Apex Legends season 8 introduces a new character next month

Will go live on February 2nd.

Apex Legends’ eighth season, Mayhem, will feature the debut of the battle royale game’s 16th Legend: Fuse.

Respawn Entertainment introduced Apex Legends players to Fuse with a new Stories from the Outlands short on Monday. The four-minute video tells the tale of Fuse’s love affair with explosives, which dates back to a childhood episode in which he and his best friend uncovered “a bloody beautiful grenade” that once belonged to the freedom fighters on their home planet, Salvo. Fuse and his pal go on all kinds of adventures together — to the tune of an ’80s hair metal-esque song — but their relationship begins to fracture when the Australian-accented macho man enters combat in Salvo’s fighting pits.

Salvo eventually joins the group of Syndicate planets, much to the dismay of Fuse’s friend, who grew up revering the aforementioned freedom fighters. Right then, Fuse walks up and announces that he’s leaving Salvo for the Apex Games. He proposes a truce, but she’s frustrated and angry — and starts a fight. At the end of their tussle, Chekov’s grenade goes off, and Fuse awakens to find his right arm blown off.

Data miners have previously uncovered files that suggest Fuse has a tactical ability called Airburst Grenade, in which he can use a launcher on his mechanical right arm to fire a grenade, and an ultimate ability known as The Motherlode, which allows him to use a cannon on his back to launch a missile that leaves flames in its wake. There’s no information yet on his passive ability.

Season 8 will arrive two days before Apex Legends’ second anniversary. In addition to introducing Fuse, Mayhem will change up the look and feel of the game’s initial map, Kings Canyon, for the third time. Finally, season 8 will bring a new weapon to Apex’s arsenal, a lever-action rifle called the 30-30 Repeater.

Apex Legends is available on PlayStation 4, Windows PC, and Xbox One. A Nintendo Switch version is also in the works, with a release now scheduled for sometime this year.

[source: Polygon]