Note: The final shipping legends were the product of numerous incredibly talented individuals across multiple departments and disciplines. While I initiated, implemented, and drove these character designs in terms of abilities and gameplay, the final product was only realized through a team effort.
Live Service Disclaimer: Apex Legends is a live service game. Legends are subject to balance changes and even full kit redesigns. I stopped working on Apex in late 2019 and my last Legend design released in 2020. I claim neither credit nor responsibility for the current live state of Apex characters. While much of my work survives in its original form, subsequent alterations and balance changes are the unique contributions of other designers. My commentary, observations, and philosophy on Apex character design extends to my designs at the time they launched and no further.
Live Service Disclaimer: Apex Legends is a live service game. Legends are subject to balance changes and even full kit redesigns. I stopped working on Apex in late 2019 and my last Legend design released in 2020. I claim neither credit nor responsibility for the current live state of Apex characters. While much of my work survives in its original form, subsequent alterations and balance changes are the unique contributions of other designers. My commentary, observations, and philosophy on Apex character design extends to my designs at the time they launched and no further.
Key Details
Project: Apex Legends
Feature: Revenant - Assassin Character
Fantasy: The Synthetic Shinobi
Niche: Ambush Duelist & Offensive Backstop
My Role: Pitched, Designed, and Scripted Character Abilities.
Released: February 4th, 2020
Feature: Revenant - Assassin Character
Fantasy: The Synthetic Shinobi
Niche: Ambush Duelist & Offensive Backstop
My Role: Pitched, Designed, and Scripted Character Abilities.
Released: February 4th, 2020
Kit Summary
I designed Revenant’s kit around the fantasy of a “Synthetic Shinobi,” drawing on historical inspirations to create a stealth character who relies on player psychology rather than invisibility. His Passive encourages vertical flanking through enhanced climbing and crouch speeds. His Tactical locks opponents out of their abilities, rewarding ambushes and gun skill. His Ultimate serves as a high‑risk assault backstop, allowing his squad to make aggressive pushes.
Work Overview
- Pitched, designed, implemented, and iterated all three abilities. Collaborated with Designer Steven DeRose on final polish.
- Prototyped numerous ability alternatives to find final kit.
- Worked closely with Art, FX, Narrative, and Animation to interweave character persona with gameplay mechanics.
Designing Revenant
Design Overview
Revenant's kit sprang from the fantasy of a "Synthetic Shinobi."
I was inspired by historical infiltrators and assassins like the Japanese Shinobi (Ninja) and Saracen Hashshashin (Arabic Assassins). I was excited by the challenge of making a stealth character who didn't rely on invisibility.
Although Apex is a squad shooter, the character roster contains a large number of "solo flankers." It's one of the most popular playstyles in the game. These characters have abilities that allow them to safely extend away from their team, poke at flanks, and disengage if needed. Wraith, Octane, and Pathfinder fall into this bucket.
I wanted Revenant to be a solo flanker's bogeyman—blocking escape abilities to force gunfights and punish overconfident positioning.
Despite my best attempts, Revenant is the one kit I would choose to rework.
The Abilities
Silence [Tactical]
Silence is an outlier among my Apex ability designs. Most of my kits increase player participation by improving survivability. Revenant's Tactical forces pure-aim gunfights by launching an orb that temporarily locks opponents out of their abilities. While this doesn't increase lethality, it decreases survivability.
I positioned Revenant as an ambush duelist. An assassin who counters the popular "solo flankers" like Wraith, Octane, and Pathfinder. These characters rely on abilities that correct positioning mistakes. By locking out abilities, Revenant forces a pure gunfight his opponent isn't expecting.
My inspiration for Silence was the "Metsubushi," a less-lethal weapon from medieval Japan. These devices were crushed and thrown to suddenly blind opponents. I wanted to give Revenant a similar ambush advantage, but players blinding each other with "pocket sand" wasn't great.
Silence disrupts opponents without impairing vision, movement, or aim responsiveness.
Silence was intended to open an ambush. If Revenant was jumping opponents and forcing 1v1 gunfights, locking out an opponent's abilities would give him a distinct shooting advantage. However, basing Revenant's power around pure gunfights had challenges.
Revenant shipped as a large character. This makes him physically imposing, but it also makes his intended role much more challenging. Most solo flankers are small or medium characters. Revenant is the same size as Caustic, Pathfinder, and Gibraltar. He can block Wraith's phase, but he is still larger than his opponent. He's going to take more hits. This places him at a disadvantage in the very gunfight he forced. The ability's damage gives him a slight leg up, but he only has the upper hand if his opponent panics.
Revenant's standing hitbox size is mitigated by his faster crouch walk and strafe speeds. It was a serendipitous solve, but players have to recognize the advantage crouching gives them in gunfights. It demanded a level of awareness too advanced for the average player. Generally, I avoid dynamics where optimal play is required to achieve basic balance. Optimal play should enhance a kit, not smooth out drawbacks. Looking back, Revenant needed a smaller rig or slightly more disruption utility on his Tactical to offset his larger hitbox.
