Players have found a new bug in Apex Legends that allows Lifeline’s health drone to heal allies while they move.
A Reddit user shared a clip of the moment they discovered that exploit while playing Pathfinder. Their allied Lifeline deploys her health drone, Pathfinder closes the door on it soon after, making it disappear. Pathfinder starts getting shot and runs away far from where the health drone would’ve been. Even so, Pathfinder’s health continues to regenerate after he moves far away from the spot where the drone has been deployed.
This is an unintended interaction. Lifeline’s drone only heals allies who are standing next to it, and it’s impossible to make it follow any character while they move. The best players can do is to crouch and slowly push the drone forward, which isn’t what happens on this clip. If you move that far from the drone, it stops healing you.
It’s unclear how reproducible this bug is, but it’s an exploit that gives players an unfair advantage over their opponents since it makes an ability work better than intended. Exploits are not in the same category of third-party cheating software, but it’s likely that people who are caught using this health drone exploit can be reported to Respawn Entertainment and punished to some extent if they did so intentionally.
Regardless, the best way to not be punished for this exploit is to just not use it. If you spot weird behavior from opponents in a match with a Lifeline on their team, you can try to spectate and report the player if you think there’s enough proof that they’re abusing this bug.
