Apex Legends' third season sees hacker extraordinaire Crypto added to the existing roster, and his unique skill set definitely shakes things up. All of Crypto's abilities revolve around the use of his Surveillance Drone, a deployable airborne robot that is definitely a lot more than a glorified mobile security camera. If you want to get good with Crypto, then you're going to need to get extremely familiar with its capabilities.

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That said, TheGamer's got a few pointers on doing just that. Whether you're wanting to get an idea of what to expect, or you're just looking for a few ideas to up your Crypto game, we've got you covered. Keep scrolling to check out ten tips and tricks for getting the most out of Apex Legends' newest character.

10 Drone Piloting Basics

Most of the drone's flight controls are pretty simple, but there are a few finer points and general tidbits that aren't perfectly obvious at the outset. Firstly, there are two different modes for flight - "Level" keeps the drone at its current elevation and allows free looking, while "Direct" allows for altitude changes by moving directly towards the camera facing.

Second, the drone takes a bit to ramp up to speed from a dead halt. It's extremely vulnerable to enemy fire, so you want to be sure to keep its momentum when navigating hostile situations. Lastly, you, yourself are standing still and extremely vulnerable while piloting the drone, so make sure to only use it from covered or hidden positions.

9 Use The Drone To Scout Loot Areas

As of this writing, the drone can't actually ping or specifically identify pieces of loot. However, it's easy enough to tell what most of it is by sight alone, and you can always just ping the location and, if it's a particularly important piece of gear, communicate what you've found over the microphone.

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You'll also be able to easily tell which areas have been picked over and which ones haven't. This can save you a lot of time sifting through useless junk if your squad is in need of upgrades, or perhaps even better, save your squad a fight they're not prepared for if another team's already looting an area.

8 The Drone Also Hacks The Kill Leader Banners

This one's extremely easy to overlook, but it's also one of the coolest and most underrated features of the drone. While piloting the drone, looking at the banners that conventionally display the match's current kill leader will see the display replaced by a readout showing how many squads are in the drone's current flight area.

The drone already highlights enemies within 30m of it, but that's a pretty tiny bubble. This feature encompasses the entire distance that the drone can cover from its launch area. It's a big area to cover, and it doesn't reveal their exact locations. But if they're inside the drone's flight area, they're close enough to require keeping your guard up.

7 You Can Open Doors With The Drone

This might seem like a forgettable gimmick at first, but there's a lot more utility to the drone's ability to open doors than initially apparent. It's just a matter of getting a little creative with the opportunity when it's presented.

Squads put on the defensive often hole up inside of buildings to recharge or force attacking teams into choke points. Using the drone allows you to open up doors and allow for opportunities for sniping or grenades without putting any squadmates at risk, or pinpoint entries that they aren't actively defending.

6 The Drone Can Give Away Your Position

If the drone has any particular downside, it is not exactly stealthy. The engine makes a distinct racket that can be heard from a good distance away, it also leaves behind a brightly colored trail that's easily noticed.

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It also paints a gigantic target on your actual head when in use. A bright blue interface pops up in front of Crypto while he's piloting the drone, and it's incredibly easy for enemy teams to spot. What's worse is that they'll know you're distracted. In fact, that drone's mere presence in the area alerts enemy teams that there's an inattentive Crypto nearby.

5 Recover Squadmates Outside The Ring

Being able to recover squadmates remotely using the drone is big news already. Particularly slick drone pilots will be able to sneak the banners of their fallen friends right out from under hostile squads, but the biggest bonus by far is the ability to easily recover teammates that fall outside of the ring.

The drone, as of now, doesn't take any damage from the ring, and unlike an actual player, it only needs to make a one-way trip. Of course, the banner still needs to be within the drone's flight range, but it can successfully retrieve a player that would otherwise need to be left behind.

4 Use The EMP Blast To Start Ambushes

Crypto's ultimate skill, the EMP Blast, has the potential to be one of the most powerful in the game when utilized correctly. Used while piloting the drone, it stuns enemies, deals fifty damage to shields, and it destroys traps laid by Caustic or Wattson over a pretty generous area of effect.

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If coordinated with the rest of your squad, using it as a setup to ambush an entrenched team puts you in the perfect position to start and end the fight very quickly. However, coordination is absolutely key to taking getting the most out of it, because while it's a critical advantage, it can be overturned within the span of a few seconds.

3 Passively Guard Choke Points & Exits With The Drone

Another rarely acknowledged benefit to the drone is the fact that it can still work while not being actively piloted. Exiting the drone rather than recalling it will leave it idle, but Crypto's passive skill "Neurolink" keeps its sensors active, and it will continue to highlight enemies that travel within 30m of it.

This has several applications, like keeping an eye out inside of contested loot zones, alerting the squad when enemies have entered a particular building. It can also monitor entry points in defensive strongholds, or call attention to far off choke points for sniping opportunities.

2 You Can Still Ping While Using The Drone

This is another point that should be obvious but goes overlooked far too often. Enemies need to travel within 30m to get "flagged" by the drone, but while piloting it you can still ping them like normal if they're outside of this range.

The same goes for supply bins and open or closed doors, pointing out areas enemies have ransacked as well as untouched loot areas. As mentioned, you can't ping individual pieces of loot, for some reason, but you can still communicate a lot of vital information.

1 Engage In Psychological Warfare

This might seem a bit silly, but rest assured, it's very effective. Enemy squads tend to react very strongly to the presence of a drone, culminating in one of two actions. They'll either shoot at it obsessively or immediately run away and try to lose it. These behaviors can be used to your advantage.

You can pester enemy snipers into giving up their perch, distract enemy squads and cause them to waste ammunition while your allies prepare an ambush, or cause them to cut their loot runs short on the assumption that their position's given away. It's particularly fun to open doors in order to feint a push and draw attention to the wrong entrance.

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