History VideoGame / ApexLegends

* AndYourRewardIsClothes: Apex Packs, which you receive every time you level up, function as the game's loot box system - offering a multitude of cosmetic items that can potentially be earned, ranging from character and weapon skins to playercard borders to kill quips to [[FinishingMove Finishing Moves]].

*** If an ally starts shooting, they have voice lines specifically for shooting at an enemy so players can immediately know combat is starting, even if said ally doesn't ping enemies.

* {{Cyborg}}: Simulacra return from ''Titanfall 2'', and they're described in more detail here: according to Caustic during the Season 5 quest, most Simulacra contain their original body's brain tissue in their head, making them [[ExaggeratedTrope a super-extreme version of this]] with the assumption that the rest of the body is fully mechanical. If the unbuilt Simulacrum parts indicate anything, said tissue isn't even the complete brain in one piece; the only part that appears big enough for that is the Occipital Hub, which only provides power to and communication between all the other parts.

** The "Broken Ghost" quest can refer to either Revenant, [[spoiler:[[WhoWantsToLiveForever whose undeath has made him mentally broken]]]], or it could refer to [[spoiler:Ash, who is being BroughtBackFromTheDead by taking her literally broken pieces and bringing them back together]].

** The first Skydive Emotes were a lot less expressive. Compare Pathfinder's Season 2 skydive emote (slowly tumbling backwards and doing a handwave to either side) to the one from the season immediately after (briefly flapping his wings in the imitation of a bird, then getting attacked by a frenzied crow and having to swat it away).

* {{Hitscan}}: Averted. Despite reusing the guns from ''VideoGame/Titanfall2'' (many of which were hitscan, even some of the {{Energy Weapon}}s, despite projectile visuals), nearly all weapons use [[EveryBulletIsATracer visible]] projectiles with a travel time and slight arc. The only hitscan weapons are the ChargedAttack of a Charge Rifle and the Havoc's alternate mode, if it has a Selectfire Reciever hop-up.

* KeystoneArmy: Of a sort; if every member of a squad is downed, then all of them will spontaneously die on the spot, as nobody is able to revive the downed squad anymore. The exceptions are if one of the players has a gold knockdown shield that they can use to self-revive, and if one player is currently being auto-revived by Lifeline's passive.

** The Mozambique has the highest fire rate of all shotguns, but that doesn't make up for its punishing-to-miss three pellet spread and low damage output. Ironically, it's ''also'' the worst handgun, [[InvertedTrope despite being the]] [[HandCannon largest]], because of its [[ShortRangeShotgun terrible range]].

** Certain finishers can be done faster than others. With most of them, however, the differences tend to be only fractions of a second.

* OrderVersusChaos: Season 12's theme, with Duardo Silva and the Syndicate pitted against Mad Maggie and her Cracked Talons fitting the respective roles. The Syndicate keeps the peace, but are rotten to its internal politics, authoritarian in how they punish anti-Syndicate protests, and are capable of doing some incredibly unsavory things for their own benefit. The Cracked Talons just want the Syndicate to stop messing with Salvo, but will go to lethal extents to protect their freedom, as seen in Season 8's trailer.

* ShapingYourAttacks: All multi-pellet guns (such as the Mastiff and Shatter Caps-equipped weapons) shoot in defined patterns, but most of them aren't shaped like anything besides simple lines. However, the new Peacekeeper shotgun shoots its pellets in the shape of a five-pointed star, while the returning EVA-8 now fires in the shape of a figure eight.
* ShipTease: Mirage has gotten this with Wraith, Wattson, Loba, and Rampart:
** During Season 2 and 3, Mirage and Wattson were paired together on account of their similar personalities. They were shown lying together during the 2019 Holo-Day Bash event, but nothing ever came out of it.
** During Season 5, Mirage was absolutely smitten with Loba. She didn't seem to return his affections, and it seems to have lessened on Mirage's side post-season.
** Mirage and Rampart's dialogue became a lot more awkward during Season 7. Wraith also started referring to Rampart as "Mirage's special friend," which she vehemently denied.

*** As of Season 11, Loba and Valkyrie are officially a couple, and [[SickeninglySweethearts they will not stop reminding you with every interaction in-game.]]

