How to play Caustic in Apex Legends: Abilities, tips, more

Season 12 of Apex Legends is well underway and there’s no better time to learn a new Legend. Here’s exactly how to master Caustic, the Toxic Trapper who excels at controlling areas, and pressuring opponents.

Apex Legends Defiance has had a huge impact on the game’s meta and added a range of new features. Whether it was the brand new Legend Mad Maggie, the 9v9 Control LTM, or even the major map changes to Olympus, Respawn has certainly knocked in out of the park with Season 12.

Despite all of the new additions, it can be difficult to decide which Legend to main in Season 12 with so many options to choose from.

Well, if you prefer a slower playstyle that focuses on controlling areas and fighting opponents on your terms, Caustic may be the perfect Legend for you. The Toxic Trapper has one of the most unique kits in Apex Legends and despite being hit with a nerf to his Tactical in the latest patch, he’s still a strong pick.

Let’s check out his abilities and a few tips and tricks to help you master Caustic.

How to best use Caustic’s abilities

Passive: Nox Vision/Fortified

Caustic’s passive is Nox Vision, this allows you to see enemies through his gas in a thermal outline. This ability is one of the reasons why Caustic is so effective at locking down areas and putting his enemies at a disadvantage. For example, paired with his Nox Gas Trap or Nox Gas Grenade in a building, Caustic can take advantage of his opponent’s lack of vision and rack up the kills.

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The Fortified passive is a hidden buff applied to both Caustic and Gibraltar that provides them both with a flat damage reduction of 10%. On top of this, both Legends are immune to slow down effects from bullets. Respawn gave this passive to these Legends due to their large models compared to other characters on the roster.

Tactical: Nox Gas Trap

Considered Caustic’s most iconic ability, the Nox Gas Trap is key for controlling areas and causing chaos for your opponents.

After complaints that Caustic had been hit too hard from previous nerfs, the devs buffed the Toxic Trapper in Season 10, making his gas damage start at 5 and increase by 1 for every other tick indefinitely.

On top of this, the cooldown of the ability was reduced from 25 seconds to 20, giving you more opportunities to lock down an area with gas.

However, in Season 12, Caustic’s Tactical was hit with a nerf to give enemies more counterplay to his traps, making them destroyable after they’ve been activated. This means opponents can choose to shoot them instead of fleeing a gas-filled area. Finally, it’s worth noting that the barrels now have 150hp and now deactivate after 11 seconds rather than the previous 12.5 seconds.

Ultimate: Nox Gas Grenade

Caustic’s ultimate is very similar to his Nox Gas Traps, with the primary difference being the ultimate’s longer-range and ability to deploy gas quicker. This makes it a perfect ability to use before a push on a building or area that your opponents are hiding in.

It’s worth noting that in Season 10, the cooldown was reduced from 210 seconds to 180 seconds. However, the duration of the gas was reduced from 20 to 15 seconds to compensate for this buff.

Overall, these changes didn’t make a huge difference to Caustic’s gameplay, the biggest factor was the changes to the gas tick damage.

Caustic tips and tricks

1. Use Nox Gas Traps for cover

Caustic has a pretty big character model compared to a lot of the other Legends on the Apex roster. Therefore, finding consistent cover in gunfights is essential.

Luckily, Caustic’s Nox Gas Traps can be used for cover or as a barrier in any gunfight. This allows you to dip in and out of combat whilst being able to recover your health and shields.

If the enemy attempts to push you, simply triggering a set of traps around you will force them to take a fight in the Nox Gas. You may find a lot of the time that setting off the traps will thwart their push completely.

Keep in mind that following the changes to the traps in Season 12, this trick is still useful, but the traps can be destroyed. So, be ready to place another down in an instant if your enemies decide to shoot through them.

2. Lock enemies in with traps

It wouldn’t be a Caustic guide without mentioning his ability to lock enemies inside a gas-filled building. When placed in front of a door, Caustic’s traps completely block an exit. This means if you block all of the doors with a trap, you can render your enemies completely useless and control a fight.

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This mechanic has made for numerous highlight clips since Apex’s release. It never gets boring and is one of the reasons why Caustic is such a fun Legend to main.

3. Use gas to cut off enemies and cover chokepoints

The final few circles of an Apex match can be extremely intense and difficult to navigate. However, with Caustic, you can use your traps to cut off chokes and force enemies to run through your gas. This is ideal in the final few circles when enemy squads are attempting to reach the final area.

This strategy is particularly effective when the circle ends in an enclosed area. This means enemy squads have to make a difficult decision that will usually end in their demise either way.

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Hopefully, this guide has helped you pick up the basics of Caustic and taught you a few tips and tricks that you might not have made use of.

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