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Ash

Ashleigh Reid — Ash

Incisive Instigator

"I'll see you very soon — and I will be the last thing you ever see."

Voiced by: Anna Campbell (English)

Ashleigh Reid was once a prominent researcher, setting out to work on solving an energy crisis slated to end the Outlands; at least, that's what it seemed on the outside. On the inside, Reid is cold, conniving, and ambitious: to this end, she sought to seize power for herself by stealing synthetic Branthium, a resource that could solve the energy crisis. But she failed, and when she was killed in the field, she was preserved, her mind used as the basis for the Simulacrum, Ash. For years, Ash carried on in her role as a member of the Apex Predators, unaware of her locked-away memories, but a fate encounter with Horizon fractured her mind and created a split personality, Leigh. Now, Ash fights in the Apex Games to prove herself superior, and Leigh fights to prove her wrong.

Ash is a cold-blooded assassin who excels at reading the state of the game, surprising enemies in an ambush, and preventing them from fleeing. Her tactical ability has her toss an Arc Snare that damages and tethers the first enemy to walk near it, preventing them from moving too far away from it for as long as it persists, and can be used to either prevent targets from escaping or from chasing. Her passive ability, Marked for Death, marks all death boxes across the map from recently slain players, which she can use to direct her team with her strategic information, or mark their next targets if she has physical access to a death box. With her ultimate ability, Phase Breach, Ash tears a hole in reality with her sword, creating a one-way portal to the target location that she and her allies can pass through, allowing them to reach faraway locations in the blink of an eye.

This page documents her appearance and lore revealed in Apex Legends. For tropes about her Titanfall 2 appearance, click here.

