Apex Legends players have discovered a very handy use for Gibraltar’s shield that makes him a little more useful than we might have first thought.
Gibraltar isn’t a particularly popular pick in Apex Legends, with most players opting for the likes of Wraith or Pathfinder at the Legend select stage. In fact, as of November 2019, Gibraltar was the fifth-least picked Legend in the game, barely ahead of the lower-picked characters.
However, this fairly simple but incredibly effective trick may just see Gibraltar utilized a bit more in the future, especially for players that love taking control of a Tank-like Legend.
As Reddit user MIPSthebunny shared, Gibraltar’s shield is much more useful than just protecting players from gunfire during a fight – it can even protect from grenades and arc stars.
Although this may seem like it’s nothing, a lot of commenters had never actually realized this was possible, despite it being such an obvious advantage to playing as Gibraltar.
In the video provided, MIPS is in the Firing Range and throws two frag grenades on the ground in front of him. Immediately using his passive ability, the Gun Shield, he is protected from both grenade blasts – and the shield remained intact the entire time.
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The top commentator states that while they knew about it, they don’t believe it is common knowledge amongst the general Apex Legends player base and even believes that Gibraltar might be a bit strong at the moment.
It has also been noted that Gibraltar’s shield can take the full hit of anything that hits it before it gets destroyed. That means that if the shield only has one health point left, it could still absorb a full 100-damage shot from a Kraber, for example.
Some do disagree with this, however, and say that it was his passive shield that took the damage from the first throwable, not the actual shield, therefore making this trick less powerful than it may seem, while others claim that the character must be in the crouched position for this to work effectively.
The combination of this and the grenade protection goes to show just how unique and powerful Gibraltar’s passive ability can be when utilized effectively. So before you skip over him when you load into a match, it might be worth considering if Gibraltar could be better than you thought.