Some major changes are coming to Apex Legends in Season 29, mostly related to Legends Conduit and Vantage, along with some small but mighty updates to gunplay and vehicles. With the addition of Axle and her high-speed sliding abilities to the game, it’s clear that Legends are speeding up and older Legends with less speed orientated skills are in need of buffs to compensate.
Conduit and Vantage Updates
First introduced in Season 19, Conduit is a Legend whose abilities are most focused on shields and holding ground from enemy squads with her Ultimate, which makes her – like other Controller Legends – far less mobile. To give her more of an edge, Conduit now has an extra charge of her tactical, Radiant Transfer, and extra speed when she sprints towards Skirmisher Legends, along with more powerful upgrades.
When Conduit reaches level three in the upgrade tree, she will now be able to choose either ‘Instant Barrier’, which gives temporary shields immediately, or ‘Enduring Barrier’, which allows her tactical to regenerate temporary shields through damage.
According to the developers, Conduit will serve as almost a direct counter to Axle. “Revisiting Conduit now was a compelling match for Axle, who is always looking to keep the pressure up as players claim space and find angles to keep enemies on the back foot… When you’re tired of Axle zipping around and getting angles, Conduit’s Ultimate can disrupt Axle’s mobility, creating a wall that slows her down and forces more deliberate positioning.”
Vantage is also getting some subtle changes to her kit to improve her use, mostly related to her Ultimate. Sniper’s Mark now has a faster draw and aim responsiveness, heightening her ability to shoot fast and accurately in a fight. Her Ultimate also now has an increased 4x zoom as well as a 2x scope, giving her more options against enemies up close or at range.
Upgrades to Vantage’s passive and tactical are also coming, as Vantage will now be immune to hard landings, making her more mobile and less of a slow-moving target for enemies when she’s supposed to be at her most agile. When an enemy is spotted by Vantage, it will now give her extra charge to her ultimate, making scanning for enemies across the map even more worthwhile.
With her new upgrade option, when one enemy is pinged by Vantage, their entire team will be tracked via Vantage’s passive, giving her a far stronger ability to hunt down her enemies as a recon Legend.
Other Changes in Season 29: Health bars and Tridents
Alongside the addition of Deathbox Respawns, the major changes to Season 29 include a change to health bars on enemies and the complete removal of Tridents, along with a decrease in zip rails across Broken Moon. Health bars will no longer stick around for so long after a player has done damage to an enemy, especially when they duck behind environmental elements like foliage and buildings or Legend abilities like Bangalore’s smoke.
Sadly, Tridents are being taken away from the Apex Games. These three-person vehicles have gone through some tweaks in recent seasons, making them destructible while also giving them the ability to do damage. Now, the developers have decided that the Legend space is better served for movement than a vehicle like the Trident.
While not mentioned by the developers for this season, this idea of removing Tridents in lieu of focusing on Legend abilities does seem to imply that future Legends could have rotation-based abilities, perhaps similar to Valkyrie.
