Revenant: What we know about the next Apex Legend

(Image credit: Respawn)

If recent teases from Respawn are to be believed, a sneaky assassin is coming to Apex. With Apex Legends Season 4: Assimilation launching soon, Respawn is having fun time slowly revealing the long-rumored assassin: Revenant.

Respawn hasn't explicitly talked about the mysterious killer yet, but a trailer supposedly meant to introduce a completely different legend turned out to be a backdoor introduction to Revenant instead. A bamboozle in the truest sense. A data leak from 2019 revealed a bunch of possible abilities that Revenant might have, so we have a good idea of what to expect with Assimilation hits.

Here's everything we know about the newest Apex Legend: Revenant.

Watch Revenant 'interrupt' Forge's big day

I remember it like it was yesterday: Respawn had revealed Apex's next legend, Forge. He was a burly brawler that seemed like a solid addition to the roster. Then Respawn dropped the above trailer, "Up Close and Personal".

What appears to be a normal TV interview with Forge is quickly interrupted by Revenant, who sneaks up behind Forge and goes for the kill. The trailer cuts before we see the aftermath, but a followup tweet from Respawn confirmed that Forge didn't make it (at least in the story).

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In the following days, the Apex Twitter has been pumping out more in-story updates. The tweets explain that Hammond Robotics, the company representing Forge and his physical enhancements, experienced a break-in from a figure closely resembling Revenant.

A 2019 leak may tell us Revenant's abilities

Referred to back in the earliest Apex Legends leaks as "Blackout," Revenant's concept art seems to have been in the game's files since launch. In August, a leaked set of skills was data mined from the game. The leak included abilities from then-unreleased Crypto that all proved accurate, so it's worth taking the info to seriously.

Here's what the leak has to say about Revenant:

  • Mark for Death: Fires a poison dagger. Press again to reveal the target's location for 60 seconds. (If enemy is marked a message will pop up "Something is watching you.")
  • Poison Bomb: Launch a Poison Bomb. Damages and slows targets hit.
  • Infiltrator: You crouch walk faster and climb walls higher.
  • Shadow Walk: Move silently and faster for 6 seconds. Cooldown resets on kill.
  • Shadow Step: Send out a Shadow Revenant. Press again to teleport to the shadow. Cooldown resets to kill.
  • Proximity Dart
  • Silence: Throw a device that disables enemy tactical abilities for 10 seconds.
  • Death Recall: Drop a totem that protects anyone who uses it from death. Instead of getting downed or dying you teleport back to were you dropped your totem in 20 HP.
  • Shadow Door: Open doors through walls for 5 seconds.
  • Extra: Enters Shadow Form when using Death Recall. Sounds are already in the game. Blackout/Revenant is a Simulacra, a human mind uploaded to a robot body.

That's a lot of abilities—a lot more than a single legend is typically allowed. Each legend has a tactical, ultimate, and at least one passive ability. The abilities outlined here are all stealthy and murdery, but they're also all over the place.

If we had to guess, this is a list of three or four different playstyles that Respawn was testing for Revenant. Is Revenant a stealthy stalker or a ranged intel gatherer? The bloody trailer suggests the former, but we'll have to wait and see.

(Image credit: Electronic Arts)

What about Forge?

Well, he's dead. At least for now. The trailer and followup tweets were pretty definitive about his demise, but it's hard to believe he won't be back someday. He's a genuinely cool design: a melee-focused brawler could be really refreshing in a meta so focused on evasion and long-range pokes.

I suspect that Forge will be the second new legend added in Season 4, either at the same time or a few months after Revenant. There is a small chance that the entire character was dreamed up for the ultimate bamboozle. That wouldn't be the worst timeline.

Level designer's tweet shows Revenant

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Back in October 2019, level designer Kevin Bragg posted screenshots of Octane's Gauntlet. The first image in the tweet shows a banner with a character that appears similar to the originally leaked Revenant concept art. It also matches the image of Revenant from the leaked character sheet two days prior.

Here's Revenant in the Fight or Fright trailer

Morgan Park
Staff Writer

Morgan has been writing for PC Gamer since 2018, first as a freelancer and currently as a staff writer. He has also appeared on Polygon, Kotaku, Fanbyte, and PCGamesN. Before freelancing, he spent most of high school and all of college writing at small gaming sites that didn't pay him. He's very happy to have a real job now. Morgan is a beat writer following the latest and greatest shooters and the communities that play them. He also writes general news, reviews, features, the occasional guide, and bad jokes in Slack. Twist his arm, and he'll even write about a boring strategy game. Please don't, though.