Respawn Entertainment's Apex Legends made quite a splash when it landed and is currently in the midst of its seventh season of play. With the game having undergone significant balancing and expansion, it’s the perfect time for new players to make their first jump. However, all the content can be quite overwhelming at first glance, especially for players who aren’t used to the incredibly influential Battle Royale format in a shooter.
Apex Legends is literally a game that tosses you into battle armed with nothing but your wits and skills. With that in mind, here are a few tips to get you started. The best way to learn is just to keep playing, but hopefully these hints can shorten the learning curve (progression has been a bit of a grind, prior to the changes made to the battle pass in Season 7).
10 Learn The Legends
Apex Legends has grown its roster of characters (Legends) since it first launched. While all characters will be using the same guns, each Legend comes with their own passive and active abilities.
Reading up on all these abilities (and some of the best squad compositions in the game) will help you find a Legend you’d like to start playing as, as well as keep you aware of the dangers you’ll face from other Legends. People playing for free start with a more limited roster, so these will be the ones you’ll be most likely to run into during a match. Keep in mind that regular balance tweaks take place, with Wraith (for instance) being nerfed in Season 8. While it's true that Season 7's player engagement hasn't been stellar, the game continues to be a force to be reckoned with.
9 Know How To Jump
Apex Legends starts every match with a team of three jetpacking down to the map out of a dropship. One team member is selected as the “Jumpmaster” who gets to decide when to jump and aims where to land. If nothing is happening, it means you might be the Jumpmaster.
If this seems like too much of a responsibility, you can follow the prompt to relinquish the responsibility. Picking when and wear to drop is a delicate balance. You want to try and maximize the chance of getting some loot, but drops that are too close to other jumpers can lead to some dicey first minutes of gameplay. There's a lot to learn here, so it can be worth it to read up on what makes a dropsite a good one.
8 Immediately Prioritize Loot
Once you hit dirt, you’ve got to start grabbing some loot. Loot tends to be located either inside buildings or in special orange or blue containers found throughout the map, often in pairs. The array of loot can be confusing at first, so its good to learn what it all does.
Generally, loot tends to be divided into guns, upgrades for guns, ammo, protective gear and healing items, though there are some other special kinds of loot (such as mobile respawn beacons or boosters for ultimate abilities). One thing many don’t learn until later is that you can actually open your inventory with “I” – so feel free to grab loot now and dump what you don’t need later.
7 Get Armed
One of the most important pieces of loot you can grab early on is a gun and appropriate ammo. Guns and their ammo tend to be color coded in their descriptors too each other – ammo that you can’t use will be indicated as such in your inventory. Without a gun you have no way to fight back against enemies, so getting at least one should be your priority.
There are some other offensive items like grenades, but in general, never go without some sort of weapon. There are plenty of rankings of weapons to get you started in figuring out what each weapon is good for.
6 Always Share Information With Your Team
Apex Legends was applauded for the innovation of its easy to use “ping” system, which other games have begun to copy. This allows players to easily share information with the press of a button, even if they don’t have microphones.
Get used to use this system, and use it a lot. You might not want a piece of loot, but your teammates might. You can give suggestions on where to go and remind allies of useful map features. Perhaps most importantly, you can give warnings if you spot an enemy.
5 Take Care Of Your Team
As cheesy as it sounds, the most important thing in a match isn’t the guns or loot, but your friends. A squad of one or two will have a much harder time than a squad of three. If your teammates get knocked down they can no longer fight, but can move. You can get them up again, but its best to eliminate the enemy first, or at least get another teammate to protect you while you while you revive your teammate behind cover.
Even a teammate who has been totally killed can be returned if you grab the banner left behind with their death and find a respawn beacon. It's a bit of a shame that quad queues won't be coming to the game, but this holds just as true in duos and trios.
4 Always Watch The Ring
New players will often be confused by announcements about “The Ring”. How this mechanic works is that the area is surrounded by an area deadly to players that slowly closes in upon a part of the battlefield. This pattern happens a few times throughout a match.
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While the first constriction of the ring might not be too much to worry about, newer players can often be taken by surprise later on. Make sure to periodically check your map when its safe. If you are still having difficulty tracking the ring, the Legend Pathfinder might help with his ability to detect the next closing pattern of the ring. Don't get too distracted as you comb the new map, Olympus, for its fascinating little hidden details and easter eggs.
3 Get Ready for All Kinds of Engagements
Once you’ve started to accumulate a few guns, it can be worth it to get a pair of weapons that complement each other – one for close up work and one for range. The maps often have variable terrain and no one tactic or weapon will work in all situations.
A good rule of thumb, however, is to try and always get a height advantage on your enemies if possible, and always have some form of cover to hide behind. As the match goes on, you will often run into enemies equipped with highly upgraded sniper rifles, who will punish you for wandering around in the open. The meta is constantly changing as patches go by, so you never know who you might be up against.
2 Being Brave Doesn’t Always Pay
It’s tempting to immediately open fire on enemies that you spot, but sometimes its better to take a moment to consider. Could there be enemies closer to you that you could accidentally alert? Could you have a better chance of taking out that squad if you waited until you got closer?
Sometimes its better to lay low – Apex Legends is a game about survival, after all.
1 Let Your Enemies Do The Work For You
Just because you aren’t running and gunning doesn’t mean that enemy squads won't be getting picked off. The most efficient use of your resources is to wait for enemy teams to engage each other and then surprise the damaged survivors.
Make sure after you wipe out an enemy squad to collect all the loot that they worked hard to gather as well. There's no point letting it go to waste.