** Machine Guns: [=LMGs=] follow this archetype, typically trading their handling speed and a little bit of their damage per second in exchange for the largest magazine sizes in the game. Of them, the Spitfire plays this trend the closest; the Devotion [[GatheringSteam winds up its firing speed]], the L-Star overheats, and the Rampage can be charged with thermite grenades.

** Sniper Rifles: Weapons that are heavily specialized into long-range engagements, being uncontested at that range to make up for their low DPS. The Sentinel and Kraber lean more towards the anti-materiel rifle subtype, while the Charge Rifle also has shades of the energy gun archetype with its hitscan laser beam.

* AprilFools: 2020 saw every Mozambique on the map transformed into a PurposelyOverpowered gold variant, essentially giving the usually [[JokeItem memetically horrible gun]] ADayInTheLimelight.

* BreatherEpisode: After Season 9's very expansive Legacy Antigen story, which touched almost every Legend's personal arc through the in-game comic and the official Twitter comics, Season 10 dialed it back by having no accompanying story whatsoever.

* GunPorn: With a giant roster of more than 25 weapons, this is to be expected. Players can even press the dedicated weapon inspect button to see their held weapon up close from multiple angles; notable animations include examining the Bocek's arrow loader and popping open the Rampage's thermite loader to see its internals (which even shows if a thermite grenade has been loaded into it previously).

* JumpJetPack: Jumpkits return in this game from the previous ''Titanfall'' games, [[DownplayedTrope though their purpose is more niche;]] now used for slowing descents and moving on ziplines rather than allowing the ultra-fast movement they previously enabled. Additionally, for most characters they're mounted on the lower back rather than the upper back; the exceptions are Crypto (so that his BadassLongcoat can flap around unrestricted), Mad Maggie (whose lower back is occupied by a pair of cuffed wrists in the trailers), and Valkyrie (who has [[PlayedStraight an actual fully fledged jetpack]]).

* WeirdnessCensor: As part of their built-in "Ego Retention System", Simulacra are incapable of recognizing that they are Simulacra. This can be anything as small as replacing certain words (ex. Ash hearing "Pilot" instead of "Simulacrum" when referred to as such), or as big as not recognizing they're pulling off inhuman feats (ex. Revenant climbing up a skyscraper, taking gunshots without flinching, and impaling someone with only his hand). Breaking through this mental censor forms a major basis of both Ash and Revenant's backstories and personalities.

** If an ally starts shooting, they have voice lines specifically for shooting at an enemy so players can immediately know combat is starting, even if said ally doesn't ping enemies.

*** The IMC Pilot that attempts to kill Jackson and Bangalore wields a Smart Pistol, a staple of the franchise that only properly disappeared starting in ''Apex Legends''. He also wallruns to engage in their fight.

** Ash's sword and many of the legend's heirlooms, such as Wraith's kunai, appear to be enhanced somehow.

* GunsDoNotWorkThatWay: Some of ''Titanfall 2'''s fairly outlandish guns such as the multi-barrelled Alternator and Double Take (which received a third barrel to make it the Triple Take) return in this game, alongside the new Peacekeeper: a quadruple-barrelled shotgun that is powered by batteries.

*** The Grappling Hook ability has reduced acceleration, time in the air, and only has one charge at a time as opposed to two. When in use, Pathfinder has to completely put his weapon away and reequip it after releasing the hook, preventing firing while swinging and requiring a more strategic approach when flanking than being able to simply swing and fire freely in ''Titanfall 2''.

** Submachine Guns: Automatic weapons that alternate being common, early game, tuned-down versions of other automatic weapons (Alternator, Volt) and the usual SMG niche of being high DPS burst damage machines in close range with relatively small magazine sizes (CAR, R-99, Prowler).

* WeirdnessCensor: Normally, Simulacra are incapable of recognizing that they are Simulacra. This can be anything as small as replacing certain words (ex. Ash hearing "Pilot" instead of "Simulacrum" when referred to as such), or as big as not recognizing they're pulling off inhuman feats (ex. Revenant climbing up a skyscraper, taking gunshots without flinching, and impaling someone with only his hand). Breaking through this mental censor forms a major basis of both Ash and Revenant's backstories and personalities.

