How To Use Fuse In Apex Legends
Apex Legends: Season 8 - Mayhem officially released on February 2, 2021. With it came an updated Kings Canyon map, a new weapon, and of course, a new playable Legend. Walter “Fuse” Fitzroy is Apex Legends' 16th Legend.
The community was concerned that Fuse wouldn’t make it to the Apex Games. His childhood best friend, Maggie, has been out to get him ever since he betrayed her and his home planet of Salvo. Fuse certainly took a beating on his way to the Apex Games, but unlike Forge, he made it to Kings Canyon in one piece.
So far, Fuse has faced mixed reception. Some players think he’s an offensive machine while others believe he’ll never be more than a low to mid-tier Legend. This may be in part to the intricacies of his kit. Getting the most out of Fuse’s abilities requires a calculated approach.
Let's take a deep dive into the Ambassador of Boom’s skillset and the proper way to use it.
Passive - Grenadier
Fuse’s passive is perhaps the strongest part of his kit. Grenadier allows Fuse to hold two grenades per inventory spot. Remember, every Legend used to be able to do this. However, grenade spam became so strong that the devs put a cap of one grenade per inventory slot to counter it. Now, Fuse is the only Legend with this advantage. Additionally, grenades launched by Fuse travel faster/further and Grenadier allows Fuse to track the bounces of Frag Grenades.
Fuse claims that the people of Salvo used to call him the Grenado Tornado - and the nickname couldn’t be any more perfect. The Grenadier passive lets Fuse lay waste to any team foolish enough to take cover in closed corridors. To put this in perspective, ten grenades take up a mere five of Fuse’s inventory slots. This means Fuse can relentlessly spam grenades at enemy teams.
Paired with Horizon’s Ultimate ability, Fuse becomes an unstoppable force. Fuse can chuck grenade after grenade at enemies sucked in by Horizon's Black Hole. When these abilities are used in sync, there will be no survivors.
Fuse players should hoard grenades while waiting for the ideal time to unleash a barrage of explosives on an enemy squad. Fill as many inventory spots as possible with grenades. You’ll be happy you did.
Tactical - Knuckle Cluster
Fuse’s Knuckle Cluster Tactical ability is underwhelming at first, but it can actually be devastating in niche situations.
As the name suggests, Knuckle Cluster is a cluster bomb that continuously expels airburst explosives on impact. The bomb explodes multiple times, dealing up to 50 damage per explosion.
Knuckle Cluster sounds quite strong, but aware enemies will have no problem avoiding it. It takes a second to activate and deals very little damage if the opponent is not standing directly on top of it. Using Knuckle Cluster in a straight-up 1v1 is ill-advised and will cause more harm than good.
However, Knuckle Cluster really shines as an initiator. When entering a fight as the third party, Knuckle Cluster is brutal. Enemies caught in a firefight won't have time to notice or dodge the cluster bomb. The mini-grenades will rip the shields off the opposition and make for easy clean-up kills. This strategy will work just the same if you roll up on an unsuspecting team looting a building. Fire Fuse’s Tactical ability into a room and watch the damage numbers tick.
Avoid using Knuckle Cluster in open areas or on an opponent that’s looking at you. It’ll be a waste. But, when used on an oblivious squad, Knuckle Cluster is a top-tier Tactical ability.
Ultimate - The Motherlode
For someone with a reputation as a blow-up-first ask-questions-later kinda guy, Fuse’s Ultimate ability actually requires some careful thinking and strategy to use effectively.
When fired, The Motherlode drops a ring of fire down onto a target location. Anything within the ring will be surrounded by flames. The fire does hefty damage and also slows enemies while they burn. Unlike Bangalore or Gibraltar’s Ultimates, The Motherlode can be used outdoors AND indoors.
The idea of The Motherlode is to trap enemies within the flaming circle, leaving them stuck with no escape. It’s not meant to be used as a direct damage ability, but more as a form of crowd control.
It’s important to note, trapping opponents within the ring of flame is not as simple as a Fuse main may like it to be. The Motherlode explodes in mid-air and takes a couple of seconds to land. This is ample time to escape unharmed if you're an enemy player. Unless a team is completely oblivious, you’ll almost never catch a full squad within the circle of flame.
The Motherlode is at its best when combined with the Ultimate abilities of other Legends. Caustic, Horizon, Gibraltar, and Bangalore all have Ultimate abilities ideal for literally “fusing” with Fuse’s Ultimate.
A well-placed Caustic Ultimate in the centre of the flame circle will result in certain death for a trapped squad. They either choke on Nox Gas or burn up attempting to escape the fire. Horizon can use her Ultimate to suck players together, making it easy to entrap them with The Motherload. Finally, Gibraltar and Bangalore can call down their mortar and artillery strikes, destroying any opponents that had the misfortune of ending up in Fuse’s ring of fire.
As you can see, there is a lot of depth and nuance to Fuse’s Ultimate ability. Players will struggle to use it effectively through the early days of Season 8. However, once mastered, The Motherload will strike fear in Fuse’s opposition.
Click to enlargeFuse’s Counters
Not to rain on any new Fuse players’ flames, but Fuse does have some hard counters. Most obvious of all is probably Wattson. Wattson’s Interception Pylon will negate every single one of Fuse’s abilities. Grenades will be destroyed, his cluster bomb will be blocked, and even his Motherload bombardment will be intercepted. Fuse can do nothing to a prepared Watttson. Going further, Wraith, Horizon, Loba, and Octane all have movement abilities that allow them to easily escape The Motherload even after getting trapped inside.
Fuse is packing a lot of firepower, but making the most out of it isn’t as simple as one may expect when using the laid-back explosives' enthusiast. Succeeding as Fuse requires a tactical approach. As time goes on, players will begin to master Fuse and figure out what works and doesn't work. But in return, the player base will also learn how to counter him. Use these tips and tricks to get ahead of the competition and spread mayhem through the Apex Games.
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Images via Respawn Entertainment