Season 1 of Apex Legends has landed and along with the introduction of the Battle Pass system are gameplay additions and changes. One of these new additions is the long awaited ninth Legend to the roster, Octane. Octane occupies a skirmisher style spot similar to wraith, heavily focusing on speed, hit-and-run style tactics and a ‘Mad Max’ daredevil style aesthetic. Octane honestly looks like Junkrat and Bane had a child.
You can purchase Octane for 12,000 Legend Tokens or 750 Apex Coins.
Apex Legends Octane Bio
Real Name: Octavio Silva
Age: 24
“One day, Octavio Silva was bored. In fact, he was bored most days. Heir to the preoccupied CEOs of Silva Pharmaceuticals and wanting for nothing in life, he entertained himself by performing death-defying stunts and posting holovids of them for his fans to gawk over. So, this day, he decided to set the course record for a nearby Gauntlet by launching himself across the finish line – using a grenade.
“As he lay in triage hours later, the doctors informed him that the damage done to his legs meant his daredevil days were over. That didn’t sit well with Octavio, who turned to an old friend for help: Ajay Che, who he guilted into forging an order to replace his legs with bionic ones. Suddenly able to repair his limbs at a moment’s notice, Octavio decided petty online stunts weren’t enough: the ultimate adrenaline rush, the Apex Games, was calling. Now, he’s going to become an Apex Champion doing the most incredible, death-defying moves anyone’s ever seen. Maybe in the arena, he won’t be so bored.”
Apex Legends Octane Skins
Octane is all about avoiding boredom and going fast, true to the form of any speedster. This is reflected in the design of his Legendary skins. Octane has two skins called ‘Speed Demon and El Diablo’, pictured above. These have a kind of samurai meets a race car look to them. The other two Legendary skins are the ‘The Victory Lap’ and ‘Gold Rush’, which are dirt bike style outfits replete with motorbike helmet and riding gear.
He also has the usual Rare and Common recolours as well as the animated Epic versions that every hero has a version of.
Apex Legends Octane Abilities
Octane lives up his name, focusing heavily on a ‘speedster’ style of gameplay, constant weaving in and out of combat and trying to attack at unexpected angles, all heavily encapsulated by his abilities.
Passive Ability – Swift Mend: Fairly self explanatory. While not taking damage, Octane will begin recovering 1 health every two seconds.
This doesn’t appear overly strong at a glance, but this Passive can really add up over a period of time, especially during a protracted firefight. It is disabled while under the effects of your Tactical however, so you won’t be healing for the six seconds you’re moving at sonic speeds. Regardless, this is a solid Passive that will be doing work behind the scenes and you won’t even notice. That is, until you survived running cross country from three angry squads without needing to stop and heal.
Tactical Ability – Stim (2 Recharge): This ability trades 10 health for a 30% speed increase for six seconds. Additionally, Octane is affected less by attacks that cause slowdown (e.g. stuns, caustic gas, etc.).
This is about the same speed boost Bangalore gets with her Passive, Wraith with her Ultimate and Bloodhound with their Ultimate. This is possibly in contention for the best Tactical in the game when you consider what his Passive does. You definitely can’t maintain 100% uptime on it for long, but the Passive helps offset some of the cost, keeping Octane running for longer. The fact that Octane is already a small target, combined with his ability to be constantly under the effects of a movement speed boost and you have the new king of impossible to hit. Think Bloodhound with his Ultimate always up but the size of Lifeline.
This Tactical is rather unique compared to the others, as the cooldown isn’t the limiting factor a resource is (your health). This means Octane gains significant value the more experienced you are with him, as it takes a degree of awareness to keep track of your health mid firefight and whether its worth stimming or not. Octane’s passive does help to negate the chip damage from this Tactical and turns him into the undisputed king of long distance running and escapes.
A little sidenote, the amount of health Octane drops you from a four hit melee kill to a three in a single use. This is Respawn’s way of balance Octane from being the king of melee brawls everytime you land.
Ultimately, this Tactical really pushes Octane to play aggressively, always moving from point to point and avoid getting pinned behind cover. Flanking and ambushing is what Octane does best, not holding a single position, so try to keep yourself healthy at all times, because it’s even more valuable to you than normal.
Ultimate Ability – Launch Pad (90 Charge Time): Octane places a ‘Launch Pad’ on the floor, that will propel anyone (teammate or enemy) a decent way into the air (very similar to the Fortnite Launch Pad, same name and all), giving your squad the option of vertical mobility.
This is Octane’s way of sharing his mobility with his squad, in a very similar way to how Pathfinder (same charge time and all) shares his with his Ultimate. The Launch Pad is best used to either facilitate escapes, set-up ambushes or to access high ground quickly. Like Pathfinder’s ultimate, combat usage is heavily reliant on the Octane players awareness and creativity when using it. The other, more likely, option is to just use it on cooldown to get around the map quicker, it charges fast enough for it, but doesn’t really offer much in the way of horizontal distance compared to Zipline. Still not worth Ultimate Accelerants though.
How To Play As Octane In Apex Legends
As we’ve mentioned in earlier articles, one of the most important factors for winning a firefight is size. Wraith, Lifeline and Bangalore are all the top fraggers because of their smaller than average size and profile, making them less likely to be hit. Octane fits this mould and then some. Octane’s profile is very lanky and lacking any bulk around the chest area – almost the same as Lifeline’s – making centre mass shots (the most common and safest shot) difficult to land compared to even some of the smaller characters.
Octane hates standing still and moves everywhere at warp speed, but in a squad based game where sticking together is paramount this can cause some issues. Bangalore, Wraith, Pathfinder and Bloodhound are all ideal teammates for Octane. They posses some kind of speed or mobility enhancement that helps them keep up with and he inevitably drifts ahead of the team. Characters better suited to holding ground like Gibraltar and Caustic are generally bad picks as they tend to be focused on defending a position. This isn’t to say Octane can’t work with any hero, it’s just they’ll tend to hold him back a bit as they lug after him and try to dig their heels in when a fight breaks out. This will either lead to a very over-extended (and probably dead) Octane, or a very jittery and bored Octane.
Octane is the first addition to the Legend roster since release and he’s shaping up to be an extremely powerful (and popular) addition to the roster. Octane is all about flanking, repositioning and harassing enemies without pause. Movement is the key to success on Octane and he has all the tools required for him to get places and whether the firefights he craves. He will require some getting used to though, micromanaging his Passive and Tactical are key skills required to keep up the blistering pace required to get the most out of him. Just don’t forget you have a squad and end up in a 1v3 because you’re zipping around the map like a madman.
The small frame and enhanced mobility make Octane a serious contender for the throne of ‘best duelist’. Octane has more endurance than Wraith (thanks to Octane’s Passive), but lacks the ‘get out of jail free card’ and weird animations Wraith has. Lifeline still has a smaller centre mass than Octane, has better endurance and is on average better equipped (thanks to her Tactical, Passive and Ultimate). Bangalore still isn’t as mobile as Octane, but she does have smoke, which has the potential to carry fights outright. As you can see, Octane has enough going for him that he might be able to take a spot from the three fragging queens of Apex Legends.
From our Apex Legends review:
“Even the most jaded of battle royale fans will find their interest rejuvenated by Apex Legends thanks to Respawn’s attention to detail, superior gunplay, and fantastic innovations, though the loot boxes and progression system certainly need addressing.”
MORE APEX LEGENDS:
– Apex Legends Tips: Pinging, Characters, Respawning & More
– Apex Legends Characters, Ultimates, Abilities & More
– Apex Legends Map: Best Landing Spots & Tips
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