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: Wattson - Perimeter Defense Character
Fantasy: The "Static" Defender
Niche: Perimeter Defense & Fight Steering
My Role: Pitched, Designed, and Scripted Character Abilities. Provided research support for narrative.
Released: July 2nd, 2019
Feature: Wattson - Perimeter Defense Character
Fantasy: The "Static" Defender
Niche: Perimeter Defense & Fight Steering
My Role: Pitched, Designed, and Scripted Character Abilities. Provided research support for narrative.
Released: July 2nd, 2019
Kit Summary
I designed Wattson’s kit to solve the tactical problem of controlling frontline space through persistent structures. Drawing inspiration from barbed‑wire fortifications and the strategic teachings of Sun Tzu and Carl Von Clausewitz, I built a spatial partitioning fence Tactical, an interception pylon Ultimate, and a Passive that aids players in rapidly fortifying positions.
Work Overview
- Pitched, designed, implemented, and iterated all three abilities. Hooked up assets for 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
- Provided research support for narrative.
Designing Wattson
Design Overview
Wattson arose from several different goals.
First, I wanted to make a character who specialized in frontline defense. Where Caustic tightly controls indoor spaces, Wattson partitions a wide swath of frontline and steers the flow of battle. Characters like Bangalore can shatter defensive positions. Wattson, by contrast, quiets the chaos and holds the line.
Second, I wanted to expand upon my philosophy of "Area Cultivation." In short, characters that place persistent structures create greater combat variety by altering the level. They force everyone to vary how they approach familiar spaces. It's a player-driven tool that makes maps more re-playable.
Finally, I wanted to make a character for the thinkers of the world. Wattson gives players tools to steer fights by limiting tactical options. Played correctly, you can force opponents into bad fights. When you can't outshoot your opponent, Wattson allows you to outsmart your opponent.
I wanted the kit to be a 1000 hour game in itself.
Most of my Apex character designs have a low skill floor and a high skill ceiling. Generally, I believe that every character needs a foothold for new players. Players are more likely to learn and enjoy the full kit if they find some early success. Wattson has a steep learning curve and an extreme skill ceiling. It's not because her abilities are mechanically complex, anyone can place a fence. Her kit demands high-level strategic thinking just to understand where her power lies.
Wattson is challenging to learn because she requires a fundamentally different mindset from any other character in Apex.
Wattson requires mindfulness. It's a kit is for strategic optimizers. These are players who are mindful of their choices and are constantly striving to make better decisions. They know they get a vote in enemy strategy. They have a strategy for the match and tactics for each fight. For these players, Wattson's high skill floor is a challenge rather than a barrier to entry.
A soft-power strategic influence character isn't for everyone. It requires abstract reasoning, a grasp of human psychology, probabilistic thinking, a love of problem-solving, boldness, and the desire to outsmart people. That's a big ask, but it's also the beauty of character-based games. When you design a character, you should know who you're making it for. Specific characters should appeal to specific groups of players. Not all groups are the same size. Wattson's niche is rarely served in accessible shooters: armchair military theorists. Her kit allows players to apply the teachings of Sun Tzu and Carl Von Clausewitz to Apex.
Wattson mains would be a small, dedicated, and high-impact group.
Characters are an ecosystem. In Apex, you play one character and fight the rest of the roster. When a character is interesting to play against, it enhances every player's experience. I designed Wattson for players on both sides of the fence. You're more likely to fight her than play her, but either way it's going to be an interesting fight.
The Abilities
Perimeter Security [Tactical]
Wattson's fences combine expressive spatial control with 12,000 volts.
I've always thought of the fences as "barbed wire meets Go." Barbed wire served as my functional touchstone, while the board game Go defined how I want players to think about placing fences and controlling space.
The ability allows you to place a series of fence nodes in sequence. Two or more nodes placed in succession connect to form segments of an electric fence line. Enemies who cross through the fence are slowed, shocked, and slightly damaged. The fence then alerts Wattson's entire team to the enemy's location.
These consequences are simply a deterrent. Enemies rarely, if ever, intentionally touch Wattson's fences. This is the foundation of the fence's real power. They are highly visible and challenging to bypass. They make enemies hesitate. Wattson can leverage this to steer, stall, and anchor fights.
To destroy a fence node, opponents must shoot its base. Wattson can make this task very challenging by placing the node in cover. Further, opponents must choose between shooting the node and shooting at Wattson. If you shoot at Wattson, the fence remains intact. This friction tends to lead opponents to follow the path of least resistance by advancing towards existing gaps in the fence.
This simple principle allows Wattson to dictate the flow of fights. She can easily funnel inattentive attackers into a kill zone.
