A new Apex Legends season is upon us, and it is welcoming a sinister new addition to the game’s legend roster. Alter is the 26th legend to join Apex Games and arrives with dimensional abilities, joining the ranks of Wraith and Ash. She has a sinister aura which takes me back to Season 4 days when Revenant was first added to the game. Now, laughing maniacally, Alter is making her grand entrance in Apex Legends Season 21, so let’s look at her abilities.
Alter Abilities Explained
Alter is Cantonese and no one knows where she is from because she likes to keep her past a secret. She does have some connection to Horizon, but we will have to wait to find out how they’re related. Further, Alter belongs to the Skirmisher Legend class and can scan care packages to reveal their contents.
Why did Respawn choose to give Alter void abilities? The void, as a Respawn dev told me, is quite an interesting space from a gameplay standpoint, and Alter’s kit evolved to what it is because it felt more solid and whole with the interdimensional travel element in place.
Passive Ability: Gift from the Rift
Alter’s passive is sort of similar to Loba’s ultimate ability, Black Market Boutique. It lets her steal one item from death boxes from a distance.
Alter can see death boxes through walls and other surfaces from a distance of up to 75 meters. You can then hold the interact button to grab heals, batteries, ammunition, or even a gun swap in times of need.
The only thing the ‘Gift from the Rift’ cannot give you is a shield core swap. And I feel that’s plenty justified as it might make the ability a bit too overpowered.
Tactical Ability: Void Passage
Void Passage is an amazing ability that lets Alter and her teammates go through solid walls, roofs, and other surfaces around the map with a bi-directional portal like Wraith in Apex Legends.
Alter’s tactical ability is a double-edged sword. It not only lets you siege buildings or blocked doors by creating a ‘void passage’ through hard surfaces. Her ability also lets you think of unique ways to make an escape or easily rotate from one POI to another. It could be quite useful in the new Solos mode.
Alter shoots these void portals using her already much-talked-about appendage (or tail), and it is not at all overpowered in its current state. You can only make void passages up to 20 meters in depth. It’s her ultimate that may seem a bit too overpowered to some, so let’s talk about it.
Ultimate Ability: Void Nexus
Void Nexus sees Alter place a device in the world, which lasts for 120 seconds, giving you and your team plenty of time to explore the surroundings and rush an enemy team. At any moment, if you feel your plan is falling apart or that your team is at a disadvantage, simply look at the Void Nexus and hold the interact button to be teleported to the device’s location.
Each teammate can use the Void Nexus once, and it creates a one-way portal to the device’s location. You can share the portal you created with your teammates and even enemies can follow you through it as the portal lasts for about 10 seconds. The Void Nexus is visible and accessible through map terrain.
That doesn’t sound too overpowered, right? Well, the overpowered bit is that you can access the Void Nexus from a distance of up to 200 meters. You could be at one end of a POI and still be able to make it back to safety in a split second.
Alter Legend Upgrades
Apex Legends Season 20 introduced the ‘Legend Upgrades‘ system and, of course, Alter has some amazing perks at her disposal. Have a look at Alter’s perks in Apex Legends here:
Blue EVO Upgrade
- Frequent Nexus: reduces the ultimate cooldown by 30 seconds
- Seeing with Portals: You will see the health and shield info of the enemy when they exit the void passage.
Purple EVO Upgrade
- Unending Nexus: Ultimate has an infinite duration and is no longer limited to 120 seconds. Remember how I said the ability to use the Nexus from 200 meters was overpowered, couple it with this and think of the possibilities.
- Tactical Cooldown+: reduces the Tactical cooldown by 10 seconds
Alter brings brand-new ways to play the game, giving you the ability to easily siege teams camping inside a house or making some rotations quite simple. We will be experimenting with Alter’s kit in the coming weeks to see how she fits in the competitive setting in Apex Legends.
