Apex Legends, EA’s hugely-popular battle royale, has a massive cast of unique, colorful characters created by Titanfall 2 developer Respawn Entertainment. While many of these fictional fighters are shrouded in an air of mystery, no Legend is hiding more secrets than Crypto. His arrival heralded the first major map changes to hit the game, after he used an EMP to destroy the Repulsor on Kings Canyon, allowing the local wildlife – including vulture-like Flyers and the enormous gentle giants known as Leviathans – to set foot on the map (and on Mirage). Read on to decode the Crypto facts that need to be on your watchlist.
1. The Basics
Name: Hyeon Kim
Actual Name: Tae Joon Park
Age: 31
Homeworld: Gaea
Season Debut: 3
Orphaned as a child, Tae Joon Park lived on the streets of Gaea’s Suotamo district until the age of 12, when he was discovered by Katerina Ticacek. Katerina is a kindly older woman who also goes by the name Mystik, a unique spin on the nickname her students gave her when she was a teacher: “Mrs. Ticacek” became “Mrs. Tic”, which then became “Mystik”.
Having lost both her husband and her son, Katerina began a nightly ritual of sitting on a bridge and staring at the sky, asking the universe for a sign to keep going. That sign came in the form of a young Tae Joon, who crawled out from under the bridge and yelled at Katerina to be quiet because he was trying to sleep.
Soon after, Mystik formally adopted Tae Joon and his foster sister, Mila Alexander. She later opened Ticacek Orphanage, where Tae Joon spent his formative years studying computer engineering before opening a tech consulting business with Mila, which they named after Mystik.
2. He Invented The Camera Drones That Broadcast The Apex Games
Despite Tae Joon and Mila’s technological talents, their first shop eventually closed, forcing them to reopen their business in a less ideal location and leaving them desperate to land a big client that could help keep MYSTIK-2 afloat. For better or worse, that client appeared in the form of the Mercenary Syndicate.
Q.W. – an enigmatic figure known only by his initials – contracted the tech-savvy sibling duo to create the Apex Broadcasts Monitoring System (ABMS), a fleet of camera drones that broadcast the Games across the Outlands in real time. Naturally, this caused public interest in the Games to skyrocket, and greatly improved the ratings of televised matches. The Mercenary Syndicate is very invested in Apex’s televised ratings – quite literally, in fact.
Sadly, Tae Joon’s happy ending didn’t last long. Despite the immense success of his camera drones, it seems the Syndicate wasn’t paying Crypto and Mila very well, as their financial situation didn’t improve despite the huge spike in Apex Games viewership that their drones had afforded the Syndicate. Still living in poverty, the siblings continued pining for their big break.
3. He Discovered a Terrible Secret
That big break came when Tae Joon accidentally stumbled upon a dark Syndicate secret within the AMBS network: an algorithm capable of predicting the outcome of any Apex match and rigging the Games themselves. Crypto immediately realized what a dangerous secret he’d uncovered, and went to work erasing any evidence that he’d found it.
But where Tae Joon saw risk, Mila saw reward. The algorithm was precisely what she’d been waiting for, and she quickly snatched up a thumb drive, downloading the program with the intent to make some fast cash.
Although he managed to talk Mila into returning the drive, it seems she wasn’t careful while downloading the algorithm. The following day, she was located and kidnapped by the Syndicate, while Crypto was framed for her murder and faced with a planet-wide manhunt. He managed to escape via an improvised EMP device that he would later implement into his drone and sole companion, Hack.
Despite his lone wolf lifestyle, Tae Joon isn’t entirely on his own. After escaping the Syndicate’s headhunters, he stayed in contact with Mystik and underwent an intense, painful series of body modifications in an effort to become unrecognizable and give himself a technological edge. Though it was eventually revealed that Mila isn’t dead, Crypto is still a wanted man, unable to return to life as he once knew it.
But all of those body mods didn’t come cheap – ads for Crypto’s AR implant can be seen all over Olympus, a place known for cutting-edge scientific breakthroughs and lavish lifestyles. Crypto was broke even before the Syndicate framed him for murder, so how did he pay for those pricey body mods?
4. Someone’s Helping Him
Until Respawn confirms it, there’s no way to be sure, but devs seem to have left some hints pointing to the source of the drope pilot’s financial and medical aid. Crypto’s Legendary “Hype Beast” skin depicts a tattooed Tae Joon wearing his signature jacket, which has his real name emblazoned across the collar in huge, neon letters. Many fans find this baffling, given Crypto’s paranoia and his oft-repeated reminder that “once someone has your name, they have everything.”
A closer look at that jacket reveals several decals, most of them written in Korean. But one decal stands out from the rest: a large, blue Vinson Dynamics sticker. A matching Longbow skin, “McFly”, was released alongside the Hype Beast skin, and it also has a Vinson decal – even though the Longbow isn’t one of the guns Vinson manufactures.
In addition to Titans and simulacra, Vinson Dynamics manufactures the P2020 and the Charge Rifle – both weapons that Crypto favors. His official character art depicts him with a P2020 in his hand, and the Charge Rifle debuted alongside him in Season 3. Little else is known about Vinson, though it was one of the many factions players could opt to fight for in Titanfall 2, and it was led by none other than Ash, who was reassembled by Vinson after being destroyed by Jack Cooper in Titanfall 2.
Crypto’s connection to Vinson Dynamics doesn’t end there. In Season 5, the Legends were re-re-assembling Ash (who had somehow ended up in pieces once again) when it was revealed that Tae Joon’s brother is a former Vinson Dynamics employee.
