Apex Legends sure did sink its polished claws into us here in the office back in February 2019; and none were as inescapably gripped as I. By now I’ve spent hundreds of hours in-game collating the below Apex Legends tips and tricks on how to wipe teams and earn countless wins. But now Season 5 has arrived, and as per usual the entire meta of the game has shifted with this new Season. So it’s high time I updated our 100 Apex Legends tips, don’t you think?

Apex Legends tips [Season 5] – 100 practical top tips

The below tips are broken into four skill sections: beginner, intermediate, advanced, and expert. A lot of effort has been made to ensure there’s something for everyone here, even seasoned veterans. There are some really obscure tips and strategies in the advanced and expert sections, so if you’re confident that you know everything there is to know about Apelegs, I suggest you skip ahead, and prepare to be surprised!

Apex Legends tips (Beginner)

These Apex Legends tips are for those new to the game, and will cover some basic features and good-to-know aspects of this fantastic battle royale.

Apex Legends is a last-man-standing online multiplayer shooter – you and every other player in your lobby drops onto the same map and must loot and fight until just one team is left standing. Historically, Apex Legends has always preferred players to squad up in teams of 3; but now duos is a permanent game mode, and solos had proven to be a popular limited-time mode in the past too. There are up to 60 players in each match of Apex Legends (20 teams of 3). You can see the players left remaining in the match by looking at the indicator in the top-right of your screen. Season 5 of Apex Legends began on 12th May, bringing with it a new Battle Pass, a brand new character (Loba), and a slight rework of the original Kings Canyon map (Apex Legends map and locations). Each match is divided into eight rounds, during which the ever-contracting Ring pushes players closer together. Check out our Apex Legends Ring guide for more information. Apex Legends features a fantastic and intuitive Ping system, which allows you to communicate non-verbally with your team. Read more in our Apex Legends Ping/Communication guide. At the beginning of each match you choose one of 13 characters. Each character has access to three unique abilities: a Passive (always in effect), a Tactical (activatable on a short cooldown) and an Ultimate (powerful activatable ability but requires charging over time). With Season 3, the old Kings Canyon map was replaced by the much larger and more colourful World’s Edge map. Now, the two maps rotate in and out of play periodically throughout the season. Loot is randomised each match, with different locations sporting different tiers of loot. Read more in our Apex Legends map and locations guide. The Apex maps are covered in ziplines, both horizontal and vertical, which you can attach to and slide along to cover distances quickly. There are also hot air balloons which operate like vertical ziplines, but if you reach the top it will redeploy your rocket boots (just like when landing at the start of a match) to help cover great distances.

There’s absolutely no fall damage in Apex Legends – but falling from great heights will stun you when you hit the ground. And, of course, you can still fall off the edge of the map and die. There are 23 different guns in Apex Legends, all of which you can read about in our Apex Legends guns & weapons; but each gun is only as good as the attachments you find and equip it with. For more information on attachments, take a look at our Apex Legends attachments guide. Headshots deal more damage than bodyshots. The multiplier is usually between 1.25x and 2x depending on the weapon you’re using. There are also legshots, which deal less damage than bodyshots. You can melee in Apex Legends either by tapping your melee button or by left-clicking (attacking) while not holding a weapon. If you are brought to zero health but you have teammates left standing, you will be “knocked”. You can revive knocked teammates before they bleed out by heading over to them and holding the Interact key. If they bleed out or are otherwise fully killed, you can grab their Banner from their death loot, and use it to respawn your lost teammate at one of the map’s many Respawn Beacons. For more details check out our in-depth Apex Legends reviving guide. When you drop at the start of a match, one of you is the dedicated “Jumpmaster” who controls where all three of you land. You can disconnect from your Jumpmaster at any time by holding “CTRL”; and you can always pass on the Jumpmaster role to someone else before you drop if you want. It’s heavily advised that you slide as often as possible, as it is often faster than sprinting and makes you a smaller target. Take a look at our Apex Legends basic movement guide for tonnes more information. You can holster your weapon to run faster and climb higher than you can with a gun in your hands. Apex Legends is all about teamwork. If you’re against whole other squads, you’re likely to die quickly if they find you alone. Stick together, and focus on learning to move and fight as a team. All characters have the same health pool of 100 Health; but you can equip Body Shields in order to give yourself Shields in increments of 25, up to a maximum of 125 Shields (225 effective health). You can use a variety of different healing items and consumables to rapidly regain lost Health and/or Shields. Check out our Apex Legends healing items guide for further info. Some types of equipment (Body Shields, Helmets, Knockdown Shields, and Backpacks) are called Gear, and can be found in various rarities (from worst to best: white, blue, purple, gold). The same is true of weapon attachments. The higher the rarity, the better the benefits of that item. Check out all the benefits of Gear and how Helmets and Body Shields work with our Apex Legends Armor and Gear guide. Backpacks expand the size of your inventory. It’s important to make sure everyone in your team is equipped with a white Backpack at the very least as soon as possible. Gold items have unique benefits. For example, Gold Knockdown Shields allow you to self-revive; and Gold Sights have the ability to highlight enemies through smoke. You may only hold two weapons at a time. When picking up a new weapon, the game will swap out whatever weapon you’re currently (or were last) holding for the new weapon.

