Apex Legends devs respond to shield swapping issue from quitting players

Connor Bennett
Apex Legends Artifact image

Respawn Entertainment have responded to Apex Legends player’s complaints about being unable to shield swap with enemies who have decided to leave the game early.

Over the last few years, Apex Legends players have managed to come up with a whole host of in-game tricks that play off the battle royale’s mechanics. These have included combining two Legend ultimates into one to make an even more powerful ability, as well as a few others. 

One of the more popular mechanics, though, has been shield swapping. Typically, you’ll pull off a shield swap by, well, swapping shields with enemies you’ve just killed so that you can get a fresh bit of armor after a fight. It’s designed to save time and inventory space so that you don’t have to carry shield batteries around with you.

However, players have been complaining following the Season 21 update, claiming that it doesn’t work like it once did – especially if your teammate or enemy decides to leave the game. 

The issue was, again, highlighted by Redditor luiszinck on June 6, asking if the devs had removed the option to shield swap with an enemy who left the game. 

It drew a response from Respawn’s community manager, Amy Thiessen. “Not intended. Team is looking into it,” she said, much to the delight of Apex players. 

“Thank you for specifying. That seemed like an odd change from the moment I noticed it. Glad to hear it isn’t intentional,” one fan said. “Thanks for the transparency!” another added. 

Other players noted that they’d picked it up as a bug a while ago, and that it has only been happening to “people that leave when knocked.”

Season 21 has, so far, had some mixed reviews from players overall. ImperialHal claimed that things are pretty much the “exact same” as before, while others are delighted to be able to play Solos at last.