Apex Legends allowed a particularly effective way of moving and fighting with tap strafing until the last update. But since this only worked on PC, that’s now over. Console gamers are pleased, but PC players often don’t think it’s great. Read the whole story here on MeinMMO.
What was changed in Apex Legends? The upcoming patch 10.1 brings a significant change to the gameplay of Apex Legends. The previously implemented “tap strafing” will be eliminated. From patch 10.1, you will no longer be able to perform crazy jump maneuvers on PC – where this was possible before.
But what is this tap strafing actually? To understand this, here is a brief excursion on the topic of bunny hopping and strafe jumping, which underlies this technique.
Bunny Hopping, strafe jumping, and tap strafing? What does that mean?
What is bunny hopping? Tap strafing is an evolution of the infamous “bunny hopping.” Bunny hopping means that you jump at the right moment during a forward movement and hop around the map in a continuously hopping form. When bunny hopping is done right, you lose no speed and continuously shift your hitboxes, making targeted hits much more difficult.
What is strafe jumping? The advanced technique from bunny hopping is “strafe jumping.” This means that while jumping, you can also move sideways, making you even more agile.
What is tap strafing? As a masterful discipline, there is also the tap strafing mentioned here in games with the Source engine (CS:GO, Team Fortress, Left 4 Dead). Tap strafing builds on strafe jumping and uses a peculiarity of the underlying Source engine.
The Source engine (Apex Legends uses a modified version of it) checks always when the forward key is pressed, the direction and the movement. So when you tap forward while looking in another direction mid-jump, you can change your movement direction in the air.
Pros simply repeat the bunny hopping trick and bind the forward movement to the scroll wheel. This allows wild actions where you can radically change direction mid-jump, creating unexpected shooting angles and evasive maneuvers.
The technique is not easy to master and requires good timing, but those who can pull it off can perform spectacular stunts.
This is briefly explained in action here in the video:
PC pros are upset, console players think it’s good
Why is tap strafing being removed? While tap strafing was not an issue for a long time and was particularly favored by top players, there is a specific problem: The necessary movements can only be performed with a keyboard and mouse. And those are usually only available on PC.
This excludes console players, who cannot perform this effective movement technique with a controller. Apex Legends has supported crossplay to Xbox, PlayStation, and Switch since late 2020, meaning all platforms where tap strafing does not work and thus are at a disadvantage compared to PC.
Therefore, this feature will now be disabled with the upcoming patch 10.1. The developers’ explanation: It is hard to access, difficult to understand and counter, and will be further amplified by other movement abilities in the game. This likely refers to the speed boost from heroes like Octane.
How are players reacting? Since the technique of tap strafing was particularly popular among top players, they often have little good to say about the developers’ decision:
- Nokokopuffs (via Twitter): “The worst decision of all time!”
- Dyrus (via Twitter): “Apex Legends has been killed again by its own devs!”
- CouRage (via Twitter): “Damn, this is just crazy…”
User NiceWigg (via Twitter) acknowledges that tap strafing might have been too easy over the scroll wheel, but they should have just removed that specific option and kept the technique itself in the game.
Other players, however, praise the developers’ decision:
- Frexs (via Twitter): “Thank you, tap strafing was super OP against us controller players, thank you for removing it from the game, I love the change and look forward to the future!!!”
- LeonBlade (via Twitter): “I would like to see how many people complaining actually use tap strafing… How can so many of you do it when I never see anyone in my lobbies actually doing it? Remember how big the player base is. I’m glad it’s gone (I play on mouse and keyboard).”
- CloverWzy (via Twitter): “I don’t mind it. But if you’re nerfing the movement, then nerf the aim assist [on consoles] as well.”
So much for the opinions from the community. What is your opinion on tap strafing? Is Apex Legends losing a unique feature with this or should such inequalities be eliminated to enable fair crossplay? Let us know in the comments here.
Also interesting: The controversial streamer Dr Disrespect loves and hates Apex Legends equally.
