What does Branthium mean in Apex Legends? Horizon & Ash Season 7 teasers

Amid all the teasers for Apex Legends Season 7, one word has been on the lips of a number of characters: Branthium. But, what is this? Now, we finally have an answer to the mystery: but we’ve got a whole load more questions too.

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The first time we heard the word Branthium in Apex Legends, it came from Ash, at the end of the Season 5 Broken Ghost quest.

Ash is the villain from Titanfall 2, who was recruited by Kuben Blisk, before she “died” at the hands of Jack Cooper, was put back together again, her memory wiped, and then her head split into parts and spread throughout Kings Canyon.

Once the Legends put her head back together, she spoke to them, and, as part of an unintelligible message, said: “all roads lead to Branthium.”

Respawn Entertainment

Ash was the first time we heard ‘Branthium’ in Apex Legends.

What is Branthium in Apex Legends?

After the mention from Ash, in the first Twitter teaser for Season 7, Horizon (expected to be the next playable Legend), repeated the word “Branthium” in among all the static.

It later became clear that Horizon was repeating what Ash said – or, perhaps Ash was repeating Horizon.

Is Branthium a place?

The saying, “all roads lead to Branthium”, is undoubtedly a play on the common phrase “all roads lead to Rome.” Typically, this saying refers to “all paths or activities lead to the center of things” – it comes from Ancient Rome in the literal sense, when all roads started from the capital city.

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So, at first, most theories believed Branthium was a place, possibly related to the planet Psamathe and its city, Olympus. Ash finished her monologue by saying “Welcome to Olympus.”

But, a spanner was thrown in the works of this theory by Horizon. In the latest Twitter teaser, Horizon says: “Just got to figure out how he can fuse the Branthium (or Brantium?) without critical mass.”

So, is Branthium actually some kind of element, or fuel, or material? This remains unclear, but it wouldn’t make sense for Ash (and Horizon) to say “All roads lead to Branthium,” if it was simply some kind of element.

The truth about Branthium revealed

It didn’t take long for Respawn to reveal the truth behind Branthium, confirming that it was in fact an element that the people of Psamathe needed as an energy source, to solve their looming energy crisis.

Respawn Entertainment

Dr Mary Somers (aka Horizon) was tasked with finding Branthium to solve the energy crisis.

Unfortunately, after retrieving the Branthium, Somers was betrayed and left to die in the abyss of space, which is where the Season 7 story is about to pick up.

Respawn Entertainment

Horizon retrieved the Branthium – before being betrayed.

Horizon kept the original sample of Branthium for herself, before she set out to fulfill her promise to her son.

This could line up with the involvement of Hammon Robotics too. The Planet Harvester which launched in Season 4 is being used by Hammond “to gather precious metals from the core of the planet for reasons unknown.”

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It’s still possible that Branthium is both a place and an element, with the latter named after the former.

Season 7 is set to start on November 4 – a week earlier than initially planned – so we should learn a lot more then.