Throughout the past few months, Apex Legends players have been sharing images that seem to imply there may be a ghost — or series of ghosts — lurking in the game’s backdrop. Even video game news site Dexerto weighed in on Apex Legends ghost sightings in a recent story titled, “Apex Legends players come across mysterious ‘ghosts’ in Kings Canyon."
It wouldn’t be strange for the game’s developer, Respawn, to incorporate mysterious new elements into the game in an effort to ramp up player enthusiasm for new content. The company has done so in the past, with a prime example being the addition of bounce pads by Market in advance of Octane’s release.
Whether it’s the result of having watched too many ghost hunting shows over the years or it’s simply an urge to do a deep dive into the game’s lore and its meta, the team at TheGamer felt it compelled to take a close look at the footage to figure out what, exactly, players are seeing — or not seeing — in these videos.
Spoiler alert: There are no ghosts.
Debunking The ‘Ghost’ Theory: Plausible Explanations
While it’s fun to speculate and discover Easter eggs as they appear, these apparent anomalies aren't teasing forthcoming content updates or lore items.
To Dexerto’s credit, the article’s author points out, “[T]his could all be the result of a glitch or a bug, which seems like the likeliest theory, since Apex Legends isn't exactly clean of issues that can cause game-breaking stuff like this to happen.”
The game certainly has its share of technical issues, with one of the most frequent being its code:net and code:leaf server errors. But that’s not what’s happening here, either. In fact, in most of these cases, viewers are simply experiencing tricks of the eye. Though, in some cases, they might include minor lag issues or minor graphics rendering problems.
The Dexerto article calls into question four specific videos. However, upon examining each of them with a close eye, it appears they all have plausible explanations that involve the gameplay meta itself.
Video 1: The Disappearing Shadow
The first is a video from reddit user MattDawgg44, which shows a shadowy-looking figure moving behind a rock. As the player runs over to find the mystery legend, it seems to vanish.
The most straightforward explanation is simply that the player’s actions were timed in a way that made it impossible for them to see the opponent get away.
It’s possible that due to the player’s angle, their opponent is not actually as close to the rock as they appear.
This would give the enemy character plenty of time to retreat and run directly behind the gray wall at the exact moment the player zooms in for their shot, which is obstructed by both the rock and debris from the Lifeline package.
The player moves to pursue the enemy by checking behind the rock, obstructing the line of sight even more as the player sneaks behind the wall. And, though this seamless escape would appear to require perfect timing, it's certainly possible given the time allocated the view obstructions. Further, it's also possible that a lag-related net code issue resulting in a frame rate stutter on the opponent's end may have bolstered their ability to retreat undetected.
One redditor pointed out that characters in this game are typically more aesthetically clear than they appear in this video, which is certainly true. But this video isn’t particularly high-quality, plus the character is initially running in both the storm and the shadow of the bushes. Their outline is slightly more pronounced once they leave the storm, but as they're still in the shadow, they would still be dark, particularly if the character were using a dark-colored skin.
To illustrate visibility in these circumstances, below is an unrelated example of how opponents may render in the game's storm.
Video 2: The Figure In The Storm
The second video (viewable here) is also fairly straightforward. The first telling sign here is that the figure doesn’t seem to move like anything players have seen to date in Apex Legends. Instead, it appears on the surface of the storm as it moves before seemingly evaporating into nothingness.
One likely explanation is that this is simply a visual rendering of dirt that the player kicks up when rapidly changing directions.
Below, the first still shows the player's original direction.
The player's sudden shift in direction coincides with the anomaly. Below, a green circle shows the dirt just above the character's head.
The dirt rises higher than one might expect, which causes it to appear in front of the storm as a visual obstruction. As the video continues, the environment around Lifeline produces a dirt-like trail as the player moves forward.
Video 3: The Vanishing Bangalore
The third video (viewable here) shows a player shooting at a character that appears to be Bangalore. As the player is chasing the opponent, the opponent seems to disappear.
Viewers can attribute this to visual interference with possible lag-induced stuttering. In the seconds following the apparent disappearance, the character reemerges.
The opponent isn't extremely clear in the image above, but is extremely pronounced in the video. It appears as though the gun and its bullets caused a graphical interference that tricked the player into thinking the opponent somehow disappeared. It's also possible that some lag on the enemy's side contributed to this as well. One common result of lag is that it results in choppy gameplay, which appears to other players as short-distance teleportations.
Video 4: The Manifesting Corpse
The issue in the final video may be the toughest to debunk, though a possible explanation involves game physics.
There are a couple of items in the kill feed leading up to the anomaly, including a player kill. At this point, there are 17 squads left, which indicates it’s likely early in the game.
One theory mixes game animation lag with in-game physics. Occasionally in Apex Legends, a player’s death animation will separate from their death box. This frequently happens when gamers drop in on the Supply Ship and fall victim to another team. The example below is unrelated to the ghost sightings, but shows the character's body falling off the ship, leaving a death box behind.
In the video in question, it's possible that the character that suddenly appears was the player who died moments before. One can surmise that player's graphical body fell while their loot box remained on the ship.
This makes sense because the drop from the Supply Ship or any other high area such as an out-of-bound mountaintop zone would take several moments, which explains the delay between the kill feed and the visual rendering.
Finally, there's still a question as to why or how this would manifest out of thin air. As mentioned previously, Apex Legends players frequently experience in-game lag, and it's particularly noticeable in crowded early-game zones such as Supply Ship. It’s possible that this apparent manifestation reflected a lag situation common in the game.
In sum, these are not ghosts, but are rather, for the most part, reflections of the game functioning as intended.
These are all theories, but taken together, they seem to debunk the presence of Respawn-generated ghosts in Kings Canyon.
A Final Reason: The Game's Sci-Fi Setting
Game mechanics aside, it’s unlikely the game’s lore team would support ghosts in the traditional sense anyway.
Earlier this year, in a video for Wired, Respawn game developer Mohammad Alavi reflected on some challenges Wraith brought to the game.
“Wraith was the hardest character for me to find the focus on,” he says in the video. "The voices in the head presented, like, a real problem because our game is a sci-fi game. It's not a fantasy… so it can't be, like, spirits.”
Should any spirit-like beings ever appear in the game, it’s far more likely the team would turn to a sci fi-based approach, perhaps drawing upon the inter-dimensional creatures that appear in Wraith’s void jumps.
Even though players shouldn't expect ghosts anytime soon, TheGamer looks forward to the Respawn team's continued efforts to expand the Apex Legends universe.