New abilities and passives could be on their way for all twelve Apex Legends characters in Season 4, after new datamined information revealed Respawn’s testing code relating to the bold new buffs and changes.
Up until this point in Apex Legends, character classes have remained relatively useless. They have been a good way to figure out how a new legend may play, but that’s pretty much where the value stops.
According to new info found in the battle royale’s code, originally revealed by popular data miner ILootGames, however, that could be set to change as Respawn prepares to drop class-based passives and abilities into the game.
Support passive solves the Blue Supply Bin mystery
All four Apex classes — Offensive, Defensive, Support, and Recon — are set to be given new abilities in the form of passives which will enhance their gameplay based on what role they are expected to fulfill in the battle royale.
Perhaps the most interesting change is for the battle royale’s sole support character, Lifeline. After originally appearing in the Season 4 gameplay trailer, Apex’s mysterious blue bins never landed on the live server.
Now it seems like we’ve finally got our answer. According to game code relating to supports and their new passive, Lifeline, as well as any legend added to the class in later seasons, will now be able to “find extra supplies inside blue supply bins.”
The data line — currently loaded into the code as “‘1Support‘0: Find extra supplies inside blue supply bins.” — suggests these rare blue bins will be locked to all players; only those with the passive key will be able to open them.
It’s also worth mentioning there have been whispers of Loba, who is potentially already being teased across World’s Edge, which could be another Apex support character. If that’s the case, she too would be able to open the blue supply bins.
Recon & Defensive passives re-use old abilities
Apex’s recon characters, Bloodhound, Crypto, and Pathfinder, also appear set to be granted a game-changing passive. All three will now be able to scan the Survey Beacons littered on the map to “reveals the next circle’s location.”
The fact Bloodhound and Crypto will now be taking over what was once Pathfinder’s unique passive also suggests the lovable robot may be granted a brand-new ability to replace it. So far, there has been no evidence of a new passive, however.
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Defensive legends also have their passive come from elsewhere too: Gibraltar, Caustic, and Wattson may permanently wield the strength of gold backpacks. The code string suggests they will be able to “restore shields to revived squadmates.”
Like Pathfinder’s passive, this leaves the question — will gold backpacks be reworked again, considering they could be redundant for a quarter of the roster? This too, however, has not yet been spotted in the code.
New Offensive passive helps with backpack changes
Finally, it appears the game’s offensive characters — Bangalore, Wraith, Mirage, Octane, and Revenant — will at least partially be spared from the major backpack changes which arrived in the Override update.
Their code string reads “‘1Offensive’0: Two special inventory slots for grenades,” suggesting the attack-minded characters may be given something akin to the bandolier item which was rumored to be in development back in June 2019.
Considering single-stack grenades have been cluttering up player’s expanded backpacks since the new update, this will be a welcome addition for players who jump into the battle royale with any of those characters.
When could these changes hit the live servers?
While there’s always a chance that information found in the game’s code may not make it to the full release — Respawn even pulled a cheeky bait and switch with new legends Forge and Revenant — this seems to be on its way.
According to ILootGames, who first discovered the code strings, the datamined information is “in a file where almost everything is coming to the game… [if it’s there] it’s pretty much guaranteed.” Dexerto can confirm they’re still hosted there.
For now, though, sit tight. Respawn will likely not comment on any leaked data files, and haven’t before, but once the new season split starts and we return to King’s Canyon, they may begin teasing the massive Passive changes.