Apex Legends players have discovered that Ballistic, Season 17’s new Legend, has the ability to cancel his melee animation, resulting in him being able to throw a flurry of punches at his enemies.
The moment that new Legends get released, Apex Legends players get to work on trying to find any way they can to exploit their kits and use their abilities in some unintended ways. Players have been no different with Ballistic, the character that arrived in Apex Legends Season 17.
While some Legends like Vantage end up being a bit buggy in ways that obstruct the player, Ballistic’s fairly straightforward kit has one huge exploit players can take advantage of.
If you repeatedly swap back to the weapon you have stored in your sling, Ballistic’s melee animation gets cancelled. This allows him to punch much, much faster than intended.
Ballistic melee glitch makes him a close-range menace
Ballistic’s kit is refreshingly simple in comparison to many of the other more recent characters in Apex Legends. Every ability he has is about enhancing his ability to put rounds downrange and giving him options that allow him to get the leg up in firefights.
Many glitches and exploits end up being borne from abilities that push the boundaries of existing mechanics. For example, the ability to slide down hills or block doors with Newcastle’s passive probably wasn’t intended by the devs, but these mechanics are now crucial for players wanting to play him at a high level.
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However, Ballistic’s melee glitch is a good old-fashioned unintended animation cancel with the weapon he keeps in his sling, allowing players to put up their dukes and run through the competition.
It’s hard to imagine the Ballistic player in this clip didn’t know exactly what he was doing. Standing in the ring, taunting his opponent and knowing full well that anyone who tried to take him on didn’t stand a chance.
Melee animation cancels are nothing new in Apex Legends, and it’s more likely than not that this’ll end up being patched out of the game in the near future. However, this glitch is still possible to pull off at the time of writing and is certainly worth taking advantage of if you find yourself in a pinch.
One redditor said what we were all thinking: “Dude went Super Saiyan.”