Respawn Entertainment ensures that players have a lot to do in Apex Legends Season 7 this year with the return of a fan-favorite holiday limited-time event that started last year. That’s right; the Apex Legends Holo-Day Bash 2020 event returns this year with more holiday festivities.

With the launch of Apex Legends in early 2019, Respawn celebrated the holidays in full force last December with the Holo-Day Bash event hosted by the fan-favorite character Mirage. Well, this year is no different as the beloved limited-time event is returning.

The second round of the event, known as the Apex Legends Holo-Day Bash 2020 event, will be even bigger and better than last year, with so much going on for players to check out during this cold time of year. For over a month, players will have one of the longest events of the game’s history.

Whereas most limited time events will only last for a couple of weeks or so, with some even barely lasting a full week, this Apex Legends Holo-Day Bash 2020 event will break records by lasting over a month in total. The event kicks off on Tuesday, Dec. 1.

That is when players will have the chance to check out everything that this event has to offer. Still, the festivities are only getting started then as the entire Holo-Day Bash event will take place throughout the entire month of December through the holiday season and even into next year.

Players will be able to say goodbye and good riddance to 2020 with this Apex Legends Holo-Day Bash 2020 event and say hello to the new year as the event will still be happening. The end date is currently set for over a month from now on Jan. 4.

There is a lot planned for this year’s event, including over a month of sales for players to check out and buy discounted cosmetic items, new items to collect and purchase, the return of a fan-favorite limited-time mode, and free prizes in the new event track. Here’s everything that you need to know about the Apex Legends Holo-Day Bash 2020 event.

For starters, one of the most important parts of the Apex Legends Holo-Day Bash 2020 event (and any battle royale event in general) is the new limited-time mode that is here. In the case of this year’s event, it is a returning fan-favorite mode that is back with some new and improved features.

The Winter Express limited-time mode is back this year with a second iteration that will return for the entire event, offering a polar express experience in the middle of the battle royale game. With the return of World’s Edge recently, it is the perfect time to bring back this mode.

As you may remember from last year, the Winter Express game mode took over the World’s Edge map by making the train on that map a winter wonderland that was the centerpiece for this special battle royale game mode.

For those who were unable to check out the game mode last year in the first Holo-Day Bash event, Winter Express is unique in that it isn’t a strict battle royale game mode where the last team standing is the winner. Instead, it is a round-based mode that focuses on a much smaller set of players.

In Winter Express, instead of the usual 20 squads of three players, there are only three teams. That makes for nine players in every single match in this Apex Legends mode. They are vying for control of the Winter Express train itself.

The train will be moving around the World’s Edge map while the three teams battle atop it for the chance to take control of the train and win that round. This is an objective-based mode where you battle for control of the objective, which is the train in this case.

It is a unique game mode different from the battle royale gameplay that we are used to. How it works is that the train will travel around the map and stop at one of several train stations. There are five stations this time around that you can stop at, which is one more than we had last year.

Those train stations are Central Station, Fool’s Gulch, Freightyard, Refinery, the latest addition: Derailment. When the train stops, it is time for the objective to unlock and the three teams to battle for its control. When a team wins the train, they win that round and the next round begins.

One of the significant changes is that there are now supply ships that will be in the Winter Express game mode. They will follow the train at the start of the new round with the losing teams aboard it. When the train stops at the next station, they have the chance to take control of the train.

The previously winning team will have the advantage since they will spawn on the train itself, ready to take control again, instead of following it in the supply ships. As for the fifth train station added this year, it is known as Derailment.

It is right there between the longest section of tracks that were in the game mode previously, greatly speeding up the action between rounds. Derailment is the scene of an accident involving a cargo train. This new location has many flanking opportunities so that players can easily travel from side to side.

This should make for some chaotic battles over the control point here. Since the Winter Express last year, several new legends have been released, including Revenant, Loba, Rampart, and Horizon. They each are radically different and will now be available for this game mode for the first time.

The close combat nature of this objective-based game mode should make things interesting when players can respawn with the help of Revenant, take loot with Loba, and hold the point with Rampart’s help turret and shield.

And then there is the newest kid on the block: Horizon. She was released at the start of Season 7 and is one of the strongest new characters that we have seen released this year, if not the best one yet. Her powerful aerial and gravity-based abilities should make the Winter Express mode a wonderfully strategic one now.

There are some minor changes to the overall balance of the game mode, including the loadouts you will find on the map. There are new weapons over what we had last year and purple armor that should make the fights more intense and exciting.

The Winter Express game mode is aligned with the overall Apex Legends Holo-Day Bash 2020 event and will happen during the same timeframe from Dec. 1-Jan. 4. Players will have over a month to enjoy this smaller and more intense limited-time game mode.

If you are itching for some interesting content as part of this returning Holo-Day Bash event, there is some stuff available now before the launch of the event itself. As you may already know, the Thanksgiving and Black Friday holidays happened this past week in the U.S.

To celebrate this testament to consumerism and discounts, Respawn has started the party early with some sales going on right now. They will be live now through the end of the event on Jan. 4, with new sales every week.

Each week, there will be a new set of items that will go on sale. They will likely be returning items from either past seasons or the past version of the event itself. But there will be some new items that will be on sale for a limited time during this event for multiple characters.

Characters like Loba and Revenant were not around for the first holiday event in Apex Legends, so they are getting their new skins this month to celebrate. Also, there will be a new legendary Spitfire skin and more that will happen during the Holo-Day Bash, with deals changing each week, so be sure to check back in the game each week to see what’s new.

This new holiday event in Apex Legends would not be complete without some prizes for players to earn. Sure, you can buy all of the cosmetic items up in the shop, but that can be a pain if you are on a tight budget with the holiday season and all that.

Fortunately, there is a new Holo-Day Bash 2020 event prize track you can progress through during the event. Mirage is hosting this prize track and the event, offering players the chance to earn some prizes for free so long as you play the game enough to unlock them.

The prize track will likely follow the past few events that we have had, offering players the chance to earn some prizes by getting points during the event. These points will come from the various challenges you can do while the event is happening.

Once you reach certain milestones with points on the track, you will receive various items for free. There are 10 items in total that you will be able to get as part of the Holo-Day Bash prize track for free, with three of them in particular that are good and some of the best that we have seen for an event.

You will get your first item at 250 points. From there, you will get most items every 250 points or so until you reach the 1000 mark, in which you start getting items every 500 points until you have reached the max amount of points necessary 4000.

If you can reach 4000 points by the end of the event, you will get all 10 items for free and. The last item will be worth it for those of you who like Horizon. While most of the items are basic ones like XP cards and stuff like that, three main ones stand out.

At the 1000 points mark, it looks like you will be able to collect a unique winter-themed weapon charm that you can attach to your weapons. It looks like an icy wolf creature that looks especially awesome. We imagine that Loba would be a huge fan of.

The second main item that you can unlock is at the 2000 mark halfway through the prize track, where you will be able to unlock a unique holiday-themed skin for Bloodhound that you can’t get anywhere else. The best part is that it is free to own.

Finally, there is the final item at 4000 points, where you can unlock a special holiday skin for the most recent legend Horizon. The skin looks to be one of her greatest ones yet. For a character who doesn’t have a ton of skins just yet, this will be a great addition for fans of the gravity-based character or just collectors in general.