Respawn Entertainment announced that it will soon introduceℱ Solos as a limited time mode in Apex Legends. This revelation follows speculation that a was .
The mode will appear as part of the game’s Iron Crown C💧ollection Event, to take place from Aug♒. 13 through 27. An announcement came via a short teaser video on Twitter.
The game’s community manager Jayfresh_Respawn supplemented the ꧋video with , though offered few additional details.
“On 8/13 we'll be trying out a Solos Mode in Apex for a limited time,” Jayfresh_Respawn, whose real name is Jay Frechette, posted on Reddit. “We'll talk more about Solos when it's live and you've had a chance to play it. For now we're going to put it out there and see what happens and what kind of f🌸eedback we get.”
Solo Origins
More than half a year has elapsed since EA released Apex Legends, garnering 50 million playꦫers' attention within a month.
But since the beginning, many fans have been clamoring for a S💎olos Mode, witꩲh arguments ranging from the to . An Apex Legends code snippet showi🐲ng that Solos and Duos Modes already exis🅷ted in the game’s architecture added fuel to th⛎e d🌞ebate around the inclusion of a Solo Mode.
It almost seems as though each character was designed with solo play in mind, given that the only character with an ability tha﷽t’s no longer useful at all in a Solos Mode is Lifeline. Though Lifeline will no longer be able to leverage the ability to quickly revive teammates, she still has a fast heal as part o꧂f her passive, which is extremely helpful as a solo player.
However, a Solos Mode is a curiosity in this game, given that the game has its genesis in team play. Team compositions seem designed to balance one another out (if not always effectively), allowing players to combine their characters’ unique skills to become champions of the ꦕarena. The goal in having multiple characters is that there is some variance on the battlefield, which is something that’s in jeopardy in a Solos Mode.
Balance Issues
While players at the non-competitive team level plaꩲy a variety of characters for different reasons, players v🍰ying for a Solos crown while playing as one of the game’s less-popular characters may not stand much of a chance.
For instance, Pathfinder has a unique set of skills that many find make this character a superior player for competitive play. During the recent ESPN EXP Apex Legends Invitational, nearly every professional team had a Pathfinder on♏ the team ♛in every game. In several cases, Pathfinder’s zip line specifically aided in a team’s win.
Pathfinder’s ability to quickly re꧒position via a grapple and zip line to areas unreachable by other characters make this character an obvious choice for a Solos Mode.
And then there’s Wraith, whose ability to phase essentially makes her temporarily immune to both bullet and storm damage. Wraith also appeared as part of every team in almost every game at the ESPN EXP Invitational🀅, as did Wattson, due to her ability to abate ꦚenemies with her traps and restore shields with her ultimate ability.
It seems easy to imagine, then, that a random lobby would quickly become full of individual players who have all chosen the same one or two characters, knowing that these characters provide unmatched tactical advantages. And, going up against a lobby full of Wraiths and Pathfinders doesn’t seem like a fun prospect for someone playing a character like a Caustic, given that bot😼h Wraith’s phase and Pathfinder’s grapple make it easy for them to get away from Caustic's Nox Gas.
And maybe there’s noth𓄧ing wr🧸ong with a lobby full of the same few characters, though it’s a bit somber for the characters whose abilities render them fundamentally unable to compete.
Solutions And Fixes
To be clear, Solos Mode is an excellent solution to the problem of matching with sub-par 💯random teammates when the only option is team play. Often, players find themselves matched with others who are lousy players, poor sports, or just generally toxic.
It’s a worthy endeavor, and introducing Solos as a limit🔯ed time mode is ideal. In order to combat the potential for an all-Pathfinder or all-Wraith meta, Respawn could introduce some character adjustments beyond . Even with adjustments that increase incoming damage by 5% for Wraith, Pathfinder and Lifeline, this ✃minor reduction didn’t appear to affect players’ choices at the competitive level.
Potential ideas include slowing down the regeneration of Pathfinder’s zip line, introducing a way to tear down the zip lines similar to the way players can break Wattson’s fences, or introducing a grapple gun-type tool in the environment that allows other characters to grapple a limited number of times. Wraith may be a bit tougher, but perhaps certain player attributes, such as Caustic's gas, can cause the character to still tak🌸e damage while in the void. Of course, it's worth noting that players are likely to push back against such major nerfs to either of these favorite characters.
Respawn could also strive to make sure that the lobbies are evenly distributed or, at the very least, not heavily weighted to consist of one character. However, that may pose challenges from a development perspective due to issues rerouting players to new servers based on their🎉 character selections.
Gam🍎e developers shouldn’t shy from risk, but they should also be prepared to make adjustments should this mode not work out as expected. In the meantime, casual players can stick to the standard three-player team mode, likely with the satisfaction of knowing that toxic random squaꦿd mates will be happily pub stomping over in Solos.