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• The Ace: As a combat-certified Titan Pilot, she's received Training from Hell par excellence, and her demeanor suggests that she wouldn't allow her skills to atrophy. Narratively, she's also one of the stronger characters too; the Season 11 launch trailer gives her one of the highest on-screen unassisted kill counts versus the other Legends in a single trailer^note The only one who exceeds hers is Crypto in the Season 3 launch trailer, though it seems that kill count was more for this entire squad rather than just Crypto himself, and the Season 11 in-game story has her utterly trounce anyone in her way, primarily with her sword and Arc Snare while her opponents use guns. The only time someone successfully defies her in said story is in a timely intervention by Leigh when Horizon confronts her the second time, and Leigh's continued influence after, and even so it amounts to more of an annoyance to her plans than an actual setback.
• Ambiguous Situation: Is Leigh merely a fragment of Ashleigh's personality, or is she Ashleigh in her entirety? Ash describes her as a remnant of Ashleigh similar to herself and Leigh doesn't use the name Ashleigh for herself, but Leigh only manifested when Ash's memories of her human life were recovered and she's usually represented via the human Ashleigh. (Judging by her numerous snarky voicelines and her behaviour being pretty consistent with her pre-death appearances in general, it's most likely the latter, and it would make sense that Ash wouldn't want to admit it. But we don't fully know for sure yet either way.)
• And I Must Scream: The Leigh personality seems aware of what is happening and is actively trying to re-claim her body. One loading screen, accurately titled "HELL", appears to be a recollection of Leigh, trapped within a cycle of dying over and over again to being stabbed with her own blade and crushed by a Titan's fist.
• Anti-Armor: Her Arc Snare deals double damage to shields, making its borderline Cherry Tap 10 damage into something a bit more respectable, especially as a damaging tactical.
• Arch-Enemy: To Horizon, whom she betrayed and threw into a black hole back when she was still Dr. Reid, and was The Mole on the team of scientists her son was on as well. One of the Season 11 loading screen lore texts elaborates that Ash is the only person Horizon truly hates.
• Ascended Extra: In Titanfall 2, she's just another member of the Apex Predators for you to fight as a boss and none more notable than Blisk or Slone, who are The Dragon to General Marder and the dragon's dragon respectively. In Apex Legends, as the Dismantled MacGuffin objective of the "Broken Ghost" quest, the administrator of the Arenas, and a playable character, she has a much stronger in-game presence than Blisk himself, not to mention her much higher significance to the history of the Titanfall universe as a whole due to being the post-Simulacrum identity of Ashleigh Reid.
• Back from the Dead: Three separate times:
  • Her original self was mortally injured by a sword through the chest, but her life was saved thanks to her Emergency Transformation into a Simulacrum.
  • Years later, she was killed again by Jack and BT during the events of Titanfall 2, crushed by the latter's hands. Vinson Dynamics rebuilt her after the destruction of Typhon.
  • Before the events of Apex Legends, she gets killed again by being sent into another dimension. The teleport split her head into 9 constituent parts, and rebuilding her is the plot of the Broken Ghost quest.
• Badass Bookworm: In "The Truth" cinematic, Ashleigh is addressed by one of the Apex Predator mercenaries as "Commander Reid", indicating her prowess in combat as well as science. As of 'Remnants of Affection' it is revealed that she is skilled with a variety of weapons, even back when she was human.
• Becoming the Mask: Despite going through with every step of her mission to steal the branthium, including attempting to kill Horizon, Ashleigh genuinely grew to care for her son, Newton, in her absence, and made every effort to keep him away from harm.
• Body Motifs: Eyes. The team she betrayed was working on an experiment dubbed Project "Iris", her redesign has glowing pinprick pupils to symbolize her new awakening from her original design's Empty Eyes, all her ability icons look like abstractions of eyes and her passive's icon more explicitly features an eye, and "Ashes to Ash" prominently features a dilating pupil as part of its imagery.
• Brick Joke: Before Blisk throws her head into the portal to the Shadowfall universe in Season 6's comic, he remarks that the other side might be a tropical paradise. When Ash made her playable debut five seasons later, her update also added a new map, Storm Point, which is part of an archipelago of tropical paradise islands.
• Brought Down to Badass: She's a combat certified Pilot with insane training, but fights on equal footing with people who aren't so formally trained such as Mirage and Crypto. It's implied that Leigh is interfering with her skill during the games, something that's more explicit in Trouble in Paradise.
• But for Me, It Was Tuesday: Horizon hates Ash for stranding her on the edge of a black hole for 75 years, but Ash is ambivalent towards Horizon. Case in point: when they're on the same team, Horizon will regularly comment on Ash's untrustworthy nature without being prompted, while the only times Ash regards Horizon as anything but another squadmate are when she's reviving Horizon or as a response to one of Horizon's remarks.
  Ash: "You were merely one obstacle among many. A casualty of the mission."
• The Cameo: Appears in the Season 4 trailer on Revenant's touchscreen monitor, using art from Titanfall 2: the "Ashes to Ashes" multiplayer banner, and concept art of her alongside Kuben Blisk and an unnamed, unused Simulacrum character.
• Characterization Marches On: The pre-awakening Titanfall 2 version of Ash can be easily be described as a vague blueprint of the traits Apex would really drill into her. She's still a stoic, sadistic psychopath, but unlike her playable incarnation:
  • She's less of a perfectionist in how she's able to recognize her own flaws. When Blisk calls her out for employing Bond Villain Stupidity, she takes his point gracefully and immediately changes tactics from trying to kill Jack Cooper with traps and No OSHA Compliance, to intervening personally.
  • As a faction leader in the multiplayer, she may actually thank her Pilots for their participation on behalf of Vinson Dynamics. Her Apex incarnation isn't so polite.
  • She's also nicer to Pilots that fail her or die in the field than she is to Legends that do likewise. As a faction leader, she won't make any remarks about players who keep on dying, and her voice lines when players fail the objective are neutral and only bluntly state that the only way they'll survive is by the evac ship. On the other hand, as the Arenas announcer, she may audibly sigh in frustration or call the player disappointing if their team wipes, and as a Legend she'll clearly state that allies who die are weak, if one does.
  • She's much more of The Stoic in Titanfall 2; the only time she raises her voice is when she's getting killed in her boss fight. Apex has her be more expressive, though usually with negative emotions: she's audibly annoyed when she's forced to interact with Pathfinder and (occasionally) Horizon, and angry at the thought of Revenant helping her revive.
• Continuity Nod:
  • As the Arenas announcer, she reprises her role of overseeing gladiatorial arena combat, something she enjoyed doing in Titanfall 2.
    • One voice line she says when the player wins a match is "Toying with your prey? I recognize the appeal.", which a reference to her preference of doing exactly that during the fourth campaign mission.
    • Another one is "You're fighting smart. Maintain your strength", which is word-for-word a line she says as the Vinson Dynamics faction leader.
  • She also makes multiple nods to Titanfall 2 as a playable Legend:
    • Two of her voice lines reference the narration of Titanfall 2's opening cinematic:
      Jack Cooper: "Perceptive, resourceful, and relentless, a Pilot sees the world differently."
      Ash, when selected from the menu: "Perceptive, resourceful, relentless. You must be all these things and more."
      Jack Cooper: "Pilots fight differently. Experienced in deception and maneuver, even overwhelming odds shift in their favor."
      Ash, during the pre-match Champion intro: "Pilots fight differently. Observe."
    • Another is "That may have felt like overkill", which echoes an announcement she makes upon engaging the Self-Destruct Mechanism for a massive underground factory.
    • If she is selected to be the jumpmaster, one voice line states to "stand by for freefall", a reference to the "stand by for Titanfall" lines used by all the faction leaders in the previous game. She also has similar "stand by for care package" lines, for when care packages are being dropped from orbit instead of Titans.
  • One of her dropship intro lines ("Focus. Fight. Win.") from the multiplayer is now used as her Catchphrase, which can be said during character selection, when she is assigned Jumpmaster, and when a round of Arenas starts.
  • Her Passive ability allows her to pull out a Dataknife to Hollywood Hack deathboxes into showing living attackers. Dataknives were standard pieces of equipment for Pilots in both the previous Titanfall games.
• Creepy Monotone: Her nigh-universal monotone returns, but on the other hand, one line has her put on a sing-song voice that manages to be even creepier.
• Dare to Be Badass: Some of her voice lines are this, owing to her fascination with watching people kill each other. Even her basic thanks/you're welcome voice lines are this, as she will acknowledge her team's skill or instruct them to follow her example instead of expressing gratitude or acknowledging it.
  "A new kill leader. Surely you can take the title from them."
  "Triple kill. The rest of you: take note."
  "The enemy's boot is on your neck. Remove it."
  "Cherish the lesson you're about to learn, if you survive it."
  [When a squadmate dies]: "Our squadmate was weak. Now it's only us."
• Double Tap: Her utter ruthlessness is demonstrated in the Season 11 launch trailer when she Sword Plants Wattson after she's downed. Funnily enough, Seer demonstrates precisely why her squadmates would be wise to follow her example when he attempts to ambush them after.
• Early Installment Character-Design Difference: Her design used◊ in her early Apex appearances and the entirety of Titanfall 2 is almost a Head Swap for the generic female Stim Pilot from the multiplayer◊. The design pictured above as her folder image, used as of becoming playable, is more distinct with a tracksuit-like garment covering her body, a wider hood that reveals cable-like Robot Hair, and the addition of a pair of arm-mounted blades. The Season 9 gameplay trailer shows her design with peculiar mix of the the two: the original's torso, the redesign's hood and legs, and entirely different parts for her arms and head.
• Electronic Speech Impediment: Her voice glitches out briefly before and after any voice lines that come from Leigh instead of Ash.
• Empathy Pet: The unnamed rat that accompanies her. A developer tweet suggests that this is one of its purposes; to demonstrate a softer side of Ash that she herself will not reveal.
• Enemy Without: Ash sees herself as Ashleigh's ambition and ruthlessness given form, as she describes to Horizon:
  Ash: "Dr. Ashleigh Reid was a weakling. She allowed herself to be destroyed by those who should have fallen to her. Her missteps led to her demise. I was a small piece of her, then. But I have grown. I have become more than she could have ever hoped to be."
• Enhanced Archaic Weapon: Her sword, which is capable of ripping open dimensional tears as well as cutting through body armor and metal.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Ostensibly the reason Reid had Newton stay home the day of the attack. After already killing Mary a few years back (or so she thought), getting her son killed as well was a line she wasn't willing to cross.
• Expy: Of the Ronin Titan from Titanfall 2, which her official character trailer points out. Her Arc Snare and Phase Breach abilities are respective analogues of Ronin's Arc Wave and Phase Dash abilities. The Arc Snare is also very comparable to the Northstar Titan's Tether Trap.
• Foil:
  • Ash can be seen as one to Wraith. Both are blade-carrying, ex-IMC Pilot Dark Action Girls who were both ambitious scientists in their old lives before losing their memories. Wraith was known as an immoral Mad Scientist in her past life; Reid had the facade of benevolence working to create Branthium as well as an actual person she cared for in Newton Somers. Wraith's memory loss led to her Character Development away from her immoral past self, Ash's Simulacrum conversion resulted in her empathy locked away into an entirely separate personality that she is actively suppressing. Also, they both have portal ultimates, but Wraith's Dimensional Rift needs setup but is long-lasting, versatile, and gets the most mileage when used by the whole team; while Ash's Phase Breach is placed instantly but is short-lived, only useful as a one-way portal, and is all too easy to use selfishly. They both also hear voices in their head, but Ash wants to permanently silence her alternate personality; Wraith learned to trust in the disembodied voices she hears. The difference highlighted by their new Season 12 character select lines:
    Ash: "That little voice, holding you back? ...Kill it."
    Wraith: "That voice in your head? Trust it."
