A strange bug with Wattson’s Perimeter Security ability is making the tactical ability very overpowered in Apex Legends – as the fences simply don’t appear on enemy players’ screens at all.
Perimeter Security is Wattson’s electric fence ability, that stuns, slows, and slightly damages enemies who run through them. They are best used as a defensive tactic to stop enemy teams pushing your building or high ground.
Particularly strong in the late game, where they can totally cut off parts of the map, similar to Caustic’s traps, the fences are always a tricky ability to avoid. But, this bug is making it completely impossible.
Although you can usually spot a fence from far away, and react accordingly, either by shooting them or just avoiding them, the invisibility bug obviously makes this very difficult.
There are a handful of examples of this glitch appearing in-game, but the best comes from Reddit user u/bwlebard, who shows them running into thin air and suddenly being hit by a non-existent fence.
In their confusion, they wait for their teammate to also move through the same spot on the map, and unsurprisingly, the same happens to them.
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Although the bug has appeared infrequently in Apex Legends before, it wasn’t mentioned in the latest patch notes, which fixed a lot of issues with other abilities, including Loba’s teleport and Wraith’s portals.
There’s also no mention of this issue on Respawn’s public Trello board, which tracks known issues and bugs that they’re investigating. Hopefully, with some more attention now directed at the problem, Respawn will be able to take action.
This instance of the bug seems to be even worse than some previous examples though, as in this case, not even the pylons either side are visible. Other examples show the electric beams are not visible, but at least the physical pylons are.