Apex Legends tips (Intermediate)

Our intermediate tips are for those who know how Apex Legends works and have put in a fair few hours but want to know how to get to the next level when it comes to fighting and moving about King’s Canyon.

All the characters in Apex Legends have different sized hitboxes, which means some are more easy to hit than others. Wraith and Lifeline have the smallest (best) hitboxes, while Gibraltar and Caustic have the largest (worst). To counteract this, Gibraltar and Caustic have the additional “Fortified” passive which reduces incoming damage by 15% and makes them invulnerable to the slowdown caused by being shot; and the smallest Legends (Wraith, Lifeline, Pathfinder, Revenant) have the additional “Low Profile” passive which increases incoming damage by 5%. While you are looting, you are vulnerable, because you aren’t looking around for nearby threats. Looting should be done as quickly as possible. Gold Gear is no better in terms of stats than Purple Gear. A Gold Body Shield gives 100 Shields just like a Purple Body Shield. The only difference lies with the unique extra benefit each piece of Gold Gear bestows. Knockdown Shields can be activated while knocked down to protect the area directly in front of you. Different tiers of Knockdown Shield take different amounts of damage before breaking. Meleeing or Executing a downed enemy will ignore their Knockdown Shield. Jump-sliding is generally the fastest way to move in Apex Legends. To jump-slide, simply sprint to build momentum, then slide, and jump at the end before you start to slow down. Rinse, repeat. Check out our Apex Legends basic movement guide for further details. All characters move at exactly the same speed. They only appear to move at different speeds because of the speed of their arm animations. You can use hot air balloons to land on one of the very tall cliffs or rocks across the map (or land there at the start of a match); but you can’t stay there long. A countdown will start telling you that you are too high up and need to get down. However, it gives you a good 20 seconds or so to look around and possibly get an advantage in fights. The key to success in Apex Legends is to always stay on the move. If you’ve finished with one area, head to the next. If you’re looting something, move from side to side as you do it in case an enemy is aiming at you. Use contextual Pings on a variety of different objects. You can ping weapons, enemies, supply bins, supply ships, ziplines, and much more. Check out our Apex Legends Ping/Communication guide for the full list of possibilities.

