Apex Legends: 26 Essential Tips for Landing, Looting, and Combat

UnlockLast Edited: February 8, 2019 at 2:57 AM

Apex Legends is a squad based Battle Royale game that takes place in the Titanfall Universe. Teams of 3 will drop into King’s Canyon to try and become the last squad standing. To help you achieve that victory and become the champion, we've put together these tips and strategies.

IGN's Apex Legends Tips and Tricks are divided into three tips groups. Please click or tap the links below to jump to different sections:

We'll be adding more tips and strategies to this page as we get more time with Apex Legends! In the meantime, let us know your tips in the comments or feel free to add them to the page by signing in.

This tips section is intended to help battle royale beginners and casual players understand some of the more nuanced strategies and features in Apex Legends.

Click or tap the links below to jump to a tip type.

Apex Legends has familiar landing and looting system to Battle Royale games, but its nuances make all the difference.

You Don't Have to Lead the Drop[edit]

The flight leader is chosen at random, but you can see who is in charge as soon as you're in the picking phase. If you're the flight leader and don't want the responsibility, you can give up the position by hitting the prompted button during the countdown right after the character selection screen.

Consider Landing Far, Far Away[edit]

If you're not comfortable landing RIGHT in the action, try staying in the drop ship longer and landing on the outskirts of the map. Chances are you'll only land near one or two other squads, and you may have more time to look over loot to really learn what they do.

Supply Ship[edit]

While dropping onto King’s Canyon, you will notice an icon for a supply ship on the map. This icon represents the supply ship’s final destination so if you time your drop path correctly, you can land on top of the supply ship. These ships are guaranteed high tiers of loot so be prepared for a hot fight. Since there is no fall damage in Apex Legends, feel free to grab a high tier weapon and jump ship immediately.

Remember, other players can land on the supply ship too! There's a good chance your group will have to face off against others landing on the supply ship. If things get too heated, it may be best to jump ship.

Split Off During the Drop[edit]

You'll want to stay close to teammates when you land, but not too close. If you're landing in an area with few buildings, try to veer off a little toward other buildings so that your team isn't fighting over the same loot. Ammo is especially scarce, so have weapons of different types is helpful too.

Listen, and Learn to Ping[edit]

The Legends (characters) also give great callouts. If someone spots an enemy (but doesn't ping) their character will still call them out, especially if they're being shot at! But be sure to learn how to ping.

The Ping system is extremely useful for conveying information to your team without actually communicating over a microphone. You can quickly ping loot for your teammates, point out an enemy on the battlefield, decline an action, and even indicate that you are going to loot a specific area.

You can also "call dibs" on items that other people ping out (just ping the item that's highlighted by another person). You can cancel all pings by pinging that spot again.

Don't forget the most important ping though: double tap anywhere to mark an enemy.

Keep an Eye Out for Supply Bins[edit]

Hidden randomly around King's Canyon, players will have the opportunity to find Supply Bins. These large white cylinder like bins, often contain many highly sought after items such as weapons, attachments, ammunition, and even armor.

It is important to remember that you aren't the only one seeking out these highly desired bins. So if you do happen to find a supply bin, be sure to keep a close eye on your surroundings for any nearby teams.

And Keep an Eye Out for Loot Ticks[edit]

You know those Apex Boxes you open for loot? Well, you can find them around King's Canyon too! If you find one of the Loot Ticks (they like to hide in corners, emit a colored light, and make a distinct noise), give the cute thing a good punch for loot.

Slow Down, There's No Rush[edit]

Unlike other battle royale games, Apex Legends has a much slower style of play, most notably during the opening minutes.

Respawn Entertainment has made it abundantly clear that due to the smaller number of players on the map, the typical early battle royale rush for weapons and gear isn't necessarily a major focus, as they don't want players picking up and using just any old weapon.

Instead, they would much rather players spend their time building up a decent inventory of weapons and gear, while also ensuring that nearby areas are scouted properly for loot.

When it comes down to it, your more thought out inventory will undoubtedly assist your team much better than the full inventory of items that you initially collected from the first building you entered.

