The Apex Legends Legacy gameplay trailer has shown off the basics for the upcoming Arenas mode which sees two squads of three players face off in deathmatch with no respawns. Much like in other elimination shooters such as Valorant, Apex Legends players will need to buy weapons and abilities using crafting materials for each round.

The Arenas mode has been a long-rumored addition to Apex Legends with dataminers finding arena mode information before Season 7 launched. Arenas will launch on May 4 with the Legacy update and Season 9 which has plenty of balance updates and new content for players to try out.

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Arenas marks Respawn’s first – and likely not the last – attempt to bring Apex Legends “beyond battle royale." As previously mentioned, the mode is very similar to games like Valorant and Counter Strike, where teams compete in rounds to eliminate each other and can buy weapons, Legend abilities, healing items, grenades, and equipment between rounds. All players will start each match by picking their Legend and spending their crafting materials on a loadout, although loadouts do not persist between rounds.

Once the buy phase ends, the round begins, and players will need to focus only on eliminating the other team as there are no other objectives in Arenas. As with Apex Legends battle royale, players are still knocked down and can be revived, but once a player is dead, they are out for the remainder of the round. Teams win a match by getting three wins with two points clear of the opposing team, but if a 3-3 tie occurs, the match will go to tiebreaker rounds and potentially sudden death.

Arenas can be played on five tailored and symmetrical maps, with two being made specifically for Arenas. Party Crasher features the wreckage of Mirage Voyage in a downtown plaza, and Phase Runner has a giant unfinished phase tunnel wrapping around the outer edges. The other three maps - Artillery, Thermal Station, and Golden Gardens - are custom versions of the popular locations from the three battle royale maps, with more potentially coming later.

new arena mode map set in luxury plaza with crashed mirage voyage ship

The Legacy update for Apex Legends is shaping up to be the biggest one for the game so far. As well as an entirely new permanent game mode, players will also be able to try out the new Bocek Bow weapon, explore the Infested Olympus map, and take to the skies with new Legend Valkyrie. Respawn has also been very transparent about upcoming balance changes to existing Legends so Season 9 could lead to huge changes in the Apex Legends meta overall.

Apex Legends is available now on Nintendo Switch, PC, PS4, and Xbox One.

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Source: EA