Apex Legends Crypto Guide: Tips For Season 3’s New Character

At the start of Season 3: Meltdown, Tae Joon “Crypto” Park was added to Apex Legends as the eleventh playable character. Like Season 1’s Octane and Season 2’s Wattson, you’ll need to drop 750 Apex Coins or 12,000 Legend Tokens to unlock him.

In the following guide, we detail all of Crypto’s unique abilities and how to best use them to counter other characters or shore up holes in your own squad’s defenses. If Season 3 is your introduction to Apex Legends, don’t worry–the new character, map, and gameplay changes make the battle royale very welcoming to newcomers. Below, you’ll find the rest of our character guides, giving you all the information you need to get started with the Legend of your choice.

Other Character Guides

• Wraith Guide: Be The Best Interdimensional Skirmisher
• Caustic Guide: Be The Best Toxic Trapper
• Gibraltar Guide: Be The Best Shielded Fortress
• Lifeline Guide: Be The Best Combat Medic
• Mirage Guide: Be The Best Holographic Trickster
• Pathfinder Guide: Be The Best Forward Scout
• Bangalore Guide: Be The Best Professional Soldier
• Bloodhound Guide: Be The Best Technological Tracker
• Octane Guide: Be The Best Adrenaline Junkie
• Wattson Guide: Be The Best Static Defender

Crypto’s General Overview

Crypto is Apex Legends’ second recon character. In this regard, his role on the battlefield is similar to Bloodhound: hunt down and identify enemies. However, unlike Bloodhound, who’s an aggressive tracker that seeks out squads to kill, Crypto places less emphasis on being on the frontline, as he’s better suited at finding enemies while remaining hidden.

Rarely does Crypto excel at spearheading his squad’s offensive. If you want to play as Crypto, you’re typically going to fulfill a support role, aiding your teammates in increasing their kill counts. Unlike most of the other Legends, Crypto does not possess an ability that allows him to easily escape a fight. As such, you need to ensure firefights are already stacked in your squad’s favor before you engage. Once you emerge from hiding and join the fray, you have to commit.

Crypto’s Abilities

Tactical Ability: Surveillance Drone – Deploy an aerial drone that allows you to view the surrounding area from above.

Crypto’s drone has a variety of uses. It can open and close doors, crack open loot bins, and retrieve fallen teammate’s respawn beacons. Point the drone’s camera at any of the Champion Squad banners throughout the arena and it will show you how many squads are in your immediate vicinity. Crypto can only summon one drone at a time, but he’s got an unlimited supply. Once the drone is destroyed, however, there’s a 40-second cooldown before he can summon another one.

Passive Ability: Neurolink – Enemies detected by the Surveillance Drone within 30 meters of your position are marked for you and your teammates to see.

Though you can tag enemies with your drone, marking them with Neurolink is what best helps your squad. Doing so highlights the enemy for your entire team, allowing allies to see targets through walls or smoke.

Ultimate Ability: Drone EMP – Your Surveillance Drone sets off an EMP blast that deals shield damage, slows enemies, and disables traps.

Crypto’s ultimate ability does 50 shield damage–outright destroying white body armor–and slows all enemies with an effect similar to Wattson’s Perimeter Security fences. Like other Legends, Crypto is affected by his own ultimate ability, so make sure you’re not in the blast zone when you activate the Drone EMP. The EMP blast is not limited by terrain, allowing you to use the attack as a bunker buster to hit a team hiding in a building.

Tips To Play As Crypto

Crypto is the only Legend to have his passive and ultimate ability tied to his tactical. This limits what you can do with him–every ability has to be done through your drone. Thus, mastering how to maneuver the drone to dodge enemy shots or weave among obstacles should be your first priority. Once your drone is destroyed you have to wait almost a full minute to use it again, and you won’t have access to any abilities until then. Keep your drone alive, only sacrificing it as a means to distract foes so your squad can retreat.

Though his abilities would suggest a long-range approach, Crypto is actually at his best in mid-range combat. Equipping a mid-range scope on the G7-Scout, R-301, Peacekeeper, or new Charge Rifle gives Crypto the ability to deal damage quickly from a slight distance. When a battle starts, you’re best bet is to find cover and send your drone skyward. Be careful, as Crypto can’t move while using his drone. Put your drone behind the attacking squad so they’re sandwiched between it and you. That way, if they want to destroy it, they’ll have to turn their back on you. Exit the drone, leave your hiding spot, and begin your attack. Even if the enemy hides behind cover, you and your squad will still be able to see them thanks to Neurolink. As you continue to shoot the opposition, your squadmates should rush to overwhelm the enemy.

If Drone EMP is ready to go, all the better. Follow the strategy above but use the ability as you’re exiting drone view and beginning your assault. The enemy team will then have to turn their backs on you to shoot down the drone and stop the EMP, or they’ll have to respond to your attack and take shield damage and be too stunned to run away. Either way, the odds will turn in your favor. You may want to save your EMP if the match is almost over, though. Given its ability to disable traps, Crypto can ruin an entire team’s defense in the final circle–disabling Caustic’s Nox Gas Traps and Wattson’s Perimeter Security and Interception Pylon. Plus the enemy team will take shield damage and be stunned.

When your allies are down, let your drone do the heavy lifting for you–especially if your teammate’s banner is outside the safe zone. The drone takes no damage from being outside the zone, allowing you to safely pick up your teammate’s respawn banner.

How To Mitigate Crypto’s Weaknesses

Because of how dependent Crypto is on his drone, his main weakness is actually just going up against someone who’s a good shot. The drone has one HP, so any attack from any gun, grenade, or ability will destroy it. You can’t really be sneaky with the drone either. Not only does it make a ton of noise, but enemies are alerted to when Neurolink has marked them. However, there are a few things you can do to hide your drone and make it more difficult to destroy.

Bangalore, Caustic, Lifeline, and Gibraltar can all hide the drone with their abilities. Bangalore’s Smoke Launcher and Caustic’s Nox Gas Traps create a smokescreen that hides the drone if you’re in an enclosed space, and positioning your drone behind a Lifeline’s Combat Medic shield gives you just enough time to mark enemies before the forcefield goes down. Even after the drone has been destroyed, Neurolink lasts a few seconds, giving you time to emerge from cover and fire on the enemy. Gibraltar’s Dome Shield provides a longer solution of the same strategy.

The Legend that best counters Crypto is Bloodhound, as the technological tracker can sniff out the hacker’s hiding spot while he’s piloting the drone and unaware of his surroundings. There’s no way to directly counter this yourself. You’ll just have to trust your team to watch your back. If you don’t, we suggest exiting your drone view the second you spot a Bloodhound, unless you’re very confident that you’ll get the drop on them before they get the drop on you.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/apex-legends-crypto-guide-tips-for-season-3s-new-c/1100-6470325/