Apex Legends is no stranger to leaks. It was through a leak that gamers first learned of Respawn Entertainment’s Titanfall-based battle royale shooter, and leaks have remained a constant part of the Apex experience ever since. A major part of that has been the unofficial teasing of new playable characters, and this week the trend continued as we learned more about one of the newest currently-unannounced Legends, known as Reckoner.
It’s been a month since Season 3 of Apex Legends kicked off, bringing with it a new character in the form of the drone-carrying hacker Crypto, and now that his newness is starting to wear off, fans are looking towards what’s next. For months now, one of the best sources of info on that front has been prominent Apex dataminer That1MiningGuy. Along with Crypto, he has been leaking details about Apex’s unreleased Legends and their abilities, and their latest deep dive into the game’s files reveals the same for Reckoner.
Character-wise, little is revealed about Reckoner, beyond a character subtitle describing him as a “Self-Sacrificing Romantic.” This suggests that he’s a character designed for Apex Legends players who prefer playing in a more run-and-gun fashion, and his abilities certainly reinforce the notion. According to That1MiningGuy, Reckoner’s tactical ability, Shield Stealer, fires a beam that can charge a player’s shields by draining an enemy’s shield. This seems well paired with his passive ability, Shield Blast, which causes enemy shields to explode upon breaking, damaging nearby enemies. Lastly, Reckoner’s ultimate, Gravity Orb, unleashes a moving gravity orb that warps the trajectory of nearby attacks.
With these abilities, Reckoner sounds like a great choice for players who like playing a little recklessly, as these could conceivably let them get up in an enemy’s face and distract them, leaving their teammates free to pick them off from a safer distance. However, it’s also worth noting that Reckoner seems to be one of the unreleased Apex Legends characters with the least development time so far, so it’s possible that even if That1MiningGuy’s information is accurate, it might not fully reflect the character that Respawn will eventually add to the game.
And it might be a good long while before we potentially see him in Apex. So far, Respawn has been adding new characters at a rate of one Legend a season, and according to dataminers, there are at least 12 other Apex Legends characters in development besides Reckoner. It’s possible Respawn could pick up the pace at some point and release multiple Legends per season, but there has been no word from Respawn or dataminers yet to suggest the studio has any intention of doing that. Players eager for a run-and-gun Legend shouldn’t hold their breath, in other words.
Apex Legends is free-to-play on PC, PS4, and Xbox One.