Following the release of Wednesday’s Apex Legends update, dataminers have uncovered a new series of codes—one that seems to suggest potential NPCs in the future of the battle royale.
Twitter account RealApexLeaks posted a four-part series of images today that showed several lines of Apex’s code. The code revealed identifiers next to NPC tags, including names such as “Sarah” and “Marvin,” but also other titles like “pilot,” “goliath,” and “flyer.”
In Titanfall 2, Sarah Briggs is a supporting main character who serves as a leader of the Frontier Militia, while “Marvin” could refer to the non-playable robots that appear in waves on Titanfall’s multiplayer battlefield, Mk. III Mobile Robotic Versatile Entity (MRVN) Automated Assistants, also referred to as Marvins. Pilots are, of course, the people who occupy the giant robots, named titans, that gave rise to the franchise’s title.
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Flyers, on the other hand, are pterodactyl-like creatures that occupy the Titanfall universe, similarly to the Leviathans, or the long-legged beasts that stand in the water surrounding the Apex map but who otherwise have no effect on players. It’s possible that the battle royale title could see more creatures fill a similar role—one that serves more as décor instead of interactive characters.
According to the leaks, the characters appear to be programmed to fire and switch weapons, use cover, and melee opponents. These lines of code suggest the characters named, or at least some of them, won’t just be there to chat—they’ll be taking part in the action alongside players.
If Respawn Entertainment adds NPCs to the battle royale, it would be interesting to see how the feature impacts the game mode. It’s possible that the Apex developer will add the characters to a training mode instead of integrating them directly into the game. Another possibility is that Respawn could introduce a new game mode for players to play solo or co-op missions where these NPCs guide them through the Titanfall universe.
It’s still too early to make any definitive claims—fans will have to wait to find out if Apex will see new NPC characters or game modes in the future.