In 2022, Lightspeed and Quantum, the developers of ''Videogame/PlayerunknownBattlegrounds Mobile'', developed ''Apex Legends Mobile'', and currently is in a soft launch in select countries before planned to be released globally in summer.

** Exclusive to Season 2, the disruptor hop-up for the Alternator and RE-45 would easily melt through shields with little difficulty.
*** It was re-added in Season 10, though only as a care package-exclusive weapon.
** In Season 4 that ability was given to the new Sentinel sniper rifle and instead of a hop-up you would have to use a shield battery (season 4) or two shield cell (season 5); this lasted until Season 7 made the Sentinel's charge ability a simple damage bonus instead.
** {{Inverted}} with the Hammerpoint Rounds hop-up, which lasted from Season 2 to Season 9 and was equippable to the [=P2020=] and Mozambique; affected guns dealt just over double damage to anyone who didn't have a shield.
*** Hammerpoint Rounds returned for Season 12, and were also made available to the RE-45 machine pistol.

* ArtifactName: The Flatline was named as such in ''VideoGame/Titanfall2'' for its recoil pattern, being a horizontal flat line. In ''Apex'', the gun's pattern kicks it upwards vertically in addition to its horizontal recoil, making this no longer the case.
* ArtisticLicenseMilitary: Almost every time Bangalore uses military slang, she slightly ''mis''uses it. Aside from "FNG", the writers seem to have just played mad-libs with various military jargon.

* ContinuingIsPainful: While a death is no longer a guaranteed disadvantage if your teammates can bring you back, you respawn with no items. However, you can recover ''all'' your gear if you find your own body, so DeathIsASlapOnTheWrist if you die close to a respawn beacon.

** The first Skydive Emotes were a lot less expressive. Compare Pathfinder's Season 2 skydive emote (slowly tumbling backwards and doing a handwave to either side) to the one from the season immediately after (briefly flapping his wings in the imitation of a bird, then getting attacked by a crow and having to swat it away).

*** Wraith's Into the Void, ''Apex''[='s=] equivalent of Phase Shift, has a brief delay when the ability starts and ends, slows the user temporarily while it winds up, can't be used to TeleFrag, and very clearly indicates the user's position while in use as opposed to having them completely vanish.
*** Slightly {{inverted}} after Season 5 granted a buff that it lacked in ''Titanfall 2'': Wraith can see enemies while in the Phase dimension, aiding maneuvering and minimizing the risk of blindly walking into enemies.

*** Although every character seems to be wearing something similar to a Pilots' [[JumpJetPack jumpkit]], they can't be freely activated for wallrunning and double jumping like in ''Titanfall''. Instead, they only activate for a powered glide when deploying or moving along ziplines, though Octane's jump pad can grant a double jump when used.

--->'''Loba''': Thanks angel, you're the sweetest.\\

* WeaponOfChoice: Rampart gains a bonus when using a Light Machine Gun, and her voice lines indicate a clear preference for that type of weapon.

** Lifeline and Octane's parents played together in Olympus' labs.

* WeirdnessCensor: Normally, Simulacra are incapable of recognizing that they are Simulacra. This can be anything as small as replacing certain words (ex. Ash hearing "Pilot" instead of "Simulacrum" when referred to as such), or as big as not recognizing they're pulling off inhuman feats (ex. Revenant climbing up a skyscraper, taking gunshots without flinching, and impaling someone with only his hand). Breaking through this mental censor forms a major basis of both characters' backstories and personalities.

* YouAreAlreadyDead: If an arc star hits you, it will disable your shields immediately on impact and there's nothing you can do in order to stop it from annihilating you. Just stay away from your squadmates so they don't get hurt too.

** When watching an enemy try to self-revive, it can be preferable to wait for them to complete self-revive and then shoot them down. ALthough will consume the self-revive preventing stealing it, a player will take less shots to kill after revival than when downed, saving ammo in a pinch. This can easily bite the attacker in the butt though if the player reviving themselves also has a Level 4 Backpack equipped, [[TheDogBitesBack which grants them extra shields and health on revive.]]

