Hello again, fellow Apex Legends player! Welcome to the finale of the Apex Legends 20 Step Program. If you haven’t checked out part 1 yet, go read last week’s article! If you have already forged through the first 10 tips, let’s not waste any more time!
Disclaimer 1: Keep in mind that battle royale games have varying elements of skill, strategy, and randomness (i.e. luck). In most situations, placing the blame solely on one of these rather than the others will lead you astray. Balancing these 3 pillars of battle royale video games will have you celebrating in Victory Royale more often than not.
Disclaimer 2: This guide only covers the strategy pillar mentioned in Disclaimer 1. It was originally written to have each tactic be incorporated in order. Ultimately, this became very complicated. So, please pick and choose strategies that can be incorporated today to see the most benefit.Â
Disclaimer 3 (NEW): The tips for today’s article are a bit more advanced. Nothing crazy, but I would focus on the first 10 tips before jumping straight into some of these, especially the final few.
Apex Legends 20-Step Program (part 2)
11) Use Throwables
No matter your favorite, explosives can be game-changing. From initiating to confirming a kill, don’t be afraid to let these suckers fly. Here is a quick guide for when to use them:
- Arc stars: Deals 70 damage and stuns/slows opponents for 5 seconds. This is incredibly powerful when followed up by a squad. It’s like a mini EMP from Crypto!
- Frag Grenades: Deals 100 damage, and another 10 if you can hit them with the throw. The grenade of grenades. Use this to flush enemies out from their hiding spots.
- Thermite Grenades: Applies up to 100 burn damage over time. This is especially useful as the damage indicators double as trackers. Now you will know where the enemy has retreated! This is my personal favorite.Â
Having them in your inventory is step one, so don’t fill up your bag with ammo you aren’t going to use or 50 shield cells!
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12) Punching is OP
How many times have you landed on a spot and an enemy swoops in to take the only gun. What do you do? RUN!
Not so fast, Forrest Gump.
Punching can be a very effective tactic, in the right situation. Now don’t go punching someone who just picked up a Peacekeeper or a Havoc. But, if it’s a P2020, punching and stunning the opponent may be enough to overwhelm them. It does 30 damage!
Additionally, punching to finish off a close-quarters fight may be better than waiting for a reload animation. It can mean the difference in a 1v1.
The final tips for this guide are going to be what I’d like to call the judgment call tips. This means there isn’t going to be a black and white, this or that decision that will apply at all times. Please take these with a grain of salt.
Most importantly, try to assess what went wrong if you die and improve for next time!
13) Obey your thirst
How many times have you been killed while trying to finish a downed opponent? Perhaps even worse, how many times have you regretted not finishing your kill as they crawl off, get revived, and kill you later?
The decision to thirst a kill or not can be tricky. In fact, this decision could probably be analyzed into an entire article. Instead, I’m going to keep this brief.
If you have enough time to shield swap (that is, quickly taking the full armor of the dead enemy), you should try to thirst quickly. If you still suspect the enemy’s teammates to be in your vicinity, you should reposition and reload. You can bet that that downed enemy is pinging the heck out of you so it’s best to break their line of sight.
14) Fight or Revive?Â
This is perhaps the most challenging tip to learn. What should be your next move after you downed the opponent who knocked your teammate? Finish off the kill, revive your teammate, reposition, reload, heal yourself? Beyond all this, should you revive or try to respawn an opponent or leave them for the greater good?Â
The rule of thumb for this one is easy to remember. Always assume that an enemy is coming. So in most cases, you should first be moving to a relatively safe spot so you can reload and heal yourself.
You aren’t doing your team any good if you get killed in the revive animation. If you stop reviving only to realize your guns need to be reloaded or your health is critical, you’re likely to die. Do everyone a favor and first get yourself ready to fight again.
Obviously there will be exceptions. If you are trying to escape the storm, or if you are playing Lifeline or Gibraltar, you may be more ambitious with sticking a revive. However, having a loaded gun is paramount to your team’s survival – at least do that first!Â
When battling with the urge to “leave” your teammates behind, remember that you get 90 seconds of downed time and 90 seconds before a banner times out. That’s a ton of time to regroup and come back for your fallen teammates at a safer point in the game.Â
15) Keep your feet moving!
Strafing is a skill for all first-person shooters. Apex Legends is no different. Being able to keep the reticle on a moving target while you yourself move will separate the good from the best.
