There’s been a lot of talk about the state of Apex Legends in recent weeks, but it appears one of the more interesting storylines flying under the radar lately has been the sudden rise of a certain commonly slept-on champion.
At the launch of season 16, Respawn took a more holistic approach with its new character content, skipping a new legend release for the first time to focus on balance.
But as the ongoing Veiled collection event rolls on, it seems Caustic is starting to steal the Apex spotlight. Caustic’s pick rate has boomed with a 20 percent increase in the opening days of the event, according to battle royale stats tracking site Apex Legends Status—and he’s easily the biggest mover in the game’s entire cast right now.
Presumably, this trend is being sparked by players who’ve acquired Caustic’s newly released Apex Contagion Prestige skin during the event. Similar to the previous Prestige skins, to earn the higher tiers of the Apex Contagion offering, players must complete challenges that require them to deal thousands of damage with Caustic.
Related: How to unlock Caustic’s Apex Contagion Prestige skin
Perhaps an unforeseen ripple effect from this is an uproar from those in the community who’ve found the toxin levels have begun to peak in Apex’s respawn modes.
“If you’re playing Caustic on Control, just know I hate you and think you’re a loser,” one fan tweeted on April 26. “Good thing they added the Prestige Caustic!” Apex pro Nicholas “Vein” Hobbs wrote. “My control games are so much fun now!!”
If you do find that you’ve been having to deal with the Toxic Trapper and his gas canisters in Apex much more than normal as of late, just know you’re not alone.
While fighting a bunkered-up Caustic team in one battle royale setting is already exceeding the daily recommended amount for most players’ mental health, it seems this might just be what some Control and Gun Run games will painfully be consisting of until Apex’s next content drop.