Fence nodes can be placed anywhere on the ground and can connect if they have line of sight. This affords players an enormous amount of creativity and tactical flexibility. They can be used indoors, outdoors, offensively, and defensively. In all cases, you are taking territory and partitioning the fight by creating a fence line your team can hold.
You can also place your own nodes to extend or "seize" sections of an enemy Wattson's fence. This makes Wattson-vs-Wattson fights extremely nuanced, as each Wattson can play off the other's loose nodes to gain an advantage in the fight.
I designed the ability so that it is easy to quickly add and remove fences. Fences can easily be placed in hundreds, if not thousands, of combinations within a space. Obviously, most of those placements are suboptimal. So what's a "good" fence placement? That is the start of the fencing rabbit hole. Hundreds of hours separate players who can fence, fence well, and fence brilliantly.
"Fence Theory" is a massive topic that delves into the use of Wattson's fences. Players have discussed and debated this topic at length in various forums and Discord channels. I wanted to touch upon it briefly because it illustrates the depth the kit affords players. For more detail on this subject, I've attached several videos at the bottom of the page where Apex players discuss, teach, and demonstrate fencing technique and the mindset Wattson's kit rewards.
Interception Pylon [Ultimate]
The Interception Pylon is intended as the heart of Wattson's defense. It's a placeable structure that intercepts incoming explosive ordnance. It also charges player shields and drastically reduces the cooldown on Wattson's fence nodes.
It's designed as a chaos reduction tool. It protects defenders from bombardments, thrown character abilities, and grenades.
Grenades, shells, and mortars are effective tools for dislodging defenders. One well-placed grenade can compromise a defense. In Apex, the number of grenades you can carry is only limited by your inventory space. You can easily collect a duffle bag's worth of grenades. This means that defensive positions are often flooded with grenades during an assault.
Consistent with my philosophy for Apex character design, the Pylon is designed to reduce lethality, force opponents to change tactics, and announce a squad's position to help orient fights.
The moment the Pylon has line of sight to a grenade or shell, it zaps it out of the air with a highly visible electrical arc. This doesn't just look cool, it signals to attackers that they should save their grenades and try something else. It only intercepts ordnance that will land inside its radius. Defenders can still throw grenades outward, towards attackers.
The Pylon passively recharges player shields within its radius. This allows Wattson's squad to trade favorably during "poking fights." These long-range sniper battles tend to occur late-game between multiple squads. If you are holding a central location between multiple enemy squads, chip damage from incoming potshots can easily erode your healing resources. This resource attrition can make it difficult to hold when the ring closes and you finally get pushed. The Pylon's shield recharge acts as a logistical backstop. It allows Wattson's squad to contest and observe enemy squads without risking a healing resource bottleneck.
Wattson's power comes from her defenses. She becomes vulnerable when the circle forces her to abandon her position. If ability cooldowns prevent her from quickly establishing a new fighting position, she is further disadvantaged—especially in the late game.
The Pylon remedies this by rapidly replenishing Wattson's Tactical while she is nearby. It reduces the cooldown from 30 seconds to 3 seconds. This allows her to rapidly rebuild and repair her fences.
This interaction not only helps Wattson recover from a rotation, it helps anchor and clarify firefights. The Pylon is the key to Wattson's defense. Without it, she is less able to repair damaged fences and her squad becomes vulnerable to shield attrition, grenades, and bombardments. Destroying the Pylon is the first step towards dislodging her squad.
This means that Pylon placement is extremely important. Wattson must make careful trade-offs between interception coverage, access to shield and ability recharges, and exposure to enemy attack.
While not as expressive as her fences, the Pylon acts as the engine that drives her kit.
Spark of Genius [Passive]
Wattson's Passive instantly charges her Interception Pylon Ultimate when she uses an Ultimate Accelerant. Other characters only get 35% of their Ultimate charge using the same item.
This allows Wattson to collect Ultimate Accelerants throughout the match, knowing each will give her an additional Pylon. In turn, her Pylon reduces her Tactical cooldown from 30 to 3 seconds. The net result is that each Ultimate Accelerant is an opportunity to rapidly establish a new fortified position.
Wattson is most effective when played proactively. She needs the time and resources to establish a position. Spark of Genius is effectively an insurance policy. Access to backup Pylons gives her the redundancy she needs to remain proactive after setbacks.
On earlier character kits, I refrained from tying character abilities to loot RNG. Ultimate Accelerants are decently common, but their 35% Ultimate charge boost makes them a finicky tool for play-making. It was an item with under-utilized potential. I also knew that my design for Loba would make finding specific loot much easier.
