How to play guide for Apex Legends

* Please add on to the missing part(s) & other **pages** as best as you can. Rampart can't do it by herself.
* Specific section(s) needing completion: **Catalyst (grammar), Ballistic, & Conduit**

This page will serve as a basic "how to play" guide for *Apex Legends* and thus, will often utilize informal expressions such as "you". Check back often, as new information is being added all the time! Feel free to edit this guide with any tips, tricks, and suggestions.

## Basic gameplay

*Apex Legends* is a hero shooter game where in the main "Play Apex" game mode, 20 squads of 3 members or 30 squads of 2 members choose playable character classes called **Legends**, and launch from a flying ship into one of the currently available arenas. Upon landing, they must search for **weapons**, **gear**, and other items to help them kill off the other teams while simultaneously staying inside a shrinking safe zone called **The Ring**. The last squad standing wins.

Each Legend has three abilities unique to them: a **Passive** ability that is always active, a **Tactical** ability that can be periodically activated and has a cooldown between uses, and an **Ultimate** ability that acts as a powerful, potentially game-changing tool which charges over time as well, although slower than a Tactical, but can be shortened by using  Ultimate Accelerants. Some Legends also have **Perks**, which are bonus Passive abilities applied only to a certain group of Legends.

Each Legend has **100** base health and, upon depleting all of it, they enter a **Bleeding Out** state where they are given 100 additional temporary health. While Bleeding Out, Legends can only crawl, ping, interact with doors, and use a  Knockdown Shield to shield themselves or their teammates from incoming fire if they have one, at the cost of moving even more slowly. A teammate can approach a downed Legend and attempt to **Revive** them: if the Revive is successful, the downed Legend will be healed to **20** health, if the Revive is not successful, either by not being Revived in time or by depleting the 100 additional health given, the Bleeding Out Legend will **die**. A dead Legend however can be still brought back if a living squadmate has grabbed their **Banner Card** within 2 minutes from their death, otherwise their Banner Card will expire and a respawn will no longer be possible, and respawned at a  **Respawn Beacon** or  **Mobile Respawn Beacon**. Once the Banner Card is grabbed, it cannot expire. Respawned Legends will have full health.

Although Legends have 100 health,  **Evo Shields** can be equipped to increase their health depending on the Shield's level. Evo Shields can also be upgraded by dealing damage to opponents.

Before dropping into the arena, Legends are given an  Evo Shield, 2  **Shield Cells**, and 2  **Syringes**. These are also given to respawned Legends.

## Looting etiquette

While generally the loot goes to whoever discover it first, there are some exceptions in order to maximize the team's potential. To check which items you and your teammates currently have, all you have to do is open your inventory.

Here's a list of items that have priorities among Legends:

* Level 4  Knockdown Shield: if a Legend equipped with this item revives a Bleeding Out teammate, the revived Legend will receive 50 bonus health and shields, that stack with the base 20 health given after the revive. It is wise to give this item to, in order:
	+ Newcastle, due to  Retrieve the Wounded allowing him to Revive teammates while shielding both of them at the same time, along with being able to move around while doing so;
	+ Lifeline, Gibraltar, or Mirage (They are equal)
		- Gibraltar, due to  Dome of Protection allowing him to Revive in an (almost) unbreakable dome 33% faster than other Legends;
		- Mirage, due to  Now You See Me... allowing him to turn almost fully invisible while Reviving, as well as 3 seconds cloak after revive;
		- Lifeline, due to  Combat Medic allowing her to fight and revive 2 teammates at the same time; considered slightly lesser than Newcastle due to her revive exposes teammates to attacks;
	+ Bangalore, due to  Smoke Launcher creating a curtain of smoke which hides her while performing actions;
	+ Caustic, due to  Nox Gas Traps and  Nox Gas Grenade creating a curtain of gas which hides him while performing actions.
* Level 4  Helmet: although being a valuable item for basically every Legend due to shortening the cooldown of Tactical and Ultimate abilities by 15%, Octanes should ***NEVER*** pick up this item over other Legends, due to his Tactical and Ultimate recharge at, respectively, 1 second and 90 seconds. Everyone knows he's fast, he doesn't need to be faster when there's Legends such as Gibraltar whose Ultimate cooldown can last up to 4.5 minutes.
* **Highest-level  Knockdown Shield**: while generally you want to avoid getting knocked and therefore Knockdown Shields not really mattering much, it is wise to give the best Knockdown Shield to Newcastle, due to his  Retrieve the Wounded ability which makes use of the Knockdown Shield's shield amount while Reviving. As Newcastle say "Help him, help you"
* Ultimate Accelerant: Accelerants are items generally favored by all Legends, but the one Legend that makes the best use out of them is Wattson, due to her  Spark of Genius ability that not only allows to stack 2 of them in the same inventory slot, but also fully charges her Ultimate instead of giving it a measly +35%.
* **Light machine guns**: Rampart should be encouraged, but not required, to pick up an LMG due to her  Modded Loader ability that boosts reload speed and mag size of all LMGs.
* **Ordnance**: Fuse should be **very** encouraged, but not required, to pick every single type of grenade he sees due to his  Grenadier ability that allows him to stack 2 grenades of the same type in the same inventory slot, also allowing him to throw them more accurately.
* **Shotguns**: Mad Maggie should be encouraged, but not required, to pick up a shotgun due to her  Warlord's Ire ability that allows her to run shotgun-in-hand without being slowed down.

