9 Seasons In, Apex Legends' Battle Passes Still Have One Fatal Flaw

In the highly saturated Battle Royale genre, there are only a few titles that can compete with the massive success of Apex Legends. Ever since its release back in 2019, Apex has been one of the dominant names in the industry, and with the upcoming launch the ninth season of the game, excitement for Apex Legends is at an all-time high.

Anytime any live-service game starts a new season, long-time players are drawn back in and new players come in droves, but Apex season 9 A.K.A. Legacy is a special case. It's been known for a long time that Apex Legends and Respawn's previous first-person shooter series Titanfall take place in the same canonical universe; however, Legacy is perhaps the strongest connection between the two series seen yet. For this reason, excitement is through the roof for Apex Legends Season 9. However, while the exact level rewards have yet to be revealed, the recent trailer seemingly hints at one constant flaw in the game's Battle Pass.

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To be clear, the battle passes for previous Apex seasons have been, in general, perfectly fine. Great cosmetics, in-game currency, and plenty of other unlockable in-game rewards are always offered, yet it feel each season's pass seems to miss the mark when it comes to 100% completion rewards. There really haven't been any mind-blowing rewards waiting for those who earn all 110 ranks and now that the season 9 Apex Legends battle pass has received a trailer been, it seems like that tradition is going to continue.

It goes without saying that not every player is going to be able to complete the entire season's battle pass, which is why some of the best rewards are placed in the mid to early stages of the pass as an incentive for players to buy-in. However, excellent rewards such as exclusive character skins, banner poses and unique voice lines tend to fizzle out as the battle pass rank gets higher. This is a huge missed opportunity for Respawn to really incentivize players to keep playing consistently throughout the season.

While the final two gun skins for the Devotion LMG unlocked at level 100 and 110 are cool additions to the season 9 pass, they just aren't anything super special that's going to truly motivate someone to work their way up. Unless a player's favorite weapon is the Devotion, it just doesn't seem like it's the kind of thing that Apex Legends players who don't touch it would really want. This is the same issue the game had with season 8's battle pass with the Longbow and other guns in other seasons. The fact of the matter is that, yes Apex Legends' gun skins are certainly cool rewards for players, but simply having two legendary skins for the same weapon at the end of the battle pass feels slightly anticlimactic.

The frustrating this about it is that, as stated above, the Apex Legends battle passes are usually pretty solid and disperse a lot of the high-tier loot pretty well throughout the passes, but for some reason, the ball is dropped near the very end. Having one final excellent loot drop at the end of a 110 rank battle pass seems like the perfect way to reward devoted players who have put the time in to complete it. Plenty of weapon skins show off players who have completed the battle pass in previous seasons, but because of the small size of the guns compared to the actual player characters, they're easy to miss.

Obviously, what makes good loot is entirely subjective, but it just seems odd that there's no substantial high-tier loot drop, like an exclusive skin for the new seasonal character, waiting for and motivating players to keep coming back to the game week after week during each season. It might be jumping the gun a little bit as season 9 still isn't out for another day, but hopefully, Respawn will begin to include better rewards to the end of the battle pass for season 10.

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

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