Apex Legends burst onto the battle royale scene in February 2019, bringing a fresh take on the genre with its hero shooter elements, squad-based combat, and unique mechanics like respawning. Four years later, Apex remains one of the most popular multiplayer titles, with over 25 million active players. Its fluid movement, diverse character abilities, and intense gunplay create an incredibly high skill ceiling. Apex Legends gameplay is something that every user wants a detailed overview.
This in-depth gameplay guide will break down all the key mechanics to master in Apex Legends for 2023. Whether you’re just getting started or looking to improve, we’ll cover advanced strategies, combat tips, ranked play, and more.
Apex Legends Core Gameplay Overview
As a battle royale hero shooter, the core Apex Legends gameplay revolves around:
60 players competing in squads of 3 on a large map.
Being the last squad standing out of 20 teams by eliminating or outliving all opponents.
Starting with no weapons or items and looting buildings at the drop.
The playable zone shrinking over time to force engagements
Using your chosen Legend’s abilities and skills to gain strategic advantages in combat.
Executing key mechanics like respawning fallen teammates.
Let’s explore all the gameplay components in more detail!
Squad-Based Combat
A key aspect that sets Apex Legends apart in the battle royale genre is its focus on squad-based gameplay. Matches feature 20 teams of 3 players each rather than solo players.
This team-focused combat adds several strategic elements:
Teamwork and communication are essential – you need to work closely with your teammates using pings or voice chat.
Complementary team comps and class synergies make a huge difference. Combining Legends with abilities that work well together is important.
Reviving and respawning fallen teammates gives you a second chance after losing a fight.
It’s much harder to win against multiple enemies alone, so sticking together as a squad is critical.
Downing an enemy player doesn’t eliminate them fully until their squad is wiped. This makes thirsting less viable.
Overall, the team focus of Apex Legends results in a highly strategic BR experience compared to solo matches. Finding teammates you work well with improves your chances significantly.
Diverse Hero Abilities Characters in Apex
Currently, Apex Legends has over 15 playable hero characters known as Legends. Each has its own unique traits, abilities, and ultimate moves that open up varying playstyles and strategies.
Selecting the right Legend can give your squad advantages in mobility, reconnaissance, area control, defensive power, crowd control, and more.
Here are some examples of popular Legend abilities:
Wraiths can temporarily phase into the void to escape damage and reposition.
Pathfinder uses a grappling hook to access hard-to-reach areas.
Bloodhounds can scan for enemy locations and track footsteps.
Gibraltar can throw down a dome shield for protection and call in artillery strikes.
Lifeline has a healing drone to patch up teammates and revive them faster.
Continually learning new Legends expands your options and lets you counter enemies’ abilities. Picking Legend synergies that complement your teammates is key in ranked play.
Ping Communication System
The groundbreaking ping system in Apex Legends allows quick non-verbal communication with your squad. You can easily mark locations, enemies, weapons, loot, and objectives using your mouse cursor or controller.
Pings create spatial callouts that even convey information like distance and direction. The system has huge strategic benefits:
- Quickly point out enemies ahead without giving away your position over voice comms.
- Request specific weapons or loot from teammates.
- Mark a building or area to tell your team where you’re headed.
- Ping a map location as the next defended position or meeting point.
- Notify teammates when you’re attacking a target or need assistance.
With crossplay becoming more common, pinging also helps bridge communication gaps between platforms. Overall, mastering the ping system is vital for effective team play.
Respawning Eliminated Teammates
Unlike other battle royale titles, Apex Legends provides a unique respawn mechanic that lets you bring back squadmates who get fully eliminated.
If you can safely recover your teammate’s banner within 90 seconds after they get knocked and finished, you can take it to a respawn beacon to redeploy them from the dropship.
This respawn system presents some interesting strategic choices:
Is it worth the risk to recover your teammate’s banner if enemies are still nearby?
What route can you take to reach the nearest respawn beacon undetected?
When is the right time to respawn immediately or after looting/rotating first?
Can you bait enemies into traps by timing the visible dropship?
Having a shot at getting teammates back into the fight makes Apex Legends more forgiving. It provides a second chance after losing an engagement.
