Each legend in “Apex Legends” is designed around a specific atmosphere. If a catalyst was in a high school cafeteria, she would be a socially awkward but confident girl who gives crystal readings and talks about the phases of the moon. Incorporating safety equipment with a new age aesthetic, Neopagan looks like an industrial worker.
“The catalyst is what I would call the big sister type,” said Ashley Reed, lead author of the Apex Legends story. “She’s not stupid, she doesn’t take tricks from anyone. She sometimes tries to joke with the other legends, but ends up falling apart in unintentionally funny ways.
In creating the catalyst role, Reid said the team took several steps to ensure she was portrayed as a trans woman “correctly and correctly”.
“We’ve said for a long time how important representation is at Apex, we have a very diverse staff, and we especially wanted to have a very diverse staff,” Reed said.
Respawn has worked with trans counselors at GLAAD, a media organization that monitors the portrayal of LGBT people. Respawn also worked with Catalyst’s voice actor Mellie Grant and the company’s in-house LGBT groups to design Legend’s backstory. The Techno Witch, which became the team’s guiding design principle for Catalyst, was proposed by a Trans consultant. This kind of input is essential to designing new characters, Reid said.
Catalyst was born on Boris, the same planet as fellow legend, Outcast Seer. Syr’s birth coincided with a catastrophic asteroid that destroyed Boris’s moon Cleo, and wreaked havoc in the planet’s atmosphere. After seeing his best friend Margot sacrifice herself to destroy a facility he suspects is draining Cleo of its resources, Catalyst decides to make the Moon his home and joins the local reclamation crew working to restore the damage.
Cleos works in the foundry (which is an a place to play (in Broken Moon) and how Catalyst developed his fighting skills. It uses ferrofluid, which is a magnetic liquid metal Actually exists in real life It is commonly used as a seal or insulator for electronic devices. Catalyst applications to ferrofluid take on the look of black magic flowing through her hands.
With its passive ability, Barricade, Catalyst is able to harden doors with magnetizing fluid, making them twice as resistant to engagement damage. Only teammates can open or close the doors that Catalyst boosts. The catalyst can regenerate broken doors.
Her tactical skill, piercing spikes, throws a ball of magnetized fluid to the ground that explodes in a series of spikes as enemies approach, damaging and slowing enemies. Spikes can only be removed by enemies, so they can be used to start fights or cover up bottlenecks.
The ultimate ability that completes the Catalyst set is her ultimate dark veil. The Dark Veil creates a wall of magnetized fluid that blocks vision, but does not prevent walking, driving, or shooting through it. Enemies trying to travel through the wall slow down and are partially blinded. The wall also obstructs most scanning abilities, such as Bloodhound’s Eye of the Allfather.
“It’s a great tool for dividing the battlefield and getting additional protection to heal a clutch or redeploy,” said OT Harrison, character designer and chief software engineer at Respawn.
For better team settings, Respawn recommends pairing Catalyst with legends who also specialize in area denial, such as Caustic and Watson. High action legends like Octane and Pathfinder can use the Dark Veil for surprise attacks. If you are facing an enemy trigger, you can use the same Mobile Legends to take on the Dark Veil. Any doors that feature the Catalyst Barricade can still be cut with guns and ammo.
Catalyst will be playable when “Apex Legends: Eclipse” launches on November 1. In the current story of the game, Apex Games reaches Clio after the local government agreed to host the tournament in exchange for financial support. Furious that corporate interests are now threatening the landscape business of she and her fellow colonists, Catalyst plays with prize money to help her people. This puts Cleo in direct conflict with the legendary Seer who brought Apex Games.