Apex Legends recently introduced the new Legend Upgrade System, which led to more playstyles emerging for each Legend in the game. The new upgrade system not only introduces new options during a match to improve a legend’s ability but it has also brought changes to how shields now work in Apex Legends.
Apex Legends upgrade system explained
First, let’s dive a little deeper into the Legend upgrades. Players will now have a total of four options to choose from, each offering a unique ability upgrade based on the existing abilities. For example, one of the upgrades available for Bangalore allows the character to heal their HP when they’re inside Bangalore’s smoke.
These upgrade options become available during the match when players achieve the required Evo level. The new Legend upgrade system offers two choices at Evo level 2, and then two more at level 3, and players have to pick one of the two choices each time, depending on what sort of upgrade they can take advantage of during the match.
Evo Shields
Evo is points you earn during a match, and it determines the armour you will wear during the match. All players start with Evo level 1, where all players in the match would have the white shield from the beginning. After reaching level 2, players earn the blue shield, then the purple shield at level 3, with finally the red armour on level 4.
How to earn Evo in Apex Legends
Players can gain Evo during a match by dealing damage and knocking opponents, finishing squads, using ring consoles, and also finding Evo harvesters that contain Evo caches. When you collect Evo from Evo harvesters, the Evo is increased for your entire squad.
When you reach a new Evo level, the extra tier of armour starts slowly getting added to your shield, but if you receive any damage during this process, the automatic regen process is immediately stopped.
Shields used to be level-based back in the early days of Apex Legends, where it was possible to find better shields as ground loot, and the Evo system did not exist back then. Eventually, Evo Shields replaced them, but it was still possible to run into better shields in ground loot or in deathboxes.
Shield Cores in Apex Legends explained
Evo Shields has now been replaced by the Shield Core feature. Instead of finding new armour on the ground, players will now only run into Shield Core, and that too only in deathboxes. This effectively means that shields are no longer ground loot in Apex Legends. However, the game’s classic playstyle of shield-swapping still exists but works differently now.
Shield-swapping with Shield Cores
Instead of swapping the shield, players can loot the Shield Core instead, which will determine the level of shield they will obtain from this loot. Interestingly, if your Evo is at level 2 but you run into a level 3 shield core, you will have the extra tier of armour for a short duration, and it will then shortly reduce back down to your current level of shield after 30 seconds.
Dropping Shield Cores
It is also no longer possible to drop the armour, but players can drop their Shield Core instead. However, the Shield Core will represent the value it has when it is dropped, instead of its original value. For example, if the purple Shield Core is damaged and has 30 HP when dropped, it will have the white colour of a level 1 Shield Core and will retain the HP it has at the time of drop.
