Live-service elements have become somewhat of a staple of the modern gaming era, and they don't seem to be leaving anytime soon. While many gamers still despise the inclusion of live-service elements in fully-priced games, their inclusion in free-to-play titles seems a lot more understandable, being the developer's main source of long-term income. For that money, the best free-to-play titles ensure that there's always new content to keep players coming back, and Apex Legends is certainly one of those games.
Along with new maps, weapons, and limited-time game modes, Apex Legends brings a brand-new playable character to the game every Season. Each of these characters has its own unique set of abilities, creating new dynamics and possible combinations with the already-released Legends. While Respawn Entertainment tries to keep its upcoming Seasons under wraps until just a few weeks before release, a gigantic leak from 2022 may have interrupted the developer's plans a little, with it revealing a slew of new characters. Though some thought the leak couldn't be trusted at the time, a few leaked Legends have already been released, potentially meaning that fans already know who's coming in Apex Legends Season 16.
Who Apex Legends' Season 16 Character Could Be
While most Seasons of Apex Legends last for about three months, Season 16 is set to arrive a little later than that, with the in-game countdown suggesting a February 14, 2023 launch. Currently, there's been no official word on what's coming with Season 16, so anything from this point onwards is pure speculation, with most of the information coming from the infamous 2022 leak.
Back in March 2022, an Apex Legends leak of truly epic proportions found its way online. Details on new weapons, new maps, and new modes were all found inside this leak, but by far the most interesting aspect of the leak was the screenshot of the alleged developer's character screen. Along with all the Legends released so far, this character select screen showed a whopping total of nine new Legends that hadn't been revealed yet in any capacity. Though many at the time were skeptical of this screenshot, there seems to have been some truth in it, with Newcastle, Vantage, and Catalyst all coming to the game during 2022. If the rest of the leak turns out to be true as well, then Respawn has a selection of six new Legends to add to the game in Season 16.
The first new Legend included in the original 2022 leak is Scryer. A Legend seemingly designed to replace the underwhelming Crypto, Scryer's abilities see them use their enemy's vision against them. Scryer's Passive allows the player to spectate their killer, their Tactical lets them deploy a trap that grants them access to their enemy's cone of vision, and Scryer's Ultimate sends a wall of shadow barreling towards an enemy that blinds and binds them.
Conduit is another support-based hero, with their Passive letting them regenerate shields faster around allies, their Tactical letting them heal their allies' shields at the cost of their own, and their Ultimate that sends out an Arc cluster bomb that damages enemy shields and restores Conduit's. One of the more overpowered-sounding Legends in the leak is Uplink. Uplink's Passive will apparently give them 25% of Recovery Effects, while their Tactical releases a satellite that follows the ally team and heals their shields and even revives them. Uplink's Ultimate deploys a beacon that temporarily makes the ally team invulnerable to being downed.
On the offensive Legend side of things, the leak details Phantom, Jester, and Caliber. Phantom is the most simplistic of the three, with a Passive double jump, a hook-shot Tactical that lets them hang on walls, and an Ultimate that sends hit players into the void for a short duration. Caliber's Passive gives them the ability to store a third weapon, their Tactical gives them a makeshift turret based on their currently equipped weapon, and their Ultimate deploys a box that automatically feeds ammo into nearby allies' weapons. Jester's Passive lets them use grenades as wall-mounted traps, their Tactical spawns in a drop-pod of three Spectres that defend the area, and their Ultimate deploys a cloaking field that hides players in its radius for a short time. Any of these Legends could be Respawn's next pick for Apex Legends Season 16, but current rumors seem to suggest that Caliber may be the first to come to the game.
Apex Legends is available on PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X, Android, iOS, and Nintendo Switch.