Weapon class From best to worst Assault Rifles R-301 Carbine > Flatline > G7 Scout > Hemlok > Havoc SMGs Prowler > R-99 > Alternator LMGs Devotion > L-Star > Spitfire Shotguns Peacekeeper > Mastiff > EVA-8 > Mozambique Sniper Rifles Charge Rifle > Longbow > Sentinel > Kraber > Triple Take Pistols Wingman > P2020 > RE-45

Some of the top-performing weapons right now are (in no order) the R-301 Carbine, the Charge Rifle, the Prowler, the R-99, and the Peacekeeper. If you’re still getting to grips with which weapons to take over which others, you can spend some time referring back to the above weapon tier list table we’ve made for Season 5. Listen out for footsteps, gunfire, and any other audio prompts that indicate nearby enemies. A good pair of headphones WILL help you with this. Generally, Apex Legends is a close-quarters game. Think twice before taking that long-range shot with the Longbow or Sentinel, because even if you hit they’ll likely just heal up. Make sure you’ve turned on the damage figures in the Settings menu. These numbers are colour-coded to indicate the Body Shield of the enemy. They will also light up gold for a headshot, and you’ll also hear audio indicators when you headshot or when you break through the enemy’s Body Shield. There is bullet drop and aim drift in Apex Legends, but none of the guns are hitscan or have damage drop-off (except with the Charge Rifle and the Havoc’s single-shot mode, which feature both). Read more about all this at the top of our Apex Legends guns & weapons guide. Hop Ups are unique attachments which only fit onto specific guns. They often bestow very significant benefits upon that gun. Read more about them all in our Apex Legends attachments guide. The advantage in Apex Legends generally goes to the aggressor – to whoever notices the other team first and initiates the fight. Third-partying (entering into a fight between two other teams while both are distracted) is also extremely effective. If you find yourself in a tough spot, focus on repositioning and healing. Don’t commit to a fight you can’t win. Perform a finisher to execute a knocked enemy by moving up to them and hitting your Interact key; however this prompts a length animation which you can’t back out of, making you very vulnerable. But as of Season 3, completing a finisher will instantly refill all your Shields; so it sometimes can be a good idea to take the risk. Inventory management is important. Carry only what you need, and learn how much ammo you need for different guns. Since Season 4, all Sniper Rifles make use of unique Sniper Ammo rounds, forcing you to be more considerate of taking long-range potshots. While in your inventory, you can see the Gear (Body Shield, Helmet, Backpack, Knockdown Shield) of your teammates next to their names in the bottom-left corner of your screen. Attachments will auto-attach onto viable guns when you pick them up. This is very useful in most circumstances, but if for any reason you don’t want it to auto-attach, then simply use your Alternate Interact key. You can block doors from opening by standing in front of them. However, they can still be destroyed with two melees, or using explosives. You can also shoot the handle of a door with a Heavy Ammo weapon to open it from afar. While you should stick with your Jumpmaster for the most part while landing (so you’re not too split apart), you should detach from them just before you land so you can all head to different buildings. If you ping something and then hover over it, then the UI will tell you how many metres away you are from that point. This is particularly useful when landing at the beginning of a match. If you’re right over the top of a landing location, you should just drop straight down; but if the location is far away, then you should use the wave-drop technique. Learn how to perfect your landings with our Apex Legends landing guide. Supply Bins each contain multiple pieces of loot, and they always appear in exactly the same locations every match; however other forms of loot, such as floor loot and Loot Ticks, are random. The same is true for the Hot Zone and the Supply Ships, which differ in location each match. Check out our dedicated Apex Legends loot guide to learn more about all this.

Apex Legends tips (Advanced)

This is where things start to get more specific and obscure. Our advanced Apex Legends tips will cover everything from particular ability uses to advanced movement tips.

