Apex Legends players who are tired of their legends’ finishers shouldn’t expect any new moves in the new future.
Respawn senior animator Moy Parra shared that creating multiple finishers for each legend wouldn’t be a viable option for the company. The flashy instant-kill move doesn’t see much use, according to Parra.
“The issue is that our data shows that finishers are used with very little frequency across the board,” he tweeted to a fan. “And given that they do take a ton of resources to make, it’s difficult to justify multiple ones. I would like to, but the data just doesn’t support it currently.”
Players have some incentive to use finishers in Apex. After season three, performing a finisher restores the legend’s shields to full, a perk that was previously exclusive to the significantly rare level four body shields. In addition, finishing an enemy will also save some ammo and guarantee a death, instead of taking shots at knockdown shields.
But the tactic has its tradeoffs. Most executions have a long animation that leaves the player vulnerable for a considerable window of time and it’s easy to land shots on them. In more action-packed firefights or in close-range combat, the long animation time doesn’t make up for getting full shield.
There are extraordinary situations in which getting an execution could actually save players from being hit. Mirage’s legendary finisher places a decoy in an easy-to-spot position, drawing fire toward the hologram instead of the actual player and getting a “bamboozle” on enemies. A Wraith can also dodge a punch if the timing is right. But those circumstances are hard to come across and players usually refrain from using finishers to minimize their vulnerabilities and loot the enemy’s death box for new armor.
