Wattson Guide - Apex Legends

Apex Legends is filled with plenty of legends with varying skill sets, but few legends provide better "offensive defense" than Wattson. Not only can Wattson dish out damage with her tactical ability against unsuspecting players, but her kit is designed entirely around fortifying positions, neutralizing other legends' abilities, and regenerating her teammates' body shields. She's a one of the most selfless legends in the game, as she gives everything to protect her allies. Here's what you need to know about how Wattson's abilities work and some tips for playing as her.

Defensive-minded abilities for defensive-minded players

Wattson's passive ability is Spark of Genius. This allows Ultimate Accelerants to fully charge her ultimate ability, and also allows her to hold two Ultimate Accelerants per inventory slot. Additionally, she also gradually regenerates shields over time.

Her tactical ability is Perimeter Security, which allows her to place electrical nodes that create a fence of electricity when connected. Enemies will take a bit of damage and be slowed upon moving through this electrical field.

Interception Pylon is her ultimate ability, and it places an electrified pylon that destroys incoming ordnance, like grenades and airstrikes. It also repairs the shields of anyone standing within range. It lasts forever untouched, but enemies can destroy it.

You're a fortifying machine...

Wattson's primary strength is fortifying positions. All of her abilities feed into her ability to lock down positions and keep her team safe from incoming attackers. Her ultimate ability lets her regenerate her teammates' shields and destroy incoming projectiles. This lets Wattson defend her teammates against many other abilities from legends like Caustic or Bangalore.

Nullifying an enemy's ability can turn the tide of battle, especially in late-game rings where squads are close together and area-of-effect attacks are far more deadly. Wattson can also use her electric fences to not only defend her position from rushers but to also know if someone is flanking. Setting a fence at Wattson's flank will let her know when enemies are coming since the fences will either damage incoming enemies and send her an alert or be destroyed, which Wattson can see happen.

...not an offensive powerhouse

Wattson's main weakness is that her abilities aren't well-suited for being offensive. If your team decides to rush another team, neither her ultimate ability nor her tactical ability can really be used efficiently. Sure, Wattson can build fences and drop her ultimate very quickly, but if you're running into a fight, the moment those are placed they become difficult to move. While the main component to winning team fights is gunplay, Wattson not being able to use her abilities in meaningful ways during offensive attacks is a big downside for her, and ultimately her biggest drawback.

Pair up with other defensive legends

Wattson pairs well with legends who enhance her own strengths or make up for her lack of offensive power. For those legends looking to go all-in on defense, Caustic and Rampart pair well with Wattson. Caustic provides more defensive opportunities with his gas traps and Wattson's ultimate can be used to defend Rampart's abilities from incoming explosives. The team will still have some offensive capabilities with Caustic's ultimate ability, but this setup is primarily meant for hunkering down.

Wattson also pairs well with legends who have traversal abilities like Octane and Pathfinder. Both of these characters can use their Ultimate abilities to move the entire squad into a position, which Wattson can quickly fortify. Meanwhile, Revenant's ultimate ability, Death Totem, lets his squad turn into shadows who are sent back to the totem after taking a certain amount of damage. Wattson can use both her electric fences and her pylon to defend the Totem from being attacked while the team pushes forward.

Know what to expect from your opponents

In order to better understand how enemies will be trying to take you down, it's good to know how to take down an opposing Wattson yourself. Removing an enemy Wattson from the battlefield usually requires a strong push from your team and some focused gunfire. The immediate concern is that her pylon needs to be destroyed. It provides protection against projectiles and some shield regeneration, so taking it out is top priority. After that, some grenades or explosive-based ultimate abilities can clear out Wattson fences and displace her from wherever she is holed up. After that, you need to rush the enemy squad before she can set the defenses back up. The other option is to rush in before Wattson ever had the chance to set up in the first place, since it can take some time for her to place all of her defenses.

Wattson fences can also be destroyed almost instantly by shooting the base of the pylons, so if the base is visible, take it out as quickly as possible. The other counter to Wattson is to just disengage from the fight. Unless it's down to the final two squads or your team needs to push through where the enemy Wattson has set up, you can always just leave. Either the fight will be avoided entirely, or the enemy Wattson's squad will attempt to follow, losing their defensive advantage. Crypto also presents a hard counter to Wattson, since the EMP blast from his drone can take out all of her defenses at once, forcing her to wait out her cooldowns and set back up.

Really, though, it's all about those fences

Wattson's primary use in most situations is her fences, so it's worth getting acclimated to how best to use them. Here are a few one-off tips to make the most of her best ability:

• Wattson's electric fence can be criss-crossed over the endpoint of ziplines or gravity cannons, so any enemy who uses them are damaged.
• If you end up in a small room with an enemy, you can place her electric fences fast enough to fill the room with electric traps that can disorient the foe while you try to get yourself situated in a better position.
• With enough practice and dedication, you can learn to throw fences down extremely fast while being chased by enemies. If done correctly, you can catch them by placing the first part of the fence down, and then connecting the second piece at the exact moment your foe is about to run a doorway, catching them in the electricity without having ever given away that the fence would be there.
• You can use a Wattson fence to finish off a downed player, saving your grenades/bullets and avoiding the need to use a time-consuming finisher. Or you can use the fence to trap a downed player if you want to come back and finish them off later and don't want to give them the opportunity to wander off and get revived by a teammate.

• Wattson can even act as a bit of a recon legend by keeping doorways consistently blocked off with fences so that she can see when enemies pass through them and take damage.