Apex Legends' Best In-Game Teasers, Ranked
Revenant watches a news clip in Season 4 that features Ash, who would not appear for several more seasons
No new season of Apex Legends is complete without the release of a few teasers alluding to content that will soon appear in the game the following season or sometime later down the line. Respawn Entertainment regularly sprinkles in little hints about future in-game developments, but not all of them are easily noticed, and most are no longer accessible in-game. So with Season 14 right around the corner (and more teasers undoubtedly on the way), we’re taking a stroll down memory lane with a ranked list of some of the teasers that have appeared in Apex Legends.
Below, we discuss some of the most creative clues about future content that the Apex developers have ever made, most of which were stealthily dropped into the game for players to discover. We don’t list every single teaser that Respawn has ever used for Apex–just our personal favorites, listed in the order of “That’s pretty cool,” to “Holy s**t, that’s incredible!” Let us know down in the comments which Apex teaser is your favorite, and be sure to check back on this gallery as Respawn’s battle royale game continues to evolve. We’ll be sure to update this with more teasers as they come.
19. Octane’s Jump Pads
One of Octane’s scattered Jump Pads, as seen in Apex Legends prior to Season 1
Strange, delightfully-bouncy launch pads began to appear all over Kings Canyon near the end of the Apex Legends pre-season (the 43-day period prior to the arrival of Season 1: Wild Frontier and its debut legend, Octane). In hindsight, this was an obvious taste of the speedy legend’s abilities, but at the time, the appearance of the Jump Pads was the source of significant speculation amongst Apex Legends players, as it was the first-ever legend teaser to appear in the game.
18. Rampart’s spray-paint spree
Rampart’s portrait of Kuben Blisk, the commissioner of the Apex Games
Before Rampart’s arrival at the Apex Games, it seems she was getting up to no good while waiting for her first match. Just before Season 6 launched, players began to find the Graffiti Mod hop-up in the ground loot pool, which turned their bullets into paintball guns that left the map splattered with rainbow goo.
But the teaser didn’t stop there–around the time the Graffiti Mod arrived, players began noticing multiple pieces of graffiti art appearing on walls and buildings on World’s Edge. All of the graffiti is Rampart’s handiwork, including several portraits of Apex Games Commissioner Kuben Blisk with “WON’T LET YA DOWN” written next to him. At the time, it was a bit unclear as to what that meant exactly, but Rampart’s episode of Stories from the Outlands made it all clear, revealing that Blisk had taken a liking to her, for better or worse, and sponsored her addition to the Apex Games.
17. Seer’s Exhibit
Seer’s in-game teaser in action
Prior to Seer’s arrival in Season 10, players stumbled across curious objects scattered throughout Olympus and World’s Edge. These strange metal objects were placed on the ground, but when shot by a player or interacted with, they would begin to levitate, releasing a horde of blue micro-drones that created a moth-shaped formation before disappearing.
Legends who had participated in the Arenas prior to their arrival in the Apex Games–like Rampart and Octane–recognized the object as belonging to a opponent they had gone up against in the underground blood sport before joining the main battle royale, while all the others would comment on the stories they’d heard about his exploits. This would ultimately be a teaser for Seer–the object being a clear reference to his ultimate ability, Exhibit, which functions in the exact same manner.
16. Vantage’s diary and distress beacon
Vantage’s diary is full of fascinating tidbits, including descriptions of new forms of wildlife.
Prior to the release of Vantage’s entry in the Stories from the Outlands series, Respawn tweeted a series of four images of Vantage’s childhood diary entries. The entries describe Vantage’s odd, isolated upbringing on the abandoned planet of Pàgos, a frozen wasteland inhabited only by Vantage, her mother, and various types of wildlife –many of which have never been seen in-game.
Several days later, another tweet appeared, this one containing audio of a distress beacon signal being intercepted by a passing ship. Neither of these tweets made much sense until the following week, when the Survive trailer debuted, finally giving players a look at Vantage’s distressing past and Pàgos’ delightfully unique wildlife.
15. Ash’s other half
This teaser marked the first-ever in-game appearance of Ash’s human face.
After being pieced back together during Season 5’s Broken Ghost quest and taking her place as the Arenas announcer in Season 9, most players assumed Ash’s storyline had, for the most part, come to an end. But they were proven wrong near the end of Season 10, when a 3D projection of Ash’s artificial face began glitching out. The holographic likeness–which normally stares players down as they select their weapons and wait for the next round to start–began to flicker back and forth between Ash’s artificial faceplate and her original human face, frozen in a terrified expression.
