Apex Legends Season 4: Assimilation - Everything You Need To Know

Apex Legends Season 4: Assimilation, the new season in developer Respawn's battle royale, is now live on PS4, Xbox One, and PC, and there's plenty of new content to look forward to in the free update. In the following article, we detail everything you need to know about the start of Year 2 in Apex Legends, but be sure to check out our Revenant guide for tips on how to play as the new character.

Season 4 has plenty of new content to offer, including playable character Revenant and the Sentinel sniper rifle. Kings Canyon makes a return in this new season as well, though not how we expected. Assimilation also overhauls Ranked Mode and makes adjustments to how certain in-game features work, like getting Assists.

Patch Notes

The most immediate and essential question is when does Apex Season 4 start? The answer is now! Apex Legends Season 4: Assimilation is now live, with a brand new playable legend and more. Learn more about Assimilation's battle pass rewards or read the full patch notes for Season 4 to see what's new.

New Character

In Season 4, Apex Legends gains a new character, Revenant. Respawn has slowly been teasing the creepy legend ever since the Halloween-themed Fight or Fright. Originally, Respawn announced that Forge would be the new legend, but then Revenant killed him.

Gameplay-wise, Revenant is a support legend. In the Season 4 gameplay trailer, we see Revenant climbing higher and faster than most legends, throw out an explosive orb of dark energy that seems to stun enemies and disable their abilities, and set up a totem that gives him and his allies a chance to immediately respawn after being killed. Now that Season 4 is live, you can learn more about Revenant's new abilities, including Stalker, Silence, and Death Totem.

New Weapon

Apex Legends is getting another sniper rifle. Like Season 3: Meltdown's Charge Rifle, Season 4: Assimilation's Sentinel is a sniper rifle focused around a charging mechanic. However, instead of needing to charge in order to fire, the Sentinel seems to be a gun that can charge itself to fire a more powerful shot--allowing you to snipe at foes with fast but weak shots or strong but slow shots.

Two Maps, Two Halves For Ranked Mode

Kings Canyon is returning to Apex Legends in Season 4, though you'll still have to wait a bit before you can play on it again. Assimilation's Ranked Mode will now be divided into two halves--the first of which will see you continue to play on a drastically remade World's Edge, while the latter half will take players back to Kings Canyon.

Help Your Friends And Earn More Points

Respawn is changing how Assists work in Assimilation. The timer for getting an Assist will be extended from 5 seconds to 7.5 seconds, giving you a larger window of opportunity to earn points for helping a teammate down an opponent. Season 4 will also allow you to earn Assist points when an ally kills an enemy you tricked with a Mirage Decoy, nabbed with a Pathfinder Grapple, damaged with a Crypto EMP, or scanned with Crypto or Bloodhound.

Brand-New Rank Tier

In Ranked Mode, the tiers have been adjusted so that levels that were once considered Apex Predator are now called Master. The tier of Apex Predator will only be given to the 500 highest-ranking players on each platform (Xbox One, PS4, and PC), so only 1500 people in the world will hold the title.

Other than that, ranks will work as they did in Season 3, with the start of Season 4 giving all players a soft reset. The soft reset will lower your current rank by 1.5 tiers. So, for example, if you're currently Gold I, Season 4 will see you start as Silver III.

Party Restrictions

Season 4: Assimilation will also have brand-new restrictions on who you can party-up with. Once you reach Platinum IV, you can only party up with players who are within one tier rank of you. So, for instance, if you're Platinum, you can only party up with players who are Gold through Diamond, while a Diamond player can only party with teammates who are Platinum through Master.

This does mean you will no longer be able to boost a low-ranking player and get a fresh Bronze-level account into Diamond or Master, as new accounts won't be able to join high-ranking matches until they've earned enough points to be Gold at the very minimum. On the other hand, the change should also mean that you will be consistently paired up against players within your skill bracket once you enter high-tier play.

Start Of The Season Rewards

At the start of Season 4, you'll earn rewards dependent on the rank you achieved in Season 3: Meltdown. All players will receive a new badge that reflects their Season 3 rank. Ranks Gold through Apex Predator will also receive a gun charm cosmetic that's colored to match your Season 3 rank--with the exception of Diamond and Apex Predator, which will receive ice and molten lava-themed charms, respectively. Diamond and Apex Predator will also get new dive trails, the former will get ice and the latter fire.

You'll also get rewards just for logging in on February 4. All players will receive a paper crane gun charm as well as a new badge that reflects when in the past year you started playing Apex Legends.

End Of The Season Rewards

All ranks will earn new badges at the end of Season 4, but only Gold through Apex Predator will earn a new weapon cosmetic and only Diamond and Apex Predator will earn a new dive trail.