Guides

How to Win: A Beginner’s Guide to Apex Legends

Here's how to win in the big battle royale game Apex Legends.

Having garnered over 25 million players within just a week of its release, Apex Legends is growing to a massive size. With the game having already passed its first month and with millions of concurrent players battling it out at any given moment, jumping into this gigantic battle royale can easily seem intimidating. But, don’t worry. We have you covered.

Apex Legends was released on Feb. 4, 2019. Free-to-play, the battle royale game is available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Windows PC. The game has earned largely positive reviews, having garnered a total 88 Metacritic score on PC.

While the game is highly popular, the experience can seem intimidating at first. There are a series of classes to choose from before you even pick up a gun. Beyond that, the title features a sprawling map filled with highly skilled players that have been honing their craft of killing newcomers over the past month of the game’s release. That being said, it’s not too late to jump into this lauded battle royale experience. Here are some quick tips on how to win in Apex Legends.

Step One: Picking a Class

apex legends hitbox differences youtube

There are eight different legends, or classes, available to choose from in Apex Legends. Each legend comes equipped with a unique set of skills. It’s important to choose which class is right for you. Experiment with different legends, before locking yourself in with any particular class. It’s best to be familiar with each class if you want to succeed. That being said, consider finding a legend to focus most of your attention on after you have familiarized yourself with the entire crew.

apex grid tile legends
Bangalore, professional soldier

Bangalore is a often a first pick for many new players, as the professional soldier is pretty straight forward and packs some serious power. That being said, there are plenty of classes to choose from. Gibraltar is a great choice if you are looking to soak up some damage for your team, but Lifeline is better if you want to provide some healing. In the end, it’s best to play around with each class for a little while before you decide on a main focus for your Apex Legends experience.

Step Two: Keep Up With Your Squad

apex grid tile legends gibraltar 1.png.adapt .crop16x9 1
Gibraltar, Shielded Fortress

It’s paramount that you and your allies truly play as a team. This is a battle royale game with a large emphasis on teamwork.

You will enter the game with a pair of teammates, allowing for some interesting combat moments if you all play your cards right. All of the legends’ unique abilities are pretty powerful on their own. However, they actually work the best when used in combination with other players.

A Wraith player may be able to use her powers to move her team to an advantageous position. Likewise, Gibraltar can draw attention away from his allies by taking the charge and soaking up damage. Figuring out how to use your abilities to aid your teammates, as well as yourself, is an important lesson to learn.

Seeing how important it is to work with your teammates, it only goes hand in hand that you keep in communication with your allies as often as possible. Apex Legends offers a proprietary in-game communication system that allows the player to ping useful locations or items. Make sure to take advantage of this resource so that your team always knows what you’re doing and what’s going on within the map.

Step Three: Know the Map

apex grid tile legends
Pathfinder, Forward Scout

All of your battles will take place within the menacing and tumultuous realm of Kings Canyon. While it’s one map, it’s rather massive. There are a great few different regions to familiarize yourself with.

Within the map, there are hoards of items stashed all around. However, they will not always be there for you. Other players will obviously be scavenging for loot the same as you. However, there is also the ring to worry about.

There is a massive ring that surrounds the map. After some time, the ring will begin to shrink, forcing the player to move inwards on the map and eventually face their enemies. As the available map shrinks, so to do the available items. Consequently, it’s best to familiarize yourself with the map’s layout as well as you can. Make note of popular spots for combat and the locations of popular items. Once you’ve done this, you can spend the beginning of the game avoiding combat and quickly stocking up on powerful gear. This is, of course, very important. You begin the game with no items and no weapons, so you will have to scavenge if you want to be successfull. When the ring starts to close all of the other players around you, you’ll be ready.

Step Four: Take Advantage of Map Resources

apex grid tile legends
Wraith, Interdimensional Skirmisher

While the loot you find on the map is paramount, there are other useful tools lying around for you to take advantage of as well. If you want to win, you’re going to have to master them.

Kings Canyon offers a bevy of surprises for players. Among them, there are these jump towers. Jump towers allow for the player to spring wildly into the air, providing a swift and effective form of travel across the map.

Hot zones are also important tools. Hot zones randomly appear on the map, insuring higher quality loot within the provided area. Get your team to these locations if you want to upgrade your gear. If one of your teammates gets downed, however, you’ll want to take them to a respawn beacon. Respawn becons, just as they sound, allow the player to revive one of their teammates. Make sure to take advantage of all of these tools if you want to ensure your team comes out victorious.

Mastering Kings Canyon: Some Last Minute Tips For Advanced Players

apex grid tile legends
Bloodhound, Technological Tracker

Dropships: The best loot in the game comes from dropships. While loot is scattered throughout Kings Canyon, the best loot is randomly dropped on the map. Your team will, however, have to question if its worth risking your hides for the best loot or if its best to use the dropship as bait to take out other teams.

How to Move Faster: Thanks to the importance of finding good loot, it is paramount that you can traverse the map as quickly as possible. In order to accomplish that, you will have to consider a few things. First of all, all legends move at the same speed. However, your movement is impaired when wielding a weapon. While the weapon being wielded is irrelevant, you receive an additional movement penalty when aiming with your weapon and that penalty is dependent on the weapon at hand. In order to reach your maximum sprint speed, holster your weapon. However, you’re still not moving fast enough. The fastest way to move around is to slide. While running, press the crouch button. Even on level ground, sliding still offers a significant speed boost.

apex grid tile legends
Caustic, Toxic Trapper

How to Properly Drop In: When the match begins, you and two teammates will begin plummeting out of the sky. Luckily, you all have jet packs. Apex Legends is all about location, location, location. Consequently, it is paramount that you drop in to a good spot at the beginning of the game. In order to maximize your fly distance, you will have to do a few things.

The Jumpmaster is the only player in control of the team’s trajectory. The Jumpmaster is traditionally the third and final player to have chosen their character. As the Jumpmaster, you should always propel forward. You should never simply let your teem free fall. Pay attention to your airspeed gauge. Once your speed drops below 130, dip downwards to give your team an extra boost of speed. Once back to a speed of 140, you can pan your trajectory back out. It may look silly at first, but it will maximize your fly distance.

Finally: Come up With a Glorious Victory Dance

apex grid tile legends
Lifeline, Combat Medic

Congratulations! By taking advantage of these four easy steps, you’ve set yourself on the path to victory. Like any other game, skill comes with experience.

The more you play, the better you will get. With time, you will learn more tricks of the trade and will eventually be able to master the realm of Kings Canyon. Keep in mind, this guide is only an introduction for new players. There are still more tricks and skills to learn along the way. Still, if you follow these easy steps, you’ll be slaying enemies and claiming victories in no time. If you are looking for more advanced tips for mastering your Apex Legends experience, then read on below.

Hunter Boyce is a writer, which probably seems pretty obvious with "author" prominently displayed. He mostly writes about video games. However, he was previously a mixed martial arts news writer. When not writing about people pelting each other in the face or about leveling up in the latest RPG, he tends to spend his time as a web producer in Atlanta. You can shout all of your MMA and video game related quandaries at him at @SomthinClever on Twitter. Feel free to make your demands to him in ALL CAPS. He loves that.

Comments are closed.