Apex Legends has recently advanced to Season 15 with an update on maps and legends. The new season in Apex Legends brought along a new Legend in Catalyst as well as an entirely new map, the Broken Moon. While the former is a welcome addition, and exciting in its own right, the latter is going to affect all players' experience on Apex Legends. Broken Moon is an interesting combination of standard layout and completely new mechanics that make it both refreshing and familiar at the same time.
Broken Moon is the fifth core map in the game's release in 2019, released with Apex Legends' Season 15 at the start of November. It precedes Storm Point released in Season 11 and Olympus in Season 7, both of which offered unorthodox map layouts. Now with Broker Moon, Respawn Entertainment seems to have returned Apex Legends maps to the origins, but there's still a lot that separates Broken Moon from the first two maps in the game.
Is Bigger Always Better?
Perhaps the most important difference between Broken Moon and Kings Canyon is the size. The bigger the map, the more there is room to roam. This means that players will have more freedom to loot and avoid early fights in the beginning, if that is what they want to do. For those that are looking for early fights to improve their EVO shields, Kings Canyon might be preferable, but there are still drop locations on Broken Moon that guarantee a fight, like the Perpetual Core area and massive Terraformer complex, both of which are twice as large as a regular POI.
While World's Edge is closer to Broken Moon's size, but it is also less interconnected and more compartmentalized, similar to Kings Canyon. On Broken Moon, important high-tier looting locations are separated clearly from each other, unlike on the other two where oftentimes high-tier zones can fight in long-range battles. While third partying on Broken Moon isn't as easy as on Kings Canyon, mainly because of the size of the map, it can still be a very effective tactic.
On Kings Canyon and World's Edge, the mountains dividing the map are also more in play. Many of the highest peaks on Broken Moon are inaccessible or not very valuable. The availability of Jump Towers (or Geysers) on Kings Canyon and World's Edge also means that those are much easier to access even for team compositions that don't include the likes of Valkyrie or Pathfinder, Legends that have been among the favorites for a long time. The final battles on Broken Moon are much more likely to be had between teams on the ground or in buildings.
Moving Around the Maps
There are a few key differences in the movement and rotations when it comes to these two Apex Legends maps. Firstly, Kings Canyon is smaller and that naturally means that rotations are going to be faster. In addition, both of the older maps have Jump Towers or Geysers located at the edges of the map. This allows a very fast change in scenery for the entire team. In Broken Moon, only one Jump Tower is found in Eternal Gardens.
While Broken Moon doesn't have the plurality of Jump Towers, it features a new Zip Rail network, which allows fast rotations throughout the map. Unlike, the zip lines on the other maps which are few and far between and not interconnected, the Zip Rail network of Apex Legends' newest map spans the whole map and allows easy and fast travel from any POI. It's like a more expansive, on-demand version of the train network on World's Edge. Traveling via Zip Rail is not as fast as with Jump Towers, and players can't choose where they are headed as they have to follow the rail network. However, it can be safer because it isn't as visible to opposing teams as flying in the sky.
Some of the additional features that are not found on Broken Moon but are available in Kings Canyon include the Flyers that drop loot boxes, Supply Ships spawning at the start and middle of the match, Loot Bunkers and Explosive Holds for high-tier loot, and Charge Towers for re-filling Ultimates. These aren't found on World's Edge either, although it does have Cargo Bots that act similarly to flyers.
Apex Legends is available now for Mobile, PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
