Apex Legends Devs Explain Why Season 7 Is the Right Time for Vehicles

Apex Legends players will no doubt have seen by now that the game is adding its first vehicle in Season 7. The game-changing vehicle is called the "Trident," and it'll only be found on the new Olympus map that's releasing alongside the same Season 7 update. Vehicles have long been on the wishlists of many players who wanted them to be added to Apex Legends though, so why was Season 7 the right time of all times for Respawn Entertainment to add the feature?

During a press event previewing the release of Season 7 in Apex Legends, we asked Respawn Entertainment that exact question to see why Season 7 was the right time for vehicles as opposed to any other season before it. Dave Osei, the senior level designer at Respawn Entertainment who's working on the new Olympus map, explained the reasoning behind adding the three-seater Trident now and said the vehicle will hopefully resolve some pain points players have been experiencing.

"We saw a few pain points when players were playing in other maps, of getting really large rotations and wanting to move from one corner to the other corner, and just the zipline balloons weren't providing enough value to get to that place very fast," Osei said. "And so, we saw an opportunity to try and make that up somehow."

Expanding more on why Season 7 was a smart fit for the vehicle, Osei said the timing had to do with the release of the Olympus map. While they're exploring a brand new map, players will be able to do so with the new mobility feature without having to worry about getting stranded on the outskirts of the map and missing out on action.

"We wanted the Trident to be used as a way to allow players to land farther on the edge of the map more confidently knowing that they can get back into the map at a much easier pace," Osei said. "And so, this felt like a good opportunity when we have a new map to introduce the vehicle."

Osei explained elsewhere in the event that the vehicle is intended to be more of a rotational tool on Olympus than anything else. For that reason, it can't be used to ram other players and has no weapons attached to it, though players can affix Legends' abilities like Caustic's traps and Gibraltar's Dome Shield to it to briefly improve its offensive and defensive measures.

Apex Legends Season 7 is also adding a new Legend named Horizon, a Legend we were able to test out before coming away with some thoughts on how she'll play and how to use her abilities. Another notable change is the return of the R-99 as it comes back from Care Packages while another weapon takes its place.