Apex Legends devs experimenting with loot changes after Locked & Loaded mode

Respawn’s Lead Game Designer working on Apex Legends has suggested that major loot changes could be on their way to the battle royale following the popularity of the Locked and Loaded takeover. 

As far as LTMs go, few have been as popular as the Locked and Loaded takeover, which temporarily adjusted Apex Legends’ base rules. It saw players drop in with basic equipment, including all white-level gear and a Mozambique shotgun.

The changes, some argued, were an improvement on the game’s default settings, where players drop in with no equipment or weapons. Dropping in with some gear allowed them to fight off enemies in early game scenarios, and removed some of the randomness so many players are ambivalent towards.

The positive noises from the Apex community were met by devs explaining that they were “considering” looting changes, but they have now elaborated further and highlighted some of the key factors they are considering.

Respawn Entertainment

The Mozambique was given to players at the start, although this was one of the less popular elements of Locked and Loaded.

On the same Reddit post, Apex Legends Lead Game Designer Daniel Klein explained the issues they are mulling over ahead of making any major changes to looting. He touched upon how integral looting is to early game scenarios, and how it forms a large part of the battle royale formula.

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“Current thinking,” he said, “and this is all still in flux, is that landing with white body armor, helmet, and incap shield is probably fine; white backpack probably not; removing white helmets and incap shields from the loot pool is good; removing white body shields isn’t because this leads to too many blue and purple body shields and white body shields are an important source of shield swaps in the early game; etc.”

He concluded: “We wanna hit the right balance between putting obviously good things into the game in a timely manner and making sure the game is healthy for many, many years to come. We firmly believe Apex will still be played in a decade from now.”

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It sounds like there’s an awful lot to consider for Respawn before making any significant changes to early game loot.

It’s certainly important to remember that the game will have been designed to reflect players dropping in with no equipment, and so changes to loot commonality and more will be necessary if the Locked and Loaded changes become permanent.