Apex Legends replacing dive trails with new ranked rewards in Season 18

Ranked in Apex Legends returns for Season 18 with new rewards on offer, and the removal of dive trails as a Ranked reward.

Respawn Entertainment is returning with new updates for Apex Legends, with various changes set to tackle the problems that cropped up in Season 17 ranked.

Ranked has garnered a large player base eager to scratch their competitive itch with the aim of reaching the top ranks, but fans have been critical of the overhaul the mode received in Season 17.

Many in the community have been stating it’s too easy to rank up and reach Masters rank, but are also not big fans of the rewards for doing so, namely the dive trails.

Respawn are attempting to address these issues from the underperforming previous season to be implemented in Season 18.

Changes have been announced for gameplay, level ranking and ranked rewards – removing dive trails.

Apex removes Dive Trail rewards

The biggest change to Apex’s ranked rewards in Season 18 is the removal of dive trails at the end of the season.

The developers have made the change due to the trails leading to toxic behaviors from other players, who would hunt down and specifically target players with trails when landing at the start of a match.

Banner frames replace dive trails

Instead, players can show off their ranks with brand-new banner frames, which replace the dive trails as an end-of-season reward for Season 18.

This gives players incentives to strive to reach the higher ranks, as these will only be available for the top three ranks of Diamond, Masters, and Pred.

Animated Badges

Previously, players have had to place the same rank in both the first and second split of the season for their rank badge to become animated.

Splits were removed from the game in Season 17 with the overall rank at the end of the season giving certain rewards.

The badge will instead default to the animated version for all players, for whatever rank they achieve.

EA and Respawn Entertainment’s changes will hope to land with a more successful launch than their underperforming Season 17 when Season 18 launches on August 8, 2023.