Apex Legends is a battle royale game that features eight different playable 'Legends', all equipped with unique skill-sets to aid them in battle. Each character has definite strengths and weaknesses, and some are generally more useful than others.
For those who wish to give this new game a try, here is an early character tier list and guide for the eight different characters the game features.
Lifeline
Team Utility: ★★★★★
Combat: ★★★★☆
Tactical Ability: D.O.C Heal Drone - Call out a drone that heals nearby teammates over time.
Passive Ability: Combat Medic - Revive knocked down teammates faster than normal while being protected by a shield wall. Healing items are 25% faster to use.
Ultimate Ability: Care Package - Call in a drop pod that carries 3 high-quality defensive gear and/or weapon attachments.
The first Legend featured on this list is Lifeline. Lifeline is the "medic" or "support" character of Apex Legends, and her skill kit revolves around supporting her teammates through healing and providing them with gear.
Her tactical ability, D.O.C Heal Drone, is a tool that can be dropped to heal Lifeline or all three members of a squad simultaneously. Her passive ability also grants her a shield when performing a revive on downed teammates, making for more secure revives in all situations.
The second part of Lifeline's passive, 'healing items
Her ultimate ability, Care Package, drops a pod from the sky that contains three pieces of loot, ranging from defensive equipment to weapon attachments. This ability provides under-geared teammates with high-quality loot, and it could be a game-changer, especially in the early stages of a match. You can even use it as a deployable cover in the later rounds of a game!
Bangalore
Team Utility: ★★★★★
Combat: ★★★★☆
Tactical Ability: Smoke Launcher - Fire a smoke canister that explodes into a cloud of thick smoke on impact.
Passive Ability: Double Time - Taking fire while sprinting makes you move faster for a brief time.
Ultimate Ability: Rolling Thunder - By throwing a flare, call in an artillery strike that slowly creeps across the landscape. Rockets lodge themselves into the ground before exploding.
Unlike most other FPS games, where anyone can equip themselves with smoke grenades, Apex Legends feature only one character that can produce smoke clouds for cover. Smoke bombs are extremely useful in basically every battle royale shooter they are a part of, and Apex Legends is no exception. The applications are varied and often vital; using a smoke bomb, you can revive downed teammates with relative safety, create temporary cover in sticky situations, and make your run to the next building safer. Bangalore can hold up to two smoke canister charges, and their charge up is relatively quick, so don't be too conservative about using them to aid yourself and your teammates.
Bangalore's passive ability, Double Time, briefly increases Bangalore's movement speed if she is shot while sprinting. This ability greatly increases Bangalore's chances of escaping from a disadvantageous gunfight and allows her to reposition around an area quickly. Paired with the Smoke Launcher and her ultimate ability, Bangalore can sow chaos on the battlefield, making her a very efficient fragger.
Lastly, Bangalore's ultimate ability, Rolling Thunder, calls down volleys of rockets around the flare that she throws. Upon impact, the rockets lodge onto the earth and explode after a brief delay. Those caught in the explosion take damage and become dazed. This crowd control ability could be used to draw people out from hiding and/or secure an area. Be careful though, the rockets cover quite a distance, and they could daze you and your teammates as well!
Synergizes well with Bloodhound, and the Threat Detector weapon attachment.
Wraith
Team Utility: ★★★☆☆
Combat: ★★★★★
Tactical Ability: Into the Void - Enter and quickly traverse through void space, keeping you safe from all damage for a short amount of time. You cannot perform any other action while in the void.
Passive Ability: Voices from the Void - A voice warns you when danger approaches. As far as you can tell, it’s on your side.
Ultimate Ability: Dimensional Rift - Link two locations with portals for 60 seconds; gain increased movement speed between portal casts and your entire team can use them.
Wraith is the 'rogue' character of Apex Legends, and she possesses two very powerful abilities. Her tactical ability, 'Into the Void', is one of - if not the most powerful personal Tactical Ability in the game; it allows Wraith to become immune to damage for a short amount of time while gaining increased movement speed. This ability allows Wraith to play quite aggressively as a
Wraith's passive ability, 'Voices from the Void', is an ability that warns the player if an enemy is either looking or aiming at Wraith. This is a very powerful scouting tool that helps Wraith and her teammates get a general idea of where the enemy is located in large open areas.
Her ultimate ability, 'Dimensional Rift', allows Wraith to link two locations via
Since she does not have to rely on teammates as much, Wraith is an excellent choice for solo play and is one of the more popular characters in Apex Legends.
