All you need to know about Crypto’s rework in Season 12

Crypto has been a legend of much discourse within the Apex Legends community. He's at the bottom of the pack when it comes to pick-rate. Many players seem to think Crypto has no abilities outside of his drone and that makes him "weak". There are also many players who think he's strong but has a high skill floor. Nonetheless, the community barely plays him and it looks like Respawn Entertainment finally noticed that.

Season 12 is live and Crypto's drone has been reworked. His abilities are all still tied to his drone being in the air, but he's much more autonomous now. And no, before you ask, Respawn hasn't given him the infamous "off the grid" passive ability that everyone on Reddit has been suggesting (where he can't be detected by recon legends scans). That trope went on for so long, it's turned into a community-beloved copypasta on Reddit. So here's a quick lowdown on his rework.

Nope. Absolutely nothing about his abilities themselves has changed. They remain the same, at least in terms of what they do. And that's the neat part. Crypto has always been a great recon legend with excellent support abilities. It's just that he relied a lot on using his abilities while his squad was engaged in combat, which felt either too boring for players, or too complicated. The player base was demanding a rework because they weren't fully comfortable with the idea that his abilities are tied entirely to his tactical, which is his drone.

The manner in which Crypto interacts with his drone is what has changed. Consider the rework as more of a quality of life improvement that makes him much more enjoyable. It also makes him much more capable of a seamless transition from drone view to combat mode. The drone view itself has received an overhaul, allowing crypto players receive a lot more feedback on what's happening around them while they're using the drone.

Until now, every time Crypto used his tactical, it would take players straight into drone view. This made it much more important for the player to position themselves safely so that they don't get caught by an opponent while they're in drone view. The rework makes it so that when Crypto uses his tactical, the drone will launch and fly in a straight line in the direction Crypto himself is facing. In case the drone hits a wall or an obstacle, it'll re-orient itself and move in a different direction. This makes it easier for Crypto players to deploy the drone and remain combat-effective in situations that demand it. In case they just want to survey the area and aren't in immediate threat, Crypto can still deploy the drone by directly going into drone view if the player holds the tactical button instead of just tapping it.

Crypto's drone view has changed significantly and provides a lot more information than it used to before. One of the biggest grips I personally had with it was that it was a chore to find survey beacons when I tried to scan them with the drone. The feedback from the drone view was minimal and the green overlay made it harder to find in-game objects like Survey Beacons. The drone view now displays information like player and teammate health bars, the minimap, the kill feed, ring timers, and survey beacons as a player would view it outside drone view. The player can also see the drone's health bar so that they're aware of how much health it has left before it can pull off an EMP.

Crypto's Drone has one of the best recon scans in the game and it just got better. Respawn just improved the Neurolynk FOV from 160 to 240 degrees. This means that the drone will scan players around a larger radius. A very tiny nerf to this being exploited is that Neurolynk will not be active during the time the drone is being recalled. It's not going to make a huge impact, but it will affect some plays nonetheless. The FOV buff more than makes up for it.

Previously, the drone's hud marker was only visible when it was off-screen. They've reworked it so that the drone's hud marker will always be visible so long as it is deployed. This isn't a significant change but it'll help crypto players keep track of the drone's location.

Respawn have nerfed the drone's hitpoints from 60 to 50. Sustained fire from a team or a couple of high damage hits will take out the drone. According to the developers, this is to make sure Crypto players stay wary that the drone can be destroyed if they're not careful. Overenthusiastically deploying the drone in fights because of newfound autonomy may be ill-advised.

The problem with Crypto was never his lack of strength. He isn't inherently weak as a character. He's a great recon legend that actually has multiple passive abilities. His main issue was that all his abilities were tied to the drone. This meant that players had to keep going in and out of drone view to use him well. He's been sat at the bottom of the pecking order in terms of pick rate alongside Rampart at 1.6%. Looks like these changes will make him much more engaging to play and offer some degree of autonomy.

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