One Apex Legends player recently discovered the cause of Vantage’s “heat shield hat” bug and demonstrated how other players can replicate the bug using the Survivalist Sniper’s trusty sidekick, Echo.
Apex coach and analyst Sven shared a video of them throwing out a heat shield as Vantage in the firing range yesterday. In the video, they deploy Echo directly in front of them before placing the heat shield on top of the bat-like creature. They then call Echo back to them, which removes the bat from the map but doesn’t de-spawn the heat shield. The heat shield then sticks to Vantage and follows her around as Sven runs around the firing range. Sending Echo out again puts the heat shield on his head, making him carry it wherever he goes.
It’s not clear exactly how the bug works, but it seems as though Echo is a permanent part of Vantage’s character model. Instead of being created when she uses her tactical and de-spawning when he’s called back, he always exists as a separate entity on her model. Throwing out the heat shield makes it catch on the top of Echo’s model, which then acts as a flat surface for the shield to stay on, even while he’s moving. A similar trick can be used on the vehicles on Apex‘s Olympus and Storm Point maps, where heat shields can be placed on top of the Tridents while they move to create mobile heat shields.
Related: The best Vantage skins in Apex Legends
The exploit is one of several that accompanied the release of Apex‘s 14th season on Aug. 9. It was originally discovered by Reddit user and player JomzYT, after which plenty of other players wanted to try it out. Respawn Entertainment has not made an official statement about the bug yet, but it seems as though the developer is currently putting out several other fires as players continue to report glitches as a result of the most recent update.