This two-faced hologram served as a teaser of sorts for Ash’s episode of Stories from the Outlands. The episode depicts Ash’s traumatic transformation from human to simulacrum, along with the psyche-shattering discovery that she is not alone in her head. That trailer also confirmed that Ash would be making her way into the Apex Games, becoming the new playable character for Season 11.
14. Horizon’s secret message
Horizon introduced herself to players via a message at the Firing Range.
In the weeks preceding the release of Season 7 and its debut legend, Horizon, players were tasked with finding and using Gravity Lifts, which had appeared all over King’s Canyon overnight. Collecting the Gravity Lifts unlocked a series of challenges. This included a challenge requiring players to get a kill while in mid-air, an achievement that was no small feat at a time when the only “airborne” legends on the roster were Octane and Pathfinder.
Upon completing a challenge, players were invited to the Firing Range, where they were greeted with a message from Horizon, though only NEWT appeared on the screen. But once all challenges were completed, Horizon herself appeared on the screen, revealing her physical appearance to players for the first time and confirming that she would be joining the legend squad in Season 7.
13. Wattson and Octane’s hidden silhouettes
Wattson and Octane were revealed before Season 1 had even started.
In the final moments of Apex’s very first gameplay trailer, which debuted mere minutes before the game went live, the trailer’s narrator asks, “Who knows where the next legend will come from?” as a brief shot of two people standing under an Apex Predator banner appears on the screen. Initially believed to just be two random shadows, it would eventually be revealed that these two silhouettes were actual characters: Octane (left) and Wattson (right). These two would join the legend roster in Season 1 and Season 2, respectively.
12. Fuse’s downed ship and explosive abilities teaser
Fuse’s ship plummeted to the ground after Mad Maggie sabotaged it.
Before Fuse arrived in Season 8, two teasers appeared in the game. The first was his ship, which could be seen floating in the sky. Additionally, between rings five and six, bombs would begin dropping on the battlefield. When shot, the bombs created a massive circle of flames, damaging any nearby enemies and giving players a taste of Fuse’s Motherlode ultimate ability.
Fuse’s ship later crashed into Kings Canyon after being sabotaged by Mad Maggie in the Season 8 launch trailer, an event that also hinted at Maggie’s future debut in Season 12.
11. A lurking legend
Loba sneaking behind her future team mates in a teaser that popped up near the end of Season 4
As Season 4 started to wrap up, Apex players began to speculate on the next Legend’s identity. But it wasn’t too hard to figure out–mainly because Season 5’s legend, Loba, had been lurking on Solace for weeks, scoping out Kings Canyon prior to destroying the secret Revenant factory located beneath Skull Town.
Perhaps the most brazen example of Loba’s attempts to hide in plain sight was a teaser that would sometimes occur in the lobby near the end of Season 4. Unbeknownst to her forward-facing future team mates, Loba occasionally materialized behind them, peeking out from between the trio of Predator banners that have always hung in the lobby behind the legends. After a few moments of covert observation, Loba promptly teleported elsewhere, leaving the other legends in the lobby none the wiser.
10. Gridiron and Newcastle’s arrival
Bangalore and Jackson’s scorecard, as seen in the Apex Chronicles firing range challenge
Before Newcastle–AKA Jackson Williams, Bangalore’s brother–made his debut, players were treated to two in-game teasers. The first was Bangalore’s entry in the Apex Chronicles, a relatively new addition to the game that gives players a deeper look into an individual legend’s life.
The teaser involved a series of Firing Range challenges that could only be completed while playing Bangalore. But as players began firing at targets, Bangalore would experience a full-on flashback to her days on the battlefield with her brother. The siblings were a competitive duo who created a scorecard to keep track of which Williams sibling was better at various tasks. Completing the challenge triggered a cutscene in which Bangalore went out to the ocean to have a few beers and give her brother a proper send-off, having finally accepted the reality of his death.
Not long after, players began finding tidbits of lore hidden within the Storm Point map. By interacting with certain screens at four different locations on Storm Point, players could trigger a series of audio recordings that Bangalore had sent to her family immediately after the events of the Gridiron trailer, an episode of Stories from the Outlands that debuted roughly two weeks after the in-game messages appeared. The Gridiron trailer told the story of how Bangalore ended up in the Outlands, but it also introduced players to her brother, Jackson, who would later join the Apex Games himself in Season 13.
9. The scene of the crime
Forge’s deathbox sits in the middle of the trashed OTV set where Revenant killed him.
Officially, Season 4’s debut legend was a guy named Forge, a Hammond Industries-backed fighting champion with an ego as big as his biceps. It was clear from the get-go that Forge enjoyed the fame attached to his new identity as a legend, so it wasn’t too shocking when players came across what appeared to be a television set with filming equipment on World’s Edge. What was shocking, however, was the next episode of Stories from the Outlands, which aired a few days after the TV set showed up in-game.
