The Most Bizarre Things Players Have Found In Apex Legends
Video games take years to plan, develop, and release, but none are perfect right off the bat. Especially these days, when developers rely on day one patches and post-release fixes, games often have strange bugs or glitches during the early days. When not game-breaking, weird glitches can end up being part of a game's charm, just as hidden story items and Easter eggs are. However, at their worst, bugs can have a lasting effect on games and a community's perception of them.
Throughout Apex Legends' hectic first few months, there have been some weird, frustrating, and sometimes game-breaking bugs that have frustrated the community and caused the industry to wonder if this battle royale actually has the ability to stick around long term. Still, there's so much to love about the game, from the legends and lore to the hidden gems throughout the world. So, let's take a look at some of the most bizarre things, both the good and bad, that players have found in Apex Legends.
Hi, Nessy!
In the first days after Apex Legends launched, players started to stumble upon small, plush dinosaurs hidden throughout Kings Canyon. For a while, these Easter eggs were a complete mystery. What did they represent? Did they serve a purpose? Or, were they simply there for fun? Well, it took some time, but astute gamers finally cracked the mystery of the stuffed animals. When players found a dinosaur and shot it, they would trigger an on-screen message that read: "A nessy appears." However, nothing else would happen unless each of the dinos — ten in all — were shot in a specific order. Once players realized the exact order, they noticed that shooting the plushes resulted in a little — well, quite big — something extra appearing on the map.
A giant dinosaur, that the community refers to as Nessy, would rise out of the ocean and stick around in the arena for the remainder of the map. Outside of its awesome aesthetic, Nessy doesn't really add anything to a match. However, jumping into a match and setting out to trigger this event with your squad adds another goal to the game outside of becoming champion. It's a cool, strange secret that Respawn Entertainment built into the game, and one that most players will hopefully experience during their time with Apex.
A walking gas trap
If you're invested in the meta of Apex Legends, you likely understand which characters have good reputations and which don't. Legends like Lifeline and Wraith are popular because of their useful ultimates and passive abilities. Meanwhile, the beefier characters like Caustic and Gibraltar aren't many people's favorites because of their big hitboxes, making them easier targets. Yet, a recent discovery has made the latter two legends more interesting to play, at least if you're looking for some hilarious in-game antics. Apex players have discovered that Gibraltar's shield is sticky. Essentially, you can stick other things to the shield as long as it remains active.
This has led to some funny moments, but there's one scenario involving Gibraltar's beefy pal that can prove to be useful. Caustic's gas traps can stick to the shield, meaning that you can actually create a pretty genius weapon for close combat. And the gas traps are stackable, which has led players to build long strands of them on Gibraltar's shield, allowing the legend to swing them around aggressively. When utilized correctly, this can disrupt attacks and damage opponents in close-quarters situations. It's an odd ability between two characters, but one that can actually make a difference during battle.
Launch yourself with a supply bin
Savvy gamers will always find ways to exploit bugs for their own gains, and Apex Legends players are no exception to that rule. A recent in-game bug involves supply bins, the cylindrical weapon caches scattered throughout Kings Canyon. Players discovered that, when these bins have been opened, they can transfer energy to the bin lids via melee attacks. Basically, the bug makes these bin lids store the "kinetic energy" from the melee attacks, and players are using that energy to launch themselves high into the sky.
If someone stands on the lid after repeatedly punching it, they'll reach new heights, allowing for unique vantage points they wouldn't otherwise have access to. This has led to some funny clips and also some fantastic, strategic maneuvers. Some of the more serious Apex players see the bug as a bad thing, because it allows for quick escapes and a birds-eye-view of the map. However, others with more of a sense of humor just see it as a goofy aspect of the battle royale game that will likely be patched sooner rather than later.
Infinite Wraith portals
Since launch, Wraith has been seen as one of the higher-level legends in the game. Her abilities, both ultimate and tactical, take skill and strategy to use correctly. That's why a good amount of winning squads have her in the mix. Her ultimate ability, known as the Dimensional Rift, allows her to create two portals that any player on the map can travel through. When used correctly, these portals allow for intelligent, quick movement across Kings Canyon and can be helpful for escaping firefights or repositioning a squad.
But not long after the game's release, some players came across a glitch involving Wraith's portals, one that allowed the legend to create an infinite number of them. While they only last for 60 seconds before disappearing, a Reddit video showed that someone playing Wraith could easily create five or six of them in quick succession without any issue. Respawn will likely fix the bug via a patch, especially now that plenty of players have posted videos and written articles about it.
