Apex Legends - Caustic Guide: Lore, Abilities & Best Gun Loadouts

Caustic is can be both a defensive but also an offensive character his toxic skills are perfect for damaging enemies over time with his Nox Gas Traps and a devastating ultimate, the Nox Gas Grenade does not forgive those who are caught inside of it.

His passive Nox Vision lets him walk inside of his gas unscathed and also highlights his enemies in green allowing him to shoot them down easier.

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Caustic Lore

Caustic, Toxic Trapper, Apex Legends

Gender: Male
Heirloom: Death Hammer
Voice Actor: JB Blanc (@thejbblanc)

Alexander Maxwell Nox was born to Arthur Rutherford Nox and Katerina Ticacek Nox on February 25, 2685. He worked as a research scientist for Humbert Labs on his homeworld Gaea, the Frontier’s leading manufacturer of pesticide gases.

With a glut of pesticides needed to protect the growing Frontier colonies’ crops, Humbert Labs was constantly on the hunt for better and stronger formulas. Nox was one of their brightest scientists and worked day and night developing new gases.

But to make sure they worked, he needed to test them on more than just inert tissue: he needed something living.

As he toiled in secret, Nox began to see the beauty in his creations and their ability to destroy anything they touched. But the head of Humbert Labs, Dr. Franklin Humbert, soon discovered his gruesome experiments, and their confrontation ended with the lab in flames and its chief dead.

Today, Nox is missing and presumed deceased, his supposed body found and identified by his mother, charred and beyond recognition.

10 years later, Caustic now finds new test subjects in the Apex Games, where he puts his gaseous creations to work and observes their effects with great interest

Caustic Abilities Guide

Tactical Ability – Nox Gas Trap

Nox Gas Trap		Tactical
	Cooldown	20 seconds
	Description	Drops canisters that release deadly Nox gas when shot or triggered by enemies.
Information
You can hold up to three charges of this ability, and gain one charge every 25 seconds. Up to six traps can be active on the map at once, and you’re able to pick up unused traps to regain a charge. When an enemy gets close to a trap, it releases a cloud of gas that deals 5 Health damage per second to enemies caught within, ignoring shields the damage is increased by 1 every other tick indefinitely until they manage to escape or the gas dissipates (e.g. 5,5,6,6,7,7) Enemies will be unable to sprint while in Caustic’s Gas. If one Trap affects an enemy it will deal 6 damage/sec, increased by 1 every hit to a maximum of 12. Your ultimate and any other trap affecting the same enemy will deal only 1 (it doesn’t increase) damage. The trap and the gas cloud deal Health damage only ignoring shields. Shooting the top of the trap will cause it to go off. Shooting the base will destroy it without releasing gas.
Interaction
Wattson’s Interception Pylon cannot shoot down Nox Gas Traps. The gas can damage both the pylon and Wattson’s Perimeter Security nodes. Mirage’s decoyscan trigger Nox Gas Traps to reveal Caustic’s location to his squad. Lifeline’s D.O.C drone will malfunction while inside of the gas and will not be able to heal anyone. Crypto’s Surveillance Drone can be damaged by the gas. Nox Gas has no slowing effects on teammates. Teammates can now ping friendly Nox Gas traps. Enemies can cancel Caustic’s barrel by shooting it before it is fully inflated.
Advanced
Shooting the base of the trap or before it inflates completely will destroy it without releasing the gas. It’s good to throw a trap in a smokescreen generated by a Smoke Launcher, especially if enemies are hiding in it. This will also highlight enemies in green due to Nox Vision, and allow you an unfettered view of the enemies. When outnumbered or in a sticky situation, throw multiple traps around you. The enemy’s bullets will hit your traps, setting them off, and allowing you to escape or heal to stay in the fight. When going through Wraith’s Dimensional Riftportals, throw a trap at the end to catch enemies off guard trying to get your squad from behind and reveal their position due to your passive. Throwing a trap in front of a door prevents it from opening to that side. You can use this feature to block doors and protect yourself or to trap enemies inside an enclosed room. If they break down the door, the trap will activate and you’ll be informed of their location. You can use your traps as smoke bombs, to throw some cover for sniper fire or general confusion. A team that manages to get their Caustic to end game (such as Rounds 5 or 6, maybe even 8) will have the advantage over other teams that don’t have a Caustic. Caustic’s abilities increase in utility as the play area shrinks. Furthermore, Caustic can prevent scenarios of Heal Off Victories from happening as it’s impossible to heal in the gas and ring damage.

There are some Known bugs for this ability.

• If you throw the trap underneath you, you’ll be in its textures, works with teammates too.
• Throwing the trap under Lifeline’s Care Package before it lands will cause the trap to slowly fly away.
• Occasionally if you or a teammate touch a recently placed trap, It will begin to slide away.

How to Use Nox Gas Trap

Caustic’s Tactical excels in small areas and especially in small buildings because they provide cover for you and your team, the can block doors and they can dissuade players from moving in.

Any player that makes the mistake to get inside a building with a Caustic will have a really hard time and if the Caustic player knows how to use him then it will be a sure loss for the attackers.