I could have pursued alternative ways of recharging Wattson's Ultimate, such as giving her a Pylon every time the circle closed. That takes the decision out of players' hands and places it solidly in the realm of lucky timing. Tying the Passive to Ultimate Accelerants gives players an enormous amount of autonomy over a limited resource. They get to decide when to cash in, and they accept the consequences of their choice. Chance affects how many Ultimate Accelerants they find, but how they use them is entirely their call.
Battle Royale is fundamentally about making choices and accepting consequences. Character abilities best serve the game mode when players drive every aspect of the kit.
Wattson arose from several different goals.
First, I wanted to make a character who specialized in frontline defense. Where Caustic tightly controls indoor spaces, Wattson partitions a wide swath of frontline and steers the flow of battle. Characters like Bangalore can shatter defensive positions. Wattson, by contrast, quiets the chaos and holds the line.
Second, I wanted to expand upon my philosophy of "Area Cultivation." In short, characters that place persistent structures create greater combat variety by altering the level. They force everyone to vary how they approach familiar spaces. It's a player-driven tool that makes maps more re-playable.
Finally, I wanted to make a character for the thinkers of the world. Wattson gives players tools to steer fights by limiting tactical options. Played correctly, you can force opponents into bad fights. When you can't outshoot your opponent, Wattson allows you to outsmart your opponent.
I wanted the kit to be a 1000 hour game in itself.
Most of my Apex character designs have a low skill floor and a high skill ceiling. Generally, I believe that every character needs a foothold for new players. Players are more likely to learn and enjoy the full kit if they find some early success. Wattson has a steep learning curve and an extreme skill ceiling. It's not because her abilities are mechanically complex, anyone can place a fence. Her kit demands high-level strategic thinking just to understand where her power lies.
Wattson is challenging to learn because she requires a fundamentally different mindset from any other character in Apex.
Wattson requires mindfulness. It's a kit is for strategic optimizers. These are players who are mindful of their choices and are constantly striving to make better decisions. They know they get a vote in enemy strategy. They have a strategy for the match and tactics for each fight. For these players, Wattson's high skill floor is a challenge rather than a barrier to entry.
A soft-power strategic influence character isn't for everyone. It requires abstract reasoning, a grasp of human psychology, probabilistic thinking, a love of problem-solving, boldness, and the desire to outsmart people. That's a big ask, but it's also the beauty of character-based games. When you design a character, you should know who you're making it for. Specific characters should appeal to specific groups of players. Not all groups are the same size. Wattson's niche is rarely served in accessible shooters: armchair military theorists. Her kit allows players to apply the teachings of Sun Tzu and Carl Von Clausewitz to Apex.
Wattson mains would be a small, dedicated, and high-impact group.
Characters are an ecosystem. In Apex, you play one character and fight the rest of the roster. When a character is interesting to play against, it enhances every player's experience. I designed Wattson for players on both sides of the fence. You're more likely to fight her than play her, but either way it's going to be an interesting fight.
The Abilities
Perimeter Security [Tactical]
Wattson's fences combine expressive spatial control with 12,000 volts.
I've always thought of the fences as "barbed wire meets Go." Barbed wire served as my functional touchstone, while the board game Go defined how I want players to think about placing fences and controlling space.
The ability allows you to place a series of fence nodes in sequence. Two or more nodes placed in succession connect to form segments of an electric fence line. Enemies who cross through the fence are slowed, shocked, and slightly damaged. The fence then alerts Wattson's entire team to the enemy's location.
These consequences are simply a deterrent. Enemies rarely, if ever, intentionally touch Wattson's fences. This is the foundation of the fence's real power. They are highly visible and challenging to bypass. They make enemies hesitate. Wattson can leverage this to steer, stall, and anchor fights.
To destroy a fence node, opponents must shoot its base. Wattson can make this task very challenging by placing the node in cover. Further, opponents must choose between shooting the node and shooting at Wattson. If you shoot at Wattson, the fence remains intact. This friction tends to lead opponents to follow the path of least resistance by advancing towards existing gaps in the fence.
This simple principle allows Wattson to dictate the flow of fights. She can easily funnel inattentive attackers into a kill zone.
Fence nodes can be placed anywhere on the ground and can connect if they have line of sight. This affords players an enormous amount of creativity and tactical flexibility. They can be used indoors, outdoors, offensively, and defensively. In all cases, you are taking territory and partitioning the fight by creating a fence line your team can hold.
You can also place your own nodes to extend or "seize" sections of an enemy Wattson's fence. This makes Wattson-vs-Wattson fights extremely nuanced, as each Wattson can play off the other's loose nodes to gain an advantage in the fight.
