Season 14 of Apex Legends, Hunted, is right around the corner. And thanks to the latest Stories from the Outlands, we already know who the next legend will be: Vantage.
Vantage, whose real name is Xiomara “Mara” Contreras, is a survivalist who grew up with her mother on the desolate, icy planet Págos. Forced to become a hunter to live on the remote planet, Vantage became adept with her sniper rifle and appeared to be living a pretty good life—that is, until she found an old prison ship.
Related: Who could be Apex’s next legend?
The 18-year-old joins the cast of Apex as the youngest legend to become a part of the games, and she’s bringing a big gun with her.
The character now has official abilities in addition to lore and character design, meaning all that’s left is for her to actually join the games herself. While many of her leaked abilities ended up coming to the game in some capacity, many of them changed or shifted in the months leading up to her release. With that in mind, here’s everything we know about Vantage in Apex Legends.
Who is Vantage in Apex Legends? All abilities, design, and lore
All Vantage abilities
Vantage is a hunter character, who is defined by the sniper-esque rifle she always carries with her and the bat companion at her side. She was originally part of the massive leak of future characters made several months ago by a now-deleted Reddit account, and notably, she was the only character in the leak outside of Newcastle that came with a full character model and not just a dummy model.
Now that all of Vantage’s information is official, players can get a better idea of exactly what the Sniper Savant is bringing to the table.
Passive: Spotter’s Lens
According to the leaked gameplay, Vantage can gather information for her team by aiming down sights while unarmed, or while using a mid or long-range scope, and targeting an enemy. Targeting an enemy in this way will reveal the legend the target is using and the distance to the target. It will also reveal the body shield the target is wearing, and the shields their teammates are wearing, meaning it will also grant Vantage the knowledge of if a team is a full three-person squad or if they’ve lost a member of their team.
Finally, Spotter’s Lens also grants Vantage a bullet drop indicator while she’s using a weapon with a mid to long-range scope, allowing her to see exactly where her bullet will end up landing before she shoots them.
In addition to this passive, Vantage can also scan survey beacons as part of the Recon class.
Tactical: Echo Relocation
The leaks suggested Vantage would have some sort of “winged companion,” and the companion is named Echo. After the release of Vantage’s SFTO, Apex devs confirmed that the small white bat shown in the trailer is indeed Echo, Vantage’s sidekick.
Echo can be ordered around the map within a certain radius of Vantage, and Vantage can launch herself to Echo by holding the tactical button down. This launch covers a good amount of ground and can traverse vertical distance as well as horizontal. Vantage must have line of sight to Echo for the launch to initiate. Echo cannot be damaged or killed.
Ultimate: Sniper’s Mark
Vantage has a customized sniper rifle that she can use to shoot enemies. Enemies hit with this rifle are considered “marked.” Marked enemies are easier for Vantage to see, and Vantage and her team get a damage buff on marked enemies. Vantage’s ultimate sniper deals 50 damage on the first hit to an enemy, but that damage doubles to 100 if Vantage hits the same target again.
Vantage’s ultimate charge works differently from all the other legends in the game. Instead of needing a full ultimate charge to use her custom sniper, the ultimate charge corresponds to available shots with the gun Vantage has at any given time. Twenty percent ultimate charge equals one shot, meaning full ultimate charge lets players shoot a maximum of five rounds in quick succession. Players don’t need to shoot all of the bullets in their sniper, however, and shooting each bullet takes Vantage’s ultimate charge down 20 percent, instead of starting back at zero once used.
All Vantage lore in Apex
Mara, who takes the name Vantage for the Apex games, is the daughter of Xenia Contreras, who grew up on the planet Págos. The planet was devoid of human life outside of the mother and daughter pair, leading Mara to grow up and become a skilled hunter.
Mara’s life is upended when she discovers a crashed ship, which her mother tells her was just an empty cargo ship, and to avoid it. Curious, Mara still presses on into the ship, discovering jail cells with skeletons in them, as well as the baby bat that would become her companion. Mara also discovers sniper rifles much like her own onboard the ship.
Accidentally triggering the ship’s defense systems, Mara is identified by the ship as her mother, presumably because of her similar appearance and shared genetic make-up. Xenia was formerly a prisoner sentenced to life aboard this ship, which is revealed to be a detention ship from Gaea named “Vantage.”
The ship’s defense systems attack Mara, who is gravely injured during her escape. Xenia finds her thanks to Echo, and realizing Mara’s injuries are too serious for her to care for without her daughter dying, she activates a distress beacon that alerts authorities to the presence of the escaped prisoner on Págos.
After the authorities show up, they get medical attention for Mara and throw Xenia back into prison. Unsure of what to do and “unable to fit into society,” Mara joins the Apex Games as Vantage to help draw attention and support for her mother’s criminal case. Knowing the Apex Games, she’ll probably find a good use for that sniper rifle along the way.