  • Also one to Revenant, the other Simulacrum of the cast. Both are psychopathic Blood Knights, but Revenant is prone to snap violently while Ash is an Ice Queen. Kaleb Cross never asked to be made a Simulacrum and clings to the thought that he's still human, despite everything; Ashleigh Reid jumped at the possibility of an Emergency Transformation and Ash isn't afraid to proclaim that she has become better than humans for her transformation. Revenant loves preying on people's insecurities, Ash urges her allies to shed theirs to become stronger. Revenant is the first Simulacrum to be created, while Ash is the first one that the audience encountered. And Revenant's Tactical ability shoots out a lingering projectile that limits enemies' abilities, while Ash's Tactical is a lingering projectile that limits enemies' movement.
  • Rounds out the robot trio by also being this to Pathfinder. Dispassionate Ice Queen versus cheery Pollyanna. A permanently-stoic porcelain mask said to "invoke ranges of emotional reaction", versus a computer screen that clearly expresses his emotions and cements him as a Cute Machine. A Titan Pilot, the setting's Living Legend and one of the most dominant forces of the Frontier, versus a MRVN unit, the Butt-Monkey of the setting and oftentimes treated as disposable. Sees the Legends as objects of her amusement at best and living training dummies at worst versus seeing them all as one big group of friends, including villainous characters. One of the original spearheads of the Branthium project that betrayed them, versus the newest member that would ensure their efforts were not for nothing in the end. Gameplay wise, Ash's tactical snares enemies in opposition to Pathfinder's ability flinging him around; and her passive is a powerful informational tool that effectively allows her to roughly gauge enemy positions across the entire map with no practical way to avoid or counter it, while his toolset completely lacks any form of enemy scan despite his original class (Recon) being distinguished for that ability.
• Foreshadowing: Ash being the Simulacrum-ified Ashleigh Reid has been foreshadowed for a long time:
  • At the end of The Broken Ghost in Season 5, Ash says seemingly-nonsense phrases that turn out to be relevant in later seasons, most prominently one quote from Horizon addressed to Reid:
    "Just a wee bit of betrayal before breakfast, eh, dearie?"
  • At the end of The First Ship, Blisk tells Ash that "an old friend resurfaced", around the same time that Horizon became active. Trouble in Paradise has Ash confirm that this must have been what Blisk meant.
  • Reid's face in Promise is a dead ringer for Ash's head, especially with the way her long hair evokes the shape of Ash's pre-redesign hood.
  • Reid's voice actor in "The Truth" is uncredited, as Anna Campbell — who voiced Ash in Titanfall 2 — returns to voice her.
  • During the Decrypt the Passcode event near the end of Season 8 that teased Season 9's Arenas gamemode, she had a modified voice line specifically for if Horizon was the player character during the event.
  • She references Newton and Lilian Peck in the Red Flags video, initially assumed by Wattson to be her having taken her time to read the plaque on Pathfinder's statue.
• Gameplay and Story Integration: Most characters start with a default banner frame titled "Rookie Card". The exception is Ash, whose default frame is "Predator Podium", as she is a remnant of the original Apex Predators and thus not a rookie by any means.
• Generation Xerox: She's a believer in this trope, evidenced by how she behaves towards Wattson and Gibraltar.
  [When reviving Gibraltar]: "Weakness extends through generations, I see."
• Grudging "Thank You": Despite her simulacrum identity's stoicism and single-minded dedication to her goals, the comic "The First Ship" has her express gratitude to Pathfinder for giving her a place to stay after she was thrown out by Hammond Robotics, though the note she leaves him mentions she doesn't enjoy feeling appreciation to others.
• Hartman Hips: Her robotic biology allows her waist to be thinner than Loba's, which emphasizes how wide Ash's hips are by comparison.
• Helpless Good Side: Subverted. While Ash is almost exclusively in control, Leigh's subconscious influence is still able to get things to go her way.
• Hoist by Her Own Petard: Hacking a Death Box will alert its killers that Ash has scanned them. If the target hasn't made many kills, then they will know where they've been scanned from.
• Insult to Rocks: Some of her quips state she places more value on her rat than her kill target, such as noting that rats know their place or that her victim's only worth is as sustenance for hers.
• In the Hood: All of her skins wear a hood.
• Irony: Ash trapped Horizon near a black hole, which she escaped via a breakthrough in teleportation technology. Ash's ultimate is teleportation; Horizon's ultimate traps people in a black hole.
• It's All About Me: In Red Flags, she asserts to Horizon that securing an Arenas site at Olympus takes priority over saving the lives of those suffering from the Medusa vines' affliction. This is on the basis that the Arenas contribute funding to the Apex Games, but as the administrator of the Arenas she clearly holds a personal stake in keeping it safe as well.
• Kick the Dog: Her interactions with Valkyrie feature her either coldly dismissing her father Viper's death as a consequence of his mediocrity, or insinuating that his love for Kairi was holding him back.
• Lady of War: Downplayed; she's not especially feminine, but still graceful, cold and wielding an elegant weapon with deadly superiority.
• Malevolent Masked Woman: As a simulacrum, Ash wears both a dark hood and a creepy pale mask.
• Meaningful Name: Leigh is, quite literally, everything left of Ashleigh that isn't Ash.
• Ninja: She's almost constantly hooded, wields a katana and nunchuks, is able to teleport, her Arc Snare can be analagous to a throwing star, her kit encourages underhanded, unscrupulous tactics like ambushes and trapping, and she's extremely efficient in combat. Fitting, as Pilots were very ninja-like in Titanfall 2, and even moreso for Ash for being the original Apex Predators' resident Rōnin Titan Pilot.
• Noble Demon: Her pre-Simulacrum self had some level of empathy to her; the day that the Branthium was to be taken from Olympus, she urged the parentless Newton to take the day off so that he'd be safe.
• Noblewoman's Laugh: Some of Leigh's mocking voicelines towards Ash use this.
• Not Quite Dead: The Season 6 comics reveal that Ash's head was split from the rest of her body, still working enough to hold a conversation with Blisk. Due to unknown reasons, he had to toss her head into a rift linked to the Shadowfall universe.
• Not So Stoic: Usually incredibly dispassionate; in Trouble in Paradise chapter 2, what she describes as anger welling in herself results in only a mild disparaging remark before continuing on like normal. But in chapter 5, Leigh gaining control for an extended period of time and then subconsciously blocking Ash from killing Horizon draws forth a frustrated outburst from Ash:
  "Damn you! I will destroy everything binding you to this world!"
• Older Than They Look: She was an adult 87 years before the game, which makes her at least a century old.
• Ominous Multiple Screens: The base of operations from which she spectates the Arenas matches is consistently portrayed as a disheveled mess with a large, multi-screen computer setup, each monitor showing footage of a different Arena match. When Horizon confronts her in How To Wake Up, the screens gain an extra layer of ominousness by all displaying images of Ash's face, all looking towards herself.
• The Perfectionist: An ego is practically second only to combat skill when it comes to getting into the Games, but Ash takes it to a whole new level. Everything she does is in the name of proving her flawlessness.
• Pet the Dog: After knowing all about Ashleigh Reid's insidiousness since Horizon's debut, she appears in Ashes to Ash dismissing Newton from the lab personally, sparing his life from the laboratory raid that would happen later that day.
• Promoted to Playable: Her arrival has been a long time coming; she started as a boss in Titanfall 2, became the Dismantled Macguffin of the Season 5 quest, was the subject of Season 6's comic, became the announcer for the Arenas mode starting from Season 9, before finally joining the playable roster in Season 11, just over 5 years after her debut in the franchise.
• Psycho Electro: Ruthlessly sociopathic, and her Tactical, Ultimate, and Heirloom weapon all have associated electric effects on them.
• Psycho Knife Nut: Has no less than four knife-like implements: the Dataknife she hacks Death Boxes with, her Arc Snare, and the pair of elbow blades mounted on her body.
• Puny Earthlings: Very proud of being a Simulacrum; official descriptions of her state she wants to prove she's superior to humanity.
  [In the Season 11 Launch Trailer, after wiping some of Mirage's blood off his face]: "Hmm, humans. So fragile."
  [When selected]: "No breath to steady, no heart to calm... Perfection."
  [When reviving Revenant]: "Your pathetic efforts diminish Simulacra."
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Ash is the cold, calculating Blue Oni, to whimsical Pathfinder and bloodthirsty Revenant's Red Oni, between machine folk.
• Sadist: Carrying over from her Titanfall 2 personality, she has a strange interest in watching people kill each other in the Arenas, though it's Subverted in that she's only interested in seeing the strong rise over the weak, rather than the pain that it would necessarily cause.
• Scare the Dog: One of her Heirloom inspect animations has her snatch her pet rat off her shoulder and stare at it very intensely. It stares back, wide-eyed and obviously terrified... until Ash relaxes her grip and gives it some cheese.
• Scarily Competent Tracker: Her passive makes her one of these, seeing the location of all recent Deathboxes and being able to hack them to reveal their killers. What makes her even more scarily competent is that there doesn't seem to be any explanation for why she can sense deaths on the map; Bloodhound has a sonar scan and is trained to notice environmental clues, Crypto's drone relays information to him, Seer tracks heartbeats and uses his micro-drones for a more precise scan, and Fuse's scan is clearly linked to the fires from his Ultimate, but Ash just has an inexplicable sixth sense for death around her from any distance.
• Sinister Switchblade: She's a psychopathic cyborg who would not hesitate to kill others, and her nunchuks have a hidden pair of retractable blades inside of them.
• Small Name, Big Ego: One of her interaction voicelines towards Valkyrie has Ash dismiss Viper as "a mediocre Pilot", because "otherwise he would still be alive today". Not only does this ignore that, by felling the IMC Draconis and tearing off BT-7274's arm Viper was way more successful in his mission of protecting the Ark than Ash was, it also conveniently doesn't mention how they were both killed by the same person; she's alive and he isn't because they could rebuild Ash, but they couldn't rebuild Viper.
• The Sociopath: Revenant at the very least is capable of recognizing his victims as human beings. Ash? You're either a resource to be expended or a liability to be eliminated.
• Split-Personality Takeover: When Ashleigh Reid was turned into a Simulacrum, two personalities were created: the psychopathic, ruthless, and stoic Ash personality, and the vulnerable, intelligent, and emotional Leigh personality. Unusually for most examples, it's the good side of her personality that is attempting to take over; Ash seeks to prove herself superior by joining the Apex games.
• The Strategist: The information given by her passive of marking enemy death box locations on the map allows teams to employ strategies such as third-partying enemies right after they finish a fight and likely when they're weakest, set up defensive chokepoints if they know their targets will be chased by the ring, and — if she has direct access to a box — pinpoint its killers. Her incredibly assertive voice lines for directing the whole squad to pinged locations imply she sees herself as this too, and as the former Vinson Dynamics faction leader in Titanfall 2's multiplayer, she certainly isn't inexperienced.
• Supermodel Strut: Her hips have a noticeable wiggle to them as she walks, which is all the more enhanced by her robotic waistline.
• Token Evil Teammate: Is in some regards worse than Revenant, as Ash is actively trying to rid herself herself of her more humane half in Reid, and joined the games to prove herself superior to her.
• Tuckerization: A sort of retroactive one. Ashleigh Reid is named after Ashley Reed, a writer at Respawn hired after Titanfall 2 released (and thus, after Ash was named).
• Utility Weapon: Her sword is used only for her finishers and ultimate from the view of whoever is playing as her, with her melee option being normal punches and kicks (unless she uses her Heirloom, which will also randomly show her slashing doors with her sword instead). From an actual third-person view, however, Ash uses her sword when the player presses the melee button and doesn't have her Heirloom equipped.
• Weapon-Based Characterization: Her heirloom, Strongest Link, is a pair of nunchaku. Appropriate enough for the ninja-like Ash, but furthermore, certain eastern martial arts treat nunchucks as a training weapon, which reinforces her obsession with perfection.
• Weaponized Teleportation: At the end of one of her finishers, she uses her sword to phase out her victim.
• White Mask of Doom: As with the previous game, but her redesign as of becoming playable adds a glowing lip piercing and scar-like fractures on her cheek where Revenant attacked her. Season 5's "The Broken Ghost" also notes that the mask isn't merely cosmetic; encryption keys embedded into the material itself make it necessary for the other parts to start functioning.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Is on the receiving end of this from Hammond Robotics; after they took data from her memory banks, she's literally thrown out for Pathfinder to find.
• You Will Not Evade Me: Her tactical ability, the Arc Snare, will tether enemies to it if they're too close to it.

