Respawn has recently announced its plan to remove Tap Strafing from Apex Legends in a future update 10.1. So what exactly is Tap Strafing, and why is Respawn removing it?
Tap Strafing is known to be one of Battle Royale’s most advanced mechanics. Apex Legends players have been exploiting it for quite some time, to the dismay of the casual players.
Why Is Respawn Removing It?
The advanced mechanic allows players to pull off quick maneuvers and change directions quite fast, not leaving the enemy players much room to counter or even see it coming.
Respawn took to Twitter to explain their reasoning behind the removal of Tap Strafing citing its inaccessibility to casual players as well as lack of counterplay.
After much consideration and debate, we've decided to remove tap-strafing from @playapex in patch 10.1.
Our reasoning: It's inaccessible, lacks readability/counterplay, and is exacerbated by movement abilities.
The next patch notes will include a more detailed note about this.
— Respawn (@Respawn) August 31, 2021
Part of the problem with Tap Strafing is also that the movement is exclusive to only PC players, or players using mouse and keyboard. Essentially a whole segment of the game’s population is left behind and can’t replicate the movement, that is of course the Xbox and PlayStation controller players.
How Can You Pull It Off?
In order for players to pull off this advanced mechanic while it is still available until the next patch, players will need to quickly tap the move forward key right after slide jumping while strafing in a specific direction.
Players will of course need to use a mouse and keyboard to be able to pull it off. The move forward key is usually bound to the scroll wheel so it could be well executed and spam it quickly. This will allow you to make quicker 180 turns to get around corners and jump, fooling your enemies and leaving them defenseless.
Update 10.1 that will remove Tap Strafing has no release date set in stone. Apex Legends is currently available on PC, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, and mobile devices.
