Apex Legends Season 20 release date confirmed, what we know so far about Breakout

The Apex Legends Season 20 release date is almost here, and now we know exactly when. With Season 19 Ignite of Respawn Entertainment’s popular battle royale going strong, Season 20 will have quite a lot to live up to.

Here, we’re going to cover the Apex Legends Season 20 release date, what news and details we so far know about, and what we could speculate might be coming. If you’re still enjoying the current season though, be sure to make the most of it with the Uprising event skins, the new Apex Legends perks, and the current Season 19 meta before we reach that slowly approaching Season 19 end date.

When does season 20 of Apex Legends start?

Apex Legends Season 20 will begin on Tuesday 13 February at 5 PM GMT/ 9 AM PT/ 12 PM ET. Following the end of Season 19, the update for the next season should become live, and players will be able to download it and dive into everything Season 20 has to offer.

But what does it have to offer? What should we expect to see in the next season of Apex Legends?

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Did you know?

Apex Legends will celebrate it’s 5th anniversary on February 4th, 2024. These celebrations will form a big part of Season 20 as the game marks its half-decade of service.

What new content is coming in Apex Legends Season 20?

We now know that Apex Legends Season 20 will be subtitled Breakout, and will feature an overhaul to the Ranked mode as well as brand new Legend Upgrade system. To celebrate the game’s fifth anniversary, every Legend will also be available to play for free on a two-week rotating basis, so if there’s a hero you’ve been wanting to try before you buy, it’ll be the perfect chance.

Here’s the headline new features:

• Legend Upgrade System – An in-match progression system that allows you to improve your armour tier and unlock unique upgrades for each Legend as you reach different levels during the course of the match.
• Legend Armor and Shield Cores – Body shields are no more as a loot item. Instead, every Legend will start with a Legend Armor that’ll increase in capacity as they level up with EVO. These shields are powered by cores, containing the current shield XP. These can be swapped at any time, and will also be dropped by fallen Legends in Death Boxes.
• Overcharge – If you pick up a Shield Core at a higher level than your current Armour, you’ll temporarily ‘overcharge’ your armour, giving you that boosted additional armour for 30 seconds.
• EVO – Part of the aforementioned upgrade system. You’ll earn this for various actions in the game, including damage, knocks and team actions like revives, squad wipes and respawns. The map will also include randomly placed Evo Harvesters which can be opened by the first squad to reach them for a boost of Evo. There’s also Evo Caches – which contain even more Evo, but are only found in highly contested locations.
• Ranked Reloaded – A new overhauled Ranked Play system, changing a fair few fundamental features.
• New Mixtape Map – Thunderdome
• Performance Mode 120Hz on next gen consoles if your display supports it.
• Breakout Rewards – Special rewards for players to earn throughout the season.
• Tags – The old Clubs system is being retired in favour of Tags – a three-four character prefix you can add to your name.
• 5th Anniversary Collection LTE – a limited time event to celebrate the game’s fifth anniversary.

What were the speculated features for Apex Legends Season 20?

Until the announcement confirmed them, here’s other things fans expected in the upcoming season based on information from the community:

• The current crafted weapons will rotate out of the replicator, meaning the R301 Carbine AR and the Volt energy SMG will re-enter the regular loot pool.
• The red grade weapons will change, meaning no more red grade Wingman or red grade L-Star.
• As always, there will certainly be various bug fixes and QoL tweaks to help improve user experience and performance.
• Revenant will likely stop being the focus of attention. This one isn’t confirmed, but with the Revenant rework now well behind us and Kill Code finally wrapping up, it seems very likely that the narrative in Apex Legends will shift focus somewhere else for the time being.
• New battle pass skins and cosmetics, as is standard for any season. With popular Legends like Valkyrie, Lifeline, and Newcastle getting plenty of love in the cosmetics department, we wouldn’t be surprised to see even more for them and similarly high pick-rate Legends.
• As they’ve become a staple of the game, we’re sure to see some brand new Collection Events pop up during Season 20’s run, similar to Death Dynasty and Neon Network.

We can’t say what the specifics of these changes will be yet, but we’re sure to learn that as the time gets closer. In the meantime, we can still speculate.

Although Respawn don’t tend to make a habit of expanding the game’s arsenal, the introduction of the Nemesis Burst AR several seasons ago is far enough behind for some to speculate that Season 20 could finally see another new weapon introduced. It isn’t clear what sort of additional weapon it could be, though shotguns, snipers and SMGs could potentially find room for another gun or two.

While Season 19 saw a Storm Point map rework, it didn’t see any brand new maps. It’s possible that Season 20 could introduce a new map as its flagship feature. It’s also plausible that smaller game modes like Control, Gun Run and Death Match might begin seeing their own dedicated maps, rather than cut-out areas of the larger BR arenas. Alternatively, maybe we’ll get another rework, and Broken Moon or Olympus will receive a fresh coat of paint.

The one likely addition we can rule out is a new Legend, as Season 19’s Apex Legend Conduit is still pretty fresh, and the dev team prefer to rotate their priorities for each season. Season 21 is more likely to be the next occasion we see a new hero enter the fray.

What could the Season 20 meta look like?

Beyond all these possible new features, we can at least be confident that the content we currently have will see some refinement. With ongoing tweaks to Competitive and MMR distributions, it’s likely we’ll see additional alterations and balance changes based on feedback collected throughout Season 19. Weapon and Legend rebalances are also probable.

The question is in what way will these changes move the balance of power? With Revenant’s rebirth followed up by Conduit’s addition, Ignite seems to have aimed to maintain the fine balance between defensive and offensive Legends. This has even been exemplified with the empowerment of various mid-range and long-range guns, at the cost of close-range weaponry.

Perfecting the balance seems to be the highest priority for the game’s meta, so it’s likely that any substantial changes will work heavily from feedback in the current season. This could mean some light buffs for close range combat mixed with minor nerfs to fast and aggressive Legends, for example.

That covers everything we’ve got for you right now on the Apex Legends Season 20 release date, potential contents, and possible changes. Whatever the next step in the game entails, make sure you head in with the best weapons and best Legends if you want to improve your chances of success. If you’re struggling to unlock and level up things on your main account, why not check out how Apex Legends cross progression is working to counter this issue? Or if your curious about the cast, check out our breakdown of the Apex Legends voice actors, and where you might know those familiar voices from.

Apex Legends Season 20 FAQ

What is Season 20 of Apex Legends called?

Season 20 of Apex Legends is called Breakout.

How long will Season 20 of Apex Legends last for?

We don’t yet have an exact length for Season 20 of Apex Legends, but if it follows previous seasonal trends, it’ll likely last for a total of three months.