Apex Legends Tips for Beginners
Apex Legends is one of the most popular battle royale games around. Since its unexpected release in 2019, it has taken the world by storm. Newcomers are constantly joining the game because it is entertaining and free to play. However, if you don’t know the fundamentals, you’re going to be slaughtered, so we made this Apex Legends tips article to get you started.
In this article, we’re going to go over everything you need to get started to hone your skills in Apex Legends. From guns to legends; this is all that you’ll need to begin stacking your wins.
Settings
Having the optimal settings is as important as having good mechanics. Before you start your Apex grind, you need to make sure you have the best settings to give you more consistent framerates, among other things. When you open the settings in Apex Legends, you are bombarded with a lot of options, which can make a beginner confused.
Thankfully, we have a whole piece covering the best settings for Apex Legends. All of these settings have been taken from the pros and tested by our analysts to make sure your game is optimized for peak performance. You can use these settings as an ideal starting point if you don’t want to spend time configuring the settings yourself.
Aim
Having a good aim is a prerequisite for being good at any FPS game. For a battle royale like Apex Legends, it’s essential. If you play other shooter games regularly, this might not be that hard for you to attain. But, if you’re just starting, training your aim should be the first thing on your mind.
In theory, it sounds easy. Just point, aim, and shoot. Right?
Sadly, it doesn’t work that way. There are multiple sub-branches for aiming; there’s flicking and tracking, for instance. You’ll need to train all of these aspects individually to make sure your aim remains sharp, but for games like Apex, tracking is usually the more important aspect.
Spray Patterns
Different guns have different spray patterns in Apex Legends. This is something that you’ll have to train and memorize. Go into the shooting range and press the shoot button while aiming straight into a rock. The bullets will hit the rock in a pattern. Identify that pattern and move your mouse or joystick against that pattern to learn that weapon’s spray pattern. Alternatively, you can also look up the spray patterns online.
Once you identify the spraying pattern of that weapon, practice it to make sure you can control the recoil as much as you can. This will make sure that most of your shots land on target and maximize damage.
Tracking Enemies
Your enemies won’t just stand in a single place waiting for you to shoot. Apex Legends is a fast-paced game with constant movement, so you’ll have to adapt accordingly. Practice tracking targets and their movement. You can do this by shooting moving targets in the shooting range or hopping in the game and having the real experience. Aim trainer software can also be used to great effect here, but that’s obviously taking things a bit more seriously.
Aim isn’t something you’ll get insanely good at in a short amount of time; it’s a skill that needs time to improve. But, if you put in the time and understand the basics, your aim alone will be enough to carry you out of difficult situations and the lower ranks.
Choosing a Legend
There are 20 legends in the game, but to keep things simple, only six are available at the start. The rest of them can be unlocked through an in-game currency which you earn as you level up.
Each legend is categorized into either one of four categories: Assault, Recon, Support, and Defensive. Choosing any one of them just boils down to finding something that matches your playing style. These legends also have different abilities, so it pays off to read up on them beforehand.
Every legend has a tactical, passive, and ultimate ability. You can use these to make plays, be aggressive, defend yourself against another squad, or simply just run away.
With so much knowledge to gain and so many things to try out, we recommend you keep things simple here. You don’t need to master every legend and their abilities, but our advice to new players is to try all of them out and experiment.
Master A Few Legends
Try different strategies with different legends. Use their ultimates and abilities, and find out which are the most fun to play with for you. Then, simply stick to those. Once you find out which legends you play the best with, practice with them in the game and start improving. We recommend being familiar with at least 3 to 4 of them over different categories so you never have to compromise if someone else chooses the legend you prefer. In games like Apex it’s always better to be really good at just a couple of legends rather than being ‘meh’ on the entire roster.
Pick For Your Team
Since Apex is a team game, choose your agent around how your team plays. If all of you go out on assault, it won’t work. Same with recon and defense. Keep a balance within your team and you’ll find the best results. For this reason, we recommend learning a couple of agents in each category. It’s fine to ‘main’ a certain category (or even agent) but you should be able to flex.
Movement
Apex is an incredibly fast-paced game and if you want to keep up, movement is key. From using the map to your advantage to dodging enemy attacks, you need to practice and improve your movement.
Let’s take King’s Canyon as an example, it was the first map Apex introduced and remains one of the most popular maps in the game. It’s small compared to the other new maps meaning the fights are fast and more compact. Hence, you always need to be quick and alert.
There are ziplines all over the map which players can use to their advantage. These can help in attaining high ground, which is key in this game. They are also a great way of evading a fight if things get too destructive.
Learn slide jumps and wall jumps to become fast and make unexpected plays. These are also great ways of dodging incoming bullets. If you’re ever in a situation where the opponent has the high ground and you’re on the ground with no cover, use these tactics to make a great escape. Mastering the movement in Apex Legends takes tons of playing time, but getting familiar with the basics really pays off.
