Apex Legends has experienced a surge in interest over the past few months. Millions of players are flocking to EA’s battle royale game, and it’s easy to see why. As a quality free-to-play game, Apex Legends sells itself, but beyond that, it offers a few interesting twists on the battle royale format. Looting and shooting is still at the core of Apex Legends, but you’ll need more than that to make it to the winner’s circle. Here are the best tips and tricks for getting started in Apex Legends.
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Choose a legend
Apex Legends has 14 playable characters to choose from. Each legend has a passive, tactical, and ultimate ability. Besides those perks, all legends play the same. They move at the same speed and can pick up and use the same gear. Just know that no matter who you pick, you can still make it to the end of a match, so we suggest taking each legend for a spin to see which abilities click with you.
For instance, if you like to go in guns blazing, Bangalore or Wraith might be good for you. If you’re a cautious battle royale player, Bloodhound and Gibraltar are good choices. If you play the healer role in other games, Lifeline might work for you. If you’re having trouble picking out a Legend, our Apex Legends character guide will point you toward the best ones.
Stay with the Jumpmaster
Like other battle royale games, Apex Legends begins with the drop. One player in your team of three is designated as the Jumpmaster. The other two can suggest locations to head toward, but at the end of the day, the Jumpmaster chooses the location and the angle at which you head there. Sometimes you may strongly disagree with the spot. Maybe it’s a barren area unlikely to have gear. Or, maybe you can see other teams heading in the same direction. It happens.
But avoid the temptation of separating from your team, which you can do at any time during the descent. Splitting up is a recipe for an early demise. Not only is an organized squad likely to take you out earlier, but you’ll also be too far away for your teammates to revive you.
Don’t land in the exact same spot, though. You don’t want to run behind one of your teammates as they pick up all of the gear in a particular area. Once you’re close to the ground, break for an unoccupied building or loot area and build your loadout solo, always sticking relatively close to the rest of your team. That will give you the best chance of finding decent loot, while also ensuring you’re not left alone.
Stick together and use your abilities
After you’ve picked up some initial loot, stick together as a team. Apex Legends doesn’t emphasize teamwork as much as Overwatch, but certain Legends fill the holes left by others. A roster of Bangalore, Gibraltar, and Lifelife offers a nice balance of offense, defense, and support, but you can get creative, too. Loba can point your team toward better loot, while Pathfinder can quickly scout new areas. No matter the Legends that comprise your team find how they work best together, and implement that strategy.
That usually comes down to using your Legend’s abilities early and often. Once you choose a Legend, learn their abilities inside and out. It’s pretty easy to recognize when you need to call in Lifeline’s D.O.C. Heal Drone, for example, but learning the right time to deploy Revenant’s Death Totem is something that only comes with practice.
Pick items and weapons carefully
Unlike Call of Duty: Warzone, ammunition takes up a backpack slot. You only have eight slots to start, so it’s easy to fill those by picking up different types of ammunition, grenades, and health/shield replenishers. You can add another six slots on top of that if you find other backpacks around the map, so always keep an eye out for them.
When you first drop, it’s fine to pick up everything you see. But after you grab a weapon or two, take a gander at your backpack. Chances are you’ll have some incompatible ammunition. It’s up to you, but we recommend shedding the ammo that you cannot currently use.
When you come across new guns, you’ll almost always find the ammunition it uses either right next to it or close by. It’s a waste to lug around unusable ammo, especially when you can use those precious slots on attachments and all important consumables.
Learn the season’s map
Each new season of Apex Legends brings map changes. Depending on the season and if you’re playing ranked or not, you’ll have access to World’s Edge and Kings Canyon. Between seasons, the maps stay mostly the same. However, Respawn regularly swaps locations and adds new points of interest at the start of each season. Simply learning the best places to land and loot is half the battle.
There isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach to how you tackle the map, though. High-tier loot areas are almost always highly contested, while low-tier loot areas often don’t offer enough gear to outfit a whole team. No matter if you’re playing with friends or with randoms online, you’ll want to discuss a rough strategy about how your team will move through the map. You don’t have to go too deep, but being on the same page about passageways to other areas and when your team plans on hitting high-tier areas will give you an advantage.
Craft missing gear
Season 6 introduced crafting to Apex Legends, and it helps a lot in rounding out your build. You shouldn’t look at crafting as a replacement for looting — it’s a supplement to looting. Use the Replicator crafting stations to pick up extra ammo and outfit your guns with better parts. If you have a specific type of weapon you need — Rampart has faster reloads and increased magazine capacity with LMGs, for example — you can buy a new weapon. Still, it’s best not to rely on Replicators for new guns.
Otherwise, be aware of Replicator locations for any fallen teammates. If you get the chance to revive them, your team can help them craft new gear rather than pick through scraps.
No matter what you’re using the Replicator for, you want to get in and out as fast as possible. The crafting mechanic is very powerful, but it comes with a lot of risk. While you’re scraping together new items, you’re in the open, allowing any astute players nearby to easily earn a party wipe. Before even entering the crafting screen, scout the nearby areas and have a plan about what you’re going to craft. That’ll give you the best chance to pick up some new items unscathed.
