Apex Legends’ new map comes with a new toy to traverse the arena. The battle royale is introducing its first vehicle, the Trident, a fast three-man hovercraft with a built-in boost functionality. It’s perfect for outrunning the Ring or other enemy squads.
The Trident serves mainly as a tool to facilitate rotations through the vast city of Olympus. Players can land on isolated POIs, such as the Orbital Cannon, and take their time looting. The speedy vehicle turns outrunning the Ring into a trivial task—as long as you don’t run into other squads.
Respawn went to great lengths to balance Apex’s first vehicle. It has no offensive capabilities whatsoever and it’s hard to destroy. Damaging enemies is the job of the two passengers, who can use their own guns to shoot at anyone caught in its path. Running over enemies doesn’t work, either. The vehicle will only collide with them.
Tridents are a safe way to traverse the map (safe by Apex standards). Seats can only be occupied by members of the same squad and there’s some cover throughout the map to provide players with breathing room. The Trident itself can be used as cover in a pinch to soak up gunfire, but it may not offer that much protection from grenades due to their area-of-effect damage.
Here’s everything you need to know about the Tridents in Apex season seven.
Trident spawn locations
Each match spawns a finite number of Tridents in fixed areas. Olympus starts with 12 vehicles spread out on the outskirts of the arena and players can see all locations on their map.
The fixed spawn points, starting from the northern part of the city, are:
- Docks
- Oasis
- Unmarked POI between Hydroponics and Oasis
- Hydroponics
- Bonsai Plaza
- Unmarked POI between Bonsai Plaza and Orbital Cannon
- Orbital Cannon
- Unmarked POI on the south part of the map
- Welcome Center
- Unmarked POI east of Gardens
- Rift
- Power Grid
The Tridents’ spawn locations reflect their role as a mobility tool. The vehicles won’t start in the center of the map, for example, but they can lend extra safety to players who want to drop in more secluded areas of Olympus.
Destroying a Trident
Taking down a Trident isn’t an easy task. Players can’t blow them up with gunfire or explosives, no matter how hard they try. “This was a design intention we had, because we only have a handful of them at a time, and we didn’t want them to be so easily removed from the map,” senior level designer Dave Osei said.
The only way to actually remove a Trident from the map is by throwing the vehicle into one of the numerous pits in Olympus. If that happens, the Trident is blown to bits, but players are propelled up into the air and can dive back into the map as if they used a jump tower.
Just because you can’t destroy the Trident doesn’t mean you shouldn’t shoot at it, though. Any damage that the vehicle takes is distributed equally between its occupants and the generous hitbox makes it a meaty target. Arc-Stars, Wattson fences, Crypto EMPs, and charged Sentinel shots can also cause the vehicle to temporarily stop in its tracks. Watch out for any Horizons on the way: her gravity lift will raise the Trident up into the air.
Due to the Trident’s hitbox and their sticky effect, Arc-Stars are the safest way to engage one of the vehicles without having to rely on utility from other legends. A successful throw will stop the Trident in its tracks and force its occupants to either engage or look for cover.
Tridents also have special interactions with some abilities. Players can attach Gibraltar’s Dome Shields and Rampart’s minigun to the vehicle to make it a mobile fortress or a nimble weapon. Caustic’s traps are also allowed (for some reason).
Grand Theft Auto-esque maneuvers to steal an enemy team’s Trident may prove ineffective. Unlike in the beloved franchise, you can’t simply steal a vehicle. You’ll have to take out all its occupants first.
Controls
The Trident has simple controls and smooth handling (it’s a hovercraft, after all). Here are some of the inputs:
- WASD: Steer
- Space/E: Exit Vehicle
- Mouse 2: Brake
- H: “Get in”
- F/V: Horn (an undisclosed addition)
The Trident is as much of a staple as Olympus as the high-rise buildings in Bonsai Plaza or the lavish houses in Estates. The vehicle adds an extra layer of personality to the map—an arena that already boasts an open design and mesmerizing POIs.
Published: Nov 2, 2020 01:00 pm