Even in duels, instead of just standing and shooting, move around. Pair up shooting with running, sliding, and jumping to make yourself harder to hit and more unpredictable. Practice your movement in training and then apply it to real-game situations to become better fast.
Weapons and Gear
The game has 20+ weapons to choose from with different hit ranges, damage, and recoil. With that much variety, it can be hard to choose your weapon of choice.
Our recommendation will be to not overthink this process and keep it simple. All the guns and gear revolve around four rarities: grey, blue, purple, and gold. This list goes from worst to best; grey is the worst, and gold is the best.
The range of the guns works like they do in any other game. You’ll find short, middle, and long-range weapons. We recommend you keep at least one of each category with you. If you’re ever unsure of what to use, try the R301 carbine and the VK47 Flatline.
Initially, when you drop to a location, don’t be picky about the rarity. Grab whatever you get your hands on, otherwise, you’ll die rather quickly. As the game settles in, you’ll get better weapons and gear.
Weapon Attachments
The weapons have attachments as well, and they follow the same rarity spectrum. Experiment with different attachments on your weapons to find out what you’re most comfortable with. Keep an eye out for an extended mag; it’s one of the most important attachments in the game.
Armor
The most important thing aside from getting a good weapon is getting good armor. Armor has the same rarity tiers as attachments and weapons. The higher the rarity, the more health you get from the armor.
Getting good weapons and armor are the basic ingredients in the recipe for success so don’t forget them.
Our recommendation would be to use a shotgun, SMG, or rifle combo, but be experimental and try different weapons to see where you excel.
Maps
Initially, Apex started with only one map: King’s Canyon. New maps get added frequently though, so the action doesn’t only happen on King’s Canyon any longer.
The map will determine at what pace your game will go. Olympus and King’s Canyon are relatively small maps, which means that the pace of the game will be faster and the fights more chaotic. You’re also more likely to get third partied in these maps due to their size.
If you want to improve your skills and have a competitive game, smaller maps are better. But, if you just want to have a good time and not sweat much, you can choose larger maps. Due to their bigger size, you’ll have more time to settle in and the fights will be much more secluded.
For Apex Legends beginners, we recommend choosing one map and sticking with it. This will help familiarize yourself with its locations and help you improve your rotations and end game. You’ll also get an idea of where to land and how to make your plays.
Positioning and Rotation
Knowing where to land and when to rotate is one of the key aspects of a battle royale. Different landing spots have different characteristics. If you drop in the hot zone, you’ll get better loot. But, you’ll encounter more squads and gunfights since you won’t be alone in search of that good loot. It’s always a high-risk high-reward situation; you might die in the first five minutes or have the best loot for the rest of the game.
Landing in the corners of the map means you’ll have more time to settle in before encountering a fight, but you’ll be further away from the circle and will have to rotate early. If you do use this strategy, either rotate before the circle closes in or make sure you know the map well enough to get there in time.
You’ll need to familiarize yourself with the map to know the best locations to drop at. So, play the game and try to learn the map; find out where the loot you prefer spawns, and where the fighting isn’t as chaotic. Don’t be afraid to drop in zones that are unfamiliar to you.
Our recommendation is to drop just a little further from the hot zones, and once you settle in, make your way towards the hot zone and push enemy squads. This way, you can get good loot without being overwhelmed with enemies all around you.
Teamwork
In Apex Legends, teamwork really makes the dream work. There’s a reason why the ranked mode doesn’t have solo queuing. It was always intended to be played as a team game and that’s what we recommend you do.
Firstly, choose legends that complement your playstyle as well as your team’s choices. If your team lacks a defensive position and you can play a defensive legend well, fill that spot. Have chemistry with your teammates and it’ll lead your squad to wins.
Communication
Secondly, turn your mic on and talk to your squad. Having comms helps way more than you think it does. Communicating situations like where you will drop, when you’re healing, when you’re taking damage, and so on can make or break your game.
If you don’t have a mic or can’t use comms, at the very least try to use the in-game communication techniques to convey your tactics to your team. Mark where you’ll drop, ping items for your teammates to pick up, drop them loot if they run out, and play as a good teammate.
Even if your whole squad plays average to decent but has good chemistry, you’ll be able to take players way above your level down.
Beginner’s Guide to Apex Legends – Conclusion
With this, we conclude our Apex Legends tips guide. You’ll still need to practice if you want to get better (that’s always the case) but knowing how to play is half the battle in games like these.
We’ll conclude with our best tip: have fun. Whether you’re trying to go pro or you just want to frag out with your friends at the end of a work week; at the end of the day, it’s a game, and having fun is the whole point.
You can download Apex Legends on Steam
