In Season 13: Saviors, Apex Legends developer Respawn is finally taking a critical look at the game’s long-suffering Ranked mode. The Ranked queue in any competitive shooter is intended to match players up by skill and provide a balanced competitive experience that makes for thrilling matches and verifiable bragging rights. In Apex Legends’ case, the Ranked mode has always been criticized for being unbalanced, exploitable, and promoting aggravating playstyles. Season 13 will begin the process of fixing the mode. Below is a full breakdown of all changes coming to the Apex Legends Ranked mode in Season 13: Saviors.
Kill point changes
One of the biggest flaws of the Apex Legends Ranked mode was that it put a disproportionate emphasis on finishing high in a match, rather than in actual performance. In Season 13, the Ranked system retains the simplistic dichotomy of kills and placement as the only two sources of player RP (Ranked Points), but it puts a lot more emphasis on the former over the latter. The following changes apply to kills in Apex Legends Ranked in Season 13:
- There is no longer a kill cap; instead, each subsequent kill earns progressively less RP.
- Killing players who are at a lower Rank than yourself grants slightly less RP; however, this RP reduction is lower than in previous seasons. The values are based on the exact difference in Rank, and they range from 30% of base RP (when killing a player who is three or more Ranks lower than you) to 200% base RP (when killing a player who is three or more Ranked higher.)
- Kills award much less RP if you don’t finish 10th or higher in a match, but a lot more if you do. As before, getting a high placement compound the RP you get from all of your kills in the match, and that compounding is now stronger.
- The placement and Kill RP values are as follows:
| Placement | 14+ | 13-11 | 10-9 | 8-7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| Placement RP | 0 | 5 | 10 | 20 | 30 | 45 | 55 | 70 | 95 | 125 |
| RP per kill | 1 | 5 | 10 | 12 | 14 | 16 | 18 | 20 | 23 | 25 |
Assist point changes
In Season 13, Apex Legends players will have a larger time window to score assists in Ranked mode. Specifically, assists count for any player you have damaged within 15 seconds of their elimination, up from 10 seconds in previous seasons. Furthermore, that timer is refreshed if the knocked player gets picked up by an ally, allowing you to get your assist credit (and the associated RP) more consistently.
Tier demotions
In previous Apex Legends seasons, the overly generous ranking system and the inability to lose rank meant that the majority of players ended up in the high Gold and Platinum tiers, where players of extremely disparate skill levels were forced to fight each other over and over again without any ability to rank up or down. In Season 13, players will be demoted to a lower tier if they underperform at their current rank.
- Players have demotion protection for their first three games after climbing into a higher tier.
- Once demotion protection is exhausted, dropping below the tier threshold (by finishing a match with negative RP gain) will trigger a demotion penalty, dropping the player halfway down the previous division.
- Players start with 100 RP each time they enter a new tier, which gives them a slight buffer while they get acclimated to the competition.
- The length of each Division has been increased by 200 RP, to reflect the new values.
Match cost adjustments
Entry cost is the amount of RP which are subtracted from your total when you queue up for a Ranked mode match in Apex Legends. In order to rank up, you need to finish each match with more RP gained than the cost of the match. These values are adjusted for Apex Legends Season 13: Saviors. The match costs are based on players’ Rank and their Division within each Rank (from IV to I.)
- Bronze: 15/18/21/24
- Silver: 27/30/33/36
- Gold: 39/42/45/48
- Platinum 51/54/57/60
- Diamond: 63/66/69/72
- Masters: 75
Players in Masters League also pay extra RP to enter matches based on their exact placement within the League. The bonus RP deducted is 5 RP for every 1,000 RP beyond the Master threshold, up to 175.
New tier: Rookie
Rookie is a new tier that exists in Apex Legends Ranked mode as an introductory step. It sits below Bronze and has no match entry costs. Thus, players can only be promoted out of Rookie and never fall back in it. In fact, Rookie is not a League you can ever return to once you’re out. Upon entering a new Ranked split, players begin at Bronze.
That was a lot of dry data and numbers, but if you are someone who enjoys the competitive side of Apex Legends, these changes should be an exciting sign of where the Ranked mode is headed in the future. We expect to see a lot of player feedback on the reworked Ranked mode in Apex Legends Season 13: Saviors, especially after the community gets to try out new Legend Newcastle and gets adjusted to all the changes to the Stormpoint map.
