Apex Legends Season 14: Hunted is just around the corner. After the recent release of the launch trailer, we know plenty about what to expect from the upcoming season–but Vantage, Season 14’s debut legend, is worth a closer look.
Originally revealed in March 2022 via a massive leak, Vantage is a skilled sniper and an excellent hunter who grew up in isolation on Pàgos, an icy, deserted planet part of a system known as The Fringe Worlds. The Fringe Worlds are a series of planets that exist on the very edge of the Outlands and are not a part of Syndicate Space. Vantage’s unusual upbringing makes her a unique character when it comes to both gameplay and lore. Here’s everything we know about Apex Legends‘ newest character.
She has an unheard-of skillset
Vantage’s abilities were posted online alongside those of the other future legends that were revealed in the March leak, but it wasn’t clear how accurate the contents of the leak were at the time. While we haven’t yet received official confirmation of Vantage’s abilities, subsequent leaks–and more recently, the release of the Season 14 launch trailer–appear to confirm that Vantage’s abilities are nearly identical to those that appeared in the original leak.
Based on datamining leaks and the events of the Season 14 Launch trailer, Vantage possesses the following abilities:
Passive: Sniper Kit
Tactical info about enemies available when ADSing. This includes the legend they are playing, the rarity of their body shield, how many members are alive in their squad, and how far away they are.
Tactical: Echo Launch
Vantage can order her winged companion, Echo, to a specific position–then launch herself to the same location.
Ultimate: Mark to Kill
Vantage uses a custom sniper rifle which scans enemies and boosts damage for Vantage and her squadmates. For Vantage, damage increases with successive hits. Her entire squad gets a 15% damage bonus when hitting enemies who have been scanned with Mark to Kill.
We see Vantage make use of all three of these abilities in the Season 14 launch trailer, which depicts her rocket-boosting her way over to Echo, identifying other legends while ADSing, and whipping out a unique sniper rifle–presumably the one tied to her Ultimate ability.
She doesn’t play by the rules
Growing up, Vantage–real name Xiomara “Mara” Contrares–lived by one rule and one rule only: survive. While she’s managed to do so thus far, she’s not always great at following other rules, actively defying her mother’s wishes in her episode of Stories from the Outlands by exploring the abandoned cargo ship G.D.S. Vantage. This results in Xiomara nearly dying, and her mother Xenia–who, it turns out, is a wanted criminal from Gaea–getting picked up by the authorities. While it’s clear Xiomara feels extremely guilty for the part she played in her mother’s arrest, it’s not clear if she’s learned her lesson.
During her first Apex Games match, she stubbornly refuses to leave despite Fuse’s objection to “a pup” joining the Games. Vantage’s age is not yet known, but Fuse’s words imply she could be one of the youngest members on the legend squad–though he may also be referencing her naïvte and lack of life experience due to her isolated upbringing.
While she does win her first Apex match, that’s not necessarily proof that she’s got what it takes to be a legend. While she did put her skills to good use during the match, it wouldn’t matter if she hadn’t–Xiomara was always going to win that match, because it was rigged using the same algorithm discovered by Crypto in his episode of Stories from the Outlands.
In another rule-breaking incident, Vantage ignored a rule from the Official Apex Games Rulebook banning pets from the Games. Echo, the bat-like creature that saved Xiomara’s life in her episode of Stories from the Outlands, has accompanied her to the games, but apparently no pets are allowed.
To be fair, Echo did attack a fellow competitor’s eyebrows at Vantage’s qualifier match, but still, this “no pets allowed” rule is a bit bizarre given the fact that Bloodhound’s pet raven, Artur, has been a mainstay of the series since it launched in 2019.
Vantage seems to realize this, appealing the rule multiple times before finally being granted permission to bring Echo to the Apex Games.
Her mother is fascinating
Xiomara’s mother, Xenia, is an enigmatic figure who spent years lying to her daughter about every detail of her past until Vantage finally uncovered the truth: her mother was a wanted criminal who was the sole survivor of the crash of the G.D.S. Vantage–a cargo ship carrying prisoners to a detention facility.
After unintentionally outing her mother’s identity, both women were picked up by the Gaean Space Authority.
Since then, Xenia–whose crimes are unknown, though promotional material refers to her as “wrongly accused”–has been living in a prison while her daughter competes in the Apex Games in the hopes of bringing attention to her mother’s case.
However, a closer look at the table where Xiomara and her mother have their visits reveals an interesting detail: Xenia is being held in the same prison as Mad Maggie, who is returned to a cell when she’s not participating in the Apex Games.
The launch trailer contains a series of flashbacks to Vantage’s visits with her mother. In one, she brings along a crudely crafted shiv, apparently ready to take on a whole prison’s-worth of Syndicate guards armed with nothing but a sharp stick. But before Vantage can do anything unwise, Xenia snatches the makeshift weapon out of her daughter’s hands, and the meeting ends.
But interestingly, the countdown leading up to the launch trailer’s release (the same one that revealed the Games are actively being rigged) depicts a conversation between two prison guards that’s interrupted when a prison riot breaks out. The most likely culprit, of course, is Mad Maggie–but it’s possible she’s not working alone. The scene in which Vantage’s mother confiscates the shiv is clearly a flashback, while the conversation taking place between the guards in the pre-trailer countdown may take after Vantage’s mother has obtained a weapon. This means it’s possible the riot that interrupts the guards’ conversation was caused by both Maggie and Xenia–or even Xenia herself. Whatever the case, it’s hard to deny that Xenia is every bit as interesting as her daughter Vantage.
That’s all we know about Season 14’s debut legend at the moment, but stay tuned–we’ll be updating this page as more information is released. Be sure to keep an eye out for the Season 14 gameplay trailer which premieres on August 1 at 8 AM PT / 11 AM ET.
Apex Legends Season 14: Hunted launches on August 9 at 10 AM PT / 1 PM PT.
Apex Legends is free to play on console and PC. A mobile version of the game, Apex Legends Mobile, is available for download on Android and iOS devices.
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