You can drop traps directly below you and you will be glitched inside of them allowing you to see enemies while inside the trap, sometimes though when you move the traps will immediately move somewhere else, this seems like something that will most likely be fixed in the future.

When you are holed up in houses it’s best to use your traps as soon as possible because you can deploy 6 of them in the map,  you have 3 charges so be sure to use them all up and wait for the next set of charges as backups for fights.

If your enemy is in a distance you can throw some traps around and shoot them to trigger the gas making it harder for them to hit you but beware, the 4x-10x Digital Sniper Threat can still see you through the smoke.

Another good tactic on how to use the Gas Traps is to fill in the blanks between one trap and the other in order to do that you have to experiment and see how far the gas can reach outside of the trap then place another one next to it, after that shoot them to activate and calculate the distance needed for the traps to be set, it is recommended to place the traps and then go somewhere high so you can observe them better.

Passive Ability – Nox Vision – Fortitude

Nox Vision		Passive
	Cooldown	N/A
	Description	Allows you to see enemies through Nox Gas.
Information
Occasionally if you or a teammate touch a recently placed trap, It will begin to slide away. Enemies inside the gas created from your tactical and ultimate abilities are highlighted green, similar to a threat scope. This vision is not obstructed by walls or other obstacles.
Advanced
Your teammates do not share this vision, so be sure to communicate to them the locations of enemies you can see. Your threat vision doesn’t work against other Caustics, forcing you to prioritize them, as they are immune to all Nox Gas effects and they can see your allies even if they are on your gas.

Fortified		Passive Perk
	Cooldown	N/A
	Description	Damage received is reduced by 15%
Information
You get 15% reduced damage from every attack. Legends with this passive perk are immune to slow effects from weapon fire.

How to use Nox Vision

This Passive is a fairly simple one and doesn’t do much other than provide a visual outline of your enemies when they are inside Caustic’s Nox gas.

It works similarly to the Digital Threat optics but instead of the Red highlight they have it shows them in Green.

To efficiently use Nox Vision you should throw Caustic’s ultimate in tight spaces with limited visibility and stay inside to fight your enemies while they flee in fear.

Ultimate Ability – Nox Gas Grenade

Nox Gas Grenade		Ultimate
	Charge Time	180 seconds
	Description	Blankets a large area in Nox gas.
Information
Lasts 15 seconds. Deals 5 damage every second. Other than the wider area, the gas’s function is identical to that of the Gas Traps.
Interaction
The grenade can be shot down by Wattson’s Interception Pylon. However, if the grenade has already detonated, the pylon can’t block any of the gas, and will even take damage from it.
Advanced
Do not use this ability and expect it to kill an entire squad. Similar to Bangalore’s Rolling Thunder, its main utility comes in the fact that enemies are forced to either evacuate the area or suffer the consequences of damage, obscured vision, inability to sprint and more. Since this slows and deals increasing damage, it can be combined with Nox Visionto pick off enemies in your smoke. If you have some grenades that need using, throw them into your smoke when an enemy is caught – this tactic has the capability of wiping out full squads if enough players are caught in your gas. Using this ability in large, open areas is often a waste. Try to save it for when enemies are occupying a building, a small area, or are hiding behind a cover too dangerous to bypass. All enemies that find themselves in the gas cloud are subject to Nox Vision. Use this to hunt down and kill enemies while they are weakened. You can use it to block chokepoints or cover-up revives. Try saving the Nox Gas Grenade for the last few rounds (especially on Rounds 7 or 8) as his abilities increase in utility as the play area shrinks. Furthermore, he can prevent scenarios of Heal Off Victories from happening as it’s impossible to heal in the gas and ring damage. Try saving the Nox Gas Grenade for the last few rounds (especially on Rounds 7 or 8) as his abilities increase in utility as the play area shrinks. Furthermore, he can prevent scenarios of Heal Off Victories from happening as it’s impossible to heal in the gas and ring damage.

How to Use Nox Gas Grenade

This is Caustic’s most powerful ability, it slows your enemies, blurs their vision, and drains their HP away over time, it also doesn’t allow them to heal or revive anyone inside the gas.

The best way to use this ability is in closed confined spaces or at choke points but don’t expect to drop an entire squad just by throwing his ultimate in there, the next most logical step your opponents will do is try and flee outside of the gas, so be sure to have  thought of a plan like having some Thermite Grenades or Arc Stars at hand and throw them a little bit further that the gas to block the path for your enemies.

Another way to use Caustic’s Ultimate is defensively for example if a teammate of yours is knocked you can throw his ultimate on them and go for the revive, be careful though because if the enemy has Digital Threat Optics they will use them against you so be sure you are in an area with at least enough cover because the gas won’t be enough.

One of the most advantageous things this ultimate can offer is the threat that poses in the late stages of the match, the ring is becoming so small and there’s little cover to be found making it a perfect opportunity to use it on the entire team.

Best Weapon Loadouts for Caustic

Sentinel, Apex Legends.

Unlike other defensive Legends Caustic has a more offensive approach, thus the best weapon loadouts for him are the ones that deal fast DPS and high damage to break the enemy shields as soon as possible.

