Shroud reveals his favorite Season 4 map changes in Apex Legends

Apex Legends Season 4 has arrived, and with it has come a host of changes to the World’s Edge map, all of which have got Mixer star Michael ‘shroud’ Grzesiek excited to dive back into Respawn’s wild battle royale.

Apex’s major update on February 4 finally heralded in the new season, titled Assimilation, and with it came a new legend, new weapons, and a series of map-breaking tweaks that have changed the face of World’s Edge forever.

Shroud, who had a helping hand in building Apex’s competitive gameplay all the way back in the title’s development, took a look at the changes, from the new Planet Harvester to the split in Capitol City, and admitted he liked what he saw.

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Shroud digs the new, shattered World’s Edge design

Although he has yet to drop into the new-look World’s Edge, at least on-stream, and that may change his opinion of the map tweaks again, it was all positive from the Mixer superstar as he cast his eye over the devastated World’s Edge map.

In particular, he said he was impressed by the way Respawn had managed to take the map players have been grinding Apex Legends on since the start of Season 3, and breathe new life into its focal areas and pressure points.

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“This is very different. One side of Capitol City is very different, the other side maybe not so much,” he said as he scrolled through the season reveal trailer, catching snippets of the shattered World’s Edge map.

• Read more: Apex Season 4 Assimilation Update – Patch Notes

“They did a good job of keeping it true to the city still being there, but kind of broke it up and sh*t,” he added, and said he liked the changes. “It’s all kind of neat.”

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Another feature he noticed in the gameplay trailer was the changed train lines littered across World’s Edge, which he hypothesized that two trains could be steaming around the map. As he watched on, however, he changed his mind.

“They have two trains now? Or maybe that’s just one big, new set that’s connected,” he said, trying to catch another glimpse of the rails. “Yeah, I think it’s just one train, I’m stupid. Still pretty cool, all the changes are pretty neat. All very cool.”

Will shroud return for the Apex ranked grind?

Unfortunately for shroud fans hankering to see the human aimbot storm back into Apex in a big way, it looks like he may still not be ready to commit to the ranked series grind, especially with Escape from Tarkov waiting in the wings.

When asked whether he’d be pushing for the highest-ranked title in the game, Predator, and retaining it during the game’s new splits, the Mixer star refused to commit. “Absolutely not,” he added, crushing any hopes for a long-term return.

• Read more: Shroud can only laugh as Tarkov hacker ‘outplays’ him

According to the streaming superstar, his refusal to return comes partly because of just how many hours it takes to get to the top levels in Apex at the moment with their ranked series system, and because he wants to play other titles too.

For mobile readers, the related segment begins at 2:33 in the video below.

So what did change for Apex’s map this season?

Probably the biggest new addition to World’s Edge is The Planet Harvester, which is a gigantic metal mining facility located at the heart of the map.

It features a constant beam of red light into the sky, which players will be able to use “for a better sense of directionality to the center of the map.”

Another key swap was the rupture and split Capitol City into two separate zones called Fragment East and Fragment West, separated by a giant fissure.

• Read more: Apex Season 4 map changes – Planet Harvester, Survey Camp

According to Respawn, this change was made because it was known to be a popular drop zone, and teams who land there are often killed by third parties. Now, the only way to get from one side to the other is to take a zipline or fallen skyscraper, or take advantage of Pathfinder and Octane’s ultimate abilities.

While it looks like shroud may not be coming back to Apex Legends permanently, there’s still plenty to celebrate for Apex fans – with the start of the new season there’s plenty to discover, learn, and grind going forward.

One thing to explore could be more map changes. While these have been a few key tweaks announced, there could also be other, smaller updates to World’s Edge too, which players will have to discover for themselves.