Revenant made a surprise cameo in the middle of Forge’s interview, successfully stealing the show and the fallen legend’s spot in the Apex Games. When players logged in to visit World’s Edge again, the once-pristine filming area was in disarray. But in the center of this updated OTV set was a single treasure: Forge’s deathbox, complete with a gun charm based on the gold medal Forge was wearing around his neck at the moment of his death.
8. Crypto and Voidwalker
When Voidwalker uses the drive to bypass IMC security measures, Crypto’s character logo briefly appears.
In Voidwalker, the first episode of Stories from the Outlands, it was revealed that the dimension Wraith currently inhabits isn’t her own. But a closer look at the animated short also reveals something else: when Voidwalker uses a thumb drive to hack into the IMC employee database, Crypto’s character logo flashes on the screen for a split second, hinting at Crypto’s future debut in the Apex Games.
This teaser would eventually pop up again in Apex Legends, with the revelation that it was Bangalore who purchased the drive from Crypto and used it, not Voidwalker. You could argue that this story development, in turn, teased that all of the legends would hear about this and eventually turn to Crypto to get drives for themselves, which they all use to hack into the IMC Armories on Storm Point, added in Season 13.
7. Hidden Heat Shields
A closer look at Wattson’s desk reveals she’s the creator of Heat Shields.
In October 2020, Respawn tweeted an image of Wattson asleep at her cluttered desk with the caption, “A messy desk is a sign of genuis.” The image itself is full of Easter eggs, but it also contains a hidden hint at future in-game content that wouldn’t debut for several months.
Right in front of Wattson lies a sketchpad with a design for the Heat Shield, a new type of survival item that wouldn’t appear in Apex Legends for another five months. Wattson even has a miniature version of the shield up and running on her desk.
On the right side of her sketchpad is a list of potential names for her creation, including Void Ring, Dome Field, and Storm Breaker. Storm Breaker may have been hinting at the Storm Point map, which arrived in Season 11, over a year after the image of Wattson’s desk was posted on Twitter.
6. Hinting at the Harvester
A message from a concerned Hammond employee regarding the Harvester’s effects on World’s Edge
As Season 9 came to a close, a teaser appeared in the game that caused the Olympus map to begin shaking, almost as if an earthquake were taking place. Previously, in Season 4, the Syndicate had installed a Planet Harvester on World’s Edge, which was used to mine the rare, valuable minerals and fuel in the planet’s molten core. But as they drilled further into the planet, the Harvester began causing irreversible damage. This was hinted at by the shaking and rumbling felt by players who experienced the teaser in-game. Anyone playing Bloodhound would also hear dialogue from the masked hunter lamenting the damage to their beloved home planet. Additionally, players could stumble upon a message from a Hammond employee named Bilal, who appears to be the only employee who is concerned about the state of World’s Edge.
Interestingly, before the Harvester even became a POI on World’s Edge, a teaser appeared hinting at its future installation. Near the end of Season 3, a large Hammond Robotics hologram appeared in the location that would later become the Harvester in Season 4.
5. Ash’s impressive Arenas invitation
Apex players’ first look at Season 9’s Arenas mode
Near the end of Season 8, Apex players began stumbling across strange holosprays. Finding one in a Care Package would lead to a voicemail from Ash herself, requesting that the player find three more holosprays, which eventually unlocked a cutscene at the firing range. Players were directed to board a ship which quickly warped to an unknown location that was visually similar to Kings Canyon.
Once they disembarked, players ascended a dark tunnel via a slow elevator, listening to the sounds of gunfire–and the voice of Ash herself–echoing down from above. Upon reaching the surface, players got a brief look at what appeared to be the aftermath of an Arenas match, overseen by an enormous hologram of Ash. The spooky simulacrum then asked the player, “Do you have what it takes to impress me, legend?”
This teaser served as an introduction to Arenas–a permanent 3v3 mode that arrived in Season 9 and is personally overseen by Ash herself.
4. Crypto caught red-handed
Crypto hacking a terminal with a screen displaying the name of the next season’s new map, World’s Edge
Near Season 3’s launch, several teasers involving the upcoming season’s debut legend, Crypto, began popping up all over Kings Canyon. Player banners displayed error messages, the announcer’s voice would sometimes sound warped, and several mysterious objects popped up on the map.
The first was Crypto’s laptop, which he apparently forgot to take with him. The laptop displayed schematics for the Repulsor tower, which Crypto would later destroy. But an even more fascinating secret was hidden in the subterranean Singh Labs POI. Near the end of the structure’s right hallway, there are two doorways. One is open but has no doors. The other has both doors shut–and is barricaded with a desk from the inside. The only way to enter this second room is to melee the doors until they break open.
