Punch-boosting is the latest movement technique to sweep players up in Apex Legends, enabling them to move at previously unheard of speeds. With the technique still being so new, however, the practical applications of this tech beyond “gotta go fast!” still feel largely uncovered.
Just take it from Twitter user wrthcrw, who discovered punch-boosting in the first place. She found an entirely new way to use the tech while recording the video that was supposed to cover everything players needed to know about it.
Falling from a tall tower, wrthcrw times a punch-boost against a wall perfectly, sending her flying backwards in a slide, rather than stuck in place after landing.
In a game where movement is king, most Apex players will know about fall stun or stagger. Characters don’t take fall damage in the game, but when they jump from a height, they are momentarily stunned. Their movement is dramatically slowed for a split second, before recovering and being able to move at normal speed. This is most noticeable on Storm Point’s gravity cannons, which land players rooted to one spot. Generally speaking, this fall stun or stagger only lasts for a short amount of time. But in the middle of a fight, it can be deadly, giving enemies the opportunity to shred through health as if they were firing at a dummy in the firing range.
Canceling fall stun with a well-timed melee to a wall or sloped surface near the ground is a well-worn technique, essentially resetting the amount of distance a player has fallen and allowing players to land as if they simply hopped off a rock instead of jumped from the roof of a building. Punch-boosting to cancel the stun, however, is an even better option.
The ability to slide out of a fall with the speed punch-boosting offers is just practical in several situations. Dropping in front of an enemy no longer makes the player a sitting duck. Chasing an enemy down, or running away from another person, suddenly becomes a much easier task if and when someone jumps off a structure. It’s even better than Horizon’s passive, the only ability in the game that automatically cancels fall stun.
In almost all situations in Apex, maintaining momentum is a good thing, and currently, punch-boosting is the only way to maintain the speed a legend generates from falling. Add in the fact that it just looks like a fun thing to do, and you have all the motivation you need for trying it out.