Ballistic

August Brinkman — Ballistic

Refined Gunslinger

"Made weak by time and faith, but strong in will, to strive, to seek, to find...and not to yield."

Voiced by: Robin Atkin Downes (English)

August Brinkman joined the Thunderdome Games during his youth, left in a self-destructive rut after he was orphaned by his parents' criminal actions catching up to him. It was there he would find his future wife, Sok Leng, and together with her brother Kit Siang they became an unstoppable team — until Kit Siang died during a game thanks to Brinkman's ignorance. Blaming himself, he retreated from the world, driving away his family and drinking his fortune away. But when he saw that his son, Nathaniel, was following in his footsteps, August refused to let him follow his path of self-destruction: under gunpoint, he proposed to Duardo Silva to take him instead of his son.

Ballistic is a weapons specialist whose abilities focus around laying down firepower or surpressing his enemies from doing likewise. His Tactical ability is Whistler, which lets him whip out a special pistol and shoot an enemy; victims will take damage if they shoot their gun. His Passive ability, Sling, enables him to carry a third weapon on his person. His sling weapon cannot take attachments; instead, he upgrades it by using his ultimate, Tempest, which gives it gold attachments, in addition to giving nearby team members faster reloads, faster melee run speed, and infinite ammo.

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• The Alcoholic: Resorted to a life of drinking after falling into depression post-Thunderdome.
• Broken Ace: One of the best Thunderdome fighters yet haunted by the death of his brother-in-law and struggling with an estranged family.
• Cool Old Guy: Even at 63, Ballistic is still a respected gunfighter who can compete in the Apex games against contestants half his age.
• Cultured Badass: Frequently quotes poetry, classic and occasionally obscure literature, and muses about the perfect way to brew Earl Grey tea whilst beating several thugs half to death.
• Expy: Of Kuben Blisk. Both of them are Cool Old Guys with a mullet and goatee, who both participated in the predecessor to the Apex Games, the Thunderdome. Also, Ballistic wields a Smart Pistol-like gun for his Tactical ability, based on its appearance and its bullets' ability to home in on targets; Smart Pistols were standard equipment for Pilots during Blisk's time, which would include himself.
• Hypothetical Fight Debate: His Stories from the Outlands video has the newscaster referencing in-universe fans wondering how a Thunderdome fighter such as Ballistic could fare against modern Apex champions.
• It's All My Fault: Blames himself for the death of brother-in-law so much so that he went into retirement and alcoholism.
• I Call It "Vera": During the Thunderdome games, he carried a CAR SMG he dubbed "Lady Grey".
• Take Me Instead: Enters the Apex Games so that his son Nathaniel wouldn't compete and fall into the same destructive lifestyle he experienced.
• Tragic Keepsake: Keeps Kit Siang's old sunglasses on a shrine in his memory, and wears them in his honor while participating in the Apex Games.

Bangalore

Anita Williams — Bangalore

Professional Soldier

"Name the weapon — I'll still beat you."

Voiced by: Erica Luttrell (English), Anna Kiseleva (Russian)

Bangalore used to be one of the IMC's top footsoldiers, always topping her military classes. After the Battle of Gridiron during the twilight years of the Frontier War, while travelling through space, a part of her ship's hull exploded and threatened to suck her out onto the surface of the planet Solace, but the one who ultimately fell was her brother, Jackson. To try and find him, as well as raise funds to get a ticket back to Gridiron — and to her family — Bangalore joined the Apex Games.

Bangalore is a good all-round soldier who doesn't particularly excel in any area, but makes up for any shortcomings with her great utility and wide variety of skills. Her tactical ability fires a grenade from her Smoke Launcher, which creates a smokescreen that can be used for sneaking up on enemies, reviving downed allies, or simply for making a quick getaway. Her passive ability, Double Time, gives her a temporary speed boost whenever she is hit (or nearly hit) by enemy attacks. Finally, her ultimate ability, Rolling Thunder, has her call in an artillery strike to rain down explosive missiles on an area of the battlefield.

