APEX Legends’ next Season 15 releases on November 1, bringing a new hero, Catalyst, into the game.
Dubbed the Techno Witch, in her reveal trailer, we saw her find and use a mysterious black ink around Apex’s upcoming map.
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We now know that this fluid can build and reinforce structures, making her a great defensive hero.
Here’s Catalyst’s toolkit:
- Tactical: Piercing Spikes – Throws out a patch of fluid. When enemies get near, it turns into spikes that damage and slow. Enemies need to be near it to destroy it by exposing and damaging the core.
- Ultimate: Dark Veil – A large wall of fluid that slows incoming enemies and darkens their vision. Physical objects, including bullets and people, can pass through it, but it blocks vision and scans.
- Passive: Barricade – A new button prompt on doors, allowing Catalyst to rebuild or reinforce doors. Reinforced doors take twice as long to destroy with melee attacks and can only be opened by friendly players. Can reinforce up to two doors at a time, and they stay reinforced until another door is reinforced or they’re destroyed.
Players who use Catalyst want to control the battlefield.
Dark Veil gives others on your team the perfect opportunity to heal, as it gatekeeps enemy teams.
It also creates space for teams to make quick escapes or plan crafty rotations.
Both Catalyst’s passive and tactical abilities are ideal for defensive strategies, but can also be used to press teams.
Chris Winder, gameplay engineer for Apex Legends, explained to us the decisions that went into her design.
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He said: “There were two aspects we wanted to approach with Catalyst,
“One was this ability to create structures or gameplay spaces out of this type of fluid.
“It didn’t start as a fluid, but different types of structures that can be used in the gameplay space and affect the space in an interesting way.”
Winder hopes that the way Catalyst works will change up how teams strategise.
He explains: “I think there’s some way to naturally pull that into this controller-style gameplay where you’re controlling a space, and you’re able to dictate how advantageous it is for you and your team to play around that area.
“Especially just the way the Tactical and the Passive work together to lock down doors or lock down passageways, and discourage teams from entering.”
Doors are a large component of Apex Legends’ strategy, and changing how they work will change the meta game.
Blocking doors, destroying them, and pushing through them can create choke points where opponents can be easily taken down.
Winder says: “I think the ability to reinforce a door, including doors that have been destroyed, is going to be a very powerful ability in the right hands.
“It can be used strategically to lock an exit for players. They’re trying to escape the ring, and you know that they’re going to try to rotate through this area and you can cause them some more grief there a little bit or delay their time through that area.
“So yeah, I’m actually really excited to see the players take advantage of that in interesting ways.”
Catalyst’s Ultimate ability will also have its chance to shine, as almost every team holds a legend who can scan.
With Dark Veil up, opponents won’t be able to make use of this mechanic for 30 seconds, disrupting play.
He explains: “It was never meant as a targeted attack against the scan meta, but we knew that it would have some impact there.
“I’d say it was meant more holistically as a vision blocker. So it needed to be able to block scans to really fulfil that back gameplay fantasy.
“So yeah, we’re interested to see what it’ll do. Being able to prevent third parties a little bit gives teams a bit of pause, trying to figure out what’s on the other side of that wall.
“And if they should jump in or not, or jump over the wall and maybe isolate themselves in a way that they didn’t want to.
“It has a lot of ways it can be used and expressed in the game, defensively, or offensively.”
We can’t wait to see more from Catalyst when she releases in Apex Legends next week.
Written by Kirk McKeand and Georgina Young on behalf of GLHF.
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