* WeirdnessCensor: Normally, Simulacra are incapable of recognizing that they are Simulacra. This can be anything as small as replacing certain words (ex. Ash hearing "Pilot" instead of "Simulacrum" when referred to as such), or as big as not recognizing they're pulling off inhuman feats (ex. Revenant climbing up a skyscraper, taking gunshots without flinching, and impaling someone with only his hand).

** [[RevolversAreJustBetter The Wingman]]'s damage is comparable to the game's sniper rifles, and gets a headshot damage bonus that's usually reserved for rifles -- with an upgrade to make them ''[[UpToEleven even stronger]]''.

** Also, this game's incarnations of ''Titanfall 2'''s {{Sniper Rifle}}s (the Longbow DMR and Triple Take) feature drastically reduced firing rates and (in the Longbow's case) projectile bullets instead of hitscan. This compensates for the much larger map size and players being easier to hit with precision weapons thanks to the slower movement speed. [[PurposelyOverpowered The Kraber was untouched by this change, as it's a Care Package weapon.]]

*** The Grappling Hook ability has reduced acceleration, time in the air, and only has one charge at a time as opposed to two.

*** The Pulse Blade ability returns in the form of Bloodhound's Eye of the Allfather, which lacks the titular OneHitKO blade and instead scans a wider area.

* LighterAndSofter: Despite being about a BloodSport, ''Apex Legends'' is less graphically violent than ''VideoGame/{{Titanfall}}'', the rating going from "Mature" to "Teen". The Titans themselves aren't around to crush people underfoot or [[LudicrousGibs turn them into clouds of viscera]], [[BloodlessCarnage attacks produce no visible bloodshed]], and [[CoupDeGrace executions]] are much less visceral and/or subject to GoryDiscretionShot.

* GunsDoNotWorkThatWay: Some of ''Titanfall 2'''s fairly outlandish guns such as the multi-barrelled Alternator and Double Take (which received a third barrel to make it the Triple Take) return in this game, but the new Peacekeeper added in ''Apex'' is pretty firmly this, as it's a quadruple-barrelled shotgun that appears to have both a pump action and a lever action. [[note]]Pumps and levers are two different methods of loading fresh rounds into a gun's chamber to be fired. Having both on one gun would be redundant, and adding to the redundancy is that a gun with multiple barrels would normally bypass this issue entirely by having one chamber for each barrel and bullet.[[/note]]

** Robotic combat units known as Spectres appear in "Fight Night", using their original ''Titanfall 1'' design with the wedge-shaped head.

** There are 60 players in a standard match, yet less than 20 playable legends, meaning that there will inevitably be more than one of each, likely even being pitted against each other.

** "Escape" introduced a tropical island map, with the trailer even likening it to a vacation-y island escape.

There's also the new legend, Ash, whose split personality is attempting to escape her confinement.

** "Escape" introduced a tropical island map, with the trailer even likening it to a vacation-y island escape. There's also the new legend, Ash, whose split personality is attempting to escape her confinement.

* DevelopersForesight: Loba's Ultimate allows anyone who uses it to pick up items within a certain radius of where she puts it down. If you try to use this in order to get to loot that you normally wouldn't be able to access without meeting some sort of special requirement (for example, loot found within locked vaults or Bloodhound's Trials), only Loba herself will be able to steal it, and as soon as she does, the Black Market will be destroyed and a loud alarm will sound, [[WithCatlikeTread alerting everyone in the vicinity to her presence]].

** Using an Evo Shield instead of the standard Body Shield used to be this. On the one hand, they can become one of the only red-quality item alongside care package weapons, giving you more armor than anything short of a Gibraltar with a gun shield. On the other hand, its capacity is increased by dealing damage, and the first two levels of Evo Shield were less than their Body Shield equivalents, making it impractical late in the game unless the user regularly picked fights and levelled it up. As they're the only way to have shields at all in the current version in the game (besides the very rare gold Body Shield), this is no longer the case.

** The HAVOC Rifle has good damage, decent range, and a relatively large magazine size. The problem is that there's a short delay between pulling the trigger and the weapon actually starting to fire. Similar to the Devotion, a Turbocharger removes this delay.
** Supplementing the L-STAR's decent damage is its overheat mechanic; in place of a normal reload, it heats with each shot and cools when not being fired, meaning it effectively has a built-in gold magazine that automatically reloads the gun if put away for long enough. However, its plasma balls are slower than most bullets and it suffers especially from the attachment issue, being only compatible with optics and a stock.