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• The Ace: Bangalore has always been an exceptional soldier, and was at the top of her class at the IMC Military Academy.
• Action Girl: Out of the current female legends, Bangalore fits this trope the best, because she was the only one with complete military training.
• Ambiguously Gay: Heavily implied to be at least, in some way, attracted to women. Her most important (non-familial) relationship within the cast is with Loba, a canon bisexual woman, and their relationship gets many seasons' worth of development, detailing how things between them started off tense before they grew into each other's most trusted confidantes. In comparison to her important interactions with the men of the cast - she's on tense terms with Newcastle (who is her brother), Revenant wants Revenge by Proxy on her due to her aforementioned closeness to Loba, and Forge sexually harassed her when she didn't return his flirtations (with her going as far as to thank Revenant for killing him).
• Badass Family: As mentioned in Stories from the Outlands: Gridiron by a senior Pilot, the Williams family is full of IMC soldiers and war heroes. A flashback in the animation also strongly implies at least one member of the family is or was a Pilot.
• Backstory: Although much of Bangalore’s backstory was released in small tidbits, the “Apex Legends: Pathfinder’s Quest” book went into more depth on her. She was a foot soldier of the IMC who lived in a large family and also considered her loved ones outside of the IMC as her family too. Her perspective showcased the IMC in a Grey-and-Gray Morality setup where the mentioned faction wasn’t overall evil, instead another group of people living their lives and fighting for a cause they believed to be just. Unfortunately, since people in the Outlands tend to think of the IMC as The Empire, Bangalore is oftentimes treated poorly by many civilians - and she in return thinks many Outland civilians are ungrateful pricks who forgot the IMC once helped these people when they were treated poorly by their previous rulers. So far in the storyline she has remained this way, not changing much, but the book mentioned above did reveal one major detail that shakes her story up a bit: Her brother Jackson had fled the Battle of Gridiron along with the rest of the crew of the IMC Hestia warship - including an unwilling Bangalore who was close to starting a coup on the ship if she hadn’t been sedated - because he discovered the IMC ARES Division group they were expected to protect had performed cruel and inhumane experiments on humans in order to develop a super weapon capable of annihilating whole populations. Jackson believed the Militia who arrived to Gridiron in order to defeat the IMC forces there were “killing hundreds and thousands... to save billions,” and he couldn’t live with the idea of innocent people from the Outlands being slaughtered by a super weapon made by sociopathic scientists, therefore he decided to let the Militia handle the situation while convincing the rest of the crew to let the ARES Division burn for their cruelty. While Bangalore hated him initially for his actions, she eventually realized the Awful Truth that many of the IMC’s higher-ups had funded the inhumane project and came to terms with the idea that the IMC wasn’t as “gray” as she originally thought - albeit she still supports her loved ones from the IMC and believes them to be innocent of the higher-ups decisions.
• Badass Normal: Especially when put into the context of the same universe as Titanfall games. Bangalore has no augmentations or unique tech, yet not only does she survive to become one of the Legends in the Apex Games but she also survived combat as a grunt in the Frontier War. Under normal circumstances grunts were often crushed or punched to death by giant robots, and there’s also the matter of what pilots were capable of, yet she’s alive and kicking to this day.
• Blood Knight: Quite a few of her lines and quips give off this impression.
  Bangalore (intro): "Come get some. Move it or die."
  Bangalore (intro): "Get ready for a light show."
  Bangalore (intro): "Artillery sounds like music to me."
• Boring, but Practical: Bangalore has a kit of straightforward abilities which can be used for either offensive or defensive tactics:
  • “Double Time,” makes Bangalore run thirty percent faster when she is either hit by bullets or almost hit. This can help her get to safety with haste, close the distance to devastate her opponents with a close ranged weapon like a shotgun, or outmaneuver opponents to make herself more difficult to hit from a distance. The last part is noticeable for players who learn to move erratically while fighting an opponent to avoid getting hit by their shots.
  • “Smoke Launcher” allows Bangalore to fire a canister which release a smoke screen; she recharges a canister every thirty-three seconds and can store up to two at a time. It deals ten damage to opponents caught in the initial explosion and the smoke persists for twenty three seconds, giving Bangalore and her team much needed cover in a firefight among other tactics. While it does warn opponents she might be nearby, it will still interfere with opponents who lack a means to see through the smoke, and it can be used at any point as long she has a canister in stock since the launcher is attached to her shoulder - thus it’s hands free and doesn’t interfere with any other action she takes (e.g. using a shield cell). It can even be used for offensive purposes, such as combining the smoke with a means to see through it (e.g. Bloodhound’s ultimate ability) in order to attack opponents with little chance of them being able to retaliate without using AOE (area of effect) abilities to compensate for lack of vision.
  • “Rolling Thunder” fires a barrage of missiles onto the ground in a widespread pattern, which overtime causes the missiles in the ground to explode and deal forty damage to enemies caught in the explosion as well as slow their movement down for a few seconds. It cannot inflict damage on teammates, but it will slow them down, making it essential to aim this ability carefully - especially if the Ring is starting to close while Bangalore’s teammates and/or herself aren’t in the safe zone. It’s useful when fighting out in the open to unleash chaos on the battlefield, forcing enemies to reposition themselves in a new location since it can pin them down if they do not escape in time, plus when combined with her smoke grenades she can spread further confusion amongst enemies. It also combos well with several other abilities (e.g. Crypto’s EMP) to make it further difficult to escape.
• Breakout Mook Character: She's an ex-IMC soldier; one that's been noted to have exceptional skill, but still within the ranks of the IMC that are effectively Cannon Fodder for the player to kill in Titanfall 1 and 2.
• Broken Pedestal: Anita lost faith in the IMC after one of its commanders attempted to kill Jackson for deserting, and proceeded to bomb the village they're in when she stopped him. She's mostly been pretending to still be loyal to them to cover for her brother's actions.
• Butt-Monkey: She tends to get slain in promotional materials in order to showcase the flashier abilities of her fellow legends.
• Calacas: The aesthetics of her Season Three Halloween “Fight or Fright” event skin.
• Career Versus Family: She sold her brother out to the IMC when she discovered he deserted, choosing career at first. However, when the pilot that came to pick them up opted to kill Jackson then and there, she changed her tune.
• Catch Phrase Insult: Prone to calling rival competitors, especially ones who lose early in the match, "FNG"s, which stands for "Fucking New Guys".
• Cherry Tapping: Smoke grenade impacts do only ten damage — measly for a slow-firing ability with a long cooldown — but they can knockdown a low-health enemy. Bangalore also uses them for one of her finishers.
• Continuity Nod:
  • Her Legendary skin from the Genesis event shows her in IMC soldier gear.
  • One voiceline might be... a little familiar to returning Titanfall 2 players.
    "They're trying to corner us!"
• Death from Above: Her ultimate ability, “Rolling Thunder,” calls in an airstrike which blankets a chosen and large area. It can be used for offensive purposes, though its main role is to help Bangalore and her friends escape from an unfavorable engagement.
• Difficult, but Awesome: Contrary to how it usually goes for the basic soldier-archetype in hero shooters, Bangalore is one of the trickier Legends to use effectively due to how her smokescreens can disorient her own team just as easily as the enemy if used inappropriately. More than any other Legend available at the start, Bangalore forces you to get creative with how to use her abilities if you want to consistently get the better of Legends who can't screw their own team over as easily as she can.
• Dramatic Irony: An in-universe news article◊ revealed that Bangalore’s home world, Gridiron, went dark years ago from the present time. Her goal is to raise enough money to return home and find the remainder of her family, yet she seems unaware no one might even be there anymore... at least not her family.
  • Another darker interpretation is that Bangalore is aware of this possibility, but refuses to believe it, and remains in denial of the fact no communication has been heard from Gridiron for years after the Frontier War. A post on R/Apex Lore adds evidence to this latter interpretation, pointing out that her timeline of events doesn't add up:
  With the newest stories giving us a timeline, Bangalore was sent to retrieve a Mercenary Fleet 15 years after the war ended, it is currently unknown why the 'now defunct' IMC would send them 'to aid in the IMC’s fight against the Militia' if the War ended long ago.
• Fire-Forged Friendship: With Loba, ever since the Season Five “Broken Ghost” storyline concluded. Bangalore is one of the few people that Loba will open up to about her past and Bangalore supports Loba whenever possible (if they aren’t competing against each other in the Apex Games).
• Gameplay and Story Segregation: Despite story-wise being the only weapon expert among the legends, she isn't any more proficient at using weapons in-game. But whenever she pings weapon upgrades, she tells her squadmates what the upgrades do, and that may help new players get familiarized with the game. In reality, it’s hinted she enjoys these in-depth explanations of the weapons/gear she finds on the battleground because it reminds her of her military past.
• Generation Xerox: Both of her parents were part of the IMC military; she followed in their footsteps alongside her siblings.
• Grenade Launcher: Her smoke grenades come from a shoulder-mounted grenade launcher. It's hands-free, can launch the smoke grenades from a further distance than can be normally thrown by hand, and doesn't interrupt actions like reloading or healing.
• Grey-and-Gray Morality: This is how Bangalore sees the IMC vs Militia conflict that took place before the Apex Games was founded. Both the IMC and Militia had used the people of the Outlands for their own gain, but on several occasions both sides had tried to help the people as well. Bangalore served with the IMC her entire life and sees many people in the Outlands as ungrateful whenever they speak poorly of the IMC - despite the help they once gave - but she’s all too familiar with the fact that people on the Militia’s side are going to be distrustful of her as well. During the Season Five “Broken Ghost” storyline, it’s revealed she is suspicious of the “new” IMC that the Syndicate has come into contact with. She has no clue who these people from the new IMC really are and warned her fellow legends that they cannot be trusted.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: For fighting for the IMC until the twilight years of the Frontier War and carrying it as a clear part of her identity, Bangalore has bad press in some parts of the Outlands. This is especially true in Harris Valley, a town of refugees, orphans, and widows caused by the IMC: Jackson's son, born in Harris Valley, calls her "an IMC jerk" when given a poster of her, and during her visit a hot dog vendor warns her that just asking her to leave town makes him one of the nicer people there.
• Hoist by Their Own Petard: Her "Reversal of Fortune" finisher involves using her victim's own weapon to kill them, which is a reference to the fact she's a weapon expert.
• Honor Before Reason: She was furious to discover that Jackson went against orders and retreated from Gridiron. When Jackson points out that the battle was a lost cause and that charging in would've meant death, she retorts that that's what they should have done as soldiers.
• Interface Screw: Her smoke grenades blur the vision of anyone who's inside the smoke, including Bangalore herself, but if she has an ally who can track enemies through smoke or a weapon with threat scope optics...
• I Shall Taunt You:
  • Despite her military professionalism, she is a foul-mouthed and cocky legend, with many of her kill quotes mocking her victim. It ranges from questioning if her victim just came out of basic training to making fun of the potential lack of accuracy her victim may possess.
    Bangalore (to a kill target): "Not gonna say this was too easy, but... I may have one eye closed."
  • Newcastle has a rare lobby animation where Bangalore walks in before nonverbally mocking his constant hands-on-hip pose, his helmet's eye-obscuring visor, and the noticeable paunch he got since she last saw him.
• Jack of All Stats: She's the most well-rounded of the legends, but not particularly specialized in anything. The developers have even stated they considered her to be the bar for what a healthy, balanced character should be like. Her entire kit is versatile and can be used offensively or defensively, such as using her passive to aid in killing an opponent or using her smoke grenade as cover in order to revive a teammate. She can also fight in either enclosed places or out in an open field without difficulty, though her ult was designed to be used outdoors rather than when fighting inside buildings, which does tip her kit’s favorable conditions out in the open as long as her opponent(s) lack the means to see through the smokescreens.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Bangalore comes across as cocky and belligerent, but from time to time she does show signs of genuine concern for her squadmates and friends. For starters, she was among the legends who came to comfort Wattson after her father's funeral.
  • The Season Three loading screen, “Send in the Clowns,” shows that, despite her abrasive attitude towards those she deems unprofessional, she does care about her fellow legends:
  Bangalore: “Numbnuts! That’s what Mama used to call guys like that. You know the type. Big jokes, big trucks, big wallets...they need all that big to cover up what’s small. I got four brothers. Real gentlemen, raised with respect. They don’t have to woo-hoo their way through a battlefield like it’s a joke and they’re the punchline. Sorry, Laughtrack. The only punchline is you’re going home in a box. Maybe Silva isn’t so bad. He’d take a bullet for anyone… mostly ‘cause he’s already fifty paces ahead, charging in with no game plan and even less strategy. Witt’s had my back more than once. And whatever, he’s gotten a chuckle out of me. Occasionally. Maybe they’re good. For morale, I mean. I mean… I just need them to stay out of my way.”
• Lady Swears-a-Lot: Downplayed. Due to the rating of this game, most legends rarely use swear words (and they’re the less extreme ones), but Bangalore's regular use of "FNG" comes pretty close. Also, from time to time, she got really close to swearing. In the cinematic launch trailer, for instance:
  (Bangalore hits Mirage's decoy. Then at the next moment, Mirage is next to her, pointing his Wingman at her).
  Mirage: "Sorry. Did I confuse you?"
  Bangalore (grudgingly): "Motherf-"
  (Mirage fires and eliminates Bangalore as the camera switches to Wraith's face).
• The Leader: Has several of the “levelheaded” and “headstrong” traits. She was the de facto leader of the legends in the Season Five “Broken Ghost” storyline after being hired by Loba to track down artifacts in the Shadowfall alternate dimension. However, Bangalore’s distrust of Loba led to the former ordering several of the legends in secrecy to look into Loba’s dealings with the new IMC group that had arrived. Eventually Bangalore discovered the reason Loba desired the artifacts was because the new IMC would tell her the coordinates to Revenant’s organic head in exchange for the artifacts. While the legends didn’t mind finding a way to kill Revenant permanently, they weren’t pleased that Loba had lied to them about her real objective, especially since Wattson and Octane both had come dangerously close to dying permanently in the nightmarish alternate universe.
• Master of None: While Bangalore can perform multiple roles on the battlefield, there are dedicated legends who can perform the same tasks but better like flanking^note Octane can run fast without being shot at, Pathfinder can set up Ziplines, Wraith can phase shift to escape danger, and Horizon has her gravity lift for the high ground advantage, area denial^note Caustic's gas traps can not only obscure enemy vision but also hurt them, Wattson's fences can damage enemies and give away their position, and Fuse's explosives can lock down enemies from further ranges and combat medic.^note Lifeline can revive without taking herself out of the fight, Gibraltar can revive faster in his dome shield and has a similar but far faster Ultimate, and Mirage's cloaking revival is far less conspicuous than the enormous smoke cloud
• Meaningful Name: Bangalore is named after a type of missile, and her ultimate ability, “Rolling Thunder,” launches an orbital missile strike at a chosen location. In real life, bangalore torpedos - also known as creeping barrages - were used by Indian troops during World War I to enter no-man’s land, and in similar fashion Bangalore’s tactical as well as ultimate abilities can help her team enter hostile territory - or force enemies into fleeing for their lives. Appropriately, the internal name for Bangalore's ultimate ability is "Creeping Barrage/Bombardment".
• Military Brat: Her parents were part of the IMC Armed Forces, and all four of her brothers as well as herself served in the IMC military.
• A Mother to Her Men: When she revives a downed squadmate, she sounds gentle and motherly, in stark contrast to her typical demeanor. In general, she does seem to genuinely care about her fellow legends, but has difficulties showing this.
  Bangalore (to the teammate she's reviving): "Don't worry. I've got you."
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: In her quest to find Jackson, she enlists herself in the Apex Games. In them, she embodies her military history from Gridiron and makes it everyone's first thought of her: she's best known as that military type who used to fight for the IMC and is looking for her brother. Come Season 13, this comes to bite her in the ass: a town of refugees from the war that the IMC started is where Jackson lives and married. She's completely unable to associate with him at all because everyone there knows she's from that one faction that ruined their lives, and Jackson has to put up a facade of hostility instead of interacting with her like she's his sister.
• Noodle Incident: A Season 8 transition screen's loretext describes a prank war with Jackson. At some point, she soaked his pants with Prowler pheromones, the result of which she doesn't talk about.
• Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond: Bangalore is a IMC soldier, who in the mainline Titanfall games would've been treated as little more than Cannon Fodder who are gunned down by Pilots or stomped on by Titans. But in the lower stakes Apex Games, she's regarded as one of the best fighters.
• Smoke Out: Her tactical ability creates a smoke screen which blurs the visions of anyone inside or behind the smoke. It’s a potent tool for pushing, disengagement (if things go badly for Bangalore), or reviving a downed teammate safely. She even invokes this trope word for word with one of her quotes while using the smoke grenades.
  Bangalore (when activating her tactical ability): "Smoke out!"
• Super-Speed: When her “Double Time” passive is activated she will move thirty percent faster than normal.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Was this with Loba for Season Five, but after the events of the “Broken Ghost” storyline it has developed into a friendship.
• Terms of Endangerment: When Forge tells the press that she and him had a "thing" a few years back, Bangalore recounts the actual story, that he sexually harassed her when she was practicing at a firing range, before playing along with his narrative.
  Tell boyfriend I'm looking forward to rekindling the fire when I see him in World's Edge...
• Trademark Favorite Food: Red velvet cake is significant in the Williams family. Bangalore remarks in her Apex Chronicle that her grandmother prepared it for special occasions such as for Williams Sendoffs.
• Weapon-Based Characterization: Uses the G7 Scout most frequently. The original version of it that appeared in Titanfall, the G2A4 Battle Rifle, is noted to be old tech that just sticks around because it's very reliable, just like her.
• What the Hell, Hero?: She was not pleased to discover that Jackson faked his death, since not only did he decline telling her that he was alive, he settled down to a cozy life in Harris Valley while she fought for her life in the Outlands searching for him.
• Working with the Ex: Subverted with Forge. While he thought this was happening, Bangalore never had any interest in him, and instead saw him as a clown.

