Apex Legends is a deceptive game. On the one hand, it's very similar to other battle royale titles on the market, and so a lot of the strategies that work in games such as Fortnite or PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds work in Apex, as well. On the other hand, it adds a lot to the formula, like player characters with unique abilities, a ping-based communications system that changes how teams interact compared to other games, and a whole lot more.
You'll want to spend some time learning how each of the characters in Apex Legends work and how to combine them into effective teams, which guns will serve you best in which situations, and what the game won't tell you. But there are even more tips that can help you win--things that are either a little more high-level, or that aren't especially obvious.
We've gathered a handful of useful tips together that should help you elevate your game to something a little closer to the pros. These are things that might help you stay alive, win fights, and get out of bad situations--and those are all things that will help you win.
Do The Wave When Gliding
On most jumps at the start of Apex Legends matches, you can reach almost any location on the map if you know what you're doing. The trick is to use "wave gliding," a technique where you alternate between diving to pick up speed and leveling out to turn that speed into distance. Keeping your speed above 135 will help you make those 1000-meter-plus jumps, and give you the distance to avoid other squads if you're hoping to have time to loot up before getting into a fight.
If You're On The Run, Heal When Sliding
One big trouble with healing is that it kills your ability to move around. While using a shield cell or a medkit, your movement speed is reduced to almost zero, so you often need to take cover in order to heal up. If you're on the run from the closing Ring or from another squad, that can make things very difficult and leave you vulnerable while you cross open ground. Next time you find a long hill, hit the crouch button to start sliding and then start healing. You'll keep moving at sliding speed, while healing the whole time--perfect for getting out of harm's way while still bringing your health back up. It's an especially useful trick while you're under fire or currently burning from the Ring, and especially great when you find big hills that take several seconds to traverse. Just note that you only move in one direction when sliding, which means you're a pretty easy target for sharpshooters.
Block Doors
Controlling the movements of other players can be extremely helpful for winning fights. You can lock enemies into rooms with Caustic's noxious gas or grenades, or slow down reinforcements from backing up their teammates while you finish them off. You can block doors yourself by hitting the button to keep them closed, or use Caustic's gas traps and Lifeline's DOC drone to close them as well. You can even block a door when you're crawling around in the downed state, or with a death box--and anytime you can separate a team so they can't work together, you should.
Break Doors, Too
Other teams will also attempt to use doors against you, to mitigate incoming fire or to separate you from other teammates. Just because someone closes you into a room doesn't mean you're stuck there, though. You can kick doors open with a melee attack--which can stun people on the other side--or blow them open with explosives. And if someone tries to block a door to keep you locked in, hit it twice and you'll break it down altogether. Don't be afraid to break down doors, especially in an emergency.
Check For Ambushes And Traps Whenever You're Indoors
One of the little tricks that's spread among the Apex Legends community is the creation of ambushes in indoor locations, particularly the Bunker and other areas with small interior rooms. You might have encountered these ambushes, or their aftermath--players will sometimes dump a bunch of loot in a room and wait for someone to come check on it, and while they're picking stuff up, the ambushers will blast away at them or lock them in the room with grenades and Caustic's gas. The trick to these ambushes is that you can climb up and hide on ledges above some of the doors inside Bunker, putting you out of sight when people enter the rooms. There's an easy way to deal with those ambushes, though: Always check over the tops of interior doors as you investigate inside rooms. There are lots of places you can climb up to in Apex Legends that aren't immediately obvious, so avoid getting tunnel vision as you loot, and make sure you check above you and in corners for places where people might be hiding.
Vary Your Team's Weapons
In other battle royale games, you almost always want something long-range in order to take down enemies from afar before they see you. Apex Legends has a longer time-to-kill than many of those games, though, making sniping less viable. We've found that keeping your team outfitted with a variety of guns for different engagement distances can make you effective in more situations. More than that, having teammates use various guns lets them fill different roles on your squad. One sniper might not be able to drop a bunch of people before they can get to cover, but they can suppress enemies, knock out shields, or get clean-up kills from afar while teammates close distance. A shotgun or an SMG can knock out enemies who've taken damage from mid-range guns, and machine guns can put a lot of fire on a specific area. If you can bring lots of different guns to a fight, you can widen your options--but make sure you communicate about what you plan to do and what each member of your squad's role will be, so everyone knows what's expected of them and how to best use their weapons to the team's advantage.
Whenever Possible, Kill Downed Enemies Immediately
It can feel like, once an enemy is down, you no longer need to worry about them. That's true in high-combat situations where the most pressing thing is fighting whoever is still shooting at you. But if you have any chance at all to take out a downed enemy, you should do it as quickly as you can--preferably at a distance (grenades are handy for this). Downed enemies can be revived relatively quickly by their teammates, especially Lifeline, which can cost you a numerical advantage in a tough fight. More than that, though, a downed enemy is still able to provide tons of intel to their buddies. In addition to continuing to talk to their teammates, they can still ping you. If you ever see a downed enemy facing you, that's probably what they're doing--and that information can help their teammates get the drop on you. Take that information out of the equation as quickly as you can; if you can't, get away from downed enemies so they can't report your whereabouts.
When Dropping From Big Heights, Hit Melee Just Before Landing
There's no fall damage in Apex Legends, but there are disadvantages to big falls. When you hit the ground from a great height, like jumping off a supply ship or over a cliff, hitting the ground will cause a brief animation to play that stuns you for a second. For that brief time, you're unable to move, ready weapons, or fight. In a heated situation, that lost second can be deadly, but you can avoid the stunned state when you hit the ground with a well-timed melee. Hit the melee button just before you land to start the animation, which circumvents the landing animation and gets you around the stun. The trick is to time it so you're not trading one animation for another.
Use Incendiary Grenades To Bolster Smoke And Gas
The disorienting nature of Caustic's gas traps and grenades makes them highly effective for messing with, damaging, and finishing off enemies. You can make gas even deadlier with incendiary grenades. The grenades' damage stacks with that of the gas, and they spread fire horizontally to create barriers. You can use them to make damaging walls at the edges of gas clouds, keeping players stuck in gas clouds or taking more damage. The same is true of Bangalore's smoke, which is great for hiding grenades.
Don't Be Afraid To Use Balloons All The Time
Redeployment balloons are great for covering a lot of distance quickly, and you shouldn't be afraid to use them. Yes, they expose you somewhat--as you dive, you'll trail colored smoke which makes you pretty visible to nearby players--but they let you cover so much ground so fast that the exposure is worth it. What's more, you can use balloons to quickly ambush other squads, avoid opening yourself up to sniper fire, and to flee the closing ring. As long as you're careful, balloons can be a huge advantage, and they're often safer than running over open ground. If you're taking fire on the balloon zipline, try spinning--that'll rotate you around the balloon's rope and make you a bit tougher to hit.
Switch Guns Rather Than Reload
Most guns in Apex Legends feel like they take a fairly long amount of time to reload--which is why you should avoid stopping to refill them whenever you can. Switching weapons is a lot quicker than pausing to put in another magazine, and the trick to winning a fight is usually outlasting the other person, which means hitting the other person as much as possible, as quickly as possible. You might try even keeping two of the same gun, if there's one you're particularly comfortable with, when you're about to get into a fight. That way you can just switch to the same weapon immediately to keep up the fire.
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