There’s not much to love about the new Apex Legends Battle Pass. The new pass, which costs 950 Apex Coins (about $9.50) launched this week alongside the free-to-play game’s ‘Wild Frontiers’ themed first season.
The new Battle Pass is just . . . entirely lackluster. There are a small handful of skins for Legends (the playable characters) but mostly it consists of weapon skins, badges, frames, Apex Coins and quips, along with a handful of loot boxes.
Here’s every single thing you can earn in the Season 1 Battle Pass:
- Lifeline Revolutionary skin, Mirage Outlaw skin, Wraith Survivor skin
- Triple Take Harvest skin, Apex Pack (rare)
- Tracker – Season 1 Kills as Wraith
- Hemlock Patchwork skin, Tracker – Season 1 Wins as Gibraltar
- Wild Frontier Badge
- Bangalore quip, Tracker – Season 1 Wins as Pathfinder
- 50 Apex Coins
- Tracker – Season 1 Kills as Bloodhound, Tracker – Season 1 Wins as Wraith
- Prowler Navigator skin
- Wild Frontier Badge, Tracker – Season 1 Wins as Bangalore
- 50 Apex Coins
- +5% BP Point Booster, Apex Pack (rare)
- Mirage banner frame
- Longbow Navigator skin, Tracker – Season 1 Wins as Bloodhound
- Wild Frontier Badge
- Mirage quip, Tracker – Season 1 Wins as Caustic
- 50 Apex Coins
- Octane banner frame, Tracker – Season 1 Wins as Mirage
- M600 Spitfire Patchwork skin
- Wild Frontier Badge, Tracker – Season 1 Wins as Lifeline
- 50 Apex Coins
- +5% BP Point Booster, Tracker – Season 1 Wins as Octane
- Wraith banner frame
- Mozambique Navigator skin, Apex Pack (rare)
- Wild Frontier Badge
- Apex Pack (epic), Tracker – Season 1 Damage Done as Caustic
- Pathfinder quip
- Tracker – Season 1 Kills as Mirage, Tracker – Season 1 Damage Done as Bangalore
- Kraber Harvest skin
- Wild Frontier Badge, Tracker – Season 1 Damage Done as Gibraltar
- 50 Apex Coins
- +5% BP Point Booster, Tracker – Season 1 Damage Done as Bloodhound
- Tracker – Season 1 Kills as Pathfinder
- EVA-8 Patchwork skin, Apex Pack (rare)
- Wild Frontier Badge
- Caustic quip, Tracker – Season 1 Damage Done as Lifeline
- 50 Apex Coins
- Tracker – Season 1 Kills as Caustic, Tracker – Season 1 Damage Done as Octane
- Flatline Navigator skin
- Wild Frontier Badge, Tracker – Season 1 Damage Done as Wraith
- 50 Apex Coins
- +5% BP Point Booster, Tracker – Season 1 Damage Done as Mirage
- Apex Pack (rare)
- Alternator Patchwork skin, Tracker – Season 1 Damage Done as Pathfinder
- Wild Frontier Badge
- Gibraltar quip, Apex Pack (rare)
- 50 Apex Coins
- Tracker – Season 1 Kills as Gibraltar, Octane Messenger skin
- Peacekeeper Harvest skin
- Wild Frontier badge
- Prowler Thrill of the Hunt skin (Epic)
- +5% BP Point Booster
- Apex Pack (rare)
- Devotion LMG Harvest skin
- Wild Frontier Badge
- Wraith quip
- 50 Apex Coins
- Tracker – Season 1 Kills as Octane
- Mastiff Patchwork skin
- Wild Frontier Badge
- Lifeline banner frame
- +5% BP Point Booster
- 50 Apex Coins
- P2020 Harvest skin
- Wild Frontier Badge
- Bloodhound quip
- 50 Apex Coins
- Tracker – Season 1 Kills as Lifeline
- Havoc Patchwork skin
- Wild Frontier Badge
- Bloodhound banner frame
- +5% BP Point Booster
- Apex Pack (rare)
- R-99 Harvest skin
- Wild Frontier Badge
- Octane quip
- 50 Apex Coins
- Tracker – Season 1 Kills as Bangalore
- Wingman Navigator skin
- Wild Frontier Badge
- Gibraltar banner frame
- +5% BP Point Booster
- Apex Pack (rare)
- RE-45 Patchwork skin
- Wild Frontier Badge
- Apex Pack (legendary)
- 100 Apex Coins
- Caustic banner frame
- +5% BP Point Booster
- Wild Frontier Badge
- Pathfinder banner frame
- +5% BP Point Booster
- Apex Pack (rare)
- G7 Scout Patchwork skin
- Wild Frontier Badge
- Lifeline quip
- 100 Apex Coins
- Bangalore banner frame
- R-301 Harvest skin
- Wild Frontier Badge, Havoc The Silver Storm skin (legendary, reactive)
Now compare this with the Season 8 Battle Pass from Fortnite: Battle Royale.
You’ve got seven new skins, three of which evolve over time as you gain XP or solve challenges. Then there are a variety of other cosmetics, from emotes to pets to gliders, back bling, contrails and wraps. You can earn different music to play in the main menu. And you can gain XP boosts and V-Bucks.
Meanwhile, the new character Apex Legends, Octane, is a completely separate purchase. That’s fine, I suppose—Fortnite has plenty of non-Battle Pass skins and cosmetics for sale—but given how sparse the Apex Legends Battle Pass is, I can hardly see justifying both a Battle Pass purchase and Octane. At the very least just grind for Octane and skip the pass entirely, unless you have a burning desire for more weapon skins.
Another layer here that’s important to address is how tiers are earned in both games. In Apex Legends, the only way to get new tiers and rewards is via XP which is earned by simply playing the game. In Fortnite, you earn tiers by completing daily and weekly challenges.
This is an important distinction. Challenges encourage players to actually play the game, for one thing. If all you need is XP, players can devise all sorts of ways to play AFK (away from keyboard) and still earn XP, gain tiers and so forth. If you need to solve challenges you need to actually play the game.
Challenges also help encourage players to do more than just go for the win. One thing I love about Fortnite’s challenges is they have non-combat elements. You can search for hidden Battle Stars, find gnomes, do vehicle tricks and much more. This gives players who maybe aren’t as good at dealing damage and getting eliminations a way to earn rewards also.
Finally, Epic also has the Discovery Challenges. Complete enough of those this season and you unlock yet another (mystery) skin, which keeps players even more engaged in the feedback loop.
In any case, while Respawn obviously learned a thing or two about the battle royale genre and has put together a very good game in Apex Legends, the revenue model is all kinds of messed up. Loot boxes? In 2019? Certainly Respawn learned nothing from Epic’s Battle Pass/challenge system.
That could change in Season 2, I suppose. Have tiers earned through real and interesting challenges. Have rewards that go beyond a plethora of weapon skins. Of course, cosmetics in a game like Apex Legends will never be as compelling as Fortnite since you don’t see your character in a first-person shooter as much as a third-person shooter, which is something that a game like Blackout all struggles with, but they can still do better than this.
P.S. I’ve cooled a great deal on Apex Legends since launch simply because I really don’t want to be forced into squad play. I’ve had too many bad experiences with random players at this point. I just never really feel like turning it on when I could play Fortnite or Black Ops 4 or any number of other games that allow me to choose how I want to play.
What do you think?