Jumping just as you go over an Octane Launch Pad will cause you to go even higher and further than normal when bouncing. If you find Ultimate Accelerants, they should always go to the Wattson or the Lifeline, because these two benefit from them far more than the other Legends. Fight around the edges of Bangalore‘s Smoke and Gibraltar‘s Dome rather than right in the middle, so that you can duck in and out whenever you need to fight/recover. Learn how to “A/D spam” effectively (dancing around during a fight and not standing still). If you’re moving slowly or predictably then you’re an easy target. Revenant’s Passive ability makes him particularly adept at “A/D spam” while crouching. You can Bunny Hop by jumping repeatedly while sliding (jump every time you hit the floor). For more information on how to Bunny Hop, check out our Apex Legends advanced movement guide. During (or just after) a fight, it’s much more efficient to swap out your Body Shield for a less damaged one (from death loot, for example) rather than healing up. Helmets reduce TOTAL headshot damage, NOT bonus headshot damage. Don’t believe me? Check out our Apex Legends Armor and Gear guide. Crypto is fantastic in squad matches, because his teammates can make up for his inactivity while using his Surveillance Drone. In solos, using the Drone is far riskier. Read all about how best to play as Crypto in our Crypto guide. Use contextual Pings in your inventory in order to request a specific type of ammo or attachment. You can also use it while in your Healing Menu to request a certain type of healing item. Check out our Apex Legends Ping/Communication guide for full details. The L-Star EMG‘s overheating mechanic can by bypassed as long as you fire in bursts of no more than 8 shots at a time.

As long as someone in your team has your teammate’s Banner, either of you can respawn them at a Respawn Beacon – it doesn’t need to be the one who picked it up. The time it takes you to bleed out is 90 seconds at first, but decreases to 60 seconds the second time you are knocked. Respawning at a Respawn Beacon resets this. Loba’s Tactical and Ultimate abilities are undoubtedly very useful, but they both attract attention and will most likely notify the enemy of your whereabouts. Use them with care. Tactical reloads (reloading while there is still ammo in your magazine) is, for most weapons, faster than full reloads (reloading when your magazine is empty). You can squish yourself by standing atop Supply Bins as they open, if there is nowhere for you to be pushed to. This is also the case sometimes for Supply Drops and Lifeline‘s Care Package; both can squish you (not knocked but straight dead) if you are under them as they land. Switching weapons is quicker than reloading, which means it’s nearly always better in close-quarters combat to switch to your other weapon to continue dealing damage rather than reloading. For tonnes of tips on the best loadouts and weapon combos in the game, have a read of our Apex Legends loadouts guide. Jumping off the zipline of a Hot Air Balloon before you’re at the top won’t proc the rocket boots redeploy. You need to let the game throw you off the very top in order for this to activate. Bangalore‘s Passive movement speed buff procs if bullets are fired near you; you don’t have to be damaged for it to activate. This makes her very powerful at closing gaps during long-range encounters. Use Pathfinder‘s Grappling Hook to swing and cover large distances very quickly by looking to the side and moving/strafing as you swing. Neither Mirage‘s Passive/Ultimate nor Wraith‘s Tactical ability renders you fully invisible when you use them. Mirage becomes an outline, while Wraith leaves behind blue trails which are fairly easy to follow. So don’t rely on enemies losing sight of you when you use these abilities. You often have time to heal even in hectic situations; all you need is a few seconds, and you can move about as you heal to give yourself even more time and safety. A single heal is sometimes all it takes to win a fight. Crypto’s Drone can interact with almost anything a player can. Doors, Supply Bins… It can even collect a teammate’s Banner from their death box. Each gun has a specific spray pattern that can be learnt (play around in the Firing Range to help with this). The range markers on long-range scopes are always accurate, UNLESS you have changed your Field of View in your Settings menu to anything other than 90. So if your range markers are telling you porkies, that’s the reason. Out of game, you can add command line arguments to Apex Legends to do certain things (for example, “-novid” stops the EA and Respawn intro videos from playing when you load up the game, and “+cl_showfps 4” displays your FPS and Frame MS during games).

Apex Legends tips (Expert)

We’ve packed our expert Apex Legends tips with all manner of advanced, complex, and obscure tips, on everything from exploitable glitches and bugs to strategies on finishing fights before they’ve even begun.