From a philosophical perspective, I was willing to level the playing field, but increasing Revenant's lethality was a bridge too far. I should have provided more of an incentive for opponents to back off, leaving Revenant to choose whether to keep pushing or simply occupy the ceded space.
Death Totem [Ultimate]
Revenant's Death Totem was designed as a backstop for an assault squad.
When Revenant places the Totem, players can use it to enter a "shadow form" for 30 seconds. Shadow forms have full health, but no shields. When downed, the player is instantly returned to the Totem with 1 health. This "death protection" is restricted to a radius around the Totem. Stepping outside this radius cancels the effect. This forces Revenant to place the Totem close to the frontline, giving defenders a chance to counterattack and destroy it.
I intended for the ability to disrupt the turtling meta that defensive characters promoted in the early seasons. At this time, late circle fights were dominated by poking fights between fortified positions. Teams rarely pushed unless the circle forced them. These pushes were brutal for attackers.
In real military contexts, defenders have a distinct advantage. Attackers generally need numerical superiority to seize enemy positions. Apex fights are always 3v3.
The Totem gives attackers additional manpower to assault enemy positions. It sustains pressure by letting attackers reengage defenders before they recover. While the Totem saves you from getting knocked, it also introduces a team "crit spot" that enemies can target to wipe you out. It's high-risk, high-reward.
The goal was to force opponents to change tactics. Revenant's squad tries to force a protracted assault; defenders try to counterattack and destroy the Totem.
In theory, the Totem's limited range forces attackers to exercise caution. They have to make tradeoffs to protect their Totem. In practice, it allowed uncoordinated attackers to opt into enormous risk. The ability's power hinges on the defender's response. Timid defenders are quickly overwhelmed, but a single decisive counter-push can wipe your squad.
Death Totem arguably crosses the line of what is permissible in Battle Royale. It encourages reckless all-or-nothing pushes—either unstoppable or doomed.
If I were to revisit the ability today, I would shift the Ultimate's core functionality away from erasing consequences.
Stalker [Passive]
I wanted to create a kit that was capable of infiltrating positions without relying on invisibility.
While searching for inspiration, I read Bansenshukai, a 17th-century text that documents many of the infiltration and espionage techniques used by the Iga and Koga clans in feudal Japan. The book heavily emphasizes the psychological and social factors that make infiltration and deception possible.
I saw parallels where I could leverage player psychology to accomplish my goal.
As a general rule, people don't look up. Anything occurring more than 45-degrees above the horizon is effectively invisible, unless you make a concentrated effort to draw attention to it. I decided to use this psychological principle as the foundation for making Revenant sneaky.
Revenant's Passive allows him to climb higher and move quickly while crouched. Since the enhanced climb is passive, Revenant's ability to reach elevated positions isn't tied to cooldowns. This incentivizes players to constantly move upward.
Other characters, like Pathfinder and Octane, deploy their mobility abilities while moving toward structures. This makes it easier for defenders holding high ground to spot them. Revenant only becomes highly mobile when he reaches the foot of a wall or building. Since defenders aren't likely to look straight down, Revenant can easily climb into a position without being noticed. His enhanced crouch speed allows him to move quickly through low cover, further obscuring his approach.
The enhanced crouch speed also helps him survive gunfights in the open, despite his large size while standing.
Since the ability grants Revenant reliable access to attack routes his teammates cannot always follow, it situates his role as a high-risk flanker and disrupter. He can attack from an unexpected angle while his teammates are drawing the enemy's attention. This strategy is often highly effective, but Revenant is separated from his team should things go wrong. This dynamic is inverted by his Ultimate, which allows him to turn a risky play pattern into a calculated power play.
Revenant's kit sprang from the fantasy of a "Synthetic Shinobi."
I was inspired by historical infiltrators and assassins like the Japanese Shinobi (Ninja) and Saracen Hashshashin (Arabic Assassins). I was excited by the challenge of making a stealth character who didn't rely on invisibility.
Although Apex is a squad shooter, the character roster contains a large number of "solo flankers." It's one of the most popular playstyles in the game. These characters have abilities that allow them to safely extend away from their team, poke at flanks, and disengage if needed. Wraith, Octane, and Pathfinder fall into this bucket.
I wanted Revenant to be a solo flanker's bogeyman—blocking escape abilities to force gunfights and punish overconfident positioning.
Despite my best attempts, Revenant is the one kit I would choose to rework.
The Abilities
Silence [Tactical]
Silence is an outlier among my Apex ability designs. Most of my kits increase player participation by improving survivability. Revenant's Tactical forces pure-aim gunfights by launching an orb that temporarily locks opponents out of their abilities. While this doesn't increase lethality, it decreases survivability.
I positioned Revenant as an ambush duelist. An assassin who counters the popular "solo flankers" like Wraith, Octane, and Pathfinder. These characters rely on abilities that correct positioning mistakes. By locking out abilities, Revenant forces a pure gunfight his opponent isn't expecting.
