Apex Legends' Axle is another movement character, but other playstyles are "viable and important," devs say

After seeing the trailer for Axle in Apex Legends Season 29, I was sure her ulimate ability would be to summon a motorcycle in order to close distances with her opponents quicker than any other Legend. While that was playtested in the battle royale game, Lead Legend Designer Josh Mohan tells me that the team at Respawn eventually opted for an ability with more potential for team play.

"We had a version somewhere in our heads around [Axle's] ultimate being a vehicle," he says. "But vehicles are tricky in our game. It's a squad based game, three players. You give her a cool motorbike, she's going to just be off in Narnia and where's her team going to be? That's the big issue with that kind of ability."

The Apex Legends devs settled on the Nitro Gates ability instead, a bastardization of Octane's pad that grants anyone who slides on it a boost and a brief period of being able to use Axle's passive ability, which increases your speed and lateral control while sliding. This allows for more team play and means you're less likely to get left behind if there's an Axle on your team.

"You can throw down her Nitro Gates, and then everyone on your team can use it," Mohan says. "Axle is great to play as, but equally great as a teammate. I love having an Axle on my team. I love it when someone else picks Axle, because I'm like, 'oh great, I get to use her gates and then I have my whole kit as well.'

"So we look to make sure the team stays together and has the ability to stick together as a unit ultimately. Our plan isn't to roll through and add movement to every single character. We just do it where we feel it's necessary, but ultimately we want to keep the playstyles that aren't movement-based valid and viable and important."

Mohan also feels that Gibraltar, who has surprised players with his rapid pace this season, is in a good place, so won't be getting any changes. His movement speed is only altered if he's running in a fairly straight line, after all. Axle acts as a Gibby counter, though, as her ultimate Kickstart drone can fly inside his bubble before detonating, throwing him into the air in the ensuing explosion.

Vantage and Conduit are being reworked, however. The former gets a 2x sight on her sniper rifle which she can toggle to, and the latter has more choice in how she replenishes shields, among other changes to both. There are the usual weapon changes to, with the L-Star replacing the CAR in the Care Package and the Hemlok's breach mode receiving a nerf. The map rotation will be Storm Point, Broken Moon, and Olympus, however the Tridents have been removed from Storm Point and Olympus, and most of Broken Moon's longer ziprails are gone, too.

However, the game has an even more interesting twist up its sleeve for Season 29. You will now be able to respawn teammates directly from their death boxes.

"[The current system is] really frustrating," says Lead BR Designer Eric Canavese. "We want to make sure that the people who are winning those fights have a real chance to reset, and we were getting that a little bit with the [Mobile Respawn Beacons], but it was a really long and clunky way to get back to a true reset when you won the fight. You should be able to be back at full strength without some sort of crazy quest."

The initial version, however, was far too strong - in Canavese's words, "too free and too easy." So, the team put limitations on the respawns. There's an increasing cooldown for each subsequent respawn and all the usual glowing green lights to signal what you're doing, but it's a major change to the cross-map treks you used to embark on in order to fight on an even keel again.

Apex Legends Season 29 looks set to be faster than ever. Axle is the first new Legend in over a year, and looks ready to take on all challengers. Her Salvonian heritage will undoubtedly provide some neat interactions with Fuse and Maggie which narrative lead Ashley Reed says "makes the universe feel deeper," but I'm most looking forward to sliding around using her Nitro Gates.

Apex Legends has always stood out from other battle royale games thanks to its movement. Recent changes are doubling down on that slip-and-slide Titanfall legacy, and players are flocking back because of it.