Respawn Entertainment has detailed a new Apex Legends Weapon Mastery system for players to get stuck into when the Arsenal update rolls around and it’s promising some decent long-term progression goals tied to interesting rewards – including a guaranteed legendary weapon skins. However, you shouldn’t expect to rush through this new progression system – even if you play Apex Legends all the time. Why? Well, you might need weeks of game-time to unlock everything on offer.
As reported by media outlet Dexerto, it looks like it could take Apex Legends players anywhere between 80 hours and 120 hours to complete each set of Weapon Mastery challenges. With it looking like the “trials” you’ll be met with being “very skill dependent”, it could take even longer than that.
Apex Legends’ upcoming Weapon Mastery system is the battle royale’s “first new long-term progresion system” and aims to “make Apex Legends more approachable for new players” – according to this Apex Legends blog post detailing the new features coming to the battle royale in Season 17. When you consider the fact that Respawn Entertainment has explained that “the goal here was to deepen player engagement across the board”, it’s certainly understandable that the Weapon Mastery system would offer several hours-worth of content. However, we can’t help but feel as though it’s a little too long – if what Dexerto says is true, anyway. It doesn’t look like Respawn Entertainment has shared a ball-park figure like this yet.
What Respawn Entertainment has shared, however, is what this system is going to look like and what you’re in for if you decide to undertake some of the new Weapon Mastery system’s challenges and trials.
When this feature launches, which should coincide with the Apex Legends Season 17 release date, “all players will start with every weapon at level 1”; then, in any game mode, you can start levelling them up. “Having a weapon in hand, dealing damage, securing kills, and fighting with style will all generate Weapon XP for that weapon”, and you’ll be met with more testing trials for each weapon every 20 levels of a 100-level Weapon Mastery system.
As you progress, you’ll be able to earn weapon-specific badges, performance trackers, weapon mastery banner frames, and eventually a guaranteed legendary skin for each weapon.
So, while it does look like something that you’ll be able to progress through as you play, the fact that each weapon’s Weapon Mastery could take you upwards of 120 hours is still troubling – especially when you consider the fact that battle royale games are often loot dependent. If you’re trying to master a rarer weapon, this could take a lot longer when it comes to actual play time.
Still, Apex Legends’ Season 17 update isn’t all bad – other than the fact that Apex Legends’ Season 17 Ranked changes could cause longer queue times, and that Apex Legends’ latest audio fix update “won’t resolve all concerns”. We know this is one of the best battle royale games out there right now, but it’s clear that there’s still quite a bit of room for improvement.
Apex Legends’ Ballistic does look like a lot of fun, though, and we can certainly see this character topping our Apex Legends tier list before too long. That, and Apex Legends’ Firing Range is in for an upgrade with Season 17.