I designed the ability so that it is easy to quickly add and remove fences. Fences can easily be placed in hundreds, if not thousands, of combinations within a space. Obviously, most of those placements are suboptimal. So what's a "good" fence placement? That is the start of the fencing rabbit hole. Hundreds of hours separate players who can fence, fence well, and fence brilliantly.
"Fence Theory" is a massive topic that delves into the use of Wattson's fences. Players have discussed and debated this topic at length in various forums and Discord channels. I wanted to touch upon it briefly because it illustrates the depth the kit affords players. For more detail on this subject, I've attached several videos at the bottom of the page where Apex players discuss, teach, and demonstrate fencing technique and the mindset Wattson's kit rewards.
Interception Pylon [Ultimate]
The Interception Pylon is intended as the heart of Wattson's defense. It's a placeable structure that intercepts incoming explosive ordnance. It also charges player shields and drastically reduces the cooldown on Wattson's fence nodes.
It's designed as a chaos reduction tool. It protects defenders from bombardments, thrown character abilities, and grenades.
Grenades, shells, and mortars are effective tools for dislodging defenders. One well-placed grenade can compromise a defense. In Apex, the number of grenades you can carry is only limited by your inventory space. You can easily collect a duffle bag's worth of grenades. This means that defensive positions are often flooded with grenades during an assault.
Consistent with my philosophy for Apex character design, the Pylon is designed to reduce lethality, force opponents to change tactics, and announce a squad's position to help orient fights.
The moment the Pylon has line of sight to a grenade or shell, it zaps it out of the air with a highly visible electrical arc. This doesn't just look cool, it signals to attackers that they should save their grenades and try something else. It only intercepts ordnance that will land inside its radius. Defenders can still throw grenades outward, towards attackers.
The Pylon passively recharges player shields within its radius. This allows Wattson's squad to trade favorably during "poking fights." These long-range sniper battles tend to occur late-game between multiple squads. If you are holding a central location between multiple enemy squads, chip damage from incoming potshots can easily erode your healing resources. This resource attrition can make it difficult to hold when the ring closes and you finally get pushed. The Pylon's shield recharge acts as a logistical backstop. It allows Wattson's squad to contest and observe enemy squads without risking a healing resource bottleneck.
Wattson's power comes from her defenses. She becomes vulnerable when the circle forces her to abandon her position. If ability cooldowns prevent her from quickly establishing a new fighting position, she is further disadvantaged—especially in the late game.
The Pylon remedies this by rapidly replenishing Wattson's Tactical while she is nearby. It reduces the cooldown from 30 seconds to 3 seconds. This allows her to rapidly rebuild and repair her fences.
This interaction not only helps Wattson recover from a rotation, it helps anchor and clarify firefights. The Pylon is the key to Wattson's defense. Without it, she is less able to repair damaged fences and her squad becomes vulnerable to shield attrition, grenades, and bombardments. Destroying the Pylon is the first step towards dislodging her squad.
This means that Pylon placement is extremely important. Wattson must make careful trade-offs between interception coverage, access to shield and ability recharges, and exposure to enemy attack.
While not as expressive as her fences, the Pylon acts as the engine that drives her kit.
Spark of Genius [Passive]
Wattson's Passive instantly charges her Interception Pylon Ultimate when she uses an Ultimate Accelerant. Other characters only get 35% of their Ultimate charge using the same item.
This allows Wattson to collect Ultimate Accelerants throughout the match, knowing each will give her an additional Pylon. In turn, her Pylon reduces her Tactical cooldown from 30 to 3 seconds. The net result is that each Ultimate Accelerant is an opportunity to rapidly establish a new fortified position.
Wattson is most effective when played proactively. She needs the time and resources to establish a position. Spark of Genius is effectively an insurance policy. Access to backup Pylons gives her the redundancy she needs to remain proactive after setbacks.
On earlier character kits, I refrained from tying character abilities to loot RNG. Ultimate Accelerants are decently common, but their 35% Ultimate charge boost makes them a finicky tool for play-making. It was an item with under-utilized potential. I also knew that my design for Loba would make finding specific loot much easier.
I could have pursued alternative ways of recharging Wattson's Ultimate, such as giving her a Pylon every time the circle closed. That takes the decision out of players' hands and places it solidly in the realm of lucky timing. Tying the Passive to Ultimate Accelerants gives players an enormous amount of autonomy over a limited resource. They get to decide when to cash in, and they accept the consequences of their choice. Chance affects how many Ultimate Accelerants they find, but how they use them is entirely their call.
Battle Royale is fundamentally about making choices and accepting consequences. Character abilities best serve the game mode when players drive every aspect of the kit.
Intro To "Fencing"
Below are several videos where players discuss "fencing" or "fence-theory" the strategic use of Wattson's fences.