Octane officially set to join Apex Legends with first battle pass

The first new character to join the Apex Legends roster has now officially been announced, as Octane is set to join the game with the release of the title’s first battle pass.

The new legend has long been suspected to join the game due to leaks, but information about the character is now being formally presented by developer Respawn Entertainment.

According to community manager Jay “Jayfresh” Frechette, Octane will arrive with the Season 1 Battle Pass, which has been announced to begin March 19. While the patch notes will include more information on his abilities, a lot of information regarding the legend has already been uncovered by curious data miners.

Clues to the new character have been uncovered over the past four weeks, with some pieces of information being leaked as far back as February. Interested parties uncovered a list of what appeared to be names of unreleased characters, including Crypto, Jericho, and Octane. More information was uncovered which hinted at possible abilities for one of the heroes, such as strings titled “octane_stim_inject” and “octane_stim_release”.

More recently, images have appeared of Octane on a season pass graphic, and another of  possible playtesting that matched the datamined strings. The information was difficult to verify however, as the image was traced back to a private instagram account under the name of “childz_pl4y”.

According to the leaks, Octane’s abilities include a passive that allows him to restore health over time and a tactical ability that allows for increased speed. His ultimate ability, Launch Pad, would allow for a deployable item to send Octane through the air.

While Octane’s ability information has not been confirmed by Respawn, information regarding the Legend’s name, appearance, and the launch pad mechanic are all now official. The leaked season pass graphic is being used on the game’s website, and launch pads were recently spotted within the game itself.

More information regarding the changes to the game will be released in the form of patch notes an hour ahead of the game’s update on March 19.