Instead of a new playable Legend, the real star of Apex Legends right onw is the new permanent game mode that launched alongside the game’s 26th season: Wildcard. Wildcard is a fast-paced version of the game’s standard battle royale that aims to get players back into the chaos of battle as quickly as possible. But after playing for a few hours, I discovered that Wildcard is pure chaos, effectively making some Legends obsolete.
Wildcard Mode has a lot of convenient new features, but the biggest game-changer is Legend-stacking. For the first time in Apex Legends history, players no longer have to fight over which Legend they want to play. If all three members of your squad want to play as Ash, they can. If you want to trap enemies inside electric fences as Wattson while both of your squadmates play as Caustic and leave Gas Traps everywhere, go for it! If you want to bamboozle everyone you come into contact with, ready up as a trio of Mirages and let the fun begin.
On paper, this all sounds great. In practice, it’s a lot of fun, but it also lays bare the shortcomings of some Legends in their current form. I squadded up with both friends and strangers, and throughout my time with Wildcard Mode, I noticed a trend: Instead of coordinating Legend-stacking (i.e., “Hey, we’re both picking Caustic. You should too!”), my teammates were more interested in making sure I didn’t pick the wrong Legend. I soon realized why.
In addition to allowing Legend-stacking, Wildcard Mode also ups the chaos factor by taking place within a smaller starting ring, and it requires only 30 players per match (down from the standard 60-player battle royale mode). Wildcard employs an auto-looting mechanic that simplifies looting, so your loot-goblin teammates are less likely to get shot while rooting around in a Death Box, which is always a plus. The mode also does away with Respawn Beacons. Instead of chasing down a squadmate’s Death Box, grabbing their Banner Card, and hightailing it to the nearest Respawn Beacon, all you have to do to ensure your squadmate gets respawned is stay alive — as long as at least one member of the squad remains alive, any fallen squadmates will automatically respawn after a brief delay.
The end result is a fast-paced match where you’re never not fighting — which, from the sounds of it, is exactly what Respawn was shooting for — but because Wildcard leaves little time to rest, regroup, and coordinate between encounters with enemy teams, a lot of Legend abilities simply aren’t useful.
Wattson, for example, is great at keeping enemies penned in (or out) with her electric fence Pylons. But because Wildcard Mode’s starting ring is so small, having her fortify a building isn’t all that useful, since you’ll be running out of that building to escape the ever-shrinking ring in no time. Wraith’s tactical ability (which allows her to phase into an alternate dimension, disappearing into a streak of light and temporarily becoming invulnerable) is “totally useless,” as one of my teammates mentioned during a match. In the early days of Apex, Wraith was a very popular pick, and could use her tactical ability instantly. But eventually, she was nerfed, and activating her phasing ability now takes significantly longer than it used to. Attempting to use it to escape a fight is pointless, because by the time she actually manages to phase into the Void, you’ve already been downed.
Wildcard Mode allows some Legends to shine, while others are difficult to play effectively.
In Apex’s standard battle royale, this is mitigated by the fact that Wraith has a passive ability that alerts her when an enemy is aiming at her. But because encounters with enemy squads happen back-to-back in Wildcard, you’re often already being shot at by the time her Void voices warn you that someone’s aiming your way. Due to the small circumference of Wildcard’s ring, you rarely have a chance to duck out of sight, activate your tactical, and safely phase across the battlefield without taking damage. Crypto, too, is difficult to use in this mode. Using his drone for recon leaves you vulnerable for too many precious seconds, and once you’re ready to close out of the drone’s interface, you’re either getting shot at by an enemy squad, or you need to run like hell to escape the edge of the ever-encroaching ring. Loba is all but useless as well, because the need for her loot-snatching Black Market ability is pretty much nonexistent in a mode with auto-loot enabled, and the time it takes to choose an item to steal gives enemies plenty of time to ambush you.
Meanwhile, other Legends absolutely dominate in Wildcard. Caustic — especially when you’re facing a squad of three Caustics — can easily take you down by simply dropping a ton of Gas Traps. This is a great way to take out the competition at the end of a match, when the ring is even smaller and there’s nowhere to hide from enemy squads. Bangalore, too, works very well in this mode, blinding enemies with Smoke Grenades before raining explosives from above via her Rolling Thunder ability. Again, the lack of space is the main culprit here. When you hear Rolling Thunder, you run. Unfortunately, Wildcard Mode doesn’t leave you with much space to run.
Even with its quirks, Wildcard Mode is still loads of fun, and I’m actually a big fan of the auto-loot mechanic — it was featured in (the very short-lived) Apex Legends Mobile, and is one of many features from the mobile game that I hoped Respawn might try out in Apex Legends. I’m just a little bummed out that Wildcard allows some Legends to shine, while others become useless (or close to it) because the inherent chaos of Wildcard leaves less room to make use of Legend abilities.
One might think that not relying on Legend abilities is the point of Wildcard Mode, but the truth is, we haven’t actually seen Wildcard Mode’s final form yet. You see, Wildcard Mode gets its name from a feature that Respawn plans to implement in about two weeks: Wildcards. Wildcards are items that can be crafted at Replicators, and they give Legends some truly wild — albeit temporary — abilities. During Season 26 previews, Respawn gave attendees one example of a Wildcard ability: wall-running, a la Titanfall‘s pilots.
I’m excited for wall-running to enter the equation later this season. I just hope it and the other Wildcards can be activated quickly enough to be of use!
As a huge Titanfall 2 fan, that sounds like a dream come true. As someone who just played multiple rounds of Wildcard during which my team’s Lifeline was repeatedly killed before she could activate her D.O.C Halo shield ability, I’m starting to wonder if players will even have time to activate their temporary new abilities once Wildcards are actually added to Wildcard Mode. Speaking via email, Respawn told Polygon that the reason Wildcard Mode didn’t launch with Wildcards is because devs “wanted players to experience the core version of Wildcard before we start adding in new gameplay elements and events.”
Hopefully, Apex players (including myself) manage to adjust to the new mode in time for the introduction of Wildcards. But if they take as long to activate as some Legend abilities (like the 1.25 seconds it takes to activate Wraith’s Into the Void ability), I’m not sure players will actually have the time to take advantage of them.
Wildcard’s map, ring, and loot system have all been tweaked to make matches run smoothly. The problem is that none of the Legends themselves have been tweaked to fit Wildcard’s gameplay.
