First introduced in Apex Legends Season 3, Crypto remains a mostly situational Legend due to his abilities. A Reddit post by ‘u/Cryptic_Crane72D1’ provides several ideas on how Respawn could buff the character to improve his viability.
Balancing all of the characters in Apex Legends remains a daunting task for the team at Respawn. The developer often explains their thought process for implementing buffs and nerfs, and even confirmed some Legends will never be viable at the highest level of play.
Despite this, the Apex community continues to provide feedback on how their favorite characters can be improved. In a Reddit post by u/Cryptic_Crane72D1, this Crypto player provides the devs with a few ideas on how to improve the Legend’s viability and pick rate.
Crypto’s passive ability rework
Crypto’s passive is his Surveillance Drone, which allows the player and their teammates to spot enemies marked by the Drone. The concept creator argues this is not a true passive because it is actually tied to Crypto’s tactical, and suggests two alternatives to help improve the kit.
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The user’s “Off the Grid” idea would allow the ‘Surveillance Expert’ to partially avoid detection by other Legends’ abilities (like Bloodhound’s scan). Instead of highlighting him, enemies would see a special notification letting them know an enemy was detected without revealing their location.
Another idea would allow him to see how many squads are nearby at all times instead of having to scan Champion banners with his drone. The player admits this particular ability could be too powerful, but still thinks it’s a way to potentially improve the character.
Crypto’s tactical ability rework
Crypto’s tactical ability revolves around his Drone, allowing him to fly around the map and survey enemies, pick up teammate’s banners, and mark potential threats for his squad. However, while he is in Drone mode, the Legend cannot move until he exits the Drone.
According to the Redditor, using the Drone interrupts the flow of combat and prevents players from contributing in team fights. To solve this, he proposes an alternative that would speed up the process and allow the character to remain mobile while using his tactical.
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The proposed solution would allow players to control the Drone remotely, but also deploy it without entering into a separate mode. Players could toss out their bot to scan a specific area while staying mobile and avoiding any major separation from their team.
Crypto’s ultimate ability rework
The final issue outlined in the post relates to Crypto’s ultimate ability: his Drone’s EMP blast. While the EMP can be a powerful ability, the user still thinks it’s too difficult for him to deploy the blast effectively then follow up with his team to attack.
The proposed solution would be allowing the Surveillance Expert to deploy the EMP blast without using his Drone. This would be done by separating the ultimate from his Drone and giving him a separate EMP grenade – something Respawn showed off in the character’s reveal trailer.
Making his ultimate into a throwable would allow his EMP blast to be deployed without entering Drone mode. This ties back to the Redditor’s idea of making the character more mobile and able to contribute during team battles.
The post has been well received on the Apex Legends subreddit, gathering 1.5k upvotes at the time of writing. Many of the responses were positive and agreed that Crypto’s current kit makes him too slow and stops him from fighting alongside his team.
While most of the responses were positive, there were some criticisms as well. One user responded said, “How about we buff actual characters that need it. Rampart literally has the lowest pickrate,” and another pointed out the respawning advantages Crypto has with his Drone.
Respawn has yet to comment on the post, but have already said they are looking at ways to improve him in future seasons. With Legends like Bloodhound being buffed to the point of almost constant use, the Surveillance Expert could be in for the same treatment at some point in the future.