Learn Item Colors[edit]

One of the things that'll help you move through buildings faster is learning colors for item rarity and ammo. Once you've picked up weapons you like you'll only want to pick up their corresponding ammo. You'll also want to prioritize grabbing higher rarity attachments. Here's a quick color guide:

Item Colors: Common = Grey Rare = Blue Epic = Purple Legendary = Gold/Yellow (You'll find these in care packages and rarely Lifeline care packages)

Ammo Colors:

Light Rounds = Light Brown/Orange Shotgun Shells = Burgundy/Red Heavy Rounds = Teal/Blue Energy Ammo = Lime Green

Move Faster by Holstering your Weapon[edit]

Keeping your weapon drawn is excellent practice, as you never know when you're going to need it.

However, when trying to escape that ever-shrinking circle or swift escape from battle, it is always important to remember that holstering your weapon will provide a nice little speed boost that could potentially save your life.

To holster your weapon, hold Triangle on PS4, Y on Xbox One, or press 3 on PC.

Redeploying your Glide[edit]

There are red hot air balloons connected by a zip line scattered around the map. If you go up to one of these air balloons, your legend will ---scale up the zip line and allow you to redeploy your glide, allowing you to traverse the map quickly.

This is especially helpful for escaping the ring!

Fall Damage Doesn't Exist[edit]

Thanks to the Battle Royale genre, many of you will have finely tuned your skills at traversing dangerous terrain. As let's face it, there is no worse feeling than accidentally losing your footing and suffering fall damage.

Thankfully that isn't the case for Apex Legends, as falling from great heights will instead land you safely on the ground without ever receiving a scratch.

Despite its seemly small impact, players can now use this feature as a tactical advantage when preying on enemy opponents below.

Managing your Inventory is Key[edit]

Much like other battle royale games, backpacks play a massive part in your survival within Apex Legends, as they allow you to carry several additional items.

With limited space in your starting inventory, it is vital that you utilize the space carefully by swapping out weapons of lesser quality - the colored box system helps indicate this. Apex will also prevent you from picking up an attachment that's a lesser version of what you already have. It'll make a light buzzer noise and force you to hold down a button to swap out your better attachment for the lesser one.

A general rule to often play by is that if you aren't actively searching for a particular weapon, clearing your inventory of any unusable weapon upgrades is always a good idea, as you never know when you're going to need extra space. You'll also want to drop unneeded ammo as well. If you don't plan on picking up an energy weapon, dump that energy ammo!

Know Your Legend[edit]

This may seem obvious, but it's incredibly important! In Apex Legends, your character is known as a legend. Each Legend has a passive, tactical ability, and ultimate ability. There can be no duplicate legends on a squad so take the time to learn each Legend’s abilities so you can form a team with good synergy.

Don't Take a Fight Until You Have Armor[edit]

This is true in other battle royale games, and it's still just as important in Apex Legends. It's imperative that you have recharged body armor ready to go before you engage in a fight. If you find yourself in a shootout before you've grabbed armor, try to let your teammates that have armor be on the frontlines or try to escape together.

Learn How to Escape from a Bad Situation[edit]

If you're playing "alone" (aka with random people), try to get your hands on a character you're very comfortable with or one that can escape a bad situation easily. For instance, Pathfinder's grappling hook can help you zip out of a hot spot or zoom in to help your teammates. Bangalore can achieve a similar objective, though her kit is more suited for aggressive play.

Use Your Abilities Wisely[edit]

Despite how tempting it may be to use your Legend's abilities, it is vital that you learn how to best utilize them in combat - especially when it comes to using your Ultimate.

By using your abilities at inappropriate times or during unnecessary encounters, you are potentially leaving yourself vulnerable without access to crucial attack components. This is often one of the leading causes of demise for many players.

For this reason, always ensure that your Ultimate abilities are ready for those unsuspected enemy attacks. Don't be too precious about your tactical ability, though. For example, if you're playing Lifeline, use her D.O.C Heal Drone between engagements to heal yourself and your teammates when you have a chance to catch your breath instead of wasting valuable syringes and health kits.

Some Weapons Have Alternate Firing Modes[edit]

Have you ever looked at your weapon UI and noticed a button prompt to the left of its firing type indicator? Well, most don't have this, but if you've seen this on one of three weapons, that means it has an alternate firing mode. You can switch its firing mode between single and auto.

