Apex Legends Season 18 launch date confirmed and a reworked Revenant is on the way

Apex Legends: Resurrection, the 18th season of the popular battle royale, will land on Tuesday 8th August. The biggest change coming to the game is the total re-work of the Synthetic Nightmare Revenant. Also, Broken Moon is being added to Mix Tape, the Charge Rifle gets some changes, and early Apex fans may be pleased to hear that Season 2's Disruptor Rounds are coming back!

First thing's first, let's get the big one out of the way - the revamp of Revenant. If you've been playing this deadly Legend throughout season 17 you may have noticed that he's beginning to act strangely, glitching and other out-of-character actions starting to come through. This is the start of the revamp of Apex's Synthetic Nightmare.

It's not a secret that the popularity of Revenant has dropped off in past seasons with their previous abilities not really keeping up with the fast paced combat laid out by the newer Legends.

The reworked version of Revenant brings in a brand new (and arguably more chilling) base look for the deadly simulacrum and completely changes all of their abilities. His new Passive is Assassin's Instinct and this gives Revenant a faster crouch speed and wall climb, but this isn't the most interesting part. Revenant will now also be able to see nearby enemies that are low on health and mark them for their team. The enemies will only be marked for a period of time, but there's no limit on how many enemies Revenant will be able to spot so this could really give your team the advantage.

Revenant's new Tactical is Shadow Pounce, so, yes - we are saying goodbye to Silence (one of my personal favourites) but the new ability combined with Revenant's abilities make them truly lethal. Shadow Pounce will let you unleash a powerful leap forward to close the gap between you and an enemy, get a better position, or just lunge in for a rapid kill. You can charge up the jump before you take it to determine how far you will go, but in general if you jump from the ground you can cover as much ground as Octane's Jump Pad.

Now, last but not least, it's time to say farewell to the Death Totem. When first introduced, the Death Totem really did have its uses but as matches have gotten faster and new Legends have flown in with his new and faster abilities, it's fair to say the Totem has become a bit of a liability in most scenarios.

Revenant's new Ultimate ability is Forged Shadows. With this ability, Revenant can create a shroud of shadows surrounding him to protect him from incoming damage and the shroud can take a few hits before it's taken down, but that's not all it does. When the shroud is active it also increases Revenant's hitbox but he will be vulnerable for a short period of time once the shroud comes down. However, if you manage to get a knockdown after the shroud drops, the shadow wall will recharge and appear once more. Keep getting the hits and you'll be a walking shadowy nightmare.

Eagle-eyed Revenant users may have already noticed he can switch up his hand gestures when summoning the Death Totem with some animations being rarer than others, and this will carry over to the hand gestures used for summoning Forged Shadows so keep an eye out for those to see which ones you've got!

Does all of this sound good to you? Then you might be pleased to know that Revenant is free for every player throughout Apex Legends: Resurrection. There will be a set of in-game challenges that you need to complete during Season 18 while playing as Revenant and if you complete all of these, you will permanently unlock him and have Revenant added to your Legend roster after the season ends.

Also, if you already have Revenant then don't worry, this rework will not mess with any rewards or skins you've acquired for him. All of the achievements, skins, badges and any cosmetic you've earned with Revenant so far will carry over to the new version of the deadly simulacrum. The only skin that's changing is the base one for him.

We're already very excited to get our hands on the newer, darker, more menacing version of Revenant (which is saying something considering he was already pretty terrifying) but that's not the only thing to look forward to in Apex Legends: Resurrection.

Let's talk about weapons next and one of the biggest weapon changes coming to Season 18: the Charge Rifle. You'll now need to charge up the rifle before you can use it and if you don't charge it up it won't fire. Also, the laser has been removed, ammunition consumption per shot has been change to one and the further the target is way, the more damage the Charge Rifle will do if it hits the target.

The Prowler will be in the care package for Season 18, but to make up for removing it from ground loot, it will enter the care package with a Select Fire Receiver already attached to it to make it fully automatic as soon as you pick it up. This does mean that the Hemlok is returning to ground loot with a few little buffs to welcome it back and give it a power boost.

Other weapon changes include the SMG's strafe being reduced and headshot damage lowered while the blast pattern for the Mastiff Shotgun has been tightened too.

While we're talking about weapons, the Rampage and R-99 will be leaving the crafter for Apex Legends: Resurrection. The Nemesis and Mozambique with Hammer Points will be taking their place in the crafter for the rest of the season.

Before we move on, there's one last weapon-based treat in store for this season and that is the return of Disruptor Rounds! Long-term Apex players may recognise this from Season 2 and this powerful hop-up is back for Season 18 but with a small change, it's no longer for the Alternator. The Disruptor Rounds will now fit the Peacekeeper instead, giving an already powerful shotgun even more potential for creating chaos.

Let's quickly talk about maps, as Broken Moon is making its way to Mix Tape to switch things up a bit. The Core will be added to Team Death Match and Gun Run modes, while Control mode gets a brand new map called 'Production' which has been designed for intense close quarters combat scenarios.

Finally, there are quite a few Ranked changes on the way this season but all of them have been made to hopefully improve your experience during the matches and when you're actually waiting to get into them.

Diamond players will have higher stakes this season as they can experience higher HP losses and ranked games should now pair you with other players close to your own ranking/skill level. For example, high ranking platinum ranks should be mixed with lower rank Diamond players. Also, matchmaking has been adjusted to strike a balance between your skill and the amount of time you're waiting for a match.

In Ranked, the minimum bonus for elimination at all ranks have been altered and gains of ladder points have been brought down for every rank too. The Ring is seeing some changes too with the end game ring damage being reduced and the ring will move faster to encourage matches to be quicker.

Dive Trails are being removed to reduce incidents of other players tracking you while you're in a dive trail and attacking you the moment you hit the ground. To make up for these being removed, you'll be getting new banner frames for Diamond, Master, and Predator players.

Apex Legends: Resurrection launches on Tuesday, 8th August and we can't wait to try out the revamped Revenant!

If you're playing Apex on a Switch, then it may interest you to know that the Nintendo Switch Successor is reportedly due in late 2024.