If there’s one massive aspect of the new Apex Legends season that stands out - aside from the introduction of Mad Maggie of course - it’s the overhaul of Olympus. This map, a floating research base, has its fair share of problems in its current non-damaged iteration. For those looking to dominate in this fresh new season, a full rundown on Olympus changes is invaluable.

During a Q/A, we got plenty of new information on the changes coming to Olympus straight from level designer Alex Graner and world director Eduardo Agostini who both talked at length at what was described as probably the most ambitious map update to date.

Apex Legends Olympus changes - new additions

First and foremost, there are some new points of interest coming to the reworked version of Olympus. The first is the Phase Driver, positioned in the formerly-empty spot between Bonsai and Hydroponics. This mechanical marvel is what caused the current disaster that’s left much of Olympus unoperational and hovering over Malta.

Present by the Phase Driver are a set of interactable panels. When a team uses these, high-tier loot is teleported to their location before going on cooldown, making Phase Driver a great spot to drop if you’re looking to gear up fast. Be careful though, doing so sets off a loud siren that will alert other squads to your location.

The second new point of interest is Terminal, which replaces the choke point connecting Labs and Bonsai. This large interior zone has been added with the hopes of making the centre of the map a bit more interesting, and gives squads a place to land that isn’t just Labs or Estate.

Speaking of the centre of the map, one of the biggest issues with Olympus is how easy it was to make it to the middle regardless of where you initially dropped. As such, the killzone never really felt like a big problem in comparison to other maps like King Canyon or Storm Point.

To fix this, the map has sort of been exploded outwards! Previous points of interest like Bonsai, Oasis, and Solar Array have been pushed outwards to make the map larger and the act of traversing to the centre of Olympus a bit more interesting.

One final new addition comes in the form of Shifted Grounds, a new POI added as a result of the glitched out technology present on Olympus going awry. Visually distinct from the rest of the map, this area acts as yet another worthwhile drop point for players to explore.

Apex Legends Olympus changes - quality of life changes

For smaller quality of life changes, there are plenty of small adjustments coming that promise to make the experience of traversing Olympus that little bit more engaging. For one, we’re getting new angles of attack on points of interest, which come in the form of new passageways and ziplines providing access to squads looking to rush into the fight.

We’re also getting the addition of some new loot bins around Oasis. In the past, the lacking quantity of loot meant early fist fights were a common occurrence. Now, players looking to gear up before they get into the thick of it should have no issues doing so.

While adding stuff is of course good, sometimes you need to take pieces away to ensure the map remains engaging for players regardless of where they start. As such, multiple redeploy balloons and survey beacons have been removed, to ensure players have a good reason to explore some of the further-out corners of the map and don’t stay stationary around elevated beacons that were proving too strong.

The guaranteed higher-tier loot has also been stripped out from the waterfall by Labs, moved far north around the outer ring of Exterior Docks. Like many of the changes mentioned above, this is to encourage everyone to venture away from the centre of the map. It’s time the docks got a bit of love.

The new Olympus will be a rotating map alongside Storm Point and Kings Canyon starting February 8 with the launch of Apex Legends: Defiance. For more articles covering the changes, check out our articles on the new Control limited time game mode, which you can read right now live on the site.