Apex Legends Season 8 map: New drop zones, explosive holds, and more

Need help finding your bearings on the Apex Legends Season 8 map? We've seen Kings Canyon's landscape change in all sorts of ways over the course of its short life, from the tragic removal of Skulltown, to the mysterious addition (and subsequent removal) of Apex Legends bunkers. Mayhem's explosive entrance has taken a toll on its landscape this season, and Kings Canyon has undergone a spot of terraforming.

There's a brand new Northern section, and Explosive Holds scattered across the map containing the best loot. Points of interest that were previously notorious chokepoints have also been opened up to give us more room to engage with other squads. Here's a look at the Apex Legends Season 8 map, and all the major changes you need to know about.

Apex Legends Season 8 map: Best drop locations

If you want to find valuable loot and hop into firefights early, these are the best drop locations on Apex Legends' Season 8 map (Kings Canyon):

Crash Site
Spotted Lake
Market
Containment
Swamps
Hydro Dam
Artillery
Capacitor
Runoff
Mirage Voyage

How Kings Canyon changed in Season 8

New areas: Crash Site and Spotted Lake

Crash Site—a new area featuring Fuse's downed gunship—is a smoking landmark. This area can be found northwest of Artillery. There's now a Destroyed Artillery Tunnel that leads from Crash Site to Destroyed Cascades and Watchtower North.

Slum Lakes has been completely erased, replaced by Spotted Lake, which introduces a big Filtration Dam and ECHO camps on its east and west sides. These tent-like structures have vertical ziplines and are perfect for engaging in close quarters combat. This area is accessible from the Pit, which has a large zip line that stretches all the way to Crash Site.

Another new addition is the Observation Towers, which can be raised to get a better view of the surrounding area. It's worth mentioning that they are noisy to use—alerting others from a fair way off—and they're quite slow. There're now Leviathan bones lining the corridor between Spotted Lake and Runoff, making it easier to rotate from the popular new drop zone to the western portion of the map.

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Farm has been flattened

Farm proved to be a problematic choke point in previous seasons, and while it's only a tiny square on Kings Canyon's sprawling landscape, it has now been demolished. There's still a charge tower here, but the buildings and fence have been removed to make it easier to pass through.

How to open Explosive Holds

If you've seen small red and blue containers on your travels around the map, these are Apex's new explosive holds. Their doors are firmly locked, but if you have a grenade handy, you can blast them open. To open an Explosive Hold, walk up to the doors and press E to place a grenade in the console. After a couple of seconds the grenade explodes and opens the doors. Head inside to find an assortment of weapons, ammo, and attachments.

The introduction of these mobile armories has seen us bid farewell to the game's bunkers. Following the explosion that Maggie set off when Fuse entered the Apex Games, they've have sadly disappeared from the map. These underground caches contained golden weapons, high tier loot, and a single-use charge tower where legends could charge their ultimate ability. While the gear in the armories isn't quite as precious, they're easier to access, and there are more of them.

When can we play on the Olympus and World's Edge maps again?

In the past, we've seen one map steal the spotlight for the first two weeks of the new season, and this time it's Kings Canyon's turn. Judging by the in-game counter, World's Edge and Olympus will be returning to the map pool on February 16. Until then, we can spend our time getting to know all the new choke points and best loot spots on Apex's original map.

As PC Gamer's guides writer, Emma is usually juggling several games at once. She loves competitive first-person shooters like CS:GO and Call of Duty, but she always has time for a few rounds of Hearthstone. She's happiest when she's rescuing pugs in Spelunky 2.