Apex Legends Octane details - new character leak, Octane abilities & analysis
Season 1 of Apex Legends will soon be upon us (arriving perhaps as early as next week), and besides news of the impending Battle Pass, the news everyone is clamouring to hear more about is the whispers of a new Legend called Octane – the so-called “High Speed Daredevil”. If recent leaks and datamines are to be believed, it’s likely this will be the new Legend promised to coincide with the start of Season 1, and their skillset should offer something rather different to what we’ve experienced with any other character so far.
Our Apex Legends Octane guide will delve into everything we know about this new Legend, from abilities and potential playstyles to information and speculation regarding hitbox size and other details. Let’s get stuck into learning about this new character that seems to live life on the edge – quite literally.
Our Apex Legends guide series is packed with both beginner-friendly explanations and advanced, top-tier tips and tricks on perfecting your Apex Legends skills. Whether you want to know about all the other Apex Legends characters or you’re interested in finding out the stats and spray patterns for all the different Apex Legends weapons, we’ve got you covered.
If you’re looking for details on a different Legend, then simply take a look at the table below and click on a link to be taken to the hero of your choice. We’re hard at work filling these pages up with the most useful and in-depth information, so stay tuned for details on your favourite Legends.
| Bloodhound | Gibraltar | Lifeline | Pathfinder | Octane (NEW CHARACTER) |
| Wraith | Bangalore | Caustic | Mirage |
Apex Legends Octane guide – new character, abilities, info
We’ve got a fair amount to cover with Octane, the potential ninth character to enter Apex Legends’ colourful and diverse roster of heroes. To skip to a particular section, simply click on any of the links below to be brought straight there.
Click on the above image to view it at full resolution.
Apex Legends Octane release date – when will Octane be added?
First, let’s get the obvious out of the way: when can we expect to be able to start playing as Octane? Well, while we don’t know for certain, it seems fairly clear that this will be the new character that we were promised to receive alongside the grand opening of Apex Legends Season 1, set to arrive sometime this month. According to a recent leak, Season 1 may actually begin on 12 March – next Tuesday. So we certainly won’t have long to wait if this turns out to be the case.
Whenever Octane is released, you can of course expect everyone and their mothers to all be clamouring to try out the new Legend, so you may need to rely on being first to pick among your teammates if you want to try them out – though here’s to hoping Respawn will have added the ability to enter Training Mode with different characters for Season 1 – and possibly the ability to play Solos or Duos too. Now wouldn’t that be nice?
For full details on everything to expect with Season 1, take a look at our new and in-depth Apex Legends Patch Notes guide.
Apex Legends Octane character overview
So, above is a closer look at what Octane will look like when they arrive onto the Apex Legends stage. Kitted out with goggles and a gas mask reminiscent of Caustic (though a little more… toothy), we’re not exactly sure if Octane is entirely human. The vibrant green tubing and Matrix-esque sockets embedded into their stomach and arms indicate that they use chemicals to enhance their combat prowess (suggesting they are at least partly organic); but everything below the waist looks very decidedly metallic.
It’s likely that we’re looking at a cyborg with an air of mystery and danger about them, along the lines of “no one has ever seen their face and lived to tell the tale” sort of danger. Meanwhile, their abilities, which we’ll look at in closer detail in just a moment, all revolve around self-damage and very high mobility and repositioning potential, making Octane very suitable for players with an aggressive, high-risk-high-reward playstyle when it comes to dealing with enemy teams.
Click the above image to view it at highest resolution.
Octane hitbox vs other Legends
The above is a composite of various hitbox images created by YouTuber “SookieSpy”, which bring to light the incredible discrepancies in character hitboxes in Apex Legends.
There’s obviously a very clear difference between the tiny model and hitbox of Wraith and the massive slab that is Gibraltar – and Respawn have promised that Season 1 will bring changes both to hitboxes and to character abilities in order to compensate for this discrepancy.
Seeing as Octane is looking like they’ll arrive with Season 1 alongside these changes, it’s likely we’re looking at a hitbox for Octane that lies somewhere in the middle of this chart, so as not to further widen this discrepancy. Judging from the leaked images so far, their build and stature puts them roughly alongside Bloodhound, Mirage, and Bangalore in terms of hitbox size – a very respectable size, particularly when you start to consider the Bangalore-esque movement speed boost that Octane will receive with their Tactical ability.
Click on the above image to view it at full resolution.
Octane abilities leak
Now the question is: do we believe this so-called “leak”? Well, we’ll hopefully find out soon enough either way, but we’ve reason to believe the notion of the abilities themselves are accurate (though we may of course see changes to exactly how they take effect, stats, and so on). A recent dataminer discovered the strings “octane_stim_inject” and “octane_stim_release” within Apex Legends’ game files, corroborating at the very least the recent news of Octane’s Tactical ability.
Let’s take a closer look at each of these abilities in turn and how one might use them when Octane finally arrives in King’s Canyon.
Passive ability:
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Swift Mend | While not taking damage, Octane restores health over time. |
Analysis
Octane’s Passive, Swift Mend, will be the only other form of healing in an ability besides Lifeline‘s Tactical Drone, and it is utterly integral to Octane’s overall build when you consider their abilities together. The ability allows Octane to automatically restore health over time whenever they are not taking damage. Sounds pretty great so far.
