Apex Legends Season 20 Legend Upgrades & armor changes explained

❘ Published: 2024-02-05T16:00:00

Respawn Entertainment

Apex Legends Season 20 introduces some huge changes to how shield works, as well as new Legend upgrade perks that will be available for you to choose in-game. Here’s everything you need to know.

Apex Legends Season 20 brings the largest changes to shield and Legends since launch, as the devs have decided to totally revamp the way armor works, as well as introduce a new Perk upgrade system for the characters.

These new mechanics are set to completely change the way Apex Legends is played, so despite no new Legend or weapon entering the game for the new season, players will still have a lot to enjoy.

Here’s everything you need to know about both the new armor system and Legend upgrades in Season 20 of Apex Legends.

Apex Legends Season 20 reimagines shield armor

Starting in Season 20 of Apex Legends, armor will no longer be a lootable item, instead, all players will start with a grey shield like usual, but the only way to get more shield is through Evo. You can level up your Evo through the following methods:

Personal Gains
- Damage
- Knocks and Knock Assists
  - Knocks against a legend of higher level will net an underdog XP bonus
- Finishers
- EVO Cache (Care Packages, Vaults etc.)
Team Gains
- Squad Wipes
- Revives
- Respawns
- Class Interactions (Survey Beacons, Ring Consoles, etc.)
- World Interactions (Wildlife, Trials Completions, etc.)
- EVO Harvesters

You can still shield-swap deathboxes, but these are now called Shield Cores, and the extra shield you gain from swapping will be temporary.

The Shield Core is a new way to swap armor in Apex Legends.

Your armor’s Evo level is also tied to the new Legend Upgrades in Apex Legends Season 20.

Legend Upgrades in Apex Legends Season 20 explained

Respawn Entertainment have also decided to introduce a new aspect to matches in Apex Legends, where players will have to pick upgrades for their character’s abilities while in a match. Once you reach Level 2 and 3 Evo Shield, you will need to pick an upgrade/perk from four options for your character.

Every character on the roster has four upgrade options, you will be able to select two per match. These upgrades could help a certain ability, or introduce something new as a whole. For example, Mad Maggie has a Perk that sees her Ultimate ability Wrecking Ball leave two Thermites in the shape of an X after exploding.

The chance to choose an upgrade will occur once in the early game, and then again in the mid-game, and is tied to your Evo level.

For more on Apex Legends, be sure to check out some of our other guides below: