Apex Legends adds firing range and duos mode

Respawn has released a firing range for Apex Legends and a new duos mode.

The firing range enables players to enter a practice area from the lobby and sample all the game’s weapons, loot items and legends. Players can enter the firing range solo or with their squad.

The limited time duos mode lets players team up to form two-person squads. Respawn hasn’t said how long duos mode will be playable for, but a limited time Apex Legends solos mode was available for two weeks in August.

These are headline features of Tuesday’s Apex Legends update 3.1, which also includes various quality of life improvements and bug fixes, as well as a change to the abandon penalty in ranked matches and the ability to spend legend tokens to reroll daily challenges.

Apex Legends season 3 kicked off on October 1. Titled Meltdown, it introduced a new map called World’s Edge, fresh legend Crypto, the charge rifle weapon, plus additional skins and gear via the game’s latest battle pass.

Publisher EA said in late October that Apex Legends has attracted 70 million players since its release in February 2019.

Given the success of the battle royale game, EA CFO Blake Jorgensen implied developer Respawn is unlikely to return to Titanfall 3 in the near future.

“We really want to keep the team hyper-focused on Apex because we see there’s so much opportunity there, so I can’t give you a sense of if and when [Titanfall 3] will come, but it’s still a great brand and we certainly won’t forget about it down the road,” he said.

EA also said it will be “doubling down” on live service games like Apex Legend and FIFA, after digital games drove growth during its second fiscal quarter ended September 30, 2019.

Respawn recently announced that Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order had gone gold ahead of its November 15 release date for Xbox One, PS4 and PC.