* LeeroyJenkins: A player choosing to drop solo is usually predated by them launching into the most popular drop point on the map, eager to get as many kills as possible.

** The P2020 pistol is generally only used if nothing else is available, as it's a semi-automatic with the per-shot power of most of the automatics, a short effective range, and a small magazine. It can be aimed fast with no speed penalty, but the penalties for the [=SMGs=] are already quite small, not to mention this already puny perk is totally negated by the equally common, fully automatic RE-45. A small portion of the community considers the P2020 to be ''even worse'' than the aforementioned Mozambique, citing that while at least the latter can pack a punch in close range, the former is practically [[MasterOfNone worthless regardless of the situation]].

** Mirage and Rampart are shaping up to be this. They bicker about being roommates and Mirage is stunned by Rampart’s familiarity with the arena. That being said, neither of them have a bad bone in their body and it shows. He affectionately calls her “Gearhead” while she calls him “Witt,” and they find each other pretty (not that Mirage will admit it).

* WhamEpisode: Ashes to Ashes - the final episode of the "Broken Ghost" questline in season 5, reveals that the object the legends were assembling for Hammond Robotics was [[spoiler: the severed head of Ash from VideoGame/Titanfall2]].

* ConcealmentEqualsCover: Bullets do not pierce through most objects. Avoiding damage from an explosion is as simple as having the majority of your body not visible to it. Even if what you're hiding behind shouldn't realistically offer much (if any) shelter, it generally works. The exception to this is doors, which can be blown up or shot through with the right weapon.

* PalmtreePanic: The map Storm Point is a tropical archipelago that happens to be crawling with spiders, flyers and prowlers.
* PinataEnemy: The Prowlers and spiders from Storm Point. Attacking either will give players points to level up their Evo Shield, killing them drops loot tailored to what a player may currently be carrying, and clearing out a den or a nest grants the entire team materials to use in crafting.

* UnderdogsNeverLose: In ''Stories from the Outlands'' "Gridiron", Bangalore and Jackson fight an IMC Pilot. In the previous ''Titanfall' games, a Pilot would almost always win against [[{{Mooks}} two grunts]], but here they come out on top instead.

** For ''Titanfall'' fans, the Halloween gamemodes where players turn to shadows on death and gain LeParkour abilities will seem very familiar... with exception to jumping and double-jumping, which use the much shorter ''Apex'' jump height rather than ''Titanfall'''s floatier gravity. Maneuvers that would seem possible using ''Titanfall'''s physics are not possible at worst and just feel awkward at best due to this difference.

* AdventureFriendlyWorld: The game's general setting of the Frontier, more specifically the Outlands, is this. While players don't have many opportunities to explore it themselves, the vast number of planets contained in it allow for a wide variety of diverse character backstories to arise.

** Aiming down sights with a Peacekeeper or Triple Take (as both come with the Precision Choke hop-up pre-installed) will cause your next shot's aim to progressively tighten until all rounds hit basically all the same spot, though doing so causes a bright glow and audible noise. You can also turn off the sights once charged for mobility but it only lasts a few seconds before you'd have to charge it up again.

** A repulsor tower is one of the points of interest on King's Canyon. And just like the repulsor tower of ''Titanfall 1'', its destruction as of Season 2 allows Leviathans to start invading the area.

* DamnYouMuscleMemory: Gibraltar players who migrated from games like ''VideoGame/{{Overwatch}}'' will likely put down their shield bubble upon taking enemy fire out of sheer reflex, forgetting (or perhaps not even realizing) that, unlike in the games they migrated from, it blocks ''your'' bullets as well.

** Evo Shields, sort of. On the one hand, they can become one of the only red-quality item alongside care package weapons, giving you more armor than anything short of a Gibraltar with a gun shield. On the other hand, its capacity is increased by dealing damage, and the starting shield capacity is half that of level one body shields, making it impractical late in the game and rewarding aggression. This was reduced somewhat in season 6, when not only did Evo Shields become the only shields available aside from the Gold variant, but all armor was reduced by 25 sans level 1 and 2 Evo, meaning the distinction between a level 1 normal shield and a level 1 Evo Shield no longer exists.

