How the Mobile Respawn Beacons in Apex Legends Could Change the Game
We’re just over a month in to Season 5 of Apex Legends, and Respawn Entertainment just hit us with some MAJOR announcements. At the EA Play Live Event on June 18, Respawn devs revealed big plans for the future of Apex, including crossplay, a Nintendo Switch port, and Steam release.
The Lost Treasures Collection Event was also made public and is due to begin in-game on June 23. Along with a Crypto Town Takeover, new challenges, and cosmetic rewards; a revived limited-time mode will also return; Armed and Dangerous. Armed and Dangerous Evolved is a shotguns and snipers only game mode, and comes with a pretty interesting new item; the Mobile Respawn Beacon. The EA dev blog regarding this announcement describes the item as:
Use to call down a miniature Respawn Beacon almost anywhere on the map, then use your squadmates Banner Card to bring them back to the fight. The Mobile Respawn Beacon deploys via satellite drop and once it lands it’s first come, first served so make it count.
The normal Respawn Beacons, which are dotted across both maps, will be removed in the Armed and Dangerous Evolved playlist matches, and replaced with the Mobile item version.
Not only will this exciting new piece of loot crash down on June 23 for this mode, but it will also then be added to the loot pool across Pubs and Ranked after the LTM ends, changing the meta forever.
Click to enlargeThe Mobile Respawn Beacon will be an item in the LTM (and then beyond) and will be used just like Lifeline’s care package Ult, being placed on the ground with an activator. Obviously one of the biggest pros to this new item is the usability – no longer will you have to traverse the entire map to find a remaining Beacon to res your teammate – there’s one in your pocket! Also, being able to bring your squadmate back in (almost) any area will be invaluable, especially in the late stages of a match.
The drawback of the Mobile Respawn Beacon is it is not a “lootable item”. You get only one, and it will already be in your inventory at the start of a match. After the LTM, however, and judging from the wording used in Respawn Entertainment’s announcement, it will become an extra lootable item in normal game modes, along with the return of Respawn Beacons.
However, this very specific location-based beacon could alert enemy teams to your precise location more than ever before and could result in even more third-partying.
Check out the Mobile Respawn Beacon in action below.
The Mobile Respawn Beacon will no doubt be massive for Competitive play in Apex Legends, and we foresee usage ranging from distraction tactics to baiting out other teams looking for an unused beacon, to placing it as additional cover (as some teams employ with Lifeline’s care package Ult).
Click to enlargeThe possibilities for the Mobile Respawn Beacon in Apex Legends are endless, and we for one can’t wait to jump into Armed and Dangerous Evolved and try them out for ourselves.
Images via Respawn Entertainment