Apex Legends: 'piggyback' players who don't contribute will face bans

That annoying kid who joined your Apex Legend squad and then went AFK immediately isn't going to be able to get away with that sort of thing for long.

Apex Legends focus on three-person squads makes it unique among its genre stablemates, and most of the time it's a system that works pretty well. But when you get teamed up with someone who doesn't contribute, simply hoping to soak up some XP from the success of their teammates, it can be frustrating.

The folks at Respawn are aware of this, and in their latest Reddit check-in they've promised to take steps to curb this sort of behaviour.

By their definition, piggybacking means that a player doesn't move, collect a weapon, or fire a shot - not just that they don't do well, but that they don't participate at all, yet still get rewarded for the efforts of their team.

"After looking at the data and internal discussions, we’ve decided that in the future we’ll start instituting temp bans for players that exhibit piggy-backing behavior and extreme cases could lead to a permanent ban", the post reads. "This change will not be immediate but wanted to give a heads up to players so you can adjust that behavior."

In other Apex Legends news, a mobile version is currently in the works, and while more content is coming to the game, Respawn is, sensibly, prioritising the health of its employees.

In any case, if you're a piggybacker, this is your warning to stop it.