{"id":4278,"date":"2022-05-05T17:50:30","date_gmt":"2022-05-05T15:50:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pr.gagadget.com\/apex-legends-newcastle-passive-tactical-ultimate-abilities-explained\/"},"modified":"2022-05-05T17:50:30","modified_gmt":"2022-05-05T15:50:30","slug":"apex-legends-newcastle-passive-tactical-ultimate-abilities-explained","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pr.gagadget.com\/en\/apex-legends-newcastle-passive-tactical-ultimate-abilities-explained\/","title":{"rendered":"Apex Legends\u2019 Newcastle: passive, tactical &#038; ultimate abilities explained"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"source-title\">Apex Legends\u2019 Newcastle: passive, tactical &#038; ultimate abilities explained<\/div>\n<div class=\"source-text\">\n<div>\n<p ><em>Apex Legends<\/em><em>\u2019 <\/em>newest playable hero, Newcastle, is a departure from earlier Legends in two areas: First, that he\u2019s a defensive Legend, a type currently outnumbered 2:1 by offensive types on the <em>Apex <\/em>roster. And second, that the defense he supplies is less about his personal protection, and more about keeping his team safe.<\/p>\n<p >Devan McGuire, a Respawn Entertainment designer responsible for Newcastle\u2019s kit, explained in a media deep dive last week that Newcastle evolved from a prototype the team had sketched out in 2020, realizing that their lineup didn\u2019t have many defensive types. But that kit, called Axiom, stayed on the drawing board because developers felt \u201cit was a pretty selfish kit overall, and didn\u2019t really take into account any of the team aspects.\u201d<\/p>\n<p >But when the writing team reached out about their plans to bring in Jackson Williams, the brother of Bangalore, as a playable character, McGuire spotted an opportunity to rework that Axiom Legend kit, and infuse it with a little more purpose.<\/p>\n<p >\u201cJackson was meant to be more of a protector to his family, to his squad, bring them home,\u201d McGuire said. \u201cAnd that aspect of valor and heroism, from that protector, mixed with the shielded elements of the kit that was on the table, created this fantasy that really, really clicked, and the idea of a knight in <em>Apex<\/em> was something that we realized just made so much sense.\u201d<\/p>\n<p >All of that informs the Passive, Tactical, and Ultimate skill that Newcastle brings to the Apex Games. Fans have already seen the Stories from the Outlands cinematic explaining Jackson Williams\u2019 personal background and how he adopted the mantle of Newcastle, and why he\u2019s in the arena. McGuire\u2019s preview session explained what he\u2019ll be doing there.<\/p>\n<div >\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Apex Legends | Stories from the Outlands - \u201cHero\u201d\" width=\"580\" height=\"326\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/IFQczCt-oSY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p >\u201cThis guy needed to be someone who could leap into the fray, heroically, to protect the squad,\u201d McGuire said. \u201cHe\u2019s somebody who\u2019s gonna lead that charge, shield their advance, and he\u2019s gonna be a guy who would leave no man behind.\u201d<\/p>\n<p >With that in mind, Respawn\u2019s designers started with Newcastle\u2019s passive, called Retrieve the Wounded. That\u2019s the wrist-mounted Revive Shield he carries, which can protect himself and a teammate from incoming fire while he revives them. Retrieve the Wounded goes a step further by allowing Newcastle to drag the downed teammate as they are being revived, moving both to better cover if it\u2019s available.<\/p>\n<p >\u201cBeing able to pull your teammates out of the fire and into cover, as you revive them, has huge potential,\u201d McGuire said. \u201cNo other character could do that in <em>Apex.<\/em> And the shield that you have to protect them with gives you the confidence to make those plays, to take those risks, not just throw yourself out there and not be able to do anything while you\u2019re getting shot at.\u201d<\/p>\n<p >In-game, the Revive Shield is powered by the personal Knockdown Shield that Newcastle carries, which means Newcastle players who find higher-level Knockdown Shields out in the playing field will ramp up their passive\u2019s effects commensurately. \u201cWe found that this actually breathed a lot of new life into an underused and underappreciated item in the game, as a loot item,\u201d McGuire said. For a squad with Newcastle on it, \u201cpinging that is very important; you can invest in your potential safeguards in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n<p >Newcastle\u2019s Tactical ability is his Mobile Shield. This energy field is movable and highly effective cover. McGuire touted its tactical versatility, from helping players advance together, safely; to covering a retreat; to warding off a surprise flanking maneuver.