Health Items and Armor
Managing your health bar and shield bars is an essential part of Apex Legends. You find healing items and armor by looting buildings and supply bins around the map.
Health Items
- Syringes Heal 25 health over 5 seconds.
- Medkits Restore 100 health over 8 seconds.
- Phoenix kits – Fully heal 100 health and 100 shields (10 seconds).
- Heat shields – Block ring damage temporarily.
Armor
The three types of body shields offer increasing levels of protection:
- Common (White) – 50 shield
- Rare (Blue) – 75 shield
- Epic (Purple) – 100 shield
- Gold – 100 shields + perks
- Evo – Level up shields (max 100) by dealing damage.
You can also scavenge unbroken armor from defeated players to shield swap mid-fight.
Learning proper inventory management and the best times to heal is crucial. Always armor swap when you get the chance to maximize survivability.
Looting System and Inventory Management
Since Apex Legends starts you with nothing, looting buildings at drop and across the map is essential. You’ll find all types of weapons, attachments, gear, and consumables in floor loot and supply bins.
Here are some key looting strategies:
- Prioritize a close-range and long-range weapon combo.
- Pick up armor immediately, swapping for better shields when possible.
- Grab at least 2 stacks of ammo for your equipped guns.
- Don’t neglect healing items, grenades, and gear like scopes.
- Manage your limited backpack space carefully when looting.
- Ping high-tier loot to help gear up teammates
- Visit pillaged areas to find missed loot and resources.
You’ll constantly be making trade-off decisions about what to pick up, drop, or stack. Optimizing your looting strategy and inventory is crucial.
Gunplay and Shooting Mechanics
Apex Legends features a diverse arsenal of primary and secondary weapons across categories like assault rifles, SMGs, LMGs, sniper rifles, shotguns, and pistols.
Mastering Apex gunplay includes:
Learning each weapon’s damage output, fire rate, recoil pattern, and effective range
Aiming down sights for more accuracy vs hip firing up close.
Managing reload times and ammo capacity for engagements.
Controlling spray patterns using recoil and burst firing techniques.
Take height and crouching into account for aim.
Use of grenades and melee attacks for supplementing damage.
Attaching the right scopes, magazines, and barrel stabilizers as attachments.
With most battles decided in seconds, honing your aim with each gun through deliberate practice is key. Movement techniques like crouch-strafing also improve your dueling abilities.
Ranked Leagues and Competitive Play
For players looking for a more competitive experience, Apex Legends offers Ranked Leagues. These pit you against opponents of similar skill.
You earn Rank Points (RP) based on your matches to advance through tiers:
- Bronze
- Silver
- Gold
- Platinum
- Diamond
Additional Master and Predator tiers start at Diamond upwards.
Placement and survival time become much more meaningful in ranked. This leads to a slower meta focused on:
- Careful rotation and zone positioning.
- Holding defensive positions and high ground.
- More conservative engagement picks.
- Maximizing placement points.
Coordination and communication also increase in importance in ranked. Finding a regular squad to build synergy with helps tremendously for climbing.
Additional Tips and Tricks of Apex Legends
Beyond the major mechanics above, here are some additional tips to excel at Apex Legends:
Manipulate doors to block enemies, escape battles, or avoid grenades.
Prioritize high ground for positional advantage in fights.
Use your abilities effectively and with purpose.
Don’t rush loot – you can find better gear by defeating enemies.
Crafting yields strong items from replicators.
Choose engagement opportunities wisely – don’t take every fight.
Learn optimal ability usage and playstyles for each Legend.
Keep up with weapon meta-shifts each season.
With practice, you’ll get a feel for when to play passively, take fights, and third-party battles. Reviewing your matches to learn from mistakes is instrumental in improving.
Conclusion
That covers the major gameplay components, mechanics, and strategies to achieve victory in Apex Legends. From gunplay to abilities to ranked tactics, mastering all the interlocking systems is crucial.
Apex provides one of the highest skill ceilings among multiplayer shooters. Even after hundreds of hours, you can still improve your positioning, aim, teamwork, and other skills through deliberate training.
Hopefully, this gameplay guide gives you the knowledge to excel in the Apex Arena or at least avoid becoming just another statistic! With the foundations covered here, it’s up to you to gain experience and evolve into an apex legeneds .