Don’t worry too much about the ring at first
Like other battle royale games, the playable area gradually shrinks throughout the match. You shouldn’t worry too much about this until the late game, though. Once the timer for each round hits zero, a new timer starts that tells you when the ring will start shrinking. In short, you have a lot of time to avoid the closing ring. Pay more attention to the persistent threat: Other teams. You have to be really trying to die by the ring.
On the flip side of this, it’s sometimes smart to post up just inside the ring as it’s closing. You might see a team or two scrambling to get in that can be easy prey.
Heal out of harm’s way
Healing takes time. Whether you’re replenishing shields or health with consumables, you need to not be interrupted. Don’t heal out in the open during a firefight. You’re better off fleeing the scene entirely or trying to take out enemies with low health than trying to heal when under pressure.
Make use of the ping system
The most novel system in Apex Legends is undoubtedly its contextual ping system. It facilitates nonverbal communication and makes playing without a mic very doable. When you see an enemy, mark them with the ping system to tell your teammates their location. Even if you think they saw the enemy too, it never hurts to place the mark.
When you find gear that you aren’t going to pick up, mark it. Your character will vocally call out the gear so your teammates can see if it’s something they could use. When you want to explore an area or head in a certain direction? Tell your teammates by placing a marker. Using the ping system often, even excessively, can go a long way toward surviving.
Grab yellow gear
There are five pieces of yellow legendary gear in Apex Legends. Their stats are identical to the purple (rare) versions of that item, but they have perks that can be very helpful. If you see a yellow piece of gear, grab it no matter what. Here’s what they do.
- Backpack: Consumable usage time is cut in half
- Helmet: Faster regeneration on tactical and ultimate abilities
- Armor: Shields replenish from finishers
- Knockout Shield: Lets you self-revive one time when knocked down
- Digital Threat Scope: Highlights enemies red
Be careful when reviving teammates
Just like using personal health and shield items, reviving teammates who have fallen can be risky. Hopefully, your teammate will crawl to a safe position to help you out, but you should wait till the coast is clear before going in for the revival. It’s very easy to get killed while reviving a teammate, and that won’t help you or your fallen comrade.
With that said, sometimes your teammate will have to bleed out due to the situation. If that happens, you can still bring them back to life by recovering their banner within 90 seconds. Again, be careful recovering the banner and then hoof it to the nearest beacon to bring your buddy back to life.
What you need to know about movement
Apex Legends has zero fall damage, so do not worry about jumping off buildings, cliffs, bridges, whatever. You cannot get hurt. Speaking of movement, get to know the crouching slide. It helps you move quicker down slopes and even when going down small inclines.
You can also climb a short distance by holding the jump button. This lets you scale walls and climb to the second story of buildings or rooftops. Lastly, when running, consider holstering your weapon. You run faster without a weapon equipped.
Perpetual motion
“Camping” doesn’t come up much in multiplayer shooters nowadays, and that’s a good thing. Like other battle royale games, staying in a single spot in Apex Legends is a sure way to die (if the ring doesn’t get you, other teams will). You want to keep moving in the early game, picking off opposing teams as you find them and piecing together a loadout in the process.
Once there are only a handful of teams left, securing a position and protecting it can be helpful. If you don’t want to think of it as camping, call it a “tactical advantage.” Staying in a single spot in the late game allows your team to properly deploy any traps and set up a good defense. What you want to avoid is running around the small area inside the ring, unless your team is really good. Even if your aggression pays off with a few kills, there’s probably an enemy sniper somewhere waiting for an open shot. Don’t give them one.
Pay attention to balloons
See those balloons in the sky? They let you redeploy. If you want to cover ground quickly, head over to one of them and ride the vertical zipline. You won’t launch as high as you were at the start of the match, but you can cover solid ground.
Only use finishers when the coast is clear
One of the neat yet untold aspects of Apex Legends is finishers. If you down an enemy, there is one final step to eliminate them: Finishers. You can approach the enemy and press the button prompt to perform a finishing move. That said, while a finish looks cool, you should think twice before implementing one. An enemy can interrupt a finisher, so your character can even die mid-animation. It’s best only to do finishers when you’ve eliminated all of the threats in the area. Confirming that the coast is clear first means you can fully enjoy the finisher as it happens.
Attachments make the gun
Apex Legends has a great variety of guns available, from pistols to SMGs to LMGs to assault rifles, with something to please every type of player. However, none of these guns are incredibly easy to use (unless you are shooting at point-blank range) without a sight. If you have two weapons, one with an attachment and another without, it’s almost always preferable to use the one with the sight. After all, that’s how it would be in the real world.
There are measures you can take to augment your weapon’s force or output. There are a few add-ons you can use to create a more enhanced version of gameplay like barrel stabilizers, extended magazines, and hop-ups. Hop-ups create a world of different possibilities for weapon usage. Adding a Precision Choke to the Peacekeeper shotgun tightens up your spread over time, while a Selectfire Receiver with a Prowlers enables full auto-fire.
Keep in mind that attachments are as diverse and particular as guns are, so you’ll have to find the attachments suited for the weapons you have on hand. Pay attention to the weapons an attachment works with because finding one that does not match with your weapons is fairly useless to you. Note that the more accessories and add-ons your gun uses, the more obsolete firefights become.
However, if your overall goal is not to win, go ahead and rush in with whatever gun you choose at the helm. Whether you’re in it to win it or just to play, you’ll find yourself playing Apex Legends for hours transfixed and entertained by its high-quality gameplay.
