Apex Legends is adding 'bite-sized' story quests to public games

Bloodhound fights a big monster — (Image credit: Respawn Entertainment)

Apex Legends has been disappointingly light on story this season. But that's all set to change later today with Old Ways, New Dawn, the first of a new character-driven series of story events Respawn is calling Apex Chronicles.

Described as a "bite-sized story event", Chronicles are a throwback to a Season 5 experiment in in-game storytelling. But rather than taking place in bespoke solo instances, Chronicles bring the story to regular old battle royale, tasking certain characters with following a breadcrumb trail to uncover new beats.

A timeline of events for Apex Chronicles — (Image credit: Respawn Entertainment)

Centring on tech-viking hunter Bloodhound, Old Ways, New Dawn is triggered when any Bloodhound player stumbles upon a stark white raven on World's Edge. There are many of these across the map, with unique paths to ensure multiple Bloodhounds can take on the challenge without overlapping (and presumably murdering each other). And if you do get battered mid-game, you can start from the checkpoint you left off come the next match.

New chapters will open up every few days, with a skin and Bloodhound-specific loot boxes rewarded upon completion. I'm curious to see how this experiment will play out, mind. How will people cope with so many Bloodhounds running around the map doing story content instead of fighting? But I do hope this heralds the start of many more character chronicles. I'd love one that focusses on Horizon returning to Olympus, or Wraith returning to the labs buried beneath King's Canyon.

It is, again, also a refreshing event in a season that's been sorely lacking in new story. While community load screens have continued, Emergence is missing the kind of fan-created comics and short films that had me fall in love with the game's colourful murder-buds earlier this year.

20 years ago, Nat played Jet Set Radio Future for the first time, and she's not stopped thinking about games since. Joining PC Gamer in 2020, she comes from three years of freelance reporting at Rock Paper Shotgun, Waypoint, VG247 and more. Embedded in the European indie scene and a part-time game developer herself, Nat is always looking for a new curiosity to scream about—whether it's the next best indie darling, or simply someone modding a Scotmid into Black Mesa. She also unofficially appears in Apex Legends under the pseudonym Horizon.