<\/p>\n<p >\u201cWhile it\u2019s out in the open, Newcastle can press this tactical button again to redirect its position to a new position on the map,\u201d McGuire explained. \u201cthat means you can turn a corner within a building, you can pull back, if you\u2019re out in the open and need to retreat back to cover, or third-party kind of shows up on the fly, you can rotate the shield around to defend that open flank.\u201d Because the Mobile Shield is energy based, it deflects fire but allows the team to charge through it.<\/p>\n<p >The Mobile Shield is destructible, in a way, in that it has a top and bottom half that can be brought down separate from each other. \u201c[That gives] some situational choice for opponents who feel they need to burn down the shield to get to Newcastle,\u201d McGuire said. \u201cSo you can burn down the top, and go for those head and body shots, or you can burn the bottom and go for those exposed legs, which will do less damage overall, but [they] might be forced to abandon the shield out in the open.\u201d<\/p>\n<p >Finally, Newcastle\u2019s Ultimate, Castle Wall, is where the writers\u2019 leaping-into-the-fray motivation and personality for Newcastle really manifests. With the Ultimate, players can jump great distances and then powerslam Newcastle\u2019s shield into the ground, bringing up a massive energy barrier that knocks back enemies. Additionally, if they try to push through it, they are slowed and take damage in doing so.<\/p>\n<aside ><\/aside>\n<p >But it\u2019s that leaping ability that really expresses Newcastle as a character, McGuire said. \u201cWhen you bring that helmet visor down, and you pull up the Ultimate, you have this auto-locking mechanic on your allies,\u201d he said. \u201cYou can put a lock onto them, provided they\u2019re not buried in a bunker or something.\u201d Leaping to a target-locked teammate gives Newcastle\u2019s jumps more height and more distance.<\/p>\n<p >\u201cYou can imagine a character being out in the open [\u2026] you can react to that, rescue them, come in there and give them a fighting chance to get them back in the game, and that\u2019s what that heroic Saviors movie is all about,\u201d McGuire said, referencing the lore trailer for Season 13 that dropped last week.<\/p>\n<p >Newcastle will be the fifth defensive Legend (to nine offensive) and McGuire said he straddles a line with the two support-class Legends: Lifeline and Loba. McGuire and the designers felt this kind of roster imbalance made Season 13 the right time to bring a versatile, defense-oriented hero to the game, to keep players engaged with something other than an assault specialist.<\/p>\n<p >\u201cMaybe the Internet has seen some of these prototypes that explore into [new] spaces, see the roster that\u2019s on the table, see the offensive Legends that exist, and we want to bring [Defensive and Support] class structures up,\u201d McGuire said later. \u201cWe want to have players that are going to play in those fields. This is our first step to addressing that particular problem overall.\u201d<\/p>\n<p >Newcastle will be available when Season 13: Saviors launches on May 10, and is unlockable from the base game with digital currency, either 12,000 Legend Tokens (earned in-game), or 750 Apex Coins, which can be acquired in a $9.99 bundle of 1,000, the smallest amount sold in the game.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"source-image\">https:\/\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/thumbor\/lwOs8XQ7xR5uEhd7QyQzq-0Edxc=\/451&#215;0:3840&#215;1774\/fit-in\/1200&#215;630\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/uploads\/chorus_asset\/file\/23439972\/APEX_Legends_Screenshots_S13_Action_NewcastleandBangalore_C.png<\/div>\n<div class=\"source-link\">https:\/\/www.polygon.com\/23058466\/apex-legends-newcastle-gameplay-passive-tactical-ultimate-abilities-season-13<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Apex Legends\u2019 Newcastle: passive, tactical &#038; ultimate abilities explained Apex Legends\u2019 newest playable hero, Newcastle, is a departure from earlier Legends in two areas: First, that he\u2019s a defensive Legend, a type currently outnumbered 2:1 by offensive types on the Apex roster. And second, that the defense he supplies is less about his personal protection, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4279,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pr.gagadget.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4278"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pr.gagadget.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pr.gagadget.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pr.gagadget.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pr.gagadget.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4278"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pr.gagadget.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4278\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pr.gagadget.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pr.gagadget.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pr.gagadget.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pr.gagadget.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}