Apex Legends Season 31 Ranked: Bans, Strongholds, Maps

Apex Legends Season 31, titled Cipher, went live on November 3, 2026, and the change ranked players feel first is Legend bans: in Diamond and higher matches every player requests one ban, and two Legends are removed at random, weighted by how many requests each one got. Lobbies also show a Lobby Tier now, and squads that sit two or more tiers away from it pay a discounted or inflated entry cost. Cipher is the name of the season, not a character; the official patch notes add no new Legend, so the roster shifts come from the Crypto rework and cooldown changes. This guide covers bans, entry costs, demotion shields, the ranked map pool, Strongholds, the balance changes that matter in ranked, and the Ladder dates.

Checked against the official Apex Legends: Cipher patch notes (November 2, 2026) and Respawn's Ranked Roadmap for Seasons 31 and 32 on November 12, 2026.

For the full list of season changes, see the Season 31 update article. Everything below comes from Respawn's own notes; the Season 32 section describes plans Respawn announced, not live features.

How do Legend bans work in Apex Season 31 ranked?

Bans only apply in Diamond and higher matches. Each player requests one Legend, then the game bans two Legends using a weighted random draw, so the most requested Legend is likely, but not certain, to be banned.

Requests: each player gets one ban request at the start of the match. Requests lock when the request timer runs out.
The draw: a Legend's ban chance equals its share of all requests. Respawn's example is a Legend with 80% of the requests, which has an 80% chance of being picked on the first draw.
Two bans per match: the system selects two Legends, and both are locked out of Legend select for that match.
Low variety fallback: if fewer than four different Legends were requested, the previous week's most played Legends each get one extra request until at least four are in the pool.

Respawn explained in the roadmap that it chose a weighted draw instead of banning the top vote getters because a fixed rule would create its own banning meta. In practice, every Diamond player needs at least two backup Legends they can play at full strength. If your squad agrees on one target and all three of you request it, that Legend takes a bigger share of the lobby's requests, which raises its odds without guaranteeing the ban.

What are Challenger and Goliath matches in Apex ranked?

They are entry cost adjustments for lopsided lobbies. If your squad is two or more tiers below the lobby, your entry cost drops by 30%; if you are two or more tiers above it, your entry cost rises by 50%.

Match type	When it applies	Entry cost
Challenger Match	Squad Tier is 2+ tiers below the Lobby Tier	30% cheaper
Standard	Squad Tier within 1 tier of the Lobby Tier	Normal
Goliath Match	Squad Tier is 2+ tiers above the Lobby Tier	50% more expensive

Two numbers decide which bucket you land in:

Squad Tier is based on the average RP of your squad. Premade teammates count as having the RP of the highest ranked member of their premade group, so a two-stack where one player has 5,000 RP is treated as two 5,000 RP players. Solo queue teammates get no adjustment.
Lobby Tier is the median of every Squad Tier in the match.

If a teammate never connects, your Squad Tier drops by one full tier. Respawn's roadmap example is a Gold lobby where the Bronze squads are Challengers, the Diamond squad is a Goliath, and the Silver, Gold and Platinum squads pay normal costs. The game tells you the match type on the Waiting for Players screen and again when you leave the dropship, so you know your break-even target before you land. Respawn says it will watch the adjustment amounts and may change them.

The practical takeaway: queuing with a much higher ranked friend pulls your whole squad up to their RP for tier purposes, which makes Goliath matches more likely.

How does demotion protection work in Season 31?

You get three Demotion Shields. Protection switches on when a single match could demote you, and each match that would have demoted you spends one shield.

Protection ends in one of two ways: you earn enough RP that one bad match can no longer drop you, or you run out of shields and take the demotion. Goliath matches are the most likely trigger, since their higher entry cost can push a borderline player below a tier line in one game.

Ranked access also changed. Road to Ranked challenges are gone, and entry once again requires Account Level 20, though Respawn says that threshold may still move.

What does the new ranked UI show?

The Waiting for Players screen lists your Squad Tier, the Lobby Tier, your current entry cost, where your squad sits on the Match Distribution, your full team and the match type.
A new Ranked tab in the inventory menu shows squad and match info, RP goals and scoring rules. The inventory button still opens the Inventory tab first.
The kill feed shows RP earned per kill, and a squad elimination message shows the placement RP you banked.
Net RP shows in red while negative and white once positive, with a short animation and sound when you cross into the green.

Which maps are in the Season 31 ranked rotation?

Ranked and public matches rotate between Storm Point, E-District Night and Broken Moon.

Playlist	Maps	Dates
Ranked and Pubs	Storm Point, E-District Night, Broken Moon	Season 31
Mixtape: TDM	Thunderdome, Fragment, Skull Town	November 3, 2026 to January 5, 2027
Mixtape: Control	Production Yard, Barometer, Thunderdome	November 3, 2026 to January 5, 2027
Mixtape: Gun Run	Skull Town, Wattson Pylon, Monument	November 3, 2026 to January 5, 2027
Wildcard	District, Broken Moon	November 3 to 9, 2026
Wildcard	Olympus, District, Broken Moon	December 1, 2026 to January 5, 2027

E-District Night received lighting, shadow and color correction changes aimed at visibility, and every map got a fog rework, slower auto exposure and a lighting pass. Respawn also lists more than 99 targeted map fixes, mostly on Storm Point, Olympus and World's Edge, plus more than 35 closed rat and hiding spots. If you relied on an old hiding spot for endgame placement, test it in a public match before trusting it in ranked.

How do Strongholds work, and are they worth contesting in ranked?

