Apex Legends just recently launched Season 9, bringing a whole new mode, Legend, and weapon to the battle royale. However, developer Respawn Entertainment is already taking a look at the new weapon, the Bocek Compound Bow, after an epileptic player says it may cause issues for some Apex Legends players.
The Bocek Bow is a very unique weapon for Apex Legends. It is the first bow weapon added to the game and makes for a great medium-range weapon that rewards accuracy. The player's issue, however, comes with the Bocek Bow's ammo color. Every type of ammo has a different color to make them easier to spot when Apex Legends players are quickly looting a location. The Bocek Bow's arrows have a light yellow color, which is part of what's causing the issue.
The issue was raised from a post to the Apex Legends subreddit by Reddit user sky-m1n. They say that the Bocek Bow's ammo being placed around the map is preventing them from playing Apex Legends. Lootable ammo on the map in Apex Legends has a slight pulsing effect to help distinguish their color from the environment, and sky-m1n says that the yellow ammo color paired with the pulsing makes them feel as though it is triggering an epileptic seizure. With the massive amount of people playing Apex Legends, it is likely an issue that will impact a good number of other players as well.
I like to bring this up to light but dear Respawn, I can't play the Bocek because I'm afraid of picking up arrows. I have sparkalaphobia and epilepsy. from apexlegends
The post has already received a response from the game's director of communications, saying that they will pass the information along to the development team so that they can begin looking for a solution. The post does offer a couple of options, like adding a setting that allows players to disable the pulsing or a redesign of the ammo effect overall that makes it a transitioning gradient rather than a pulse. With recent reports that Apex Legends is having a loot disparity issue in Season 9, hopefully, the developers can step in to fix both issues quickly.
It is unfortunate that the Bocek Bow's ammo caused such an issue for sky-m1n, and it provides a highlight of just how difficult a job it is for developers to ensure their games are as accessible as possible. It is comforting to see that Respawn Entertainment is already aware of the issue and most likely working on it. Hopefully, the issue will be fixed soon so that players dealing with epilepsy can continue enjoying all of the cool new content added to Apex Legends this season.
Apex Legends is available now on PC, PlayStation 4, Switch, and Xbox One.