Apex Legends Brings Back Seasonal LTM With a Twist

Respawn Entertainment is bringing back one of Apex Legends' more inventive limited-time modes with the return of Shadow Royale scheduled to take place on October 4th. This'll be the first time this mode has returned in approximately a year (which makes sense given that it's wrapped up in Apex's Halloween-themed Fight or Fright event), but this time, there's a twist to it: the mode will be played not on Kings Canyon but on Olympus instead.

This redone version of the sprawling city map will aptly be called "Olympus After Dark" just like the darkened Kings Canyon variant was named. For those unfamiliar with Shadow Royale, it's a mode akin to the Infected-type playlists commonly seen in the Call of Duty games. Characters choose their Legends like normal, but once they're killed, they respawn as Shadows which have special abilities like faster movement, infinite climbing abilities, and wallrunning. These abilities come at the cost of lower health and the fact that a melee attack is the only way for a Shadow to deal damage.

Shadows have a responsibility to hunt down Legends from remaining squads while also reviving their living teammates whenever the survivors get downed. Once all members of a squad are turned into Shadows, the squad is eliminated. Like the traditional battle royale mode, the goal is to be the final squad remaining once all the Shadow chaos subsides. There are a few more minor rules that govern the flow of this LTM, but that's the core experience.

The overarching Fight or Fright event this mode is part of starts on October 4th which is when Shadow Royale returns as well. The mode will be around for a week until Gun Run takes its place. Control will come back the following week with the event ending with another round of Shadow Royale from October 25th to November 1st. Last year's return of Shadow Royale was criticized for not bringing the LTM back into rotation until the event was already several weeks in, so it seems that frustration will be rectified this time.

Various skins tied to the spooky theme will be on sale during the event, too, so keep an eye on the shop to see if there's anything there that'll interest you once the Fight or Fright event gets underway.