straightforward as possible and save the improvements, innovations and iterations for the coming seasons. While it doesn’t offer any unique additions for spicing up gameplay (i.e. no quests), it still offers one of the best reward to cost ratios you could ask for. If you have the time to invest into playing Apex Legends regularly, then it’s well worth the purchase even if you don’t make it to level 100.
The Apex Legends Battle Pass will be available alongside the launch of Season 1 at 10AM PST/5PM GMT.
Apex Legends is out now for PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. You can find our Apex guides this way, or check out our Apex Legends review:
“Even the most jaded of battle royale fans will find their interest rejuvenated by Apex Legends thanks to Respawn’s attention to detail, superior gunplay, and fantastic innovations, though the loot boxes and progression system certainly need addressing.”
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