Octane‘s Tactical ability, Stim, will never take him below 1 Health, so you cannot die simply by using Stim. You can block doors with Wraith‘s portals so it’s difficult for others to enter/exit. But you can still pass through using your Tactical ability. You can place Gibraltar‘s Dome of Protection atop Lifeline‘s Drone, then push the drone along to move the Dome as well. Wraith portals last 60 seconds, but there’s no indication of this timer. The solution? Check your Ultimate charge level. At 39%, your portals will disappear. The Charge Rifle is actually fantastic while hip-firing. I wouldn’t bother ADSing with this gun unless the enemy is at incredibly long range. Hip fire reduces visual clutter around the crosshair and makes it easier to keep track of the gun’s charge-up time. Hip fire with shotguns. Don’t bother aiming down sights unless you’re at longer ranges (and, generally, don’t use shotguns at longer ranges anyway unless it’s the Peacekeeper). Just before landing at the beginning of a match, level out so that you’re travelling as horizontally as possible, then slide at the end. You’ll gain a massive speed boost which is great for crossing that extra bit of distance quickly. Thermite Grenades are a Caustic‘s best friend. The Thermite damage over time stacks with the damage over time of your Nox Gas. The effect of Revenant‘s Ultimate ability (Death Totem) can be countered by Caustic placing a Nox Gas Trap by the Totem. When an enemy teleports back to the Totem at 1 HP, they’ll be instantly knocked by the gas, which bypasses shields to deal pure health damage. If you look at one of the banners scattered around the map while piloting Crypto‘s Drone, the banners will tell you how many enemy squads are in the region.

Loba‘s Ultimate does not allow you to remotely pick up a teammate’s Banner. So don’t try it. You should always jump-kick (jump and melee together) rather than regular meleeing, as the cooldown is faster and you can chain more melees together in the same space of time. You can slide backwards as quickly as you can slide forwards, allowing you to quickly retreat without taking your eyes off the enemy. Loba‘s Tactical can be thrown through small gaps (like between the bars on windows), allowing you to teleport to very unexpected places to pull off effective flanks. Bloodhound‘s Tactical (Eye of the Allfather) is directional; it does not operate in a sphere all around you, but in a cone where you’re looking. So make sure you’re looking in the right direction when you use it. Bangalore‘s Ultimate and Gibraltar‘s Ultimate are quite similar, but Bangalore’s is better for zoning and defence (because it covers a much larger area) while Gibraltar’s is much better for offense (because it detonates much more quickly). Wattson‘s Interception Pylon treats Loba‘s Tactical like a grenade, and catches it, preventing Loba from teleporting near the Pylon. But this doesn’t use up Loba’s power, so she can teleport somewhere else immediately afterwards. The Precision Choke Hop Up attachment for the Triple Take will remember the tightened spread for a short while even after you stop aiming down sights, giving you a small window where you can move faster while still having the tremendous accuracy of the Choke. The same is true of the Peacekeeper‘s built-in Precision Choke functionality. There are a handful of automatic weapons which don’t have the barrel stabilizer attachment (which reduces recoil), which means the spray patterns for these guns will always be the same. Take advantage of this to learn them perfectly. If you activate Bloodhound‘s Ultimate while on a zipline, there is no wind-up animation before the Ultimate takes effect; instead, you transform instantly. If you time your melee just right as you land after a long drop, you will completely negate the “fall-stun” effect, and can continue moving without any recovery time. Caustic‘s traps can be shot at the base to destroy them without setting off the gas. You can climb atop doors in order to climb even further, allowing you to access hard-to-reach places. Many know this trick for smaller doors, but it’s also true for larger doors. Close the door, climb atop it, then look down and open the door, and then climb up to the top of the building. Coordinate kicking in doors with your teammate. It takes two melees to destroy a door, so coordinating like this will allow you to get the drop on unsuspecting enemies. Revenant’s Passive is so effective that if you jump while crouch-walking, when you land you’ll actually slide thanks to the momentum you’ve built up. Use this to make your movements less predictable during firefights!

Apex Legends guide list

You’ve reached the end of our 100 tips and tricks! Hopefully you’ve learnt one or two new things that you can take into battle next time you drop down into King’s Canyon. But that’s not the extent of our knowledge; we have over 60 focused guides on everything from guns and attachments to characters and abilities, from locations and the Ring to unlocking heirlooms and finishers. Take a look below for our full list of Apex Legends guides!