Apex Legends Season 11 launches next week and the Legends are going to have to contend with the arrival of Ash and a brand-new map – the tropical island of Storm Point. New Legend Ash joins the fray with a lethal set of abilities designed to track and trap unlucky foes. Now a Legend in the Apex Games, Ash is the robot simulacrum first seen in Titanfall 2 who serves as the Arenas gamemaster in Apex Legends. Continuing the Titanfall tie-ins, the CAR SMG is also making a comeback as an ammo hybrid SMG that can use both Heavy and Light rounds. With a completely new map and interesting weapon, Apex Legends Season 11 looks like it’s going to really shake up the meta and introduce some radical changes to Apex Legends. Here’s everything we know about Apex Legends Season 11 so far.
Apex Legends Season 11 start date
Season 11 of Apex Legends, which is named ‘Escape’, starts next Tuesday on November 2 for all platforms. Ash, the CAR SMG, and Storm Point will be available with the season launch too. Apex Legends seasons normally last around three months, so expect Season 11 to take us into 2022.
Ash is the new Legend in Apex Legends Season 11
First introduced into the world of Apex Legends with the Season 5 quest, Ash currently acts as the announcer and overseer behind the Arenas mode introduced in Season 9. With Season 11, Ash is stepping into the Arenas and Battle Royale to fight the other Legends. Like previous Legends, you’ll be able to buy Ash for Legend Tokens or premium Apex Coins when Season 11 starts.
Ash’s abilities really make her sound like she’s going to be a relentless hunter on the battlefield and really lean into some classic Titanfall 2 abilities that will make her very powerful in the right hands:
- Passive Ability – Marked For Death: Ash’s map shows the location of recent deathboxes. She can then use her dataknife on a deathbox to briefly reveal the killers too.
- Tactical Ability – Arc Snare: Throw out a snare that damages and tethers the first enemy that gets too close to trigger it
- Ultimate Ability – Phase Breach: Tear open a one-way portal to a targeted location that your allies can also use.
Ash’s Tactical Arc Snare Ability sounds very similar to the tether traps that the Northstar Titan had back in Titanfall 2, only with added arc damage like Ash’s Ronin Titan had. Similarly, her Phase Breach Ultimate Ability appears to be a more aggressive but limited version of Wraith’s Dimensional Rift portal. Using her katana-like sword, Ash instantly carves open a portal in front of her which leads to a targeted exit portal. Ash automatically goes through her portal but teammates can also head through after Ash. Finally, her passive ability grants Ash some useful tracking abilities that will ensure no enemy players can stay hidden forever. Recent deathboxes appear on her map, but she can interact with them to ping the killers of the victim on her map too, giving Ash players and their teammates a good lead to find more enemies. All in all, Ash sounds like a lethal assassin character that will counter the more mobile Legends with her tracking Passive Ability and tethering Tactical Ability. Her Ultimate Ability will allow for incredibly aggressive plays from coordinated teams too, that are able to catch enemies by surprise or catch up to fleeing ones.
In terms of her lore, Ash is a bit of a complicated character. While she was first introduced in Titanfall 2, it turns out her story goes back long before the events of that game to when she was a human. In short, Dr. Ashleigh Reid was a scientist working with Horizon, the Scottish scientist-turned-Apex Legend, to solve an energy crisis in the Outlands, but Ash betrayed Horizon and left her to die in a black hole. Later, while working covertly with a mercenary group, Ash got caught in the crossfire of an attack on her team of scientists who had created Pathfinder and was made into a simulacrum robot – just like Revenant – to preserve her brain.
Years later, and after being destroyed and rebuilt several times across Titanfall 2 and Apex Legends, Ash eventually joined the Apex Games as the leader for Arenas, but now emerges as a competitor. A recent Stories from the Outlands lore video revealed that Ash’s human and robot minds remain somewhat separate. In the video, Horizon recites a number sequence in an attempt to reawaken Ash’s human side, which will undoubtedly be a key story point in Apex Legends Season 11.
Storm Point is the new map for Apex Legends Season 11
The Apex Legends Season 11 gameplay trailer officially revealed the new tropical island map as Storm Point. It is approximately 15% larger than World’s Edge, making it Apex Legends’ biggest map so far, and has Tridents like Olympus. It features beaches, jungles, a giant antenna, gravity cannons, and more Points of Interest. There are large, open areas like Barometer in the heart of Storm Point and The Antenna, and there are tighter, interior spaces like Shipfall and Command Center. You can read more about Storm Point here on this blog post.
As we saw in the Season 11 launch trailer and now in the gameplay trailer, wildlife is going to be a big deal on Storm Point as a threat during matches that can also award more loot. Legends can disturb nests of Prowlers (not the gun) and Spiders, which are marked on the map and are in the same location every match, to get extra items and crafting materials. Prowlers are pack animals like wolves, but Spiders are agile and attack at range. Fliers will also soar across the map carrying deathboxes like they do on Kings Canyon.
With an entirely new map being added in Season 11, World’s Edge getting an update in Season 10, and Olympus seeing some changes in Season 9, updates for existing maps are not happening at the start of the season. Kings Canyon and Olympus will also be totally out of rotation in Season 11, as the focus shifts to Storm Point and the Season 10 World’s Edge update, even for Ranked. Furthermore, Arenas now has a fair few custom maps, so all the Battle Royale POI maps are being taken out of rotation.
The CAR SMG is getting added in Apex Legends Season 11
Making its debut way back in Titanfall 1, the CAR SMG is returning with Apex Legends Season 11. We don’t know too much about its Apex Legends variant, but the new Season 11 gameplay trailer showed off its ammo hybrid abilities, with the weapon being able to use both Light and Heavy ammo and can be toggled at will. Whether you need to also load in a fresh magazine after switching ammo types to fully change the ammo is unclear, but that’s how it is demonstrated in the trailer. In terms of attachments, it looks like the CAR will require an Extended Heavy Magazine only, with the ammo switching being an intrinsic capability that does not require a Hop-Up or an Extended Light Magazine too.
It’s also a high rate-of-fire SMG (although not as high as the R-99) with low vertical recoil – similar to its Titanfall 1 and 2 incarnations – and a 20-round magazine. In the Titanfall games, the CAR SMG served almost as an assault rifle-SMG hybrid with low and consistent recoil, and good range for an SMG. In Apex Legends, its ammo switching abilities may add extra nuance to the weapon as both ammo types make the weapon behave slightly differently. The fire rates with Light and Heavy bullets appear to be the same in the gameplay trailer, but perhaps Heavy bullets provide more damaging bullets at the cost of higher recoil.
With the Alternator now in Care Packages with Disruptor Rounds, there is definitely a gap for a new harder-hitting SMG with good handling. It should have a damage output comparable to the R-301 but will have faster handling and less range since it’s an SMG. The fact that it can load both Light and Heavy rounds puts it in direct competition with both the R-99 and the Prowler, so it’ll be interesting to see how the SMG meta fares with the CAR’s release and any other adjustments in the Season 11 patch.
New Apex Legends Season 11 Battle Pass and Ranked Season
An Apex Legends Season wouldn’t be complete without a new themed Battle Pass and another Ranked season with new rewards. None of the Escape Battle Pass rewards have been properly revealed just yet, but it looks like Mirage is getting a Legendary skin with Season 11, and the Prowler is getting this season’s reactive weapon skin as seen in the new gameplay trailer. Expect to see some tropical paradise and beach-themed Legend and weapon skins, weapon charms, and other cosmetic items too. The demand for swimsuit skins in Apex Legends has become a bit of a meme lately, but the Season 11 Battle Pass looks like it could answer some of those requests.
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