Today, Respawn Entertainment announced that the Apex Legends: Prodigy season will begin on Tuesday, May 6, delivering a new playable hero called Sparrow.
His real name is Enea Davide Guarino. According to the lore prepared by the developers, he was born into the most respected bounty hunter clan in the Outlands, renowned for their unparalleled archery skills and dogmatic moral code. Guarino, a young and irreverent rogue, quickly became the black sheep of his clan. After a particularly reckless decision, it became clear they would never see eye to eye, and his family shunned Enea.
Despite this, Sparrow is determined to figure out how to have it all—a life on his own terms and his family’s acceptance. The child prodigy hopes to regain his family’s respect by participating in the Apex Games. For the first two weeks of the Apex Legends: Prodigy season, Sparrow will be temporarily unlocked for all players. Players will have the opportunity to add Sparrow to their permanent pantheon of Legends by completing challenges that will test their skills with Legends, weapons, and damage.
Sparrow’s passive is Double Jump. Players can jump twice as high by pressing the button a second time while in the air. Moreover, when climbing a wall and hitting a double jump, they’ll launch right up to the top of that wall. His tactical ability is a Tracker Dart that reveals all enemies passing through the area. Lastly, his Ultimate is Stinger Bolt. This ability lets Sparrow wreak havoc on multiple targets simultaneously with a large arrow that creates a damaging energy field. Anyone caught in the open and within line of sight is affected. More information about Sparrow will be released in a dedicated blog scheduled to go live tomorrow.
Apex Legends: Prodigy also sees the return of the Bocek Compound Bow, which can be loaded with Frag Grenades and energized to create Explosive Arrows. Arena matches also return, albeit with some differences. Firstly, they are shorter, as the first team to win three rounds will be crowned champion. Throughout the season, weapons in the store will be banned for some time after being selected by a player, and a discount will kick off in certain rounds to tempt players away from their preferred weapons. Finally, Health items will be available at the beginning of the round. Later in the season, a new 1v1 Arena variant called Duels will make its debut.
Ranked mode is getting tweaked, too. The player’s starting Rank Tier and Division will now be based on their (hidden) skill value from past seasons, and the Bronze reset rule for those who missed a season has been removed. The season also introduces Ranked Challenges and Ranked Ladders, giving players more stuff to chase. More details will be shared in the patch notes.
As a reminder, the Apex Legends and the Star Wars Jedi teams at Respawn Entertainment were just hit by significant layoffs. This also caused the cancellation of two early projects at the incubation stage, one of which would have been a Titanfall extraction shooter.
