Changes to the Canyon Kings map in Apex Legends season 14

As previously stated, in the upcoming season of Battle Royale, King’s Canyon will be subject to major changes, which, according to the developers, should eventually contribute to the revision of the players’ tactics of fighting on this map. Senior Level Designer Michael Shannon decided to tell in detail what innovations we should expect on August 9.

New location “Relic”.

Quite often in the reviews left by players, the question of the overall size of the map came up. As Apex Legends progressed, Kings Canyon began to seem smaller and smaller to users. Unfortunately, in most cases this meant that in the beginning and middle of the match the teams were too close to each other, which in turn contributed to situations where, during fire contact between two squads, a third group of players would suddenly appear and destroy the winners of the battle. Developers, of course, do not like this state of affairs, so they decided to fix this problem by adding a new location “Relic.

In “Relic” the developers see the opportunity to return the fans favorite gameplay, typical for the original version of “Canyon Kings”, but with a more appropriate for the overall perception of the size of the location.

Improved locations: “The Cage”, “The Hill” and “The Relay

The Cage

The obvious problem with this location is its high defensive capability, especially considering that it is located in a busy area of the map. In most cases, the presence of fortifications on the upper floors of the structure affected players who encountered a squad entrenched there during a match. Such encounters disadvantaged the team that was assaulting them. To make such fights less protracted, the developers decided to simplify the top of the construction.

The upper part of the Cage will still be an advantageous position after the update, but players attacking this area will be able to attack the squad holding this location more effectively.

The Hill

A similar problem was observed on the Hill. There, too, squads were bogged down in protracted firefights due to the location geometry that was inconvenient for changing positions. To reduce the risk of situations where several teams are fighting in a small area of the “Hill”, the developers completely redesigned this location.

The purpose of these changes is to try to achieve faster fire contacts and safer paths of movement in this location.

Relay

As an additional change, the developers have returned some of the buildings that were previously present in this location.

It is noteworthy that this location will now be called “Reservoir” to more accurately match its appearance.

Changed routes

The developers felt that, unfortunately for them, players had not thought through their route that they would navigate through “Kings Canyon” during the match, so they decided to make significant adjustments to the geometry of the map. In this way, Respawn wants to encourage players who plan their rotations carefully.

An important route in the center of the map connected the locations “Ruined Bridges”, “River Center” and “The Hill”. The developers felt that this route was too imbalanced, because it led to the appearance of an excessive number of players in the “River Center” and “The Hill”, which certainly had a negative impact on the game. Now there will be no transition to Broken Bridges.

The developers also removed the transition between the Marketplace and the River Center to further adjust the balance of squad movement in the River Center area. They expect that once the changes go into effect, squads will encounter fewer third-party teams coming to their aid during firefights.

In “Marketplace,” the developers moved the entrance to the cave from the back of the location to a more prominent area to reduce the risk of ambushes on squads.

The developers also changed the narrow passageway next to the “Cage”, increasing the playing space there to give players an improved view of the area around them.