EVA-8 Auto/Mastiff Shotgun& R-99/Volt SMG/ Prowler SMG

This is the close range combat option for Caustic when he is defending an area like a building or a choke point, the usefulness of this loadout comes in to play when an enemy is caught by one of Caustic’s nearby traps after that you have to move quickly and make quick work of your enemy, but you have to be careful and you must have at least one teammate to help you out when you don’t have an immediate visual on your traps.

The EVA-8 can take the “Double Tap” Hop up but the Mastiff can not take any extra Hop ups it can only take a Shotgun Bolt and optics but we don’t recommend using them on it since when you look down the default sights it shows you the exact spread of where the pellets will land.

The R-99 and the Prowler are the fastest SMGs in the game and are the most reliable for taking down the enemy shields.

The Prowler can take the “Select Fire” Hop up and with an Extended Heavy Magazine it becomes a fearsome weapon, the R-99 although it can’t take any Hop Ups if equipped with a Level 3 Extended Light Magazine it can deal massive damage to the enemy shields but will most likely need a reload to take them down completely and that’s why the gas is so useful.

For the EVA-8 it’s best to use a 1x Holo but for the SMGs the 1x HCOG seem to work better.

NOTE: Since the Prowler SMG has gone into the Care Package rotation as of Season 6, the R-99 is back and is a very good alternative to use.

NOTE: The “Double Tap” Hop Up has been removed from the loot pool for Season 8.

NOTE: The Peacekeeper is back for Season 9 and is a good alternative to the Mastiff or EVA-8.

R-301 Carbine/ VK-47 Flatline & M600 Spitfire

This is a more defensive loadout the Assault Rifles provide some good mid range firepower while the Spitfire is there for suppressive fire.

For mid to long range engagements it’s better to use the R-301 or the Flatline but when you see the enemy getting closer you should switch to the Spitfire and if it has a Level 3 Extended Heavy Magazine you can keep firing for a very long time.

It’s recommended to use a 2x HCOG for the R-301 and the Flatline and the Spitfire can benefit from it as well although the  1x-2x Variable Holo seems to work better for it because once the enemy comes closer you can switch to 1x so you should first use the Spitfire and after use the assault rifles.

Since Season 6, Devotion  has returned to Ground Loot so it is a good alternative to Spitfire.
The Devotion can use Extended Energy Magazines and the “Turbocharger” Hop Up.

NOTE: The “Anvil Receiver” Hop Up has returned to the loot pool for Season 8.

NOTE: The “Anvil Receiver” Hop Up is vaulted for Season 10.

Note: The new weapon for Season 10 is the Rampage LMG which is able to take a Thermite Grenade and increase its fire rate by 30%, a very useful weapon for defensive Legends.

P2020/Mozambique Shotgun& Sentinel

This is the killer combo that can be very useful and destroy opponents in the hands of skilled players.

Beware, this is not a forgiving loadout and if you miss even one shot from the Sentinel you might get downed.

The P2020 and the Mozambique can both equip the “Hammerpoint” Hop up that deals extra damage to unshielded opponents and the Sentinel can get a charge with 2Shield Cells that can deal increased damage 70 -> 88.

So what you have to do is shoot your enemies with the Sentinel, break their shields and then start blasting them with either a P2020 or a Mozambique but whichever weapon you choose to go with remember, they must have a “Hammerpoint” Hop up equipped or else they will be technically useless.

Caustic can land his shots easier than other Legends because the ultimate’s gas slows down your enemies making them easier to hit.

NOTE: The “Hammerpoint” Hop Up has been removed for Season 9 meaning you will not get the additional damage with the P2020 and the Mozambique, you can alternatively use the Bocek Compound Bow (Which can take two Hop Ups, “Shatter Caps” allowing your weapon to work like a shotgun and “Deadeye’s Tempo” that increases the rate of fire of your weapon when you firing at the perfect moment.

NOTE: “Deadeye’s Tempo” can also be equipped by Sentinel.

How to Play Caustic

Caustic, System Override Event Skin Necrosis, Apex Legends

Caustic might be a defensive character but he is the most offensive one from that class he can push enemies or defend a small area on his own, his traps can provide cover for as long they are active and he can deploy 3 of them around him making it very hard to hit and waste the ammo from his enemies, the total amount of traps he can have in the map are 6.

One of the most important things caustic can do is reinforce a building with traps and you can use this technique to bait enemies making them eager to attack which will most likely lead them to make a mistake and get inside only to be destroyed by him and his team.

Be sure to place the traps in places that are not that obvious so you can take your opponents by surprise.

The best grenades for Caustic are the Thermite Grenades because once he has trapped his opponents he can block their path with them and go all out to ensure his victory.

His passive is very useful when he covers a big area with gas because he is not affected by it and can see his enemies inside clearly making it easier for him to shoot them down.

If you get used to the range of the gas each trap has you can place them strategically so they can close the gaps between them allowing you to cover a big area and deal as much damage as possible.

Sometimes you might need to deploy your ultimate in the same place you have deployed your traps especially if you get pushed by a whole team and your teammates are not close to you after that you should use whatever weapons you have and do your best to shoot them all down until they are eliminated or at least until your team comes to your help.