Apex Legends Season 12 appears to be adding new types of skins and finishers called “Prestige”, which may be a new rarity for the battle royale game. 

Legendary skins – as the name suggests – have always been the rarest and hardest to obtain in the Apex Games. If you see a Gold flash in a pack or a Legend running around the map looking very different to their base model, there’s a Legendary involved.

However, Respawn Entertainment is shaking things up with their next major content refresh, as S12 delivers “Prestige” skins for the first time.

While information is fairly limited in relation to how they will work in-game right now, a number of previous leaks (which called them Heirloom skins) have suggested they could change over time – unlike anything we have ever seen before.

Apex Legends Prestige skins: What are they?

The existence of Apex Legends Prestige skins was confirmed on January 31, when the game’s developers dropped the first Season 12 gameplay trailer.

Included in that were lots of new skins, featuring a sneak peek at what’s believed to be Bloodhound’s first-ever Prestige skin.

In a flash, it changed from gray and red in color to being predominantly red – again, feeding into the theory that they could change as players make progress.

The trailer shows a Bloodhound finisher, but whether or not the same ‘gameplay’ properties will also apply to Prestige finishers remains to be seen.

One screenshot of the trailer shows a line of game text, which says: “Gameplay required to unlock Tier 2 or higher versions of and finishers for Prestige skins.”

This would suggest that a new variant of skins will be confirmed as part of Season 12, and gameplay progression will be a key part of how they are unlocked or evolve – as leaks have stated in the past.

More news is expected on Prestige skins and finishers in due course. Apex Legends Season 12 starts on February 8, 2022.