If you’ve played a shooter before you should be aware of this. One thing to think about is when you are in a gunfight. Continue to juke, jump, and duck as you reload so you aren’t an easy target.
If you aren’t shooting back you should be maximizing your movement while in open space. This is an extension of tip 1 – don’t die.Â
16) Stay in the fight
I know, I know. I just preached about retreating and getting a better position. Isn’t “staying in the fight” the opposite of that? No, and let me further explain.
Staying in the fight or staying relevant is an advanced synergistic tactic that you must develop with your teammates. When fighting a team, the last thing you want to see is everyone having to back off to heal. That will only result in a well-coordinated enemy team pushing, probably with grenades, and finishing you off.
Instead, you should try to have 1 or even 2 squad mates able to return fire and fend off a push. While this is happening, they can buy time for the third to fully heal and then rotate in. This substitution should be a carousel of aggression to healing to eventually overcome the enemy squad. Popular PS4 streamer, Staycation demonstrates this pretty nicely with his team in the beginning game of this video.
17) Create shooting angles
Another team-based tip, creating shooting angles should be self-explanatory. Try to move to an area so that you and your two teammates are not firing from the exact same angle. In most cases that isn’t going to provide much value.
Instead, if safe, try to rotate a bit so that you create a cross-firing angle. This makes it harder for the enemy to safely sit behind cover and heal.Â
Now, let’s go over what I am not saying. I am not saying to go on a big brain, 300 IQ flank, miles from your team and get slaughtered. I don’t want to read any comments about how I got you killed.
Depending on the situation, you can begin to read and interpret where you believe other players may be. Act accordingly and always err on the side of safety so you don’t get exposed.
Most importantly, always have an escape plan. Which is a great transition to…
18) What’s the plan?
I have to credit YouTube content creator and Overwatch coach, Stylosa, for this one. In many of his coaching sessions, he writes on the screen and tries to get his viewers to think about the plan. This has two or three main parts:
- What are you doing currently?
- If X happens, what will be your response?
- Do you have multiple responses? If so, can you easily shift between them, when necessary?
For Apex Legends and the relevancy of this 20 step program, I would ask the same thing.Â
After the initial fight after landing, you should ask yourself about the plan.
Are you going to continue to loot for the next 8 minutes? Are you going to rotate into the circle and track down any gunfire you hear?
In team fights, particularly when playing with friends, having a plan can be that much more value. Communicate plans prior to engaging and pay attention to voice comms. This way, you can effectively move in and out of fights as a unit.
I can’t tell you how great that feels. To be in a chaotic situation and have all 3 members successfully pull away, reload, and push back in to come out on top of a 6 squad war. That right there is the essence of squad-based battle royale games.Â
If you can master this tip alone, everything else will be secondary no matter your individual skill level. So again, what’s the plan?
19) Know your legend
I’m sure you have a favorite legend to play. Ask yourself, do you know how to play them? I mean, really know how?
I’m sure you know what their abilities do and how to execute them. What about the cooldowns? Do you know any legend-specific strategies?
Do you know that you should start or end Wraith portals in doorways to prevent enemy pushes? How about that Caustic can basically hide in his own trap? Can you get the most out of Pathfinder’s grapple?
I’m not suggesting you need to know every last detail of a legend. I am saying this: knowledge is power.
Once you find a couple of legends you want to get good with, you should take some time to look up a guide. There may be something monumental that you could easily add to your game and instantly get value.
The last thing you want to do is die due to a lack of knowledge about your own legend.
20) Find your style
Once you’ve completed 19 and you know your legend, remember to have fun! There is never a definitive way to play a legend in every situation.
As you play Apex Legends, start to notice your tendencies. Do you like to dive straight into a fight without hesitation or do you like to run from fights?
Remember that the goal in a battle royale is to be the last team standing. As you figure out your own personal style, see how it pairs with your squadmates.
In a perfect world, you will offset each other’s weaknesses and play to each other’s strengths.
A word of positivity
You made it! In your next game of Apex Legends, I urge you to give these 20 tips a try. And remember…
Don’t be afraid to be uncomfortable.
Try new legends. Break habits by landing in different areas. Give weapons you have deemed unusable a try. And in all of this, remember to give yourself enough reps to actually get comfortable with them. Remember that you can get value using any legend, in any scenario, with any weapon (besides the Hammerpoint-less Mozambique).Â
Most importantly, don’t be afraid to get better and maximize your potential in Apex Legends!
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