Newcastle Is Apex Legends’ Most Underrated Legend

It’s been a quiet season for Apex Legends, despite all the additions in Season 22. The new map, e-District, is excellent in both visual and mechanical design, quickly becoming a firm favourite of mine. But if I load up the game and find myself faced with Kings Canyon? I’m playing something else.

It hasn’t helped that I’ve been so busy recently. I rushed to finish Dragon Age: Inquisition before The Veilguard released, I played dozens of Steam Next Fest demos in order to tell you about the most weird and wonderful, and life has been life-ing. Apex has fallen by the wayside.

It seems like there’s been a similar sentiment across the whole community. In what should be an exciting season pulling you in with the cyberpunk stylings of a new map, player counts dwindled. The usual suspects decried that this means Apex is a “dead game”, despite the fact that player counts are seasonal and the game is still in the top ten most played games on Steam; an impressive feat even before you take console players into account.

With a new season fast approaching and a week to kill between finishing Inquisition and starting The Veilguard, I jumped back in. E-District matches were great, I’m still exploring all the nooks and crannies and working out the best rotations. But when the map moved onto something a little older, I decided to have some fun. Enter Newcastle.

Taking Inspiration From The BLGS

I’m a long-time Bloodhound main who, much like Bloodhound themself, likes to play around with Fuse every so often. The pair are by far my most played legends. I’ve tried almost every character for at least a dozen hours or so and I’m never afraid to mix it up.

Loba is a firm favourite, Valkyrie is great fun, Horizon’s movement remains unparalleled, and even the likes of Caustic, Wattson, and Vantage can create great moments.

However, newbies like Alter, Conduit, Newcastle, and Ballistic have never tickled my pickle. I unlock them when they’re introduced, see if I can find a fun way to utilise their abilities, and either add them to my rotation or shelve them like Wheezy the penguin in Toy Story 2. If a Legend is shelved, it takes a lot to dust them off again. Luckily for Newcastle, the BLGS is doing the most.

I hope my Legends don’t come to life Toy Story style when I close the game. “How did he lose that 1v1?” “Is Loba his main now?” “He got an heirloom!!”

Check out this clip of pro player Zach Mazer utilising Newcastle’s ultimate ability in the final moments of a match. The opponents are forced to drop on his team by the closing ring, and they all land on the electrified fortification. It does big damage to each of them, and debilitates their movement. His shotgun finishes them off.

I had to try it for myself. And let me tell you, dear reader, nobody knows how to deal with Newcastle’s wall.

How To Play Newcastle In Apex Legends

Newcastle’s abilities are both shields, and they’re both useful in different circumstances. His Mobile Shield is useful for tight spaces and close-quarters engagements. Use it like Gibby’s bubble, except it has a quicker cooldown and you can reposition it. Assaulting through an open corridor? Send your shield out in front of you. Need to take a second to retreat and reset? Shield your exit.

But the Castle Wall is the real deal. Slamming this down into the ground can be used in so many scenarios. It can block corridors indoors, it can provide important cover in an open field. You can jump dozens of metres to place it, unlike a Wattson fence or Gibby bubble. But the most important factor is that other players don’t know what to do against it.

I can’t count the number of times my opponents approach too close in an attempt to use my wall as their cover. Then they’re damaged, electrified, and their movement is slowed so they can’t escape my akimbo Mozambiques. Plenty more just run away. Fine by me. Now I’ve got complete control of this area with great cover to duck behind when I need to reload or heal.

Newcastle has his problems – the size of his hitbox, for starters – but he’s great fun to play. Jumping to your allies’ aid will never get old, and his Retrieve the Wounded passive is another shield that allows you to revive them easily, even in the middle of a firefight. The closest I got to a Mazer moment (not to be confused with a Mazer Moment, wherein he makes an incredibly silly misplay) was when I ran out of shotgun ammo in the final 1v1 to decide a game after me and a random Wraith had duked it out and downed two thirds of the final three-man team. Instead of resorting to punching, I revived Wraith as our opponent tried to get around my revive shield.

There was nothing they could do. Now a 2v1, I loosed some shots from my G7 Scout and my Wraith used a more appropriate weapon to secure the victory. I only had a blue knockdown shield, and yet I was able to clutch out a match thanks to Newcastle’s abilities.

I’m not converted to a full-fledged Newcastle main yet, but I’m surprised just 4.1 percent of players are using him, according to Apex Legends Status. However, players who are using them are, on average, a higher rank than players using any other legend. While I’m bringing the Plat 3 average way down, this shows that, in the hands of a skilled player Newcastle can be a formidable option. The fact that I took this idea from an esports player also shows that Newcastle has utility.

Use this as an opportunity to try something new. Who knows, it could be good. Even better, it could be fun.