The impenetrable wall
If you've never launched into a game of Apex Legends and immediately headed to the supply ship, you've missed out on one of the more exciting moments in a battle royale game. You see, this loot ship that flies around when the game first starts often features some fantastic loot, especially for the early goings of a match. However, if you're interested in securing that loot, you certainly won't be alone. In many matches, multiple squads will be wiped out just for jumping on the ship. You have to be good, smart, and a little lucky to survive that initial encounter.
However, for the first few weeks of the game, you could also get by through exploiting an odd and frustrating glitch. Players discovered that the volatile supply ship featured an invisible wall. At the back of the ship, there was a small nook that players could hide behind, escaping any enemy fire in the process. Even though it didn't show on screen, this nook could block bullets, making any player behind it invincible. You'd expect a glitch of this magnitude to be patched out immediately, but as of mid-April, players are still posting videos showing off the exploit.
Pet the dog
The training area of Apex Legends is an important part of the game, but one that many players will likely spend just around five minutes exploring. However, the area has much to offer, even outside of a shooting range that can help familiarize you with each of the game's weapons. If you're willing to search for it, you can find an adorable tribute to one of the developer's beloved dogs. Then, in the Market area of Kings Canyon, you can find the same tribute, a stuffed dog, along with a portrait of the dog and its owners, Jason McCord and his wife.
It's a sweet tribute to McCord's dog Shadie, who passed away due to health issues while Apex Legends was in development. The lead level designer tweeted about Shadie, along with an explanation of the tribute found in the Market. It's a beautiful reminder that there are humans (and animals) behind the making of our favorite games — that's something that too many people forget sometimes.
Walk the line
If you were an avid viewer of Ninja and TimtheTatMan's streams during the first few weeks after Apex Legends' launch, you likely saw some high-level battle royale play from two streamers known for their FPS prowess. You probably also saw the strats and antics that took place after these two figured out an exploit involving ziplines. While riding a zipline, the two content creators realized that, through spamming the "ride" button that allows you to grab onto a zipline, they could essentially bounce on that zipline, making it much harder for opposing players to land shots.
Normally, when riding on a zipline, players are somewhat immobile, forced to go along for the ride unless they bail out and detach from the line. However, this glitch eliminated that immobility and allowed players to close distances quickly without the risk of taking a lot of damage.
Down but not out
In Apex Legends, getting knocked down by an enemy doesn't immediately mean that you're knocked out of the game. Much like in other battle royales, your teammates have a limited amount of time and the ability to revive you, so long as an enemy doesn't finish you off. Respawn took it one step further than most of this genre, adding in the fantastic knockdown shields, which allow you to protect yourself from gunfire. The entire game mechanic adds levels of skill, luck, and chaos to many Apex matches.
However, back in April, a strange bug turned that mechanic from brilliant to busted. After being knocked by any enemy and subsequently revived, players discovered that they would remain in the downed state but regained all their normal character functions. These players could heal, fire weapons, and even use ultimate abilities, all while not moving from their position on the ground.
The invisible server
Hydro Dam, one of the more popular areas in Kings Canyon, is usually home to high-tier loot and chaotic, early-game gunfights. Recently, it was also the home of another strange glitch, one that Reddit user terodes112 reported on back in April. In the Dam, there's an indoor area that features a large rooms populated with server bays. This room rarely has more than a few small pieces of loot and often gets overlooked because it's pretty uninteresting. Well, at least temporarily, this particular room was home to yet another frustrating bug that gave players a huge advantage.
During a match, the aforementioned Reddit user entered the server room with his team, only to be ambushed by another squad that appeared, seemingly out of nowhere, from a group of servers along the wall. The three-person squad was able to disappear and reappear from inside the servers, essentially going invisible and avoiding damage. Much like the supply ship's impenetrable wall, this environmental bug is a pretty terrible oversight on the part of the designers.
Some love for Bastion
While not necessarily in the same genre, there's a lot of love for Overwatch — the acclaimed hero shooter from Blizzard Entertainment — in the Apex Legends community. Respawn clearly took some inspiration from the team-based shooter, especially when it comes to the game's unique characters. One Overwatch character in particular, the loveable Bastion, shares an interesting connection with Pathfinder, Apex's own take on badass sentient robots.
If you're familiar with Bastion, you know that the beefy robot has an adorable bird as its companion. While essentially built for combat, Bastion has a gentle, curious personality, and that's often depicted through his interactions with Ganymede, the bird seen softly landing on his finger. In Apex, Pathfinder has a similar combination of charm and combat readiness, but his relationship with birds is a bit more hostile. In an unlockable banner pose named "For the Birds," Pathfinder gets accosted by a large, black bird and tries to run for his life. It's a hilarious nod to Overwatch from the Respawn Entertainment team.