Bangalore’s brother, Lieutenant Jackson Williams, is stepping into the Apex Games under the guise of Newcastle, and it looks like he’s going to shake things up considerably. Before we dive into his abilities and what they mean for Apex Legends as a whole, though, let’s talk about the man himself.
During a press presentation, GLHF got the chance to learn more about the character’s origins. He’s been living under an assumed identity for a while, with his family, who have no idea he’s Bangalore’s sibling. His children hero worship an Apex Games prospect called Newcastle, who’s secretly a bit rubbish and has failed to qualify for the games 39 times.
One night, Jackson sees Newcastle being pummeled in an alleyway by some gangsters he owes money to. He intervenes, wielding a trash can lid, and knocks some sense into the mobsters, saving Newcastle in the process. But he soon realizes this isn’t a battle he can win with a bin lid – he has to pay Newcastle’s debt to keep his town, and his family, safe. So he pops on the helmet, straps on the armor, and qualifies for the games on his first attempt, despite everyone in the crowd believing it’s his 40th.
Modeled after a superhero and a medieval knight, he wears an insignia of a castle wall, which sports two colors to signify him living a double life. Bangalore is the only person who knows who he really is. As a legend, he lives a double life, too – he’s an aggressive defensive character.
“We started developing him two years ago, in his original kit form, before Jackson came into the picture,” senior character designer Devan McGuire explains. “We were prototyping a bunch of different kits that could potentially be characters for Apex, and he just happened to roll out once we got the alignment on what season 13 needed to be and who that kit would fit best with what role we wanted to bring into the table.
“There’s a long backlog of characters. And we adapt the meta of the characters that are on the table to what changes happen season over season. But those characters have a long roadmap, and they’re planned in advance as to when they’re going to go live and how they would fit into the meta overall.”
Mechanically, Newcastle is a good alternative pick to Lifeline – he’s a defensive hero focused on protection and revives. His Ultimate ability, Castle Wall, allows him to place down a huge metal fortification that he and his team can use for cover, but he doesn’t just place it down in front of him like a Rampart shield – instead, he leaps into position across great distances. You can even lock on to teammates and close a gap in a couple of seconds, catching up with them and protecting them immediately.
“I don’t know if I want to get into the specific metrics of it, but it’s got a decent range just in front of you when he’s aiming,” McGuire says. “So he can make up some serious ground, and you take high ground onto smaller buildings, but you won’t go too far.
“The real dynamic is when you lock onto an ally while you’re aiming. Then you can go almost double the length that you normally could, both in height and distance, so you can clear large obstacles to get to a teammate. You’re not crossing an entire point of interest or something, but it’s a good distance.”
Meanwhile, his tactical ability, Mobile Shield, fires out a tall energy shield that has two layers. Enemies can break these layers independently. If they take the bottom out, they can go for leg shots, but his torso remains protected. If they take the top out first, they can potentially do more damage, but he’s free to crouch against the remaining low cover. Newcastle is also able to move the shield, turning it so it protects a different angle, or moving it with him as he presses forward. Unlike his Ultimate fortification, which is made of metal, this shield can be passed through by Legends, so it won’t stop an aggressive push, however.
His passive, Retrieve the Wounded, allows him to drag allies as he’s reviving them, while also placing a shield out in front. In a cool twist, the health of this shield is dictated by your knockdown shield’s strength, which finally gives us a reason to ping them for teammates.
“It is using the same energy source, but it’s not one-to-one with the actual total HP of a knockdown shield,” McGuire says. “We just found in development that having a purple knockdown shield as Newcastle and having 750 Health to try to burn through was just too powerful. So each tier is a slightly lesser grade of the actual overall power.”
McGuire gives an example of the standard white knockdown shield, which usually has an HP pool of 200. When dragging a downed ally, it will protect them from 150 points of damage instead. This leaves 50 for your personal knockdown shield if you’re downed after depleting it on an unsuccessful revive.
“He also has this secret passive of being able to recharge his knockdown shield over time,” McGuire continues. “So as long as you’re not actively using it, it will have a little brief cooldown period, and then it’ll slowly build back up over time to become full again so that you can use it for that next encounter. But if you get bogged down in a fight, you’re not gonna be able to pick someone back up or protect yourself as well.”
Imagine a Newcastle with a gold knockdown shield and a gold backpack, though. Tasty!
Of course, Newcastle shouldn’t make Lifeline completely redundant. She’s still the only hero who can revive two allies at once and is free to fight enemies off as she does so. When you revive as Newcastle, you’re committed to the revive and are forced to risk your own neck.
Newcastle’s introduction should also make Mad Maggie more of a useful pick. Her Riot Drill tactical is already powerful, allowing you to hurt people on the other side of cover, but imagine using it on Newcastle’s energy shield as he’s dragging a wounded teammate away – potentially devastating.
“The Maggie drill is a pretty big counter to Newcastle and his defensive, behind cover strategies,” McGuire says. “So it’s gonna be a pretty useful one to try and take him out.”
While speaking to the team, I couldn’t help but wonder what kind of plays they’ve seen Newcastle do during testing, and I’m treated to an anecdote from senior game designer Samantha Kalman when I ask.
“We’re doing playtests like two months ago, and I had been like really interested in Devan’s formulation of this heroic savior, the defending hero,” Kalman says. “I want to come in and save the day. So I was in a match where I was with two other pretty good colleagues, I was Newcastle. I take a bunch of damage, so I was holding back, using a Phoenix Kit or something. My team was a couple of buildings away. It was the last two squads, so they were running around the corner and the enemy squad surprised them and knocked one of my squadmates. It was looking bad.
“I popped my Ult, I targeted my teammate who was still alive, and then jumped what felt like across an entire zone. So it was this huge leap, I come down with the castle wall, and it unfolds. I’m in a good position. I start shooting, this team is surprised. My downed buddy is now safe. I gave my alive squadmate a chance to reload, and then I revived my downed squadmate and we took that game. So it was just this epic moment of this leap up and then across this whole zone. It’s just boom, and then we caught them with their pants down basically. And it was so, so, so good.”
The new legend seems like a smart addition that should shake up the game in a big way. The current defensive heroes are mostly about turtling up and locking locations down, but Newcastle is all about active defense. Get into the fray and cover the angles as you fight. His abilities are more suited to wide-open expanses than boxing off the entrances indoors.
Season 13 of Apex Legends – dubbed ‘Saviors’ – lands on May 10.
Written by Kirk McKeand on behalf of GLHF.