** Despite what's beens shown in the cinematics, Valkyrie cannot use guns while also using her jets.

* LittleUselessGun: The Mozambique and [=P2020=], a shotgun and a pistol respectively that are the worst weapons for their categories in addition to being the weakest. Until Season 9 gave them a proper buff, it was quite telling that the only way to use them in a serious manner was with the Hammerpoint Rounds hop-up to effectively turn them into a high-damage {{Cherry Tap|ping}} -- and even after Season 9, the game recognizes how weak they are and will give both weapons for free in the Arenas gamemode.
** The Mozambique has the highest fire rate, but that doesn't make up for its punishing-to-miss three pellet spread and low damage output. Ironically, it's ''also'' the worst handgun, [[InvertedTrope despite being the]] [[HandCannon largest]], because of its [[ShortRangeShotgun terrible range]].

* GuideDangIt: While the tutorial does a good job of showing you the bare basics of the game, it's far from exhaustive:
** Doors are invulnerable to bullets, with exception to the Rampage's revved up mode. If the player lacks one though, they can be meleed once to force them open, twice to break them, and any form of explosive will instantly break them. Useful if anything is blocking the other side.

* HailfirePeaks: The World's End map introduced in Season 3 has [[LethalLavaLand craters full of lava]] and [[SlippySlideyIceWorld cities frozen in chemical ice]] within walking distance of each other.

* {{Nerf}}: Certain weapons that are either successors to those in previous games (eg. [=R-301=] carbine vs [=R-101=] and [=R-202=] carbines) or are returning in this game directly (eg. Spitfire and Devotion) do so with smaller magazine capacities (reduced by as much as half, which is especially significant with the higher health values) to make magazine upgrades more significant.

** Clever players can leave valuable loot out in the open, then just perch on some nearby high ground and wait for the inevitable schmuck to come along.

** A repulsor tower is one of the points of interest on King's Canyon. And just like the repulsor tower of ''Titanfall 1'', its destruction as of Season 2 allows Leviathans to start invading the area.
** Flyers carry deathboxes in King's Canyon and Storm Point; these dinosaur-like avians were first seen in ''Titanfall''. Similarly, on the maps World's Edge and Storm Point, Legends can fight waves of Prowlers, dinosaur-like predators that debuted in the same game.

** The similar robot units known as Spectres appear in "Fight Night", using their original ''Titanfall 1'' design with the wedge-shaped head.
** Also in "Fight Night", one of Pathfinder's memories is watching a live weather report from himself during the destruction of Typhon, which happened in the final mission of ''Titanfall 2'''s singleplayer campaign.

* FriendlyFireproof: Inverted and downplayed; several Legends' tactical abilities can affect teammates and enemies alike. Offensive abilities can slow down allies but with no damage and supporting/defensive abilities can be used by enemy players. In a more general sense, friendly gunfire will hit allies without damaging them, making the act of trying to use your teammates as meatshields while you attack a moot point.

* UniversalAmmunition: There are five main ammunition types (light, heavy, energy, sniper, shotgun shells), all of which fit in guns of disparate size, type, and [[ArbitraryGunPower firepower]]; one of the more egregious examples is that shotshell shoots sparkling energy-like blasts when in the Mozambique and Mastiff, shoots normal pellets from the EVA-8, and somehow becomes the energy cells used to power the Peacekeeper. [[AcceptableBreaksFromReality Simplified resource management was clearly prioritized over something more realistic.]]
** Subverted with the [[EnhancedArchaicWeapon Bocek]], which was introduced in Season 9. It is currently the only weapon that uses arrows as ammunition.

** Bangalore obtained information on the whereabouts of her missing brother from [[spoiler:a young Crypto, which was later taken by Wraith - or rather, the alternate Wraith seen in the ''Voidwalker'' short'']].

** Wraith was experimented on by the IMC's ARES Division, the main antagonists of ''Titanfall 2''.

** On the maps World's Edge and Storm Point, Legends can fight waves of Prowlers, dinosaur-like predators that appeared in ''Titanfall''.