My inspiration for Silence was the "Metsubushi," a less-lethal weapon from medieval Japan. These devices were crushed and thrown to suddenly blind opponents. I wanted to give Revenant a similar ambush advantage, but players blinding each other with "pocket sand" wasn't great.
Silence disrupts opponents without impairing vision, movement, or aim responsiveness.
Silence was intended to open an ambush. If Revenant was jumping opponents and forcing 1v1 gunfights, locking out an opponent's abilities would give him a distinct shooting advantage. However, basing Revenant's power around pure gunfights had challenges.
Revenant shipped as a large character. This makes him physically imposing, but it also makes his intended role much more challenging. Most solo flankers are small or medium characters. Revenant is the same size as Caustic, Pathfinder, and Gibraltar. He can block Wraith's phase, but he is still larger than his opponent. He's going to take more hits. This places him at a disadvantage in the very gunfight he forced. The ability's damage gives him a slight leg up, but he only has the upper hand if his opponent panics.
Revenant's standing hitbox size is mitigated by his faster crouch walk and strafe speeds. It was a serendipitous solve, but players have to recognize the advantage crouching gives them in gunfights. It demanded a level of awareness too advanced for the average player. Generally, I avoid dynamics where optimal play is required to achieve basic balance. Optimal play should enhance a kit, not smooth out drawbacks. Looking back, Revenant needed a smaller rig or slightly more disruption utility on his Tactical to offset his larger hitbox.
From a philosophical perspective, I was willing to level the playing field, but increasing Revenant's lethality was a bridge too far. I should have provided more of an incentive for opponents to back off, leaving Revenant to choose whether to keep pushing or simply occupy the ceded space.
Death Totem [Ultimate]
Revenant's Death Totem was designed as a backstop for an assault squad.
When Revenant places the Totem, players can use it to enter a "shadow form" for 30 seconds. Shadow forms have full health, but no shields. When downed, the player is instantly returned to the Totem with 1 health. This "death protection" is restricted to a radius around the Totem. Stepping outside this radius cancels the effect. This forces Revenant to place the Totem close to the frontline, giving defenders a chance to counterattack and destroy it.
I intended for the ability to disrupt the turtling meta that defensive characters promoted in the early seasons. At this time, late circle fights were dominated by poking fights between fortified positions. Teams rarely pushed unless the circle forced them. These pushes were brutal for attackers.
In real military contexts, defenders have a distinct advantage. Attackers generally need numerical superiority to seize enemy positions. Apex fights are always 3v3.
The Totem gives attackers additional manpower to assault enemy positions. It sustains pressure by letting attackers reengage defenders before they recover. While the Totem saves you from getting knocked, it also introduces a team "crit spot" that enemies can target to wipe you out. It's high-risk, high-reward.
The goal was to force opponents to change tactics. Revenant's squad tries to force a protracted assault; defenders try to counterattack and destroy the Totem.
In theory, the Totem's limited range forces attackers to exercise caution. They have to make tradeoffs to protect their Totem. In practice, it allowed uncoordinated attackers to opt into enormous risk. The ability's power hinges on the defender's response. Timid defenders are quickly overwhelmed, but a single decisive counter-push can wipe your squad.
Death Totem arguably crosses the line of what is permissible in Battle Royale. It encourages reckless all-or-nothing pushes—either unstoppable or doomed.
If I were to revisit the ability today, I would shift the Ultimate's core functionality away from erasing consequences.
Stalker [Passive]
I wanted to create a kit that was capable of infiltrating positions without relying on invisibility.
While searching for inspiration, I read Bansenshukai, a 17th-century text that documents many of the infiltration and espionage techniques used by the Iga and Koga clans in feudal Japan. The book heavily emphasizes the psychological and social factors that make infiltration and deception possible.
I saw parallels where I could leverage player psychology to accomplish my goal.
As a general rule, people don't look up. Anything occurring more than 45-degrees above the horizon is effectively invisible, unless you make a concentrated effort to draw attention to it. I decided to use this psychological principle as the foundation for making Revenant sneaky.
Revenant's Passive allows him to climb higher and move quickly while crouched. Since the enhanced climb is passive, Revenant's ability to reach elevated positions isn't tied to cooldowns. This incentivizes players to constantly move upward.
Other characters, like Pathfinder and Octane, deploy their mobility abilities while moving toward structures. This makes it easier for defenders holding high ground to spot them. Revenant only becomes highly mobile when he reaches the foot of a wall or building. Since defenders aren't likely to look straight down, Revenant can easily climb into a position without being noticed. His enhanced crouch speed allows him to move quickly through low cover, further obscuring his approach.
The enhanced crouch speed also helps him survive gunfights in the open, despite his large size while standing.
Since the ability grants Revenant reliable access to attack routes his teammates cannot always follow, it situates his role as a high-risk flanker and disrupter. He can attack from an unexpected angle while his teammates are drawing the enemy's attention. This strategy is often highly effective, but Revenant is separated from his team should things go wrong. This dynamic is inverted by his Ultimate, which allows him to turn a risky play pattern into a calculated power play.