Apex Legends: Why Caustic Is The Worst Legend, Explained

Apex Legends has been out for a little over a week, and in that time players have had the chance to explore the Legends and see what they can offer to the game. Each one has a set of three unique abilities, and they all play very differently.

Due to the way the game works, you will not always be able to play your preferred Legend. This means it’s best to have some backups, but which one should you take a hard pass on?

Our choice for worst Legend is Caustic.

He is mediocre at best and mostly useless until the very end of a match, assuming you can get that far with his lack of diversity.

This will probably surprise people, especially as Caustic is an unlockable character. I expected more from him, and quite frankly, he let me down. He just isn’t very useful, especially when compared to the other legends.

His tactical allows him to place gas canisters, which will go off when shot or triggered, and his ultimate creates a large gas cloud. Caustic’s passive ability simply allows him to see any enemies that are in that cloud.

While his gas causes a small amount of damage over time on players within it, this is essentially useless when so many Legends are movement focused. It’s main use, really, is to provide cover, something which other classes can also do much better.

As for other utility, well Caustic doesn’t really have any. Throwing toxic gas about is quite literally the only thing he can do. When the gas causes so little damage and is so easy to remove yourself from, this renders him weak and underpowered.

Caustic Compared To Other Legends

To see how useless he truly is let’s look at the rest of the line up to see how he measures up.

Bangalore

Bangalore is a soldier class that will feel nicely familiar to anyone who has played battle royale games before. She also has a similar ability to Caustic’s toxic gas, with her tactical smoke grenades, which when dropped will obscure line of sight. While she can’t see enemies within the cloud, ultimately the grenades provide cover, the most useful function of Caustic’s gas.

Alongside this, she also has the ability to move faster when shot at, which is incredibly powerful for getting out of danger and her ultimate is a damaging heavy artillery strike. Especially when her two abilities are used together, her power is far greater than anything Caustic can muster.

Bloodhound

It’s harder to compare Caustic to Bloodhound as their abilities are very different, but Bloodhound’s are just far more useful.

Bloodhound is an incredibly powerful tracker. Their tactical ability allows them to see briefly through walls and reveal hidden enemies, traps and clues. They can also follow trails, even cold ones if they use their ultimate ability.

Bloodhound takes some time to master but the tracking capabilities are so strong they easily outstrip being able to see enemies in a brief smoke cloud.

Gibraltar

Gibraltar is a tank class and a powerful one at that. He has gun shields, a defensive shield and a concentrated mortar strike, similar to Bangalore’s artillery strike.

He can shield his team effectively, as well as bring in the damage with his ultimate. While there’s an argument for using Caustic’s gas in close quarters to back an enemy into a corner, ultimately shielding your team and bringing in the big guns will outstrip it in usefulness by far.

Lifeline

Lifeline is another Legend with very different abilities from Caustic's. She is all about the healing. Her abilities include being able to revive team members faster, heal them with a drone and call down a drop pod of high-quality defensive gear. They combine together to make her an incredibly powerful support class.

While there’s no direct comparison, I’d much rather have a medic on my six than a guy with a gas canister.

PREVIOUSLY: Our Beginner's Guide To Lifeline

Mirage

Mirage is the other unlockable Legend and he’s far more fun to play than Caustic. His abilities have somewhat of a steep learning curve, but are incredibly useful when played well. Mirage’s skills are also limited in a similar way to Caustic, but his focus is on decoys, which are more useful in gameplay.

Having come up against both Caustic and Mirage, I can attest to the fact that Mirage’s decoys were far more disorientating than Caustic’s gas cloud. I had no idea what was going on or where I needed to shoot. Even moving didn’t help because the decoys move as well, unlike Caustic’s gas cloud.

Pathfinder

Pathfinder is one of the most underrated Legends (editor's note: this post was originally going to be What Makes Pathfinder The Worst Legend) on the battleground right now. This is mainly due to the fact that his zipline ability is often misjudged and misused.

Many players expect the zipline and grapple to be simple ways of getting from one place to another. They are in fact far more powerful. You can swing from them as well as traveling huge distances. This is invaluable in covering a large amount of ground quickly.

Combine this with his ability to see where the next ring will be and it means you can travel fast and take up position where enemy teams will be rushing in to escape the decreasing circle. That’s far more useful than anything Caustic can do.

Wraith

Wraith is one of the most fun characters to play and has an enormous amount of utility.

Her passive is helpful for tracking enemies, her tactical can get her out of scrapes and her ultimate is incredibly powerful. She is a great character for flanking, closing gaps, escaping danger and moving teams fast through her portal. While using Wraith’s abilities to their full potential can be tricky, even beginners can get some use out of them, especially the tactical.

Once again Caustic’s gas clouds pale in comparison.

PREVIOUSLY: A Beginner's Guide To Wraith

How Can Caustic Be Improved?

But can Caustic be saved? Probably, and there are a few ways that could work.

If his abilities are to remain the same, then his gas needs to become a bit more useful. He could counter faster Legends by having his gas slow other characters down

(more than it alreadt does, anyway); it could affect a wider area, too. Perhaps he could not only see through his gas, but have his vision improved in the gas - see which Legends are closest to death, and so on.

But the more likely way Caustic will be improved will be through changes in the metagame. As more Legends are released, the highly mobile characters may drop in popularity; and when slower characters rise up, that's when Caustic may truly shine.

Verdict

Caustic really is the weakest Legend in the game right now. Everything he can do someone else can do better.

He can provide cover with a cloud, but so can Bangalore. He provides some damage to enemies with a strike, but Bangalore and Gibraltar both provide far more. He can see enemies others cannot, but it’s not a patch on Bloodhound’s tracker abilities.

He also lacks the maneuverability of Wraith and Pathfinder and the healing capabilities of Lifeline. His arsenal of abilities is weak and also limited. While other Legends provide offence and defence he does neither well.

In conclusion, stay away from the toxic guy.