Battle alone in Apex Legends with limited time free-for-all Solos mode, launching today

Apex Legends fans, gather ’round! Today sees the debut of the Iron Crown Collection event, which brings new challenges, skins, gameplay tweaks, and a new play mode to the popular battle royale shooter.

I spoke with Lee Horn, the game’s director of product management, for the Respawn POV.

The new limited-time Solos mode will be the biggest attraction here for many players. “At its heart, Apex is a competitive team game,” Lee said, explaining that “huge community desire” led the studio to try something different.

Solos will pit 60 players against each other in the game’s first free-for-all battle royale.

Respawn isn’t making any gameplay rebalances for Solos, outside of minor UI and UX tweaks. The team wants Solos to be “very pure” in its debut, though Horn indicated that Respawn isn’t opposed to making gameplay adjustments should Solos ever return sometime in the future.

The Iron Crown Collection event will also bring an Octane-themed Town Takeover, which will introduce fresh areas and new gameplay features. Horn hinted that Town Takeovers “in the near future” might be more lore focused.

Rounding out the event will be other goodies, including a new set of themed skins, a new heirloom item, and a bonus XP weekend. Sign me up!

So what’s next for Apex? More events like Iron Crown, for one. “Players can expect more events like this… there’s more to come in the future,” Horn said. “Please keep giving us your feedback!”

We can also expect Respawn to keep a watchful eye on the game’s legendary weapon balance. Horn confirmed the Alternator / Disruptor combo will be toned down a bit when Iron Crown kicks off, but bigger weapon meta shifts will generally stick to new season launches.

The Iron Crown Collection event kicks off today, and lasts for two weeks.