A leaked game file found in Apex Legends sparked panic in the community as players feared the Smart Pistol from Titanfall was coming.
Almost all of the weapons in Apex Legends are borrowed from Titanfall, or at least heavily inspired by Respawn’s original multiplayer series.
Everything from the G2 Scout to the R301 and the Wingman, all of these weapons have their roots in either the first or second Titanfall game. However, there are still plenty of guns that have not made their way to the Apex games yet – such as the smart pistol.
Many a Titanfall fan will shudder at even the mention of the feared smart pistol. It quickly gained a reputation as an overpowered weapon, capable of picking up easy kills.
It featured in both TF1 and 2, as the Smart Pistol MK5 and then MK6. In the first game, it could be added straight to a player’s loadout, but, mainly because of complaints, it was moved to a boost weapon in the second game, given as a score-streak reward.
On February 24, Apex data miner That1MiningGuy shared game files mentioning the feared Smart Pistol, with the file destination shown as ‘Smart_Pistol_MK6_bullet’.
https://twitter.com/That1MiningGuy/status/1232172152482402304
Of course, it must be noted that this was no guarantee that the weapon is coming to Apex Legends. There have been many other files discovered as ‘leftovers’ from Titanfall, or it could simply be some development testing at the studio.
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Update, February 26: Respawn developer Jason McCord has confirmed that the Smart Pistol is definitely not coming to Apex Legends.
But, that hasn’t stopped Titanfall players panicking at the very thought of the Smart Pistol joining the Apex Legends arsenal.
I would uninstall instantly
— Lunaatic Craze (@thecrazedminer) February 25, 2020
Can’t wait for my 60 kill game with all of them being headshots if this comes to Apex.
— SkynetOP (@SkynetO) February 25, 2020
pls dont tell me this is a smart pistol…
— jon (@AXIONVI) February 25, 2020
For those unfamiliar, the weapon has the ability to lock onto opponents, with the speed of the lock-on determined by the distance to an enemy. In Titanfall 2, it was nerfed somewhat, primarily by alerting opponents when they were being locked-on to.
Whether such a weapon has any place in a battle royale game or not, we may just have to wait and find out.