Apex Legends reveals new character Valkyrie
Daughter of Titanfall 2 pilot Viper.
Apex Legends has released a new Stories from the Outlands video to introduce its latest legend, Valkyrie, confirming that titans are coming to Apex Legends. Or at least, a chunk of one is.
The lore video "Northstar" introduces Kairi "Valkyrie" Imahara, daughter of Titanfall 2 antagonist Viper. The animation tells the story of how she experimented with flying a titan at a young age, and had to be bailed out by her father when she accidentally steered herself into battle. IMC commander Kuben Blisk also makes an appearance, and gets his whisky glass shot for his troubles.
The video ends with a shot of Rampart modifying the remains of Viper's Northstar titan for Valkyrie, which will be the focus of the new legend's abilities. The image shared on Respawn's website suggests the modified titan will provide Valkyrie with missiles and some form of aerial manoeuvrability. A date of 4th May also appears at the end of the video, which is the confirmed start date for the new season.
The Apex Legends website also explains that a new "bocek bow" weapon is due to be added to the game. It's apparently "capable of inflicting tremendous damage at medium range," but players will "need to make each shot count". There's also mention of an infested version of Olympus, which is "strangling the city with roots and natural growths".
Respawn previously hinted that more Titanfall content would arrive this season, and from this trailer it seems like the franchise's wider lore is being used to create legend backgrounds. The developer has also explained that titans were initially excluded from Apex Legends due to balance issues: to make things fair, the machines would have to be weakened until they felt like "wet cardboard bags". Making legend abilities from titan components is a sneaky way around this problem - and it's a neat way to bring in wider Titanfall lore. Now we'll just have to wait and see what we can actually do with that titan jet pack.