Also, it is highly suggested to **respect dibs**. Stealing a teammate's dibsed item may lead to reactions that vary from mild annoyance to straight up toxicity and intentional griefing, such as: alerting the whole lobby of your whereabouts, pushing a team alone, committing suicide (in-game of course), quitting the match, or all of them at the same time; some teammates ability can be used to purposely grief others, such as a Newcastle can drag a downed teammates right into line of fire or off the map (seriously, do not steal his knockdown shield). Don't steal your teammate's Level 2  Shotgun Bolt, you'll find another one for yourself, we promise.

## Your first matches

Here's some general tips for your first matches, depending on the Round you're currently in. Generally, a game ends around Round 3, unless for some reason you, your teammates, or the enemies want to waste everyone's time by not attacking anyone until there are only 2 teams remaining, which may lead to games lasting up until the Final Round (6).

### Early game (Rounds 1 and 2)

As is expected with most Battle Royale game modes, all Legends begin the match inside of a dropship flying across the map in a straight line. Checking your map for the projected flight path is a good idea, as this allows you to predict the amount of initial traffic each named location will have. Locations near the drop ship's flight path are usually densely populated at the start of the match because players can get into the action faster compared to late path locations.

The last player who picked their Legend will be chosen as the **Jumpmaster**, giving them the privilege to initiate the drop sequence for your team - although one can always decide to land alone, even if it's strongly discouraged. If you are the Jumpmaster, find out if your squad is looking for immediate action or a chance to get nicely geared, and then go ahead with the drop. Your two (or one) squad members will automatically follow your movement during the free-fall until they decide to break away and fly on their own. The ideal drop distance is approximately 500 meters. If your preferred drop location is further than 1000m, don't drop; rather, settle and find a closer location.

Sticking together in the same PoI largely increases your chance of survival once you land -- but try to avoid landing right next to the Jumpmaster, or else you'll all be scrambling for loot in the same location and all of you will probably end up with little to no loot. If you are the only team landing in the PoI, detach from the Jumpmaster when you are close to the ground PoI, land on different area of the PoI, and regroup with your squad after you've looted your own location. However, if there are other teams in the same area, stick to the same building can be wise, in case a team member is forced into the fight.

Once you've geared up adequately, collaborate with your squad when deciding where to go and what to do next. The Ring will periodically shrink and make the playable area smaller, and standing outside of it will keep dealing damage every second. While in the first round the damage can be ignored for the most part, subsequent rounds may not be so forgiving.

### Mid game (Rounds 3 and 4)

You've looted your first location and may have headed towards another one. Maybe you've gotten into a fight with another squad along the way, maybe not. When the mid game approaches, it's best to assume that most players have at least a level 2  Evo Shield and thus, most of them will at least have 175 health each.

Since at this point the most important locations have usually been looted already, it's time to either seek a squad to fight for their loot and upgrade your  Evo Shield, or to go inside The Ring and prepare for a later round. Engaging an enemy squad will however startle other nearby squads, due to the gunfire being loud which can be heard from afar, therefore make sure that you are either ready to fight more than just one squad, or ready to disengage them once another squad arrives. At this point in the game, Care Packages and Replicators will have came down, so if there are no squads around, try and get some better items from there.

