Apex Legends Season 8 Chaos Theory event: Release date, Heirloom, more

Nicholas Sakadelis
Bangalore in Apex

The Chaos Theory event will bring a plethora of exciting new content to Apex Legends Season 8, including a new Heirloom and Town Takeover. Here’s everything we know about it so far.

The Apex Legends Anniversary Collection Event allowed fans to celebrate the game’s two-year anniversary while bringing cool new content to the battle royale in Season 8. Now, it appears Respawn Entertainment have another event planned known as Chaos Theory.

There are plenty of leaks and rumors about what kind of content we can expect from this Season 8 event, including a brand new Heirloom. Here’s an overview of everything that has been revealed about it so far.

When is the Chaos Theory event?

The event will begin on March 9, the day Apex Legends releases on the Nintendo Switch. The name “Chaos Theory” was revealed by Target on their Nintendo Switch Champion Edition listing, and now has been confirmed via an official announcement.

Caustic Town Takeover

A few leaks emerged recently which suggested that Caustic would be the next Legend to get his own Town Takeover and that we should expect to see some clues in the game soon. It appears that these rumors are correct, and now it has been confirmed Caustic will be taking over Water Treatment on Kings Canyon.

In this revamped area, Caustic has started an experiment that requires test subjects to drain the toxic liquid in the facility. Doing so gives players access to four gold loot items locked in cages. Be quick though, as these cages are only open and safe for a limited time.

New Ring Fury Escalation Takeover, Heat Shields, and Survival Slot

Ring Fury is a new Apex playlist takeover that follows regular BR rules, but each round, one or more Ring Flares will appear on the map within the current ring. Ring Flares are slowly expanding pockets of the Ring within the Arena.

Those who get caught in a Ring Flare will take damage equal to the damage dealt by the current round’s Ring. You’ll be given a short warning on the map and minimap before the Ring Flare appears. Legends will call out if they are in direct danger or if there’s one opening up nearby.

To deal with ring flaires, you can now drop Heat Shields to assist you from taking damage.

HEAT SHIELDS

During the Ring Fury Escalation Takeover, all players will start with a Heat Shield in their inventory on the drop. Throwdown your Heat Shield to avoid damage from Ring Flares or the ring itself. You can also find more Heat Shields throughout the map, as it has been added to the loot pool.

Heat Shields cast a protective dome, enabling players to loot, revive, and generally make some amazing plays outside of the Ring. Plus, when you’re inside the dome, the use of healing items is sped up by 50%, and the speed of Revives is increased by 25%. This bonus is only given by Heat Shields that have been activated by the ring. Heat Shields on standby in the safe zone are conserving energy, and don’t grant this bonus.

After the Ring Fury Escalation Takeover concludes, the Heat Shield will remain in the game as general ground loot.

SURVIVAL SLOT

You’ll notice that the Heat Shield doesn’t take up any of your normal inventory slots—instead, it resides in the brand new “Survival Slot”. 

The Survival Slot aims to eliminate the choice between normal loot and situational utilities like a Mobile Respawn Beacon or a Heat Shield. Now players have no reason to not carry one of these utilities around.

Like the heat shield, the Survival Slot itself will continue to be available in the game even after the Ring Fury Escalation Takeover ends. 

INTRODUCING ESCALATION TAKEOVERS

Similar to previous playlist takeovers, Ring Fury will replace regular Duos and Trios playlists for the two-week duration of the Collection Event. Ranked will not be affected.

However, unlike previous takeovers, Ring Fury is an “Escalation Takeover,” which means that every few days during the event, we’re going to turn some knobs to crank up the prevalence, timing, and size of Ring Flares. By the end of the event, you can expect five different stages of escalation.

No-Fill Matchmaking Added

No-fill matchmaking is now here for players to use in public playlists. This is not available in ranked. Drop solo into duos or trios modes to complete challenges, or practice hot drops alone. There may only be 6 solo players at any time in a single game, so you won’t run into many other solo players on your journey.

Chaos Theory Collection Event

New free loot has been added as part of the Chaos Theory Rewards Track, where players can receive up to 1,000 rewards points per day for rewards.

Challenges refresh daily and stack with the battle pass, so players can complete multiple challenges at once.

With these new free cosmetics, also comes 24 limited edition cosmetics specifically themed for the event. You can purchase all the cosmetics with Apex coins or crafting materials, and all players who get all 24 cosmetics will get Bangalores new Heirloom set, pictured below.

When the event concludes on March 23, 2021, players will be able to obtain this Heirloom through the crafting system.

In addition to all the new features, Respawn has also dropped the full patch notes for the new event. You can read about all the Weapon, Legend and Quality of life changes here.

That’s all we have for now. Stay tuned for more information as we receive it.

Image Credits: Respawn Entertainment

Information Source: Apex Legends Patch Notes