Strongholds are locked bunker airdrops that land during Round 2 closing. Hold the zone around one until capture hits 100% and every living member of your squad levels up, then loot a Care Package weapon, three Gold guns, three Amps and two Corrupted attachments.

Ring phase	Airdrops
Round 1 closing	2 Care Packages
Round 2 closing	1 Care Package and 1 Stronghold

Landing: the drop crushes and kills anything underneath, then deploys up to four indestructible barriers and two Hardlight frames if there is room.
Locked until captured: nobody can enter, Loba cannot steal from it and Alter cannot breach it.
Capture rules: progress only moves while a single team is alive in the zone, and it stalls when two or more teams are inside. Progress is shared globally and never decays, and more teammates in the zone capture faster.
Who wins it: the team standing in the zone when progress reaches 100% gets the capture.

Because progress never decays and is shared by everyone, a squad that starts a capture is doing work for whoever arrives last. In ranked, where placement protects RP, the safer play is to hold an angle on the zone and contest only once the capture is far along, or to take it outright when the surrounding area is already clear. A Crypto drone scan is a cheap way to see who is sitting near the zone first.

Which Legend and weapon changes matter most for ranked?

Crypto's rework, faster Lifeline and Revenant cooldowns, and a Loba nerf are the Legend changes that touch ranked picks. On the weapon side, the Akimbo Wingman is new and the L-STAR is back on the floor with lower damage.

Legend	Change
Crypto	Drone has a 25-second battery, a 6-second recall and no redeploy cooldown; 360 degree scan; marks on a 4-second cooldown that last 8 seconds; EMP can fire from a self-deployed drone
Lifeline	Tactical cooldown 25s to 15s; D.O.C. heals her while gliding; reworked upgrades
Revenant	Tactical cooldown 20s to 15s; Ultimate cooldown 180s to 150s; new upgrades including a Tactical landing silence
Loba (nerf)	Tactical cooldown 25s to 30s; Ultimate cooldown 120s to 150s

Crypto is the one to relearn. His EMP now deals full shield damage and a heavier slow to enemies in the drone's line of sight, and 50 damage with a lighter slow without it. He no longer damages himself with his own EMP, and his ally speed buff is part of his base kit. At level 2 he can take Got Eyes On You (marks last 4 seconds longer), and at level 3 Charged Up adds 10 seconds of drone battery. His scans no longer reveal loot bins or doors.

Weapon notes for ranked loadouts:

Akimbo Wingman: uses Heavy ammo, base damage drops from 50 to 45, and looting a second Wingman puts you in Akimbo mode with a doubled magazine and 56 headshot damage, at the cost of longer reloads and more recoil.
L-STAR: back in floor loot with base damage cut from 21 to 19, a stockpile cut from 168 to 88 and no Redline Hop-Up.
Akimbo Mozambique: moves into Care Packages with pellet damage up from 17 to 18 and the Executioner Hop-Up.
Hemlok Burst AR: returns with Burst and Single fire, 21 body and 29 headshot damage.
Peacekeeper fires faster; EVA-8 loses Double Tap and gains Disruptor Rounds; Prowler gets more recoil and loses Selectfire; Nemesis gets more vertical recoil.
All burst weapons now queue tap fire.

When are the Apex Season 31 ranked Ladders?

Five weekly Ladders run from November 10 to December 13, 2026.

Ladder	Dates
Ladder 1	November 10 to 15, 2026
Ladder 2	November 17 to 22, 2026
Ladder 3	November 24 to 29, 2026
Ladder 4	December 1 to 6, 2026
Ladder 5	December 8 to 13, 2026

Season 31 is the last season with weekly Ladders. Respawn says they are removed in Season 32 and that a replacement form of limited time competition will be discussed next year.

What changes in Apex ranked in Season 32?

Respawn has announced a larger overhaul for Season 32, planned for early 2027. None of it is live yet, and Respawn says details can change.

Two leagues: an Open League from Iron to Emerald where every match starts in the dropship, and a Pro-Am League for Diamond, Masters and Grandmaster that uses Drop Zone deployment and Legend bans.
New ranks: Iron replaces Rookie, Emerald sits between Platinum and Diamond with four divisions, Masters gets four divisions, and Grandmaster becomes the top rank. The Predator badge goes to the top 750 Grandmaster players at season end.
Scoring: fixed RP values for kills and placement, full kill RP to every squad member for each team kill, and entry costs that rise per division. Kills weigh slightly more in the Open League and placement weighs more in Pro-Am.
Rewards: new seasonal Auras, revisited Ranked dive trails, Epic and Legendary Apex Packs, and rewards on promotion instead of only at season end.

Related guides

FAQ

Is Cipher a new legend in Apex Legends?

No. Cipher is the name of Season 31, which started November 3, 2026. The official patch notes add no new Legend; the main Legend change is a Crypto rework.

How do Legend bans work in Apex ranked?

In Diamond and higher matches each player requests one Legend. Two Legends are then banned in a random draw where each Legend's chance equals its share of the requests.

What is a Goliath match in Apex Legends?

A Goliath match is when your Squad Tier is two or more tiers above the Lobby Tier. Your entry cost goes up by 50%.

What is a Challenger match in Apex Legends?

A Challenger match is when your Squad Tier is two or more tiers below the Lobby Tier. Your entry cost is reduced by 30%.

What maps are in Apex ranked in Season 31?

Storm Point, E-District Night and Broken Moon rotate for both Ranked and public matches.

What level do you need to play Apex ranked in Season 31?

Road to Ranked challenges were removed, and access returns to requiring Account Level 20. Respawn says the threshold may still be adjusted.

When do Apex Season 31 ranked ladders run?

Five weekly Ladders run between November 10 and December 13, 2026. Weekly Ladders are removed in Season 32.