Now, there are a few things to take into account here. First is that it sounds like this ability will only affect health, not shields. Which is good when you think about it, because it means Octane can prioritise Shield healing items over Health consumables, helping with overall inventory management (for more info on all the different healing items in the game, take a look at our Apex Legends healing items guide).
Second is the caveat that the heal only occurs when you are not taking damage. In reality, this is likely to mean there is a hidden delay of a few seconds after taking damage when you won’t benefit from this Passive; and each new instance of damage resets this delay. So you can’t rely on healing your way through a fight like you can using Lifeline’s Drone. And you also won’t be able to use it to combat damage inflicted by the Apex Legends Ring.
Third – we don’t know the rate of Octane’s healing. It’s likely not to be very fast at all (or it would be overpowered) – and considering its synergy with Octane’s Tactical, which takes away 10% of your Health each time you use it, the healing rate is likely to be something in the region of 1-2 Health per second (or per 1.5 seconds, like how Ring damage works), to ensure that the drawback of using your Tactical isn’t completely negligible.
But regardless, this seems like a very useful and reliable Passive ability that should prolong your survivability while still forcing you to have good game-sense and decision-making when it comes to when to fight or duck behind cover.
Tactical ability:
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Adrenaline Junkie | Move 30% faster for 6 seconds. Costs 10% health. Immune to slows while active. |
Analysis
Here’s where Octane’s skillset starts to look really appealing – at least in my opinion. But then I’m a sucker for mobility and movement augmentations of any kind. Hence my maining as Wraith, Bangalore, and Pathfinder.
It’s also nice because here we’ve got some actual stats to talk about as well. Octane’s Tactical, Adrenaline Junkie, allows them to sacrifice 10% of their health in order to move 30% faster for 6 seconds, while also being immune to slows while this ability is in effect. Amazing, particularly when combined with their Passive. But let’s break this down bit by bit.
Costs 10% health. Now wait: is this current health, or maximum health? I’d assume maximum health – but then why not say “10 health”? Why say “10% health”? There are three possible answers here:
- I’m reading too much into this.
- It’s 10% of your current health.
- It’s 10% of your maximum health, and the fact that they put “10%” instead of “10” suggests Respawn are looking into different health pools for different characters.
It’s probably the first option, but still… That’s got me even more interested to see their plan for Season 1.
Anyway, 10 self-damage is nothing for a 30% speed boost for 6 seconds. To put this into perspective, Bangalore’s Passive currently allows her to move 40% faster for 2 seconds, though Respawn are bringing this down to 30% for Season 1. Bloodhound’s Ultimate allows them to move 25% faster. Wraith’s Ultimate… is unclear, but appears to be very slightly faster than Bloodhound’s Ultimate.
So Octane’s movement buff will actually be stronger than Bangalore’s Passive in Season 1 – and rightly so, as it costs 10 health each time. But the real kicker is that you’re immune to slows such as from Arc Stars, Nox Gas, Bangalore’s or Gibraltar’s artillery strikes… Presumably this also means that if you are hit by such a slow, you can pop your Tactical in order to immediately remove the effect. Now that’s pretty sweet.
Those leaked game file strings, “octane_stim_inject” and “octane_stim_release” indicate to me that there will be a short wind-up animation before the ability takes effect (as you inject yourself with some sort of wonderful adrenaline cocktail, no doubt), which will provide another slight downside to this ability. But then, it’s the same with Wraith’s Tactical, and a great many other abilities in Apex Legends that still provide great benefits. Regardless, a Wingman-touting Octane strafing from side to side with a 30% movement buff is going to be a pretty damn scary thing to deal with.
Ultimate ability:
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Launch Pad | Deployable jump pad that catapults users through the air. |
Analysis
Launch Pads are here! Octane’s Ultimate look very similar to Wraith’s Ultimate in that both provide quick travel and repositioning utility either for yourself or for the entire team – and I also see no reason why these Launch Pads wouldn’t be useable by enemy players too. So in fact, they’re very similar abilities when you think about it.
We can only assume that you drop the Launch Pad at your feet like Gibraltar’s Dome or Caustic’s Nox Gas Traps, and it quickly transforms into a Launch Pad that you can jump onto to send yourself careening through the air. What will make a big difference regarding this Ultimate’s effectiveness is whether it reactivates rocket boots like hot air balloons do, or whether it simply sends you hurtling through the air more like a good Pathfinder Grappling Hook.
Another thing is whether (if it doesn’t redeploy your rockets) using this ability will make you immune to fall stuns, or whether you will need to remember to melee as you hit the ground to negate that stun time. Hopefully it’s the former, or that would end up being a rather annoying drawback to using the Launch Pad to cross greater distances.
I’d also like to know whether activating your Tactical beforehand (or while in the air) will increase your momentum and the distance you can travel using one of these Launch Pads. I’d very much like this to be the case, simply because it adds more opportunities for synergising your abilities as Octane. Regardless, this will no doubt be a fun ability to use; its true effectiveness depends on its charge time, and the manner in which it catapults you through the air.
All I’ll say is that it doesn’t sound quite as useful or safe as Wraith’s Portals, so it ought to have a lower charge time to compensate for this. I’d love to see Launch Pad have the same short 1m 30s charge time as Pathfinder’s Zipline Gun, so there’s a real focus on bouncing all over the map. It seems to fit Octane’s – ahem, high-octane playstyle.
And that’s all we have for now on Octane, but as more news piles in (and of course, with Octane’s release) we’ll be adding tonnes more info and tips to this page so you can really get the most out of Apex Legends’ latest character.
