Goodbye EVO Shields, hello Legend Upgrades.
Icons for some of the changes coming in Season 20 of Apex Legends.

Apex Legends is turning five years old in 2024. With that fifth anniversary comes the upcoming 20th season for the battle royale from Respawn Entertainment and EA. Not content with just releasing some themed items and calling it a day, Respawn is instead making some pretty big changes to core gameplay mechanics in this fifth year and 20th season of the game.

First up, EVO Shields will no longer be an item you can pick up in the field. Everyone begins each match with a basic shield that can level up as they perform various actions throughout a match. Each time a player levels up they will get a new segment added to their armor bar. The new Legend Armor is "fueled by a Shield Core which contains the current shield HP". Respawn says that players can still swap or drop these cores at any point like the old system. Fallen enemies will now, instead of dropping full EVO Armors will now drop Shield Cores instead. Picking up a higher level Shield Core will temporarily overcharge your Armor that will provide a bonus amount of shield health for a period of 30 seconds before returning to your Legend Armor's max capacity.

This new leveling system also ties into the new Legend Upgrades system coming in the 20th season.

Introducing the Legend Upgrade system—an in-match progression system that deepens the Apex Legends Battle Royale experience by allowing you to tailor your Legend to your playstyle. This new feature will restart with each match, giving you the opportunity to try different upgrades on for size.

Earning EVO will now Level-Up your Legend over the course of the game, improving your armor tier and unlocking unique upgrade selections at Levels 2 and 3. Choose wisely, as your decision can impact your whole squad’s strategy.​

There will be several ways to earn EVO during a match. Dealing damage to enemies, knocking enemies out, assisting with knocks, performing finishers, and finding EVO caches all reward individual EVO. There are also ways to earn EVO as a squad. For instance, every member will gain EVO if they wipe out another squad, perform revives on teammates, respawn teammates, utilize their class abilities, interact with the world (wildlife, trials completions, etc.), or by finding the new EVO Harvesters.

EVO Harvesters will randomly spawn on every BR map with a delayed activation during the first ring, allowing players time to loot up before seeking them out. Any squad member can interact with them to award a large amount of EVO to the whole squad. Every team can interact with each EVO Harvester individually, as with Crafting Harvesters in previous seasons.
A few other notable additions are coming with this next update. Console players on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X (maybe Series S as well?) will get a new 120Hz Performance Mode for those with displays that support it. Respawn says that they are targeting 120 FPS gameplay with this mode thanks to "recent improvements in the Apex rendering engine".

Clubs will also be retired when the new season launches. Replacing them will be Tags, which is a 3-4 character long identifier that shows before your name that you can customize.

There will also be a new Mixtape map, a new Collection Evnt, and special seasonal rewards that could let you freely unlock a handful of Legends. All of this, and more, can be found on the preview page for Apex Legends Season 20 - Breakout. A full changelog for this new season will go live on February 12, 2024.