Apex Season 20 brings major Armour changes

Season 20 will bring the most drastic Apex armour changes in the games history. Armours have gone through several iterations and tweaks since the Battle Royale launched five years ago, but now the concept of armour will be entirely changed.

These armour changes are all linked to the new legend upgrade system. Your armour level will directly tie into unlocking the perks in that system.

Perhaps the biggest thing to understand is that armours will no longer be an item in the game in Apex Season 20. This huge armour change will impact your next game of Apex in a few ways.

Firstly, this will reduce a huge aspect of randomness in early games. Especially if you’re taking a fight off drop at the very start of your match. We’ve all experienced your opponent landing on a purple armour and being almost impossible to kill. Now, everyone will not only start with the same white armour but no one will be able to loot a higher quality shield.

Apex Season 20 also brings big changes to the crafting system too, which amongst other things removes the ability to add EVO points to your armour via the Replicator too.

It also seems that Gold Armour will no longer exist in the game. This makes sense, given it would not fit into the new system.

Shield swapping has become a core skill in Apex Legends. There is even a game on Steam to practice hitting a swap as fast as possible. When details of this change leaked out onto social media, players were very concerned that swapping might be gone for good.

Shield swapping is still going to be possible despite these Apex armour changes. However, the impact of a swap has changed.

You can no longer physically swap someone’s shield. You won’t get their rarity shield, or the EVO charge that comes with it. Instead, death boxes will now contain an ‘Armour Core’. This will allow you to grab this from a death box, and absorb their charge.

This will add as much health as that armour had, to your armour. If you take the core of a higher level armour the additional health will act as "overshield" for 30 seconds.

So, once you take damage, or 30 seconds passes, that health will be depleted for good.

The only way to increase your armours max health after these Apex armour changes will be to gain EVO charge.

With taking other players shields, and putting your Armour in the replicator gone, EVO charge is incredibly important in Season 20.

The primary way to gain EVO charge remains unchanged. Do damage, and level up. This will reward players who are constantly in the action with stronger armours.

However, landing uncontested still needs to be a viable option. Not everyone wants to 50/50 six teams at Lava Siphon in their ranked game. Sometimes you just can’t even find a fight no matter how hard you try. Some games you can blink, and there are only six teams left.

To that end, there are new ways to gain EVO charge without taking fights following these Apex Armour changes.

There are three new ways to gain EVO charge coming to the game. These are all designed to help players who aren’t constantly fighting upgrade their shields. Don’t forget your shield ties into your progression in the new Legend Upgrade system - so this matters more than just gaining extra HP.

Developers explained that the following new mechanics will award EVO points to players:

Personal Gains

Team Gains:

EVO Harvesters will be placed around the map and will grant some EVO charge to your entire team if you activate it. EVO Caches will be a much rarer item, and will grant a large amount of charge if claimed to whoever claims it.

Developers also outlined that ‘playing your role’ will also award EVO for your team. Examples include scanning the Survey Beacon as a recon character for example. Combined, this gives your squad a range of ways to level up your Armours beyond just taking fight after fight.

These Apex armour changes, together with the Legend Upgrade system are a huge overhaul of the Apex we know. Season 20, releasing February 13th, will shake up the Battle Royale like never before.

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