### Late game (Round 5)

Either by luck, skill, or simply because you have encountered nobody to fight, you're now in the late game. At this point, everyone should have at least a level 3  Evo Shield, or 200 total health. If you or your weapons are still equipped with level 1 items, you should try your luck with the available unlooted areas and Supply Bins you find while you're going inside The Ring. Who knows, maybe that one unopened Supply Bin at The Tree will contain an  Extended Light Mag for your R-301 Carbine.

Early positioning is key to winning a game: predicting where The Ring will end up is essential to get an advantage that might win you the game. If you can get to a building that is in The Ring before other teams do, then they will be forced to take the fight to you at a lower ground since it is a lot easier to hold a building than to push it, especially in late game. Play cautiously by keeping your attention focused far ahead of your immediate location. Climb walls whenever possible instead of taking the obvious path. Use Ziplines to quickly traverse open areas, but drop from them immediately if you see a squad at the end of the Zipline. If you enter a building, close the door on your way in as it may be the final giveaway that leads to your squad's demise.

### End game (Final Round)

Since everyone is apparently scared to fight, the Ring has decided that you all have to die somehow, and therefore will shrink until there's no more safe ground that keeps you from burning to death. Squads are encouraged, if not forced, to move quickly due to The Ring now killing you in just 4 hits. Stakes are high, and squads are alert. Do whatever it takes to increase your chances of survival. Control some high ground or maybe decide to camp in an area. Abuse cover if being shot at. Nothing is off the table when the winner is decided in a matter of seconds.

Good luck!

## Unlocking new Legends

A freshly created account on *Apex Legends* has access to 6 Legends: Bangalore, Bloodhound, Gibraltar, Lifeline, Pathfinder, and Wraith. Each other Legend the game offers can be purchased with  12,000 Legend Tokens, or  750 Apex Coins. Apex Coins can be purchased with real world currency, Legend Tokens can instead be earned by playing and leveling up. Since each time a new level is reached  600 are awarded, a new Legend can be unlocked every 20 levels, although tokens are not earned up until Level 3, which means your first Legend unlock will most likely happen at Level 23.

Below is some advice for picking the next Legend to unlock.

## Tips and Tricks

* Don't forget to make use of your abilities whenever possible. It can be easy to get caught up in pure gunfights while neglecting the abilities that could give you a crucial advantage.
* For new players, if you want to survive, drop away from the path of the dropship.
* The hot zone and the supply ships do have more loot, but that also means more players will go there.
* Always pick up a body shield from a fresh death box or the ground, especially during a fight. It will always be fully recharged once equipped. Pick it up to avoid having to recharge your shields and avoid getting ambushed.
* Wear a Headset or Earbuds if you can. This will allow you to hear enemy footsteps better, which may result in an advantage over your opponents.
* Be careful when using airstrikes. They are very loud and visible from far away, and more enemies might come to join the action!
* Try to find a Legend you enjoy and are comfortable with using (often referred to as a main). Being experienced with one or two Legends will give you an advantage over players who don't main that Legend, and make you more likely to win. It can also help if someone takes your main you can instead use your 2nd ( or 3rd if someone else takes your 2nd main ) main
* If you are having trouble aiming, spend a few hours in the Firing Range to learn the recoil of all weapons. A few hours doing that will significantly help your aim in the months ahead.
* Don't neglect grenades! They can be very useful in a variety of scenarios, such as fishing enemies out from cover.
* When opening a Care Package, remember that there is a beacon above the care package that is removed when it is opened. If you see the light go away, you'll know that enemies are there. Likewise, know that if you open a care package, know that enemies will most likely come to that location.
* Try combining different Legends' abilities. For example, use Ash's  Arc Snare to keep a target in place while you damage them with Fuse's  Knuckle Cluster.
* Loot quickly after finishing a fight, especially in an open area, as you are vulnerable to attack from a third party.
* Land in less crowded areas if you want a better chance at surviving to the endgame.
* Although Shield Cells and Syringes heal for small amounts, that small bit of healing might be the only bit you can get off mid-fight.
* If one wants to do a finisher be sure that you're safe and indoors as enemies can still damage you or even knock you.
* Try to use abilities to counter other abilities. For example using Crypto's Drone EMP will counter Gibraltar's Dome of protection.
* Some weapons go along with some Legends. For example one can use any Shotgun with Mad Maggie and any Sniper with Vantage.

## See also

* Training
* How to play guide for Apex Legends/Game terms
* Wall jumping