The following weapons have single and auto firing modes:

We'll be adding more weapons to this list as we find them.

Carry a Shotgun[edit]

There's a good chance you'll find yourself in a close quarters engagement with another team, and when you're in that situation, you're really going to want a shotgun. SMGs can be great in this instance, but if your accuracy isn't always the best, shotguns have a forgiving enough spread to work well in close shootouts.

Make sure your other weapon has decent range so that you can contribute in those mid- and long-range firefights.

Use Jump Towers, Hot Zones, and Populated Zones To Your Advantage[edit]

If you're planning on winning, you are going to need to learn how to use the key areas of Kings Canyon to your advantage.

Most of the key areas - Jump Towers, Hot Zones, and Respawn Beacons - are essential aspects of gameplay and are frequently occupied by players.

Whether it's using the Jump Towers to escape sticky situations, searching Hot Zones for rare items, or merely trying to bring back fallen players via Respawn Beacons, most of the time players are heading to these locations for a specific reason.

As a result, many often forget to check their surroundings properly.

Recovering Teammates Banners[edit]

When a player is eliminated from combat, it doesn’t mean they are out of the game yet. Apex Legends introduces a unique recovering system in which you have 90 seconds to get to a slain teammate’s loot box and grab their banner.

You can then take this banner to one of many respawn centers on the map to call your teammate back into the fight. These are marked by green ships on your map.

A drop ship will deploy the revived Legend at the respawn center but they’ll have no loot. If there's no loot around, you may want to give one of your teammates some of your equipment. Keep in mind that each respawn center can only be used once by any team.

Damage Number Colors[edit]

Each Legend has a base total of 100 HP. There are four segments of armor health that equate to 25 HP per segment. This means there can be a max of 200 HP. Whenever you hit a player, a colored damage number will pop up. If you hit a purple number, it means that the enemy is wearing level 3 armor.

Blue numbers represent level 2 armor and a white number signifies level 1 armor. Headshots will be represented by yellow damage numbers and if you hit red numbers, it means that that player has no armor so be aggressive.

Color of Enemy Boxes[edit]

Similar to other Battle Royales, fallen players will drop their loot in a box once killed. However, in Apex Legends, player boxes will be different colors, distinguishing the highest level of loot rarity that the defeated Legend had.

You Can Stop an Enemies' Finisher[edit]

If you see a friend go down and their killer being a finisher, you can stop the attack by shooting -- or even punching! -- the aggressor. Each finisher takes a few seconds to preform, so there is a short window to stop it.

Earn Additional XP by Killing the Champion[edit]

By now, you will have probably noticed that at the beginning of every match one player is displayed as a Champion - this is often rewarded to those that ranked high in their previous game.

Should you manage to kill the champion during the match, you will earn yourself a nice 500 XP bonus that can be used toward purchasing cosmetic items in the store.

Purchase Skins With Crafting Metals[edit]

Sick of looking at the same factory skins but don't want to spend your hard earned money? Well, you'll be happy to know that unique character and weapon skins can be purchased by simply playing the game.

By heading to the Legends/Armory menu, you will have the option to purchase unique skins with Crafting Metals. For more information on this in-game currency, check out our Crafting Metals guide here.

Some of the developers behind Apex Legends have taken to social media to give their own tips for playing Apex Legends. Here are a few helpful tips from the developers we've found so far:

From Respawn game designer Carlos Pineda:

You can wall-climb to higher areas by jumping and pushing forward. It's not covered in the tutorial but is essential! [1] Kick those doors in! You can kick and eventually destroy doors by melee'ing them! Also blow them up with grenades![2] Fun Fact: All characters move at the same speed. It only feels like some characters move slower because they have a higher camera height and slower arm animations [3] When you have a good handle on all the loot, you can turn on COMPACT LOOT PROMPTS for a more streamlined HUD! It's in the Settings menu [4]

From Respawn senior designer Sean Slayback:

The ranging marks on EVERY fullscreen (sniper) optic will ALWAYS be accurate for the rifle you're using. Watch the mil dots reshuffle in realtime as you aim far up or down. Use the rangefinder and line up the right tick mark to tag those long range headshots. [5]

From Respawn software engineer Justin Cook:

Long range scopes increase the range you can see bloodhound's tracking markers [6]

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