Apex Legends Drop Spots Guide (Season 31): Where to Land

Every Apex Legends match starts with the same decision, and in Season 31 "Cipher" it matters more than it did a year ago. EA's 2026 loot overhaul made ordinary POIs leaner, moved the best loot into care packages, vaults and the new Strongholds, and changed how ranked squads deploy. This guide explains what changed, how you deploy this season, how to choose a drop, and where to land on each of the three maps in the Season 31 rotation: Storm Point, E-District Night and Broken Moon. The drop picks are BoostPirate's advice, built on EA's own descriptions of each POI; everything else is sourced and dated.

Why your drop matters more in Season 31

For years, a good hot drop could kit a squad with purple and gold gear in a minute. EA ended that on purpose. In its Marked Designer's Notes of 30 July 2026, the team called loot creep "a real issue" and said the power journey had become "quite flat": big early spikes of high-tier loot, then nothing. The fix, live from 4 August 2026, was to keep the amount of loot the same but lower its quality: purple and gold items in a normal POI give way to white and blue, with an occasional purple, and EA named vaults, Icarus's Bridge (on Olympus) and care packages as the main sources of high-tier rolls.

EA's own data shows the effect. In the Marked Midseason Designer's Notes (10 September 2026), the average loot quality three minutes into a match fell between Season 29 and Season 30 by 7.5% on E-District, 7.6% on Storm Point and 6.4% on World's Edge, and EA wrote that "the weapon power journey is extending later into the match". A week later it added more healing to the loot pool, because healing "was becoming scarcer than intended".

What that means for your drop, in BoostPirate's view: the reward for winning a hot drop is smaller, and the risk is the same. A squad that lands quietly, loots white and blue gear in peace and arrives at the first care package or the Stronghold with full health is in a better position than it was in 2025.

Dropship or Drop Zone: how you deploy

How you start a match depends on your mode and, in ranked, on the lobby. Most matches start in the dropship: a jumpmaster picks the moment and the squad flies down together. Ranked has also used Drop Zones, where EA assigns each squad a starting POI. Their history in EA's posts:

1. 5 Aug 2025 · On

   Ranked Drop Zones: each squad is assigned a POI, sees a map preview before picking legends, and nearby enemy POIs are marked. Loot is spread evenly, so no Hot Zones.

2. 4 Nov 2025 · On

   Drop Zone loot made more even across POIs (Ranked only).

3. 10 Feb 2026 · Off

   "Ranked returns to the single Dropship deploy."

4. Season 31 · Diamond+

   "Legend Banning will be enabled alongside Drop Zone deployment" in Diamond+ matches (EA's Ranked Roadmap; the Cipher notes don't repeat it).

5. Season 32 · Pro-Am

   Drop Zones and bans live in Pro-Am; in the Open League "all matches will start in the Dropship".

In practice: if you play Diamond or higher in Season 31, expect EA to choose your POI and use the map preview before legend select to plan around the squads marked nearby. Everyone else picks a drop from the dropship, which is what the rest of this guide is about. Our Season 31 ranked changes page covers Legend bans and the Challenger and Goliath matches that come with it.

How to choose a drop: four questions

1. What do we want from this match?

   Rank points or practice. In ranked, a top-ten finish usually beats an early fight; in Pubs, a hot drop is the fastest way to train fights.

2. Where does the dropship fly?

   POIs right under the path fill up first. One step off the path is quieter; the far edge or the end of the path is quietest.

3. How many squads jump with us?

   Watch who leaves the ship near you. If two squads jump on your target, change it in the air; it is cheaper than a three-way fight.

4. Where do we go next?

   Know your exit before you land: a gravity cannon on Storm Point, a launcher or the fan wall on E-District, a named route on Broken Moon.

Where to land on each Season 31 map

The three cards below are BoostPirate's drop board for the Season 31 rotation. Where EA describes a POI's traffic, we quote it; the rest is our coaches' reading. The full map guides go deeper: Storm Point, E-District and Broken Moon.

Storm Point

Storm Point is the largest map, about 15% bigger than World's Edge by EA's figure, so a quiet drop is easy to find and a long walk is easy to get. Land near a gravity cannon. EA built Wattson's Pylon and CETO Station in Season 19 to pull early fights into the centre, which makes the edges quieter; and the wildlife nests on the island drop loot that suits your loadout, a useful top-up after a light landing.

E-District Night

E-District is dense and, at launch, had "the highest loot count by a significant margin" of any map, though EA's 2026 overhaul has trimmed quality everywhere. Its centre, Energy Bank, is visible from anywhere and hard to defend. EA calls Boardwalk, the smallest POI, a safe landing, and Electro Dam, the farthest POI from the centre, has a gravity cannon to get you in fast.

Broken Moon

Broken Moon's routes decide its drops. EA describes Space Port as "the perfect drop for one team to get some good loot" and Underpass as a slower start for teams that avoid a hot drop. Since May 2026 most ziprails between POIs are gone, so a drop far from the ring costs more walking than it used to.

What you find when you land

EA's Season 30 changes, which still apply, explain what a normal POI gives you:

EVO Harvesters are worth planning around. Since Season 26 there are 8 or 9 per map (down from 17–20; EA's latest published count), placed closer to the middle of the map and away from POI cores, and each gives 425 EVO (up from 350). Since Season 30 they also switch on the Arsenals, which start the match disabled. A drop that has a Harvester on its way out lets you upgrade armour and open Arsenals in one stop. Our armor and EVO guide explains the levels in detail.

Care packages and Strongholds

The biggest loot of the match no longer waits on the ground. EA's Cipher patch notes schedule the Season 31 air drops by ring:

EA calls Strongholds "the evolution of Care Packages" and warns that opening one "takes time and trips an alarm that tells everyone nearby exactly where you are". They land with up to four indestructible barriers and two Hardlight frames, crush anything underneath, can't be looted by Loba or breached by Alter until captured, and a capture's progress is shared and doesn't decay. EA Help adds that Skirmisher legends can spot incoming care packages. For your drop, that means: a squad that lands quietly, loots and arrives at the second ring with full health is the squad best placed to take a Stronghold.

Hot drops in Pubs, smart drops in Ranked

The placement and combat RP each finish pays are shown in the new Ranked tab; our RP explained guide walks through the maths, and how to rank up in Apex explains why placement pays more than early kills for most players.

A jumpmaster routine

• Agree the drop and a backup before the ship takes off; say both out loud.
• Watch the flight path and count the squads that leave near your target.
• Switch to the backup in the air if two squads jump on your target.
• Split the POI before you land: who takes which building.
• Name the exit and the nearest Harvester as soon as you touch down.
• Call the first ring the moment it appears, and leave together.

Good comms make all of this faster; our comms and pings guide has the callouts.

Common drop mistakes

More map guides: Season 31 map rotation · Storm Point · E-District · Broken Moon · rotations and endgame · reaching Master and Predator