5. Caustic is His Brother
Due to clever foreshadowing worked into Caustic’s profile on the EA website, some fans saw this plot twist coming, but many were completely blindsided by the revelation that the “dead” child Mystik was mourning when she met Crypto was Alexander Nox, AKA Caustic, who had faked his own death after killing a (non-Vinson) colleague. Like Crypto, Caustic resurfaced under a false identity.
Tae Joon sees his brother as a selfish man with no moral compass, while Caustic sees Tae Joon as the thief of his mother’s love. But despite their obvious disdain for each other, they’ve managed to put their differences aside and work together on several occasions, though there were some hiccups in Season 5, after Caustic and Revenant attempted to destroy Crypto’s reputation in the hopes of quashing the hacker’s newfound friendship with Wattson by making it appear that Crypto was conspiring with the murderbot.
6. He’s Conspiring With the Murderbot
No, not that murderbot. The other one.
In Season 11’s epilogue, Crypto is cornered by Ash, who has noticed his skills and is grateful to him for helping Horizon “awaken” her. In an unexpected turn of events, it’s revealed that this meeting was Crypto’s idea. He approached the sword-wielding Spectre in the hopes of brokering a deal in which they would work together, using Crypto’s technological talents and Ash’s extensive Syndicate knowledge to get what they both want: information.
Ash is seeking more information about her past, while Crypto is looking for information that will clear his name and expose the Syndicate’s many crimes. He and Wattson caught the Spectre’s attention after spending Season 11 scouring Stormpoint for the components needed to repair a comms system that was damaged by Revenant. Impressed by Crypto’s intelligence and resourcefulness, Ash has agreed to help him.
7. Wattson Knows His Secret
After Caustic’s efforts in Season 5 damaged Wattson’s trust, Crypto invited her to his apartment and confessed everything, including his identity. Wattson is now the third Legend (after Loba and Caustic) to learn the truth. Unfortunately, Crypto’s honesty may come back to bite him, as Wattson has slipped up and nearly called him by his real name several times. If the Syndicate finds out, both Crypto and Wattson will be in serious danger.
While Crypto has claimed he and Wattson have “no secrets”, it’s unclear if she’s aware he’s now working with Ash, the woman who killed her grandmother, and who is now on a quest to rid herself of the last vestiges of her humanity by destroying every connection to her life as a human. Wattson is on Ash’s hitlist, and the robot has already made an attempt on her life. Even worse, Ash appears to have noticed the romantic spark between Crypto and Wattson, something she could easily use as leverage against either of them the second she no longer requires Crypto’s assistance.
8. He Really Is the “Old Man”
Season 3’s launch trailer mainly focused on Crypto’s introduction to Mirage, depicting the insecure holopilot calling Crypto “kid”. Crypto responded in kind, calling Mirage “old man”. The nicknames have stuck, and their animosity has quickly developed into an unlikely friendship, but the nicknames have a deeper significance than you might think.
Mirage is 30, and Crypto is 31. In Korean culture, even a one-year age difference can affect the way you interact with someone. Colleagues and classmates of similar social status will still defer to the input of the eldest in the group, even if the age gap is very small. Furthermore, when calculating age, Koreans counts the nine months spent in the womb, so one’s “Korean age” will always be a year older than their “international age”. This makes Crypto 1-2 years older than Mirage, and partially explains why the two Legends got off on the wrong foot.
Since learning Crypto’s age, Mirage has switched around their nicknames, gleefully calling Crypto “old man” (and, occasionally, “Cryppy”), while Crypto pokes fun at his immature, youth-obsessed friend by calling him “kid”.
9. He and Bangalore Go Way Back
The Voidwalker short depicts an alternate-dimension Wraith’s quest for revenge, in which she uses a drive bearing Crypto’s logo to access classified IMC data. But, surprisingly, Voidwalker didn’t purchase the thumb drive from Crypto – Bangalore did.
As shown in a comic Respawn tweeted in May 2021, the former IMC soldier purchased the program from Tae Joonseven year prior to the current day, long before he was “Crypto”.
Bangalore was searching for information on her brother Jackson, and was so startled by Voidwalker’s sudden appearance that she dropped the drive as she rushed to get out of sight. Voidwalker picked it up, and appears to have taken it (and the info on Jackson) with her, much to Bangalore’s dismay. Bangalore appears to have no idea that she’s actually known Crypto for years.
10. He’s Wanted By The Highest-Ranking Member of the Mercenary Syndicate
Q.W., the man who commissioned the broadcast drones from Crypto and Mila, is also the man who sent the Syndicate after them. Very little is known about him, and fans have only caught a glimpse of him once, in Pathfinder’s episode of Stories From the Outlands.
As for Q.W.’s full name, we only have one clue. In the first issue of the much-maligned Apex: Overtime comics published by Dark Horse, Crypto goes to meet a man about a suitcase. The man begs for Crypto’s protection, and while he is initially rebuffed, the moment he informs Crypto that he’s employed at a design laboratory for a “Boss Willis”, Crypto correctly guesses that Suitcase Guy works for the Syndicate.
The W in Q.W. likely stands for “Willis”. Given the fact that there are a fairly small number of names that begin with the letter Q, fans should be on the lookout for mentions of Willis or anyone whose first name fits the bill.
While the Syndicate boss hasn’t had much screen time yet, what we’ve seen so far paints a pretty clear picture of the man behind the curtain. Well-guarded, well-dressed, and very well-armed, Q. Willis is clearly accustomed to getting everything he wants. Unfortunately, Crypto is currently at the top of Q.W.’s wishlist.
Apex Legends is free to play on PC, PlayStation 4, Switch, and Xbox One.
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