3 sources 1m ago
Apex Legends Season 31 Cipher Adds Crypto Rework And Legend Bans
Electronic Arts will open Season 31 of Apex Legends, subtitled Cipher, on November 4 at 3:00. The update reworks the Recon-class Legend Crypto, whose surveillance drone moves from an unlimited deployment to a battery system.
Reporting from 3 sources: GAME Watch (Impress), 4Gamer.net, Game Spark.
Why it matters
Legend BAN replaces the fixed pick order of high-rank lobbies with a weighted vote draw, so the developers are building unpredictability into team composition rather than leaving the meta to settle on one lineup.
Key Facts
- Apex Legends Season 31, subtitled Cipher, opens on November 4 at 3:00.
- The Crypto rework moves his surveillance drone to a battery system and adds Sentry Mode, which marks enemies for Crypto and his squadmates.
- Akimbo Wingman lets Apex Legends players carry two Wingmans at once.
- Legend BAN arrives in Diamond-and-above Ranked lobbies, with ban chance set by a weighted random draw from player votes.
- Stronghold is a new map facility that yields Care Package weapons for a whole squad but sounds an alarm that reveals their position.
Placing the drone in an optimal spot activates Sentry Mode, which marks enemies in its line of sight for Crypto and his squadmates, and the EMP ultimate can now fire from a single button press. Revenant and Lifeline are strengthened: Revenant gets a shorter ultimate cooldown and a faster tactical, and Lifeline gets a shorter D.O.C. cooldown and can self-heal while sliding. A new Akimbo Wingman lets players carry two Wingmans at once. The map gains Stronghold, a raid-able facility that yields Care Package weapons for the whole squad but takes time to open and sounds an alarm that reveals the squad's position. Ranked adds Legend BAN in Diamond-and-above lobbies, where each player votes for one Legend and a weighted random draw sets the ban chance.
Respawn Entertainment's Legend Design Lead John Ellenton said the Crypto rework targets a change in how the character is played. "The goal of this rework was to shift from a passive playstyle of placing the drone and waiting to a style of gathering information more actively," he said. The in-fiction reason for the change is a firmware upgrade performed by Crypto's sister Mira.
Revenant and Lifeline also get new upgrade options alongside their base buffs. Revenant's upgrades extend the Ultimate's duration on each knockdown, silence nearby enemies after a Shadow Pounce lands, and make Shadow Pounce reusable while an enemy is marked. Lifeline's upgrades shorten her Ultimate cooldown, bring back a shield deployed while reviving an ally, and improve mobility in the air. Ellenton said the Revenant changes are meant to bring back "nostalgic elements from his previous ability set."
Weapon Designer Casey O'Brien framed the Akimbo Wingman around accessibility. "We want players to freely experience the dream of dual-wielding a powerful, iconic weapon like the Wingman," he said. Battle Royale System Lead Connor Monahan said Stronghold addresses the over-supply of loot, concentrating items into a single point of interest and encouraging PvP contests.
On ranked, Associate Design Director Chris Cleroux said the weighted draw is meant to keep team compositions fresh rather than simply excluding the most-voted Legend.
The season also adds a Mythic Volt SMG skin called Cryptic Core, built around Exotic Shards and a nanomachine design with a dot-art assistant named PALS. The Premium Battle Pass unlocks Legendary skins for Ash and Octane, a Legendary Triple Take skin, 10 Exotic Shards, and a reactive Wingman skin at Tier 60.
Written with AI by Yomimono from the 3 cited sources below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited. See our editorial policy.
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