Apex Legends is finally getting team deathmatch

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For the first time since it launched in February 2019—that's right, four years ago—Apex Legends is getting a team deathmatch mode. Respawn said team deathmatch "has been our community's most requested mode," which might make you wonder why it took so long to happen, but better late than never: The new mode will arrive next week with the kickoff of the next Apex Legends season, called Revelry.

Team Deathmatch in Apex sounds like a fairly straightforward interpretation of the mode. It will feature 6v6 gameplay with fast respawns, according to Kotaku: First time to reach 30 kills wins the round, first team to take two rounds wins the match. It will launch as a limited-time mode, meaning it'll only be available for the first three weeks of the new season, but the good news is that players will continue to have access to it after that through a new "permanent modes playlist" called Mixtape, which will feature a rotation of Team Deathmatch, Gun Run, and Control modes.

Team Deathmatch, and the Mixtape playlist, will take the place of the 3v3 Arenas mode, which was added in 2021. Respawn said Arenas "is not meeting our goals" as far as helping players master the basics of Apex Legends gameplay, and so it's being dropped.

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Somewhat unusually, Apex will not be getting a new character this season. Instead, developers are "remastering"' the existing characters and class system. There will be five classes under the reworked system, each with a "meaningful, unique perk":

Assault
Recon
Skirmisher
Controller
Support

There will also be nerfs and buffs applied to various characters when the next season goes live—full details will be revealed in the patch notes, but Respawn specified that Lifeline, Seer, and Wraith will be among the characters being tweaked.

While there won't be a new Legend in Revelry, there will be a new energy weapon called the Nemesis, which you can get a glance at (in cinematic form, naturally) at the end of today's teaser. "We’re hoping to see this potentially unseat favorite standbys like the R-301 and Flatline," Respawn said.

Full details on Apex Legend's next season will be revealed ahead of Revelry's launch on February 14. In the meantime, you can get the crash course version at ea.com.

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Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.