Fuse

Walter Fitzroy — Fuse

Explosives Enthusiast

"If there’s dirty deeds to do, I’ll do ‘em dirt cheap."

Voiced by: Ben Prendergast (English), Andrey Barkhudarov (Russian)

Fuse is a born and raised Salvonian, his homeworld wracked with constant wars between independent warlords. Alongside his childhood friend Maggie and carrying a golden grenade as a token of their friendship, he grew up to become a mercenary for the Cracked Talons, but eventually decided that fighting for wars and political power over Salvo wasn't his thing anymore. The knuckle-brawling Bonecage called to him, and when he became its champion, the Apex Games were next. But Maggie wouldn't have any of it: the Games were nothing but a symbol of the Syndicate's aggressive control, and the pin was pulled on their relationship.

Fuse is a demolitons expert whose abilities all revolve around dealing damage and blowing stuff up. His tactical ability is the Knuckle Cluster, which fires a cluster bomb that continuously expels airburst explosives on impact. His passive ability, Grenadier, doubles his carrying capacity for grenades, as well as letting him fire them faster, further, and more accurately than any other legend. Finally, his ultimate ability is The Motherlode, which creates a ring of fire to entrap foes, causing damage to any who try to pass through the flames and highlighting all enemies within its radius for Fuse and his team.

