How to bypass knockdown shields in Apex Legends with simple trick

An Apex Legends player has discovered a way of quickly eliminating downed opponents without destroying their knockdown shield.

When players are knocked down in Apex Legends, they can raise a knockdown shield – assuming they have one – that offers a certain amount of protection from being immediately eliminated, depending on the rarity of the shield.

In order for a player to remove a downed enemy from the game completely, they must either break the shield – which can take a notable amount of time and ammo, particularly for the higher quality shields – or complete a finisher, which itself takes some time and leaves the player vulnerable during the animation.

Finishers can bypass knockdown shields, but take several seconds to complete.

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Apex player Cpt_Pugsy has discovered a method, however, of bypassing the shield, offering a quick means of eliminating the opponent.

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If a player starts a finisher but then immediately cancels it, there is a brief window before the enemy’s knockdown shield will come back up. If you’re quick enough, it’s possible to get a shot off in this window without having to break through the shield, making the elimination much faster.

It may take some practice to get the movement down, as the window is only brief, and may also rely on having a weapon that can eliminate the enemy quickly – Cpt_Pugsy demonstrates with the Peacekeeper, which requires only a single shot, although it’s not necessarily the only viable weapon.

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This technique is likely to be most useful at times when speed is paramount – in the heat of a battle, you may well benefit from eliminating an opponent if only as a source of replacement body armor, but burning through a full knockdown shield or completing a finisher can leave you vulnerable for several seconds.

It’s not currently clear whether this is something that Respawn would consider an unintended exploit, but it’s possible they may address it at some point in the future. In the meantime, however, it’s a useful trick that’s worth having up your sleeve for when you need to guarantee an elimination as quickly as possible.