[Update #3]: The 'circle' damage has now been greatly increased in Elite Queue in order to prevent camping.

[Update #2]: Respawn has now also announced the contents of the upcoming Season 2!

[Update]: Respawn has announced the list of newly introduced bugs they're currently working on squashing.

After a few months of minimal changes, Apex Legends has now received a fairly massive update. There's a bunch of bug fixes and quality-of-life improvements, a variety of challenges that offer cosmetic rewards, two exp boosting events, and perhaps most importantly, a brand new Apex Elite mode.

When it comes to the new challenges and cosmetics, they're all pretty simple to acquire. Battle Pass owners will get the new legendary Wraith and R301 skins for free, while two wins will allow you to grab a legendary Triple Take skin, five Top 5 finishes an epic Bloodhound skin, while reaching Top 5 in the Apex Elite match will also let you snatch an epic G7 Scout skin. The skins are all pretty cool, so do make sure to finish up all of the challenges before the go away!

The new Bloodhound skin is fairly simple, but it sure does look good!

As for the Apex Elite Queue, it's essentially a mode where only those that have finished Top 5 in the previous match can participate. The only real gameplay difference is that the ring closes faster and that the out-of-ring damage is a lot higher. Well, that and the fact that all of your enemies are guaranteed to be competent, so do make sure to put on your serious pants or else you might find yourself getting blown out immediately. In terms of rewards, there's nothing too special, but if you're a fan of badges you'll be glad to hear there is a brand new one that tracks your Top 5 streaks in Elite Queue!

The update has also brought in a whole bunch of bug fixes and balance changes, the most important of which is the removal of collision during the intial drop from the ship. In other words, you will no longer have to roll the dice on whether your team will get pushed upwards, downwards, or flat out get stuck in the air because you happened to drop at the same time as someone else. A small change, but a truly important one for anyone that likes to hot-drop!

You can read more about this update, as well as check out the full patch notes, over at the official Reddit post. If you're just interested in a brief overview, however, I'll leave you with the recently posted trailer. Enjoy!