Walter “Fuse” Fitzroy used to be called “The Ambassador of Boom” during his time in the Salvonian fighting pits—and for good reason. He’s an expert in explosives who will use his bombastic kit to win the Apex Games.
Respawn finally revealed the specifics on Fuse’s kit after a series of teasers, and he seems to live up to his reputation as the Master of Mayhem. His skillset centers around explosives and lets him carry more grenades, throw a portable cluster bomb, and engulf his enemies inside a ring of fire with the help of his trusty mortar.
Here’s what you need to know about the next character coming to Apex Legends.
Abilities
His tactical is the Knuckle Cluster, a cluster bomb that splinters into a series of mini-concussion mines over a large area. It’s unclear exactly what the concussive mines do, but they seem to damage opponents. The trailer shows an enemy Bloodhound getting downed by the ordnance alone.
To help bring more mayhem into the Apex Games, Fuse’s passive, Grenadier, improves his capacity to use grenades. It’s a two-pronged ability: he can throw ordnances “’farther, faster, and more accurately” and carry an extra explosive per inventory slot. The two parts of the ability synergize perfectly together. He’s better at throwing grenades than other legends and can carry more of them as well.
Fuse’s ultimate is the cherry on top of his kit. The legend brings his mortar launcher to the Apex Games to rain fire on his enemies with the Motherlode, a strong ability for area denial. Fuse whips out his mortar and creates a ring of fire around an area (marked on his HUD with a green circle). The ability forces opponents to make a difficult decision: stay as an easy target inside the circle or leave and risk receiving damage from the fire.
Counters and synergies
Fuse’s kit opens up a series of avenues for plays and they all significantly revolve around explosives. His tactical can deny or pressure an area such as a doorway or a choke point, for instance, and his ultimate is a strong area denial tool. Those are staples of his kit that will likely influence his playstyle—and opponents that have the means to work around those strengths can give a good Fuse player a run for their money.
Most of his kit revolves around ordnances and explosives, so Wattson might be a natural counter. Based on previous interactions with abilities, her Pylons may intercept the firebombs in the Motherlode—similar to how they can block an airstrike—and negate an important part of Fuse’s kit, in addition to nearly nullifying the effects of grenades.
Legends with high mobility, such as Octane, Pathfinder, and Wraith, may use their abilities to move an entire squad out of the Motherlode’s area of effect with a jump pad, zipline, or portal—although Wraith will have to spend a use of her Tactical to safely escape the fire.
If you can’t run, however, defensive legends could be a good bet against the upcoming legend. Fuse’s squad can use the Motherlode to pin targets but will still have to close the gap, so a Caustic can help level the playing field, while a Gibraltar can keep squads safe from enemy fire while the effect lasts.
A few legends seem to synergize well with the explosives expert. Characters that can inflict great harm in an area, like Caustic, Gibraltar, or Bangalore, may benefit from the area denial in Fuse’s ultimate.
Defensive legends are hardly the only synergy, though. Revenant’s Silence can stop enemies from using an ability to flee the area of effect and Rampart’s Amped Cover, coupled with Sheila, can make short work of any enemy that stays inside the ring of fire.
Apex players can test out Fuse when he joins the game on Feb. 2.
