Apex Legends dropped outta nowhere to become the hottest Overwatch-flavored battle royale
on the block.
Here are some tips to get you started.
The first thing you’ll do is pick a character.
For the first few rounds, we recommend Bangalore or Lifeline.
Bangalore is a powerful assault class with a smoke bomb and an air strike ability,
while Lifeline is a medic with area-of-effect healing and the ability to call in defensive supply drops.
Once you’re more comfortable with the game’s systems, try out the rest of the characters
and find the one that best fits your playstyle.
Now you’re ready to jump!
Apex Legends automatically assigns a jumpmaster to guide the whole squad down.
You should probably stay near your jumpmaster until you’re at least close to the ground.
Then, right before you land, you can split off and get a head start on looting different buildings.
Too much pressure?
Bad at falling?
You can pass the jumpmaster role off to a teammate if you want.
The jumpmaster system means it easier to make last-minute location changes.
So if you see an enemy unit aiming for the same area, you can move on a dime while still
keeping the squad together.
And you’ll definitely know if you’re heading for a showdown, because it’s easy to track
where other squads are, thanks to big colorful smoke trails.
The best places to land change from game to game, but if you’re bold, you can try landing
on the supply ship.
It’s full of good equipment, so it’ll be a popular and dangerous spot to land.
And if you didn’t land exactly where you wanted, or you just need to move fast,
zip up one of these balloons for a short jetpack boost.
Once your team lands and splits up, communication becomes key.
So learn to ping!
You’ll definitely want to get comfortable pinging, because your squad’s going to have
a rough time if you’re not.
Luckily the tutorial explains the basics, but there’s even more you can do with it.
Squadmate pinging a cool weapon?
You can claim “dibs” on it in order to keep its location on your HUD.
Don’t have enough ammo for your new gun?
Open up the inventory screen and you can ping your squadmates with a request
for that weapon's specific ammo type.
I need light ammo!
You can even ping if you’re trying to fill a weapon mod or item slot.
You should try to learn all the advanced pings you can use by holding down the ping button,
but if nothing else, make it a habit to ping enemies the moment you spot them.
There’s no easier way to keep your squad alive!
Weapon mods provide boosts for your weapons, and if your gun is compatible,
it’ll be attached automatically when you pick it up.
As a general rule, you should always pick up any mods that fit.
How do you know if it fits?
Just look at the little UI window below the mod, which will tell you if your gun has an
open mod slot or if you’ll be swapping it out, which you’ll want to do if you find
a higher quality weapon mod.
You can tell the quality of the mod by its color: grey is most common,
blue is a little better,
purple is a lot better,
and gold is top-tier.
Don’t worry if you find a better gun: if it uses the same mods,
they’ll transfer automatically.
Our last weapons tip is simply to pick up as much ammo as you can carry:
you can melee, but don’t bring a punch to a gunfight.
You’re toast if you run out of ammo in a battle and it’s hard to get more
in the heat of the moment.
Remember, you can always ping your teammates if you’re on the lookout for more.
Notice that you have two bars: one for health and one for “armor”, but think of this
more like a rechargeable shield.
Medkits restore health, while shield cells restore armor,
Keep in mind you’ll be vulnerable and unable to fire a weapon while healing.
But even when you’re downed, you’re not out- if you’ve got a knockdown shield equipped.
Aim the shield to block incoming damage and buy your teammates some time to rescue you.
If you’ve played the tutorial, you already know you can resurrect dead teammates
by grabbing their banner.
But you might not realize that regardless of who picks up the banner, either teammate
can drop it off at a beacon.
Now, that’s assuming they’ll be able to reach the banner — if you die on a drop ship,
try to crawl off,
otherwise your banner will be stuck in the sky.
Those are the core systems in Apex Legends, but there are a lot of small details that
will push your game further.
Squadmates not using the ping system?
At least you’ll know when they’re shooting their guns, thanks to these muzzle bursts
next to their player name.
The damage numbers that show up when you land a hit
tell you what level of shield an enemy is wearing.
While grey means barebones protection,
a purple or blue number means they’ve got a better shield,
so you’re in for a fight.
The game’s map is very vertical, so look out for ziplines, which can carry you UP just
as fast as they take you down.
And don’t worry about falling to your doom; this game has no fall damage.
When you enter a new area on the map, the game will tell you its name.
It will also tell you what quality of loot you can expect to find, so you don’t have
to waste your time if you’ve already got better gear.
Finally, something the game won’t tell you: once only three squads remain, the number
of surviving players is obscured, so don’t make any assumptions about how many enemies
are left on the field.
With all that, you should be more than ready to rise through ranks of Apex Legends.
And if you have any solid tips of your own, drop ‘em in the comments below!
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