I’ve been playing a lot of Apex Legends in the first few weeks of 2023, and I have some technical nitty-gritty thoughts I want to share in the hopes that Respawn Entertainment will listen.
Apex, a game I’ve previously argued is the future of first-person shooters, continues to delight. Respawn Entertainment has kept the core mechanics the same, empowering casual and returning players alike, while still continuously evolving Apex since it launched in 2019. They’re doing a few special limited-time events which I always love trying, and it seems like it’s working—Apex is currently averaging 15 to 16 million weekly players.
However, I feel that support players are still underpowered and under-rewarded even if they’re essential to a victory. And I have a suggestion for how it could be fixed.
It all comes down to armor.
How Armor Evolution Shapes Apex Legends Gameplay
Armor is critical to surviving in Apex Legends, and surviving is key to winning. Whether you’re in the opening seconds of this battle royale or one of the last teams standing, strong armor can make all the difference.
In Apex Legends, armor can be one of four levels: Level 1 White Armor, Level 2 Blue Armor, Level 3 Purple Armor (there’s a variant of this level that’s Gold,) and Level 4 Red Armor. Red is the strongest, and can only be achieved by earning enough evolution (“evo”) points, which are directly correlated to how much damage that player has inflicted over the course of the match.
In Season 6 (we’re now in Season 15), Respawn decided to make all armor “evo” armor. This meant you could evolve your armor from one level to the next, rather than seek out those armor types on the map. Respawn also added crafting stations where players could build mods or upgrade armor through artificial evo points.
Today, most players can gather enough crafting materials to upgrade Level 1 White Armor to Level 2 Blue Armor with 150 evo points. Savvy players can gather enough materials to evolve Level 2 to Level 3 Purple Armor with 300 points. But from there, it’s a whopping 750 points to upgrade from Level 3 Purple Armor to Level 4 Red Armor.
It’s basically impossible to achieve the full evolution through crafting. This results in a late-game situation where only a few players have Red Armor. They are some of the most talented (or, at least, best shots) of that particular match. Doing 750 points worth of damage is equivalent to about two to four kills (depending on whether you had any team assistance).
In the end game of any Apex Legends match, Red Armor becomes almost essential to winning as players rabidly duke it out. That extra level of protection becomes the dealbreaker between two players of evenly matched skills. And when you can only really acquire Red Armor by getting kills, that leaves support players—once again—in the dust.
Suggestion: Reviving or Respawning Teammates Should Give Armor Evo Points in Apex Legends
When I was playing as Lifeline recently, my partner thought out loud, “You should get armor evo points for healing someone.”
I agree 100%. Not only that, but I think grabbing banners and completing teammate respawns should be included as well. This update would have the great benefit of encouraging Apex Legends players to be kinder to one another while rewarding existing support players.
To revive a teammate, players have to sacrifice their own opportunity to do combat damage (and potentially earn those cherished armor evo points). Healers often risk their life by stopping to revive someone else. Completing a revive of another player could give the healer 150 evo points—the cost of a first-level upgrade at a crafting station.
Similarly, players could get 50 evo points for grabbing their teammate’s banner from a death box (also usually requiring a risky dash-and-rescue while plenty of opponents are looting nearby). Then, the game could dish out a follow-up 100 evo points for successfully delivering their banner to a respawn beacon.
Right now, players don’t get any in-game benefit for reviving or respawning other players. I’ve been in many a match where other players ignore pings for help or make no effort to collect banners of the fallen. For those who need encouragement, evo points might be the answer.
A Lifeline for Lifeline
Any player can revive another, though those playing the only true support character, Lifeline, are expected to heal others more often given the hero’s unique ability to revive someone else without fully pausing combat. While other support characters have been recently buffed or introduced, Lifeline hasn’t had as much attention. Even though she’s one of the original characters in the game and the only true healer, her usage has dropped by 20%. It’s often a thankless role.
It’s not easy to successfully heal or respawn a teammate, much less both, on a classic three-person squad. Apex recognizes that by giving “badges” for those feats, which can be displayed in a player’s banner profile. These banners, which are shown at the beginning of each match, are a quick way to introduce teammates to each other. Trackers can be included with impressively high kill counts or numbers of revives given.
The badges and trackers are nice, but it’s a cosmetic bragging right that says, “I’m a nice person,” without rewarding players in the actual matches. Meanwhile, those high kill counts correspond directly to armor evo points.
Evo points could be a way to reward and encourage supportive play behavior in Apex and bring back some energy to hard-working Lifelines.
What This Change Could Mean for Apex Legends and Lifeline
By keeping evo rewards at 150—a rate already achievable in-game through a similar (if not lesser) amount of effort via crafting—this adjustment would maintain the game’s balance while rewarding the efforts of support players.
Players will still need to get that last 600 points of damage to evolve their Purple Armor to Red, so it’s not a game-changer, but it could be just enough to give helpful players a leg up. And in the case where someone’s playing the long-suffering Lifeline and giving out tons of revives, this could turn the hero’s popularity around.
Furthermore, this update would re-enforce a tangible message from Respawn—which the devs share in subtle, encouraging loading screen messages—about being a good teammate by healing and respawning others. This would empower players who help their team get to the final rounds of a match but aren’t as well-armored because they haven’t been able to do as much damage.
So, how about it Respawn? Give me some evo points for constantly saving people’s asses.
