Apex Legends Season 12’s rank changes are aiming to bring a balance between kills and a team’s standing by reducing the max kills RP while bumping up placement points squads can earn.
Respawn Entertainment are adjusting Apex Legends’ ranked system in Season 12 to strike a balance between prioritizing kills and playing for higher placements across ranked matches.
“Last season, we made changes that opened up flexibility by compensating players with high kill counts that didn’t necessarily place first,” Respawn said. “We like this flexibility, but after observing the pacing of high-level ranked games, we saw players were focused on seeking out kills a little too much.
Apex Legends max kill KP reduced, placement points buffed
To tone down players’ emphasis on kills, Respawn are reducing the max amount of KP people can earn from a single game while bumping up placement points for the top five squads.
The Max Kill KP has been nerfed from 175 to 125 per match in Season 12. Meanwhile, players can get the most out of the kills they do rack up by outlasting other squads.
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For example, the bonus RP system will reward players 15 points for every kill or assist for winning an Apex game, scaling down to the 10th place team earning 1 extra RP per K/A.
Respawn hope these direct incentives to outlast in Apex matches will create a more strategic driven approach to ranked games that won’t just boil down to a kill-fest.
The studio is hoping this will reward players who focus on teamplay to advance to the later stages in the battle royale instead of simply looking to frag out from the start.
This comes on the heels of the Season 11 rank overhaul that introduced a bigger kill point (KP) cap in the first place, which immediately drew ire from pros and casual players alike.