How to play Octane in Apex Legends

The stories got it wrong. Hare crushes tortoise every time.
Image via Respawn Entertainment

Octane was the first legend to be added to Apex Legends after the game launched with its original eight characters, and he’s even more popular today. The speed demon is a perfect match for players that like to get aggressive and take as many fights as possible.

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The hot-blooded Octane has great movement and healing options, making him great for solo queuing and for team play in the right situations. His kit is built around being a high-speed daredevil, so prepare to be the entry fragger for your squad, dipping in and out of combat as quickly as your stim allows.

Swift Mend — Passive

Swift Mend is a unique passive to Octane that heals the character over time while not taking damage. He heals at a rate of one health per second. This is a useful for Octane, considering his tactical ability drains his health.

The main advantage of this passive ability is not needing to carry as many flesh healing items as a normal legend. Usually, Swift Mend can take the place of syringes. Try to devote only one inventory slot to med packs, and use that extra slot for more shields, ammo, or grenades.

Or, if you want to really be speedy, find gold armor, forgo med packs, and use syringes.

The double health the gold armor grants will take care of most of your health needs, and the healing Octane passive will do the rest.

Stim — Tactical (Q)

Octane’s tactical ability, Stim, increases your walking speed by 30 percent for six seconds, and your sprinting speed by 40 percent. When you activate the Stim, it takes away 20 health (or, if Octane is below 20 health, it will put his health to one).

Octane’s tactical can be his best weapon, and also his worst enemy. Because his speed can take enemies by surprise, it’s easy to rush enemies or find surprising angles on them. It’s equally easy to run directly into a squad of three, and immediately get knocked. Just remember the Stim is just as good for advancing as it is for running away and make sure you don’t put your team at a disadvantage by running far ahead of them and dying.

Launch Pad — Ultimate

Launch Pad, Octane’s ultimate, spawns a jump pad on the floor that can launch players into the air, allowing them to traverse large portions of the map with ease and giving them the option of performing a double jump while in the air. If players run or walk over the pad, they will travel higher vertically, but shorter horizontally. If they slide or crouch walk over the pad, they will get a longer and faster horizontal jump, but with less height.

Much like the rest of Octane’s kit, the Launch Pad is great for players that are quick thinkers. If your team needs to get to high ground immediately, or if you’ve put down a good amount of damage on an enemy team that’s hiding behind cover, throwing the Launch Pad down for you and your team to cross that distance almost instantly makes it one of the best ultimates in the game.

Much like his tactical ability, however, it’s also easy to throw your game with this ultimate. Make sure if you’re jumping onto a team that you do it before they get the chance to heal up, or else the only thing the Launch Pad is launching you and your team towards is the lobby.


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Adam Newell
Assigning Editor. In 2015, Adam graduated from the University of Aberystwyth with a bachelor's in Media and Communications. Working in the industry for over ten years. If it has anything to do with Nintendo and Pokémon chances are you will see me talking about it, covering, and likely not sleeping while playing it.
Author
Adam Snavely
Associate Editor and Apex Legends Lead. From getting into fights over Madden and FIFA with his brothers to interviewing some of the best esports figures in the world, Adam has always been drawn to games with a competitive nature. You'll usually find him on Apex Legends (World's Edge is the best map, no he's not arguing with you about it), but he also dabbles in VALORANT, Super Smash Bros. Melee, CS:GO, Pokemon, and more. Ping an R-301.