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Apex is a fast-paced battle royale game that can leave your head spinning. From heroes to looting, it can get complicated. Here are ten tips to get you on your feet in the resurging battle royale.
Apex legends has been one of the leading battle royales since its debut, but has found a resurgence among diehards and curious players looking for a change. This isn’t a game that holds your hand, though. There are no loadouts or building mechanics, just your team and some floor loot to fight over. What sets Apex apart, aside from it’s abilities, is how fast everything is.
Everyone is moving and looking for the next fight, which can be over in a fraction of the time it took you just to find it. While we can’t cover everything at once, here are ten tips that will get you looting, geared up and ready to win when you start up Apex Legends.
Loot Fast
There are no load outs and no building strats in Apex. Just you, your hero, and whatever you can scrounge together. Sometimes in the early game you won’t be happy with your kit whatsoever and be forced into making tough decisions. Do we run a sniper because there are more attachments? Or do we stick with the R-301 even though it has nothing attached and no ammo to boot?
How much inventory space do you need to carry heals and that perfect attachment (for which you haven’t found the matching gun yet) while you only have a grey backpack? Depending on how your luck is, loot management can be the difference between being first out and coasting to an easy win. Efficient looting minimizes the danger. Try as often as you can to go for the high end attachments first, then heals and ammo. Unless you have none of either. Make sure to search by priority. Once your decision is made, commit to it. Running back for gear while your team is leaving you behind just creates an opportunity to be ambushed. Sometimes, the best weapon is the most kitted out one, rather than the one you like.
The main reason for this overall is: less time spent in the looting menu means less chance of getting attacked while idle. This increases your odds of getting to the better guns before the opposition however, as the round goes on, know when to call off the treasure hunt. Looting is a means to an end and you always want to be with your team, instead of opening loot crates by your lonesome.
Weapons Away
Speed is everything in Apex Legends. Running without a weapon drawn is significantly faster and, provided you have no enemies close by, perfectly safe. Whether outrunning enemies or the ever encroaching circle, great players will even put their weapons away during fights just for the extra speed to outdistance a pursuer. Doing this will help when rotating and pushing to third party because, once you hear fighting, you want to get there before the other team has a chance to heal and re-equip.
Fights can’t Linger
The sound of gunfire in Apex draws players like moths to the flame. Noisy gunfights signal that a bunch of loot is up for grabs and, if they get there quick enough, it’ll be really easy to take. If you are in for a slow fight, hunker down and find a good spot to hold and figure out an exit. Otherwise, the third party will come in and pounce on whoever is weakest in an opportunistic smash and grab while the two fighting teams are weakened or even down a player.
Sometimes you will defeat a team and the third party. Only to find another third, fourth and fifth party if the area is hot enough. So, once clear, loot quickly and get away from the scene of the crime before you get crimed. Battles like that tend to use up everyone's healing resources so finishing your fights fast is also economical.
Always look to use your abilities
When you pick a legend, they come with a passive skill, tactical skill and ultimate. Each one varies a lot, but they can all help the team. If you pick a legend and find you don’t like their kit, change to one you will use.
Playing the game without using your abilities will significantly set your team back, since each demands such different styles. What is the point of playing Wattson if you won’t use her electric fences? What’s the use in a Bloodhound that doesn’t use their scan? Abilities are a huge part of Apex and finding out how to master your main will go a long way.
Have a hero pool
You don’t always get to pick first. Sometimes you can go weeks without having to change your hero only for them to rise in popularity and suddenly you have gone ten games without getting to play your darling Wraith. Having a hero pool keeps you from drowning in the waters of learning a new legend while fighting off enemies and looking for a weapon on drop. Each plays out differently enough to be jarring and require just enough of a fine touch to get value out of.
Wall Hopping
Wall hopping is a useful tool in Apex that traces its roots back to the days of Titanfall. Simply run, parallel to the wall, mouse slightly angled inward. Use your slide to gain speed and then jump out of your slide, while rotating your mouse to fully face the wall. Once you temporarily cling to the wall, press the spacebar again to “wall jump” and be ready to be shocked at how much distance it will allow you to get. To be more specific, after your slide jump, let go of your directional/movement inputs and focus on hitting spacebar and direction your mouse in the direction you want to go.
While tap strafing is on its way out, wall jumping/hopping will always be a part of Apex. The technique takes a short amount of time to learn the gist of and can be used to quickly change your momentum or angle in a fight. Even allowing you to close huge amounts of distance with a wall jump.
It can be done on controller as well as as mouse and keyboard, using the same steps. Gain speed, slide and jump into the wall at an angle then once you make contact, let go of all other buttons except for jump and your directional analog stick. You may find yourself adjusting some of your button mappings but the smoother movement will help in the long run.
The wolfpack sticks together
Once you are set on weapons and have a nice purple shield you can set off, be confident that you’ll hold up well enough in any fight. This is where things get truly difficult as no one ever has everything they want and looting when it is timely is still valid. Regardless of what you’re missing, when entering a new area, always stick together. A well timed burst from three of you can catch the enemy off guard or be enough to keep your team alive from an ambush. It’s never fun being half a step behind and unable to help your team as they are getting finished.
Avoid getting greedy
Finishing downed opponents and getting the kill confirmed is nice, don’t get us wrong. Unless they have a gold knockdown shield, which resurrects them without a teammate, they won’t be getting up anytime soon. They don’t get back up at all if you finish their team either, so, unless you have the luxury of time, it is always better to be pushing onto the next enemy instead of a non threat. This does not apply if you desperately need their loot.
Backpacking
Inventory size is determined by which backpack you find. Grey, blue and purple all increase your inventory size by two, with the gold one offering a boost to reviving teammates, increasing the health they get up with. Certain kits you find will demand different sacrifices from your backpack. Two weapons that eat ammo will mean no extra grenades if your backpack is too small.
While if you have a gold shield, carrying shield cells over batteries is more efficient due to the effect where low grade healing is doubled. It can force tough decisions, but it is always smart to have a few stacks of heals and a nade or two, if you aren’t holding onto an attachment in the hope you can put your turbocharger to use.
Play Fast
Camping in buildings won’t work in Apex. Most have some way to get a grenade in the walls and, after a time, it will serve as a prison instead of a safe haven. Apex is a fast game, through and through. Loot fast, move fast and finish fights fast. It also means you want to attack fast, in a sense.
Even the tankier characters can take advantage of the movement in the game, sliding while firing on an enemy or using a jump pad to force enemies to fight you where they don’t expect. While it may not look like it, everyone runs at the same speed, yes even though playing Gibraltar feels like running through jello at times.
Teams need to commit when they smell weakness. When a shield is broken, you have six seconds before a battery can repair your damage, all the while doing so, they are slowed. Pushing when one person is weak can open the floodgates. It might lead to your own downing but as long as your team is with you (and can land their shots), pushing on your advantage should leave your friends with an advantage of their own. The opportunity isn’t always there, but when it presents itself… well, don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.
