Apex Legends Season 31 Ranked Ladders: Dates and Entry Costs

All five Ranked Ladder dates

EA lists the ladders in the Cipher patch notes, dated November 2, 2026, under the heading Ranked Ladders, coming later this split. There are five of them, and every one runs Tuesday to Sunday. Put the dates in your calendar now, because each ladder is a short window.

The gap between ladders is always a single Monday. Ladder 1 ends on Sunday, November 15, and Ladder 2 starts on Tuesday, November 17. The same pattern repeats all the way to Ladder 5, which ends on Sunday, December 13. If you miss a ladder week, you cannot make it up later, so treat each Tuesday as the start of a fresh push.

Your best source for ladder progress once play starts is the game itself. Season 31 adds a new Ranked tab in the inventory menu, and it shows your squad and match Ranked information plus your RP goals, including replacing your lowest ladder score and exiting demotion protection when those apply.

What a Ranked Ladder is, and what EA has not said yet

A Ranked Ladder is a limited-time competitive window inside the Ranked season. You play your normal Ranked matches during the ladder dates, and the game tracks a ladder score for you alongside your usual RP climb. The patch notes give the dates and the new Ranked tab, and they say the tab covers replacing your lowest ladder score, which tells you that a weak ladder week can be replaced by a better one later.

Two things are still not announced, and this guide will not guess at either of them. EA has not published the Season 31 split dates, and it has not named the end-of-split or end-of-season Ranked rewards. The Ranked Roadmap from October 20, 2026, says reward changes are coming, with new seasonal auras and rewards on promotion, but it holds the details back for a later update. We will update this guide when EA names the rewards and the split dates.

Legend Bans in Diamond and higher matches

Legend Bans are new in Season 31, and they only apply to matches with Diamond and higher players. Before Legend selection, the match opens a Banning Phase. Each player may request one Legend to ban. When the request timer ends, the system picks 2 Legends to ban, and those Legends are unavailable for selection.

The key point is that the most requested Legend is not automatically banned. A Legend’s chance of being banned equals its share of all requests. EA gives the example of Wraith: if Wraith receives 80% of the lobby’s requests, Wraith has an 80% chance of being banned on the first randomized selection. The draw is weighted by votes, so the ban phase keeps the meta moving instead of banning the same two Legends every match.

There is one edge case worth knowing. If fewer than 4 unique Legends are requested across the lobby, the system picks from the previous week’s most played Legends and adds 1 request to each, bringing the total that can be banned up to a minimum of 4.

For Diamond players, the practical lesson is simple: have a Plan B, and maybe a Plan C. If your main is a popular pick, there is a real chance that Legend is banned in any given match. Practice a second Legend with a similar role before Ladder 1 starts, so a ban costs you a pick, not the whole match. Below Diamond, bans do not apply at all.

Challenger and Goliath entry costs

Season 31 changes what a Ranked match costs to enter when your squad is far above or far below the rest of the lobby. The game now sorts these wide-skill matches into two types, Challenger and Goliath, and adjusts the entry cost to match. A weaker squad pays less to enter a match it will probably lose, and a stronger squad pays more to enter a match it will probably win.

Two tiers decide everything. Your Squad Tier comes from the average RP of each squadmate, with one twist: all premade squadmates have their RP treated as equal to the highest RP in their premade group. EA gives the example of a two-person premade where the highest RP is 5,000: the premade teammate’s RP is also treated as 5,000, while a player who is not part of the premade gets no adjustment. If a teammate never connects, your Squad Tier drops by one full tier.

The Lobby Tier is the median of all Squad Tiers in the match. You will not have to guess which type of match you are in. If you are in a Goliath or Challenger match, the game tells you on the Waiting for Players screen and again when you exit the dropship. The reworked screen now shows your Squad Tier, your Lobby Tier, your current entry cost, and your match type. EA’s own screenshot of that screen shows a Platinum match with a 65 RP entry cost and a lobby split of 6 Gold, 9 Platinum and 5 Diamond squads.

One safety net sits behind the higher Goliath cost. Demotion protection gives you three Demotion Shields, and it activates when a single match could demote you to a lower Rank Tier, which a Goliath entry cost can do. Each time you would lose enough RP to be demoted, one shield is used instead, and you are only demoted after all three shields are gone.

Who can play Ranked in Season 31

Ranked is easier to enter this season. The Road to Ranked challenges are gone, and access to Ranked now needs only Account Level 20. EA says it will keep looking at the level threshold to find the best fit, but for Season 31 the rule is simple: reach Level 20 and you can queue.

The Ranked map rotation for Season 31 uses the same three maps as the public rotation: Storm Point, E-District Night and Broken Moon. E-District returns at night, after the community asked for the night version to come back, and the patch also brings 99 targeted quality-of-life fixes across the map rotation, with a heavy focus on Storm Point, Olympus and World’s Edge. Learn the rotations on all three maps before Ladder 1, because you cannot pick which map your ladder matches land on.

How to get ready for Ladder 1

1. Reach Account Level 20 before Tuesday, November 10, if you have not already. Road to Ranked is gone, so level is the only gate.
2. Open the new Ranked tab in the inventory menu and learn where your entry cost, Squad Tier and ladder score goals live. Check it at the start of every ladder week.
3. Know your Squad Tier before you queue with a wide-skill squad. A big RP gap between you and your teammates can turn a normal match into a Challenger or Goliath match.
4. If you play Diamond or higher, practice a second Legend now. Bans take 2 Legends out of every match, and a vote-weighted draw means even a popular main can be banned on any given day.
5. Play for placement in ladder weeks, not for early fights. Your ladder score is tracked across the week, so land safe, loot up, and take fights you can win.

Apex Legends Season 31 Ranked Ladders questions

When does Ranked Ladder 1 start in Apex Legends Season 31?

Ladder 1 starts on Tuesday, November 10, 2026, and ends on Sunday, November 15, 2026. It is the first of five Ranked Ladders in Season 31, Cipher. The last ladder, Ladder 5, ends on Sunday, December 13, 2026.

How do Legend Bans work in Diamond and higher Ranked matches?

Each player requests one Legend to ban. A Legend’s chance of being banned equals its share of all requests, and the system picks 2 Legends to ban. If fewer than 4 unique Legends are requested, the system adds requests from the previous week’s most played Legends. Banned Legends cannot be picked in that match.

What is a Challenger or Goliath match in Apex Legends Ranked?

A Challenger match is a match where your Squad Tier is 2 or more tiers below the Lobby Tier, and your entry cost drops by 30%. A Goliath match is a match where your Squad Tier is 2 or more tiers above the Lobby Tier, and your entry cost rises by 50%. Squads within one tier of the Lobby Tier pay the regular entry cost.