Apex Legends Season 9 has gotten a full gameplay trailer at this point, and it looks like players are going to have a lot to look forward to when it drops on May 4. Leading off the gameplay reveal trailer was the announcement of a new permanent mode: a 3v3 mode where two teams fight each other round after round, up to nine rounds overall. It has economy mechanics vaguely similar to Counter Strike or Valorant, while still maintaining that Apex Legends flavor. After that was the gameplay reveal for the new legend, Valkyrie, who looks like she brings some real firepower.
Lastly, but still very much worth noting, a new weapon was announced: the Bocek Compound Bow. This is a very different weapon for Apex Legends, and it could open the door for some seriously exciting possibilities in the future.
Greater Weapon Variety In Apex Legends
Up to this point, Apex Legends has always included either semi-realistic weapons, or straight-up sci-fi weapons. The Arc Stars are one of the only notable exceptions to this rule, though it's a throwable and not technically a weapon. There are a couple of different reasons that this new bow seems like it could really open the floodgates for a ton of different possibilities with the weaponry in Apex Legends.
The first of which being that a bow of any kind is more of an old-school weapon. In a game with weapons that shoot bullets and energy, people teleport through portals and can get stuck in artificial black holes, the fact that this game now has a bow is awesome. It brings with it tons of possibilities for other old-school weapons: there could be a smaller, handheld crossbow to be the less-powerful version of the weapon, akin to the Mozambique, among so many other things.
It could also bring with it the possibility for entirely different kinds of old-school weapons which could truly revolutionize the weapons in Apex Legends, like sci-fi battle axes or war hammers. Respawn could completely overhaul the melee system in Apex with different weapon types of that kind, or they could go in a completely different direction that nobody is thinking about. All of it could start with this bow, which appears to be a complete departure from the norm for Apex Legends.
Bocek Compound Bow: Two Weapons in One
Another exciting aspect of the Bocek Compound Bow are the Hop-Ups that seem to dramatically change how it performs. One of these Hop-Ups is called Shatter Caps, which turns the bow into a kind of shotgun-style weapon, splitting the projectile into multiple parts. The other is called Deadeye's Tempo, which allows the bow to be drawn quicker when done with the right timing. These two Hop-Ups can be combined, or one at a time can be used, allowing the weapon to have some really different functionality depending on what the player finds and chooses to use.
This isn't completely revolutionary in Apex Legneds: the Flatline and the R-301 both have an attachment that allows the weapons to single-fire and deal more damage per shot, but it's definitely an addition to the idea that each weapon can have a couple of different ways that it can function. Adding more Hop-Ups like this as well as more weapons capable of having multiple Hop-Ups gives every weapon the possibility of carrying two weapons in one, and gives the player more chances to play the game in a unique style.
Apex Legends is available now on Nintendo Switch, PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