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• Awesome Aussie: Fuse has the accent and the awesome in spades.
• Artificial Limbs: He has a mechanical right arm. It's not just for show - it lets him launch grenades much further than the other legends, but he obtained this useful piece of tech in a rather tragic way: his ex-friend Maggie blew up his original arm with a hand grenade out of spite when she learned he joined the Apex Games, making him allied with the Syndicate whom she despised.
• Bash Brothers: Makes fast friends with Bloodhound after joining the games, to the point of learning their native language. During The Legacy Antigen, they're the only pair of Legends to avoid being captured by the spiders they were sent to collect samples of.
• Category Traitor: Fuse was loved on Salvo when he was a Bonecage champion. When he moved up to the Apex Games, Salvonians were quick to disown him, for throwing in with the Syndicate that they despise.
• Cool Old Guy: Fuse was entertaining audiences in bloodsports on his home world of Salvo up to the ripe old age of fifty four until he left. Now he's in the Apex Games where he has a decade or two head start on most of his fellow legends, yet he’s still looked at by many as an amusing old timer who’s quite handy with explosives.
• Demolitions Expert: If you're hearing lots of explosions in a short amount of time, there's a good chance Fuse is around making things go boom.
• Difficult, but Awesome: No other legend comes even close to the amount of raw AoE damage Fuse can deal with his kit. Combined with his ability to hold more grenades per slot, Fuse is a serious danger to enemy teams who like to group together tightly or hide behind cover. Unfortunately, Fuse himself isn’t immune to damage from his own explosives, and his ultimate ability can be tricky to use when fighting within enclosed areas. It doesn’t help matters his abilities tend to make a lot of noise either, making it imperative his teammates must be ready to deal with opportunistic third parties who come to investigate the commotion.
  • “Grenadier” allows Fuse to store up to two grenades in a single slot (though both grenades must be the same type) as well as throw them much further than the other legends. It also allows him to calculate the bouncing pattern of a frag grenade, making them easier to use.
  • “Knuckle Cluster” fires a grenade that releases several airborne explosions after one and a half seconds have passed, with each explosion dealing damage up to a total of fifty damage per grenade while it remains fixed to the location it was fired at. This is good at weakening opponents as well as forcing them to flee from cover, plus it deals an additional ten damage if it happens to hit an enemy with the initial deployment of the grenade.
  • “The Motherlode” fires a napalm explosion in the area that encircles a designated site in a ring of fire, dealing thirty five damage to anyone other than Fuse’s teammates who touch the fire. Also, upon touching the flames it will slow down its victims as well as deal eight damage per second up to five seconds total (or twelve damage per second if you remain touching the initial fire ring), meaning it deals a minimum of seventy five damage and a maximum of ninety five if you touched the fire ring the entire time. This is good at trapping opponents out in the open and can draw attention easily from other teams, marking the victims for death as they do their best to survive against any opportunistic opponents on the other side of the flames (or inside the ring if they were unfortunate enough to also be caught by the blast).
• Disc-One Nuke: At the start the game where most players don't have decent gear, charged ultimates, or possibly even any ammo, Knuckle Cluster gives Fuse a lot of extra damage while other legends are forced to fight with whatever they can find, making him one of the more dangerous legends to face on drop.
• Expy: The sparkling Recursive Ammo of his Cluster Grenade is very strongly reminiscent of the Northstar Titan's "Cluster Missile", something that Respawn devs acknowledge during one of their development streams.
• Eyepatch of Power: His left eye is covered up, though it's unclear if it's a regular patch or a cybernetic augment.
• Five-Finger Fillet: One of his banner poses shows him performing this on Mirage. Luckily, Fuse is good with that knife.
• Hidden Weapons: Keeps his knife in his boot, though he doesn't usually use it to attack.
• Hoist by Their Own Petard: Fuse’s own abilities can hurt himself, which can be a serious problem considering all his abilities involve deadly explosives, but they do not hurt his teammates fortunately.
• I Call It "Vera": Fuse named his cannon “Wally,” which also happens to be the nickname Maggie calls him.
• Improbable Aiming Skills: In the Season 8 trailer, Fuse tosses a grenade from his launcher, then proceeds to hit it with a rifle in mid-air, one-handed and without using the scope.
• I Need a Freaking Drink: Fuse enjoys a drink now and then, but according to a loading screen in Season 12, Maggie's enlistment into the games inspired some excessive drinking.
• Irony: Despite spending his time before the Apex Games competing in an underground fighting pit, Fuse generally wants to avoid close-range fighting unless he has to, since he risks damaging himself with his own explosives.
• Kryptonite Is Everywhere: The Motherlode traps enemies. But if he uses it indoors he has significant self-damage risk. It's also not as reliable when used around buildings or obstacles, where standing on objects can provide a way over the fire, or just break an opening in the ring altogether. Oh, and certain characters can negate or escape the ring using their own Ultimate^note Wraith, Octane, Ash, Wattson, Pathfinder, Valkyrie, Tactical^note Wraith, Horizon, Loba, Gibraltar, Pathfinder or even just their Passive^note Valkyrie, many of whom are common choices. If a team has no way to deal with Fuse's Ultimate and their terrain is unfavorable, they're in an incredibly bad spot — especially if Fuse's teammates throw their own damaging Ultimates into the fire, or there's a time urgency in a closing Ring — but if they can deal with it, his Ult can be little more than a speed bump in the fight.
• Long Range Combatant: It’s a given that anyone whose kit involves deadly AoE explosives should stay far away for their own safety. Fuse’s ultimate ability also makes it easier to snipe opponents from a distance considering the slowing effects makes it harder to run away.
• Major Injury Underreaction: He takes getting his arm blown off pretty well.
  Fuse: "Throw that out for me, will you? it's a lost cause..."
• Morton's Fork: His ultimate, The Motherlode, ends up forcing this upon enemies caught in the fire ring; they can either stay put until the fire runs out or run through the fire. The former involves the victims doing their best to survive while being shot at by enemies on the other side of the fire (which is made worse if there’s no cover inside the fire ring to hide behind), whereas the latter involves the victims taking heavy damage as the fire burns through their health - which is also made worse by said enemies still shooting at them.
• Mr. Fanservice: No, being 54 doesn't stop him. The Season 11 launch trailer gives him a swimsuit scene complete with a Sexy Surfacing Shot.
• Older Than He Looks: Pushing his mid 50s, but you wouldn't guess if not for the slight graying in his hair.
• Perma-Shave: Averted. Some of his lobby animations feature him grooming his facial hair using a knife on his person.
• Pet the Dog:
  • As his ship is going down, Fuse takes the time to grab the MRVN pilot before bailing out.
  • In one of the Season 10 loading screens, Fuse made sure Bloodhound had someone to talk to, knowing they were struggling with the events occuring on their homeworld at the time.
• Porn Stache: Sports a particularly splendid one on his face.
• Red Baron: On Salvo, he used to be known as the "Grenade-o Tornado".
• Retired Badass: Stated to be a former mercenary.
• Stuff Blowing Up: Fuse's specialty. Not only can he carry an extra grenade in an inventory slot, he can also throw them with much better accuracy. His tactical ability lets him launch a special cluster bomb that sends out mini concussion mines to disorient and damage enemies. His Ultimate lets him fire a big bomb in the air to rain a napalm ring down on his opponents.
• Shout-Out: "If there's dirty deeds that need doin', I'll do'em dirt cheap!"
• Throw Down the Bomblet: What he's built around.
• Unflinching Walk: In his character selection animation, as well as one of his finishers.
• Use Your Head: One of his executions involves him helping the downed enemy to their feet... before suddenly bashing their head in with his own skull.
• We Used to Be Friends: With Mad Maggie. They grew up together as freedom fighters on Salvo, trying to keep their planet out of Syndicate control. However, they began to grow apart when Fuse became more interested in pit fighting. The final straw for Maggie came when Fuse announced he was leaving Salvo to join the Apex Games, which are run by the Syndicate. His attempt at smoothing things over with her resulted in an antique grenade going off and left Fuse short one limb. Maggie would then go on to hijack the games (multiple times) to get back at him further, demanding the legends bring her his other arm.
  • This finally comes to a head in the final pages of the Season 8 comic, where Maggie and Fuse have another explosive confrontation that ends with Maggie apparently falling to her death.
• You Can Run, but You Can't Hide: Fuse can't usually do much to stop his enemies from escaping unless they don't have any tools to bypass the Motherlode, but with his extended supply of grenades, long-lasting Knuckle Clusters, and the fact that his ultimate scans enemies inside of it, Legends not named Wattson can't hold up against a Fuse attacking their cover for long.
• You Have Researched Breathing: Fuse’s passive lets him carry an extra grenade in an inventory slot... which was a universal trait in earlier versions Apex Legends. Evidently, Fuse has deeper pockets.
• You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: His reaction to seeing Maggie in the games: "Un-bloody-believable." Especially since the last time he heard from her was receiving her last words in the mail before being taken out to be executed.

Mad Maggie

Margaret Kohere — Mad Maggie

Rebel Warlord

"The Syndicate's gonna regret letting Mad Maggie off her leash."

Voiced by: Nicola Kāwana (English)

Margaret Kōhere was once a nobody of an orphan; her most heinous crime was classroom mischief, and her only companion was a certain Walter Fitzroy. In their teenage years, they became mercenaries, working for the group known as the Cracked Talon, which she came to ascend within its ranks to become its warlord. But it wasn't enough to stop the Syndicate she despised from absorbing Salvo; Fitzroy announcing that he'd be joining their Apex Games set her on the path to ruin the Games. But a heart-to-heart with Fuse showed her his genuine interest in participating in the Games, and she aimed her protests against the Syndicate elsewhere, but they still came for her in the end, though. Now she's sentenced to fight to the death in the Apex Games.

