Who is Ash in Apex Legends? A look at Season 11's new playable character

Based on the newest Stories from the Outlands episode for Apex Legends, Ash will be the next playable Legend in the game.

Ash has been rumored to be the next Legend for a while now, but today was the first firm indication that those rumors are true. The full launch trailer for Season 11 is set to drop later this week on Oct. 21, hopefully revealing more information about what Ash's kit will look like. For now, you can check out the events that lead to this villain's resurrection in the video below!

Who is Ash from Apex Legends?

Ash is a Simulacrum Pilot who played an antagonistic role during Titanfall 2. While there is a lot to her story, the TL;DR is that she was a mercenary pilot working with Apex Predators to pilot Titans in battle.

During the events of Titanfall 2, Ash traps the protagonist Jack Cooper in a simulation dome in which he had to fight against a reaper war machine, foreshadowing her role as the facilitator of the black market Arenas matches featured in Apex Legends today.

Ash was supposedly killed by Cooper during the events of that game, but the remains of her head were gathered from Kings Canyon by Loba during Loba's quest Broken Ghost in Apex season 5. Loba was hired by Hammond Robotics to complete the task. Her head was then reconstructed and placed back on her body, which was eventually found by Pathfinder behind Hammond Robots facility. Ash has lost her memory, only remembering her name.

She first appears in Apex Legends as the announcer in Arenas Mode, demanding that players entertain her and expressing her disappointment when you fail. The games are apparently some type of illegal, underground version of the full Apex Legends games.

As revealed in Monday's story, Ash holds the mind of Dr. Ashleigh Reid inside her. Dr. Reid was one of the creators of Pathfinder and a mentee of Dr. Mary Somer (Horizon) before she jumped forward in time. Reid was stabbed during an attempt to betray her fellow scientists who were studying a rare element called Branthium. As she lay dying, she calls for doctors to transfer her brain and consciousness to a computerized avatar, we know as Ash.

When her mind is uploaded to Ash, Reid finds that she is co-inhabiting the mind with Ash's dastardly personality. We can hear Ash chastize Leigh as her consciousness is transferred, accusing her of weakness and betrayal, including reminding her of the time she attempted to kill Horizon inside a blackhole, causing Horizon to leap forward in time in the first place.

All the while, a series of cryptic numbers are read out loud designed to unlock the ego retention system in the bot. It is revealed that that sequence is being read by Horizon, who believes it will reveal her friend Lillian Peck who can help her go back in time to be reunited with her son. But instead, it reveals the cold and calculating super-villain known as Ash, who remembers who she is and sets off back on her villainous path.

What are Ash's abilities in Apex Legends?

Ash's abilities have not been officially revealed as of writing this article. That said, we can surmise that her abilities will relate in some fashion to her past abilities show in Titanfall, so we can probably expect some type of phase-related ultimate ability similar to Wraith's kit. This is further supported by Aceu's cryptic comments that Wraith won't be played once Ash releases.

For now we will have to wait for the officially reveal to learn about her complete kit.