Fans of Apex Legends are no stranger to the frustrations that can mount when facing an enemy squad that's rolling with a Caustic. The legend comes with one of the game's most devastating ultimate abilities. Caustic's Nox Gas Grenade can be dropped or tossed accurately at range. Upon detonation, players in the wide area-of-effect start taking damage, finding both their vision and mobility impaired. In the matches' last seconds, with the game's ring closing in, enemy teams often have to choose between taking damage in the wall or facing Caustic's gas. Depending on the final ring placement, there is no counter move.
This is the predicament Apex Legends Redditor AadrianN_ found themselves on the winning side of. Playing as Caustic, the player took cover on a sliver of refuge from the enclosing wall. In a clip posted to Reddit, AadrianN_ is seen stepping into the damaging ring long enough to toss his ult into the only other place to be. Sure enough, the enemy team started bleeding hit-points as their fate settled in. The lone Caustic casually waits to claim Apex Champion.
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In comes Respawn Lead Game Designer Daniel Klein. In response to the question "What would the counter be?" the developer had this to offer: "Once you get to this exact situation, there isn't one, and that ... sucks." Klein went on the explain some of the possible fixes for Caustic, but also the caveats that come with them. "It's something we're talking about, but we don't exactly have a solution yet. Creating a shootable central thing for the ult, like Horizon, would work but it's such a heavy handed fix (and would probably require us making barrels destructible post-trigger because otherwise they're just better than the ult)."
In comes Respawn Lead Game Designer Daniel Klein. In response to the question "What would the counter be?" the developer had this to offer: "Once you get to this exact situation, there isn't one, and that ... sucks." Klein went on the explain some of the possible fixes for Caustic, but also the caveats that come with them. "It's something we're talking about, but we don't exactly have a solution yet. Creating a shootable central thing for the ult, like Horizon, would work but it's such a heavy handed fix (and would probably require us making barrels destructible post-trigger because otherwise they're just better than the ult)."
The explanation is effective in describing the conundrum. If Apex Legends devs incorporated a mechanism to allow enemy teams to destroy the gas canister post-deployment, then his tactical traps would be more useful and powerful tools. The designer expanded on his assessment, saying "The problem with all that is what do we give him in return? Because we can't just make him an unpickable character either. You may not like them, but Caustic mains exist and deserve to have fun too."
The only change made to Caustic's arsenal in Season 8 is that his gas now dissipates immediately after the legend's squad is eliminated. In light of Klein's comment, it's clear that an additional fix is not coming soon. Keen Redditors did make note that the clip in question does appear to come from a past season. With the adjustments made to the ring since, the move may not have gone off so smoothly. Caustic mains and those that dread them will have to wait a while longer to see what the team at Respawn eventually comes up with.
Apex Legends is on PC, PS4, and Xbox One, with a Switch version releasing on March 9.