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King’s Canyon is the most iconic map in Apex Legends and the first taste of the game for many players.
But over time, the map has received tons of changes, and knowing how to navigate the rejigged map is important if you want to win more matches.
Here’s a full breakdown of the Season 14 map changes to help you get accustomed to the changes.
READ MORE: Apex Legends Season 14 Wingman Guide
Changes to Cage, Hillside, and Relay – King’s Canyon
The Cage is a memorable structure on Kings Canyon, but Respawn felt that the defensibility was too high for a POI positioned directly in a high traffic junction. This was contributing to third parties as players siege squads entrenched inside the tower. To resolve these fights quicker, the top of the structure was modified.
The top of the cage is still a power position, but players entering the area will be able to put additional pressure on the dominant squad. Because it’s easier to enter or leave, players should now more easily be able to capitalize on the advantage and end the fight.
Hillside: the same design philosophy was used for the POI near Containment, where squads trying to rotate through would find themselves caught in prolonged engagements between multiple squads.
To reduce this friction, Respawn has rebuilt this area from the ground up without defensible interior spaces. The goal of this change is to resolve fights faster and allow safer rotations through this space.
Broken Relay: As a bonus change, Respawn has restored some buildings that previously existed at Broken Relay. The zipline gameplay was a lot of fun and Respawn saw an opportunity to bring it back. The name of the POI has changed from Broken Relay to Basin to more accurately describe how it appears in this version of Kings Canyon.
New Place of Interest – Relic
One of the most frequent pieces of feedback players offered Respawn about Kings Canyon is the overall map size. Over time, Kings Canyon has continued to feel smaller and smaller as the game has evolved. Often this meant squads were too close together in the early and mid-game, making it difficult for players to take fights without being interrupted by a third party. Addressing this was the primary goal of the new POI.
In Season 5, Skull Town and Thunderdome were sunk by a massive explosion caused by Loba. Now that the Salvage operation is complete, the Syndicate has rebuilt the area for the Apex Games. Dredging machines have refilled the space with sand from the ocean floor, and a new battleground has been rebuilt with the iconic skull as its centerpiece. The winding, interconnected buildings of the center village should provide the nostalgic Skull town experience that players loved in the early seasons of the game.
With Relic, Respawn saw an opportunity to bring back gameplay that many players loved from the original Kings Canyon, but with a POI more appropriately sized for the overall health of the map. Relic is essentially the new version of Skull Town with some changes to reduce third parties.
Rotation Changes in King’s Canyon
Frequent cut-throughs made it easy to interrupt fights without consequence in previous versions of the map. There was previously a rotation that connected Destroyed Bridges, River Center, and Hillside. The pathway has now been removed.
The cave connection between Marketplace and River Center has also been removed to further stabilize the flow of squads around River Center. At Marketplace, Respawn has moved the small cave connection at the back to a more visible location, and widened it significantly. This should make it more difficult for players to ambush squads at Marketplace, and improve player awareness overall.
There is also a similar modification to this choke point near The Cage. The amount of new playable space is significant and gives players better visibility of the surrounding area.
Other Changes
The loot has been tweaked to ensure players spread out at the start of the game instead of contesting limited zones for loot. The skybox and lighting have also been changed as part of the new update.
To see all of the new changes in the new Apex Legends update, you can view the official patch notes. If you want to master Bloodhound, who is one of the best recon legends in the game, you can check out our detailed Bloodhound guide.
