Octane is the most picked Legend in Apex Legends. His skills and abilities are the most sought-after by players. He is fast, his Ultimate has a low cooldown, and his Active skill has ridiculous uptime. He has been nerfed season after season, yet, he is still one of the most effective Legends due to his insane mobility.
Who is Octane in Apex Legends?
Octavio Silva became bored one day. In truth, he was bored most days. Son of the distracted CEO of Silva Pharmaceuticals, he amused himself by undertaking death-defying acts and broadcasting holovids of them for his followers to gaze at. So, on this particular day, he intended to break the course record for a neighboring Gauntlet by throwing himself across the finish line — with a grenade.
Hours later, as he lay in triage, the doctors informed him the damage done to his legs meant his daredevil days were gone. That did not sit well with Octavio, who went to an old buddy for assistance: Ajay Che, whom he guilted into faking an order to replace his legs with bionic ones. With the ability to restore his limbs at a moment’s notice, Octavio decided that petty internet tricks were not enough: the Apex Games, the ultimate adrenaline thrill, were beckoning. Now he will become an Apex Champion by performing the most astounding, earth-defying maneuvers ever seen. Maybe he will not be as bored in the arena.
Octane is a Legend who is liked by most of the Apex Legends community due to his fast-paced action skillset. He can also jump into hard-to-reach places with his Ultimate. This is also granted to his teammates and even enemy squads. If you ever have Legend Tokens to spend, be sure to buy them immediately because he is that good of a Legend. Because of this, you will have a hard time picking him during the selection screen if you are not the first pick as there is a high probability that your squadmates will insta-pick him immediately.
Playing Octane: The Basics
- Wait for the Help. – Just because you are so fast, does not mean all of your squadmates are too. Wait for your squadmates when entering a new area, or have a recon Legend to check the area first for enemy teams. Do not get caught alone as you sprint into new places.
- If they die, they die. – Most players in Apex Legends fight until their squad gets eliminated. Octane, due to his speed, can escape an ugly and unwinnable fight where all of his teammates gets elimianted. If you are an Octane, it is fine to run away and get back to your squad’s banners and deliver them to a nearby beacon.
- Be a keyboard warrior. – Spam WASD to your heart’s content. With your speed, there is a tendency you will not get hit by enemy bullets. The speed boost from your Tactical will have your enemies head spinning.
- He’s so vulnerable. Speed is what Octane has. In exchange for this, his health dwindles as he spams his Tactical. Altough his Passive allows him to regenerate his lost health, you better keep yourself healthy during a firefight. A dead Octane cannot run away.
- Fly High-Octane. Always use your Ultimate when it is available during a fight. It allows great positioning and can also be used as an escape mechanism. It can also be used to distract opponents inside buildings like disallowing complete control of their Legends if they step on it entering a door.
How to Use Octane Skills in Apex Legends
How to use Octane’s Passive Swift Mend
In-game Description:
Automatically restore health over time.
Octane’s passive is quite potent. It will seldom win you games or have a significant impact on your battles, but it will give you much value throughout a match. Every second, he heals for one health point. This passive ability will be used fairly regularly, especially as you Stim to run around. Few Legends’ passives will be used so frequently.
This does not mean Octane should not stock up health supplies. It is just that he should not have the priority for the health and armor packs. Nevertheless, he must have a lot of armor as his life during fights is always in red.
Below are some tips for playing around Swift Mend:
- Always remember this Passive does not work concurrently with your Tactical. When your Tactical wears off, this automatically triggers. Learn to manage your health around this mechanic.
- Even though you are knocked down, you will regenerate your health. You will not get up when your replenish your entire bar and walk again. You will be knocked down until revived by a teammate.
- The regeneration rate is 1 health / second. You can have low health to full regeneration in a minute. Hence, your need for keeping health packs is not the same as other Legends.
How to use Octane’s Tactical Stim
In-game description:
Move 30% faster for six seconds. Costs health to use.
This ability defines Octane’s playstyle. Octane is all about speed, and Stim gets him up to speed. Octane will be 30% faster at normal speeds and 40% quicker while sprinting at the cost of 20 health. An Octane player must balance activating this skill and not draining the whole health pool. Stim has a broader range of applications, as it removes most slowing effects on the character like Caustic’s Gas and Wattson’s Fences. Although Revenant’s silence does not remove the speed boost of Stim already activated, it prohibits Octane from further using the skill for the entire duration of the silence.
Here are some tips in utilizing Stim:
- Stim does not kill Octane as it does not reduce the HP pool past 1HP. You can still spam this ability even if you are clinging to that low of an HP. This is a very important fact to remember if you are scramming out of a hairy situation.
- When using a health pack the effects of the Stim are deactivated. The best way to utilize Stim during healing is to slide down on Stim and then apply a first aid kit. You will have the speed boost granted by Stim still as you slide down .
- Use the Speed Boost to flank an enemy. Do not head down straight into an enemy squad. Go around your enemies shooting them from the sides or behind.
How to use Octane’s Ultimate LaunchPad
In-game description:
Deploy a jump pad that catapults you and your teammates through the air.
Octane’s Ultimate LaunchPad enables him to deploy a gadget that pushes him into the air and even allows him to perform a double leap to change direction. Octane’s LaunchPad now has a 90-second cooldown, up from 60 seconds, according to the Genesis update on June 29. This update was meant to decrease the Adrenaline Junkie’s utility and prevent him from spamming his squad’s ability.
It is worth mentioning Octane’s LaunchPad was nerfed once more in the most recent Season 10 patch. The horizontal distance has been adjusted from 10% to 15%. Nonetheless, gamers will retain some control over the direction in which they fly.
These are some tricks in how to use the LaunchPad:
- The Launch Pad also pushes other objects like grenades, canisters, and even other Legend’s objects like Gibraltar’s Dome and Lifeline’s Drone. So if you are not playing as Octane, you can use objects to throw them further into the direction of your enemies.
- Downed Legends can use the Launch Pad to throw them out of a mess. If you get knocked out, launch yourself to a safer place. This is a great technique so that your allies will not be obligated to pick you up during a gunfight.
- You can control your launch. Sliding over or crouch walking into a Launch Pad will have your trajectory higher. This means longer distances covered. In order to jump higher but covers only shorter distances, run into the Launch Pad.
Octane versus Other Legends
Revenant is Octane’s best friend or worst enemy. Revenant completely disables Octane’s strength with his Tactical. As an ally, Octane allows the squad to cover large distances during the duration of a Death Totem. Revenant is at his most efficient with Octane’s LaunchPad as the squad can re-enter a fight quickly.
As to other Legends, Octane can be part of a squad regardless of a team’s composition. He does not render any of the offense-focused Legends like Wraith and Bangalore useless. He also synergizes well with tanky Legends by allowing these Legends to take the attention off of Octane.