Players who managed to get past the doors and climb over the desk were greeted with the clickity-clack sound of someone typing nearby, and further investigation led them to none other than Crypto himself, who was frantically typing on a console in an inaccessible part of the room. Once his drone noticed the player’s presence, it would alert Crypto, who would take a quick look at the player before bolting out of the room, with his airborne companion not far behind.
3. Field trip to a murderbot factory
The Spectre factory containing Revenant’s spare shells, as seen in Season 5’s launch trailer
One of the most exciting of Apex’s many in-game teasers is undeniably the impromptu, mid-match trip Loba took players on prior to her debut in Season 5.
Near the end of Season 4, players noticed that one of the loot vaults on World’s Edge was already open–and already looted–at the beginning of every match. Upon further inspection, players discovered Loba had left behind a calling card in the form of a holospray that read, “Want your treasure back? Come see me.”
Also left behind? The thief’s prized Jump Drive bracelet. Players who touched it were instantly transported to the underground Spectre factory that was, amazingly, on Kings Canyon, a completely different map. Being teleported elsewhere during the middle of a match was both alarming and awe-inspiring. Occasionally, activating the teaser could work to one’s advantage from a tactical perspective in the event that a quick diversion was needed.
2. Mad Maggie’s mid-air mayhem
The wreckage of Mad Maggie’s fighter jet, which crash-landed on one of Storm Point’s beaches
Prior to Mad Maggie’s debut in Season 12: Defiance, players began noticing something strange happening on Storm Point near the beginning of each match. Depending on where they were positioned, players had the opportunity to watch Mad Maggie try–and fail–to lose the Syndicate officials pursuing her fighter jet across the horizon. Unfortunately, she was shot down, but was quickly phased out of the cockpit just before the aircraft crashed in a manner that would have otherwise killed her. The breathtaking teaser was shocking enough to make many players cease their fighting in favor of investigating the downed craft instead.
1. The Broken Ghost
Ash’s reassembled head shortly before being reattached to her body
Season 5 heralded the arrival of Loba, but she wasn’t the only new legend to make an appearance that season. The season’s story mission required players to engage in weekly PvE adventures that took place in a separate dimension–one in which Revenant has overtaken the Syndicate and is worshipped as a god. While it’s not entirely known why Ash’s head ended up in the Shadow dimension, we do know that Apex Games Commissioner Kuben Blisk sent her there.
After reassembling her head in the quest’s final mission, players were tasked with reattaching it to her body. This required players to climb down into an abandoned, leaky bunker where Ash’s damaged body was stored. As players approached, Ash began spitting out a series of word-salad sentences that made little sense at the time. Once her head was screwed on straight once more, Ash said “Welcome to Olympus” before the screen faded to black.
Many players assumed she would be Season 7’s legend, so when Horizon arrived alongside Olympus instead of Ash, it was a surprise. But Ash would make her way into Apex Legends eventually, first as the announcer of Arenas and then as a playable character.
But when it comes to the conclusion of The Broken Ghost questline, the real icing on the cake is that bizarre collection of dialogue lines Ash spouts in the moments before her head is reattached. While the sentences and odd phrases made absolutely no sense initially, each of her seemingly-random statements would later prove to be directly tied to a future plot development. This includes references to Lifeline and Octane’s immediate family members (“Darion, Duardo…”), a reference to Ash’s abandonment of Horizon (“Just a wee bit o’ betrayal before breakfast, eh dearie?”), a direct quote of Valkyrie’s and her father’s favorite catchphrase (“Five by Five”), and a science joke Horizon uses to keep wannabe geniuses off her back (“X equals the temperature of the negative space, NOT the specimen itself”).
Additionally, Ash mentioned a series of five different five-digit codes. This was also a reference to “five by five,” but the codes themselves were later used by Horizon prior to Season 11 to “wake up” Ash (who Horizon mistakenly believed to be her friend Lillian Peck, when, in actuality, she’s Dr. Ashleigh Reid). Instead of bringing Lillian back, the codes shattered the simulacrum’s psyche into two halves: the cutthroat Ash and more-human Leigh.
As Ash’s head is reattached to her body at the end of the Broken Ghost quest, she can be heard imparting a few more words of wisdom: “All roads lead to Branthium.” Branthium is the rare, valuable fuel Horizon and Ash were collecting when Ash betrayed her, leaving her mentor to die in a black hole and attempting to reroute the Branthium shipment (with disastrous consequences). At the time of the Broken Ghost quest, players were still three months away from meeting Horizon and learning what Branthium actually is. In retrospect, the amount of forethought and planning that went into this particular teaser is nothing short of astounding. If there’s one teaser to rule them all, it’s this one.