Mad Maggie is a fierce warlord whose plan for attack is just that: attack. She has numerous tools to help her storm enemy fortifications and swiftly slay the occupants within, nullifying their attempts to defend themselves from her assault. For her tactical ability she fires a Riot Drill that embeds itself into the first wall it hits, releasing a stream of flames that burns enemies on the other side, forcing enemies out of cover or finishing off weakened foes trying to heal behind doors. Her passive ability, Warlord's Ire causes her to briefly highlight enemies through walls when hurting them and removes the speed penalty from wielding shotguns. Her ultimate ability has her release a Wrecking Ball that rolls forward, releasing a stream of speed-boosting pads behind it before exploding upon colliding with enemies. By running behind it, Maggie and her team can swiftly rush enemy positions while shielding themselves from incoming fire.

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• Anti-Villain: She led a violent rebellion against the Syndicate prior to being forced into the Apex Games, and got a lot of people who had nothing to do with Salvo's subjugation along the way. However, it's made evident that the population of Salvo at large opposed being brought under Syndicate control, and they're viewed as the Black Sheep of the alliance even after the treaty. Given what kind of galactic empire the Syndicate is, anything less than armed rebellion would fall on deaf ears.
• Arc Villainess: She's the main antagonist of Season 8's storyline.
• Attack! Attack! Attack!: Her kit is geared towards this playstyle, all about rushing in with a shotgun to smash squads apart and even strike them through walls. Make no mistake, if you're in range of her and she can see you, she's going to make damn sure she can eviscerate you.
• Ax-Crazy: She's clearly got a few screws loose, given her love of screaming and trying to kill anyone she doesn't agree with. In the Defiance launch trailer, she kills a guy by biting his neck open for taunting her about her seemingly imminent death.
• Book Dumb: She was a notorious problem child in school, and it shows. This note written by her is full of scratchy penmanship and scribbled-out sentences, and one of her voice lines implies she thinks "always be killing" can be acronymized to "ABC".
• Bullying a Dragon: After she wounded someone's eye by spitting her own broken tooth at it, the Syndicate soldier taunting her in the dropship during the Defiance launch trailer might have been wiser to at least not have any exposed flesh that Maggie could tear out with her teeth.
• Camera Abuse: Her Legend select animation has her approach the camera menacingly, rip a Wrecking Ball at it to shatter the lens, then kick the camera to loose the glass shards.
• Close-Range Combatant: As her passive gives you bonus movement speed when wielding a shotgun, Maggie is encouraged to get in close when picking her battles, exemplified by her tactical being designed to damage enemies trying to hide indoors or behind cover.
• Concealment Equals Cover: Haha, nope. Her Riot Drill will ensure that ducking behind cover doesn't mean you're safe, as it gushes flame out the other side to roast people trying to hide there.
• Condemned Contestant: Instead of being executed, Eduardo Silva decided to force her to compete in the Apex Games so everyone can watch the infamous Mad Maggie die horribly over and over again.
• Cool and Unusual Punishment: For raising armed resistance against Syndicate's takeover of Salvo, Duardo was planning to just execute her via firing squad and be done with it, but after seeing that she wasn't afraid of her imminent death at all, decided to instead force her to compete in the Apex Games, where she'll be killed over and over again by several of the Syndicate's most renowned heroes in front of billions of viewers.
• Cool Old Lady: She's a middle-aged rebel warlord who kicks loads of ass and enjoys a good scrap.
• Defiant to the End: While she didn't mind death by firing squad, she made damn sure to cause as much pain to the members of the Syndicate sending her to her death first, and during the Apex Games, she's not afraid of being lethally uncooperative when faced with the games' higher-ups. Her season's subtitle is even named "Defiance", after her.
• Developer's Foresight: As the announcer during the War Games event, she has special lines if the kill leader, champion, or first blood is Fuse, or if he's part of the winning squad.
• Disney Villain Death: In the Season 8 comic "Armageddon", she rejects Fuse's attempt to rescue her when they're both dangling off a cliff, choosing to instead fall into the flames below to her apparent death. Only to survive somehow.
• DIY Dentistry: She knocks out her own tooth to spit it in a judges eye.
• Do Not Run with a Gun: Her passive ability lets her hold shotguns while moving around at the faster unarmed speed, as well as ADS with them for no speed penalty. All other guns are slow as usual, however.
• Face Death with Dignity: Shows absolutely no fear when facing execution by firing squad, outright demanding the soldiers aiming at her to just get on with it it already. Duardo had other plans, however...
• Fake Special Attack: Despite its imposing appearance and the knockback against enemies hit by it, her Wrecking Ball is one of the weaker damaging Ultimates in the game, at no more than 20 damage. That said, the true value of the ult isn't its damage, but the speed pads it leaves behind and the stun it applies to victims.
• Frame-Up: Duardo framed her for the phase jump that devastated Olympus, with only the other Legends knowing what really happened.
• Gratuitous Foreign Language: Peppers some Māori into her lines.
• Hidden Depths: One might not have expected the crass warlord to be well-versed in relationship dynamics. Despite being a newcomer to the games during the Season 12 story, she practically nails Lifeline's history with Octane on the head after seeing Lifeline muse to herself about his state.
• Hit-and-Run Tactics: Her passive's second ability of briefly highlighting hit enemies encourages players to duck in and out of cover when firing with a slow weapon, tracking enemy movement through walls to know where to fire when popping out.
• Hostile Show Takeover: The War Games event sees her take control of the Apex Games and serve as the announcer, periodically adding special rules to the matches every few days.
• Improbable Aiming Skills: In Judgment, she's able to hit the judge delivering her sentence square in the eye with her own tooth she spat out of her mouth.
• Interface Screw: Getting hit with her Wrecking Ball screws with the the victim's ability to turn around.
• It's All About Me: Maggie could never fully accept that Fuse didn't want the same things out of life as her, which caused them to drift apart as they reached their older years. When he announced his intent to leave Salvo and join the Apex Games, she completely lost it.
• Man Bites Man: In the Defiance launch trailer, she bites a Syndicate soldier's neck hard enough to tear flesh off, just because he taunted her.
• Never Mess with Granny: At 55, she's the second oldest Legend in the game. She also has one of the most aggressive kits in the game.
• Not Me This Time: Duardo phase-jumped Olympus to a new planet with the other Legends still on it as part of his grand plan to take over the Syndicate. The other Legends assume Maggie is the one responsible, but she proves it was Duardo by presenting the glasses she snatched from him before the jump.
• Promoted to Playable: Began as an Arc Villainess who pulled a Hostile Show Takeover in Season 8, before joining the Legends herself in Season 12.
• This Is a Drill: Her Riot Drill, a handheld weapon that serves as her Tactical. She launches a drill at the target location, which burrows in. Then it starts gushing fire out the opposite side. It's a fantastic cover-busting option, forcing enemies to try harder to escape her.
• The Scapegoat: Duardo's plan in Season 12's story is to set Maggie loose in the games and frame her for the various crimes he committed to break the public's faith in the current Syndicate council so he can take over.
• Short Range Guy, Long Range Guy: Gameplay wise, she's the opposite of Fuse. In addition to Damage Over Time tactical abilities that punish cover usage, they both have passive abilities that explicitly favor specific weapons and Area of Effect ultimates that damage and slow enemies caught by them. But Fuse's abilities complement a long-range strategy, with his extended grenade range and Ultimate that traps enemies, but prevents either side from moving close. Maggie's passive enhances shotgun use and her Ultimate allows everyone to close the distance, making her solidly a close-range brawler.
• Super Spit: During the Stories from the Outlands short "Judgement", she bites the witness stand to break off a tooth and give herself ammo to spit at the judge. Not only does that tooth fly a fair distance, it does so fast enough to actually cause significant damage: the Magistrate has worn an eyepatch since.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: With Fuse. Despite the destructive falling-out they had in Season 8, they managed to (mostly) work out their differences by the end. Come the time for her to join the games, their dialogue is equal parts playful ribbing, calling each other out on their flaws, and making it clear that despite everything that happened between them, neither have it in them to completely turn their back on the other.
• Unishment: From the point of view of the Magistrate delivering her sentence, being forced to compete in the Apex Games is the perfect way to remind Mad Maggie that Salvo's independence is a lost cause. Maggie, however, relishes at the opportunity to take down the best the Syndicate has to offer.
• Weapon-Based Characterization: Prefers the aggressive, powerful, and unsophisticated shotguns, and likens herself to them too.
• With Us or Against Us: Maggie interpreted Fuse leaving Salvo and joining the games as him abandoning the cause, which she took very personal offense to.
• Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters: To the rest of Syndicate Space, she's a psychotic anarchist trying to plunge Salvo back into chaos. To the people of Salvo however, she's their paragon of freedom fighting against a merger they didn't want.

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