Bloodhound
Team Utility: ★★★★☆
Combat: ★★★☆☆
Tactical Ability: Eye of the Allfather - Briefly reveal hidden enemies, traps, and clues throughout structures in front of you.
Passive Ability: Tracker - See tracks left behind by your foes.
Ultimate Ability: Beast of the Hunt - Enhances your senses, allowing you to move faster while highlighting your prey.
Bloodhound is a hunter-like Legend that can track enemies through their footprints and other assortments of clues left behind by them. His entire skill kit is built around effectively locating enemies, and that is why Bloodhound makes an excellent scout.
Bloodhound's tactical ability, 'Eye of the Allfather', reveals enemies and clues in a small circle around him. Although this ability sounds like gold on paper, in actual practice, its small range and the fact that the enemies can see your cast - revealing your own location - makes this ability very lackluster in most situations. Where this ability is most useful is when you're tracking down that last member of a squad or when you know when an enemy squad is in your building.
What really makes Bloodhound useful is his passive and ultimate ability. Bloodhound can spot fresh footprints and even see how old they are with his passive ability. With the information from the prints, Bloodhound can generalize which direction the enemies went, and how far they are.
His ultimate ability, 'Beast of the Hunt', grants Bloodhound increased movement speed and turns his vision black-and-white while highlighting enemy Legends in red. This ability is an incredible scouting tool that allows Bloodhound to spot distant enemies with ease. As this ability comes with a very long skill duration and a short skill cooldown, you don't need to be too conservative with this ability. The increased movement speed and the ability to more easily spot your enemies can also give you an edge in gunfights.
One element that makes Bloodhound less desirable to play solo is that you need to be able to communicate with your team to make full use of his kit. Your teammates can't see the tracks that you are seeing, so make sure to actively feed them information!
Mirage
Team Utility: ★★☆☆☆
Combat: ★★★★★
Tactical Ability: Psyche Out - Send out a holographic decoy to confuse the enemy.
Passive Ability: Encore! - Automatically drop a decoy and cloak for five seconds when knocked down.
Ultimate Ability: Vanishing Act - Deploy a team of Decoys to distract enemies while you cloak.
Mirage is an offensive Legend that uses decoys to confuse his enemies.
His Tactical Ability, 'Psyche Out', sends out a holographic decoy that runs in the direction that the player cast the skill. This ability could be used very creatively in the game; some examples include: to scout, to lure enemies out, and to cover a flank. The ability also has a very low cooldown, allowing Mirage to constantly cause confusion on the battlefield.
Mirage's ultimate ability, 'Vanishing Act', works similarly to Wraith's Tactical Skill in terms of it being an escape tool, but
Mirage can feed his team information by using his decoys as a tool to draw out
Pathfinder
Team Utility: ★★★☆☆
Combat: ★★★☆☆
Tactical Ability: Grappling Hook - Grapple to get to out-of-reach places quickly.
Passive Ability: Insider Knowledge - Scan a survey beacon to reveal the ring’s next location.
Ultimate Ability: Zipline Gun - Create a zip line for everyone to use.
Pathfinder is a Legend that packs a lot of vertical mobility, and he has the highest skill-ceiling out of every Legend in the game. His Tactical Ability is a powerful tool that allows for fast movement and lets Pathfinder reach places that other Legends would struggle to get to. He can also gain insane momentum through his Grappling Hook to catapult himself across the air at incredible speeds. Combined with his Ultimate Ability, Pathfinder has the potential to be a great scout/flanker as he is the best Legend at utilizing high ground.
One big reason why Pathfinder isn't that appealing to play, however, is that his Passive and Ultimate Ability doesn't provide much in terms of combat utility. In addition, both of his active abilities rely on nearby terrain and his passive ability is very situational.
In the hands of an experienced player, Pathfinder could be a monster of a Legend; flanking with his Grappling Hook and providing his teammates with the utility to effectively traverse through an area. However, as a big portion of his kit is situational, and many hours of practice is required to perfect his Grappling Hook, he is placed on the B-tier of this list.
Gibraltar
Team Utility: ★★★★☆
Combat: ★★★☆☆
Tactical Ability: Dome of Protection - Throw down a dome-shield that blocks attacks for 15 seconds.
Passive Ability: Gun Shield - Aiming down sights deploys a gun shield that blocks incoming fire.
Ultimate Ability: Defensive Bombardment - Call in a concentrated mortar strike on a marked position.
Gibraltar is the "tank" of Apex
Gibraltar is a strong gunfighter due to his Passive Ability. When aiming down sights, Gibraltar deploys a gun shield that protects a large portion of his upper body. He can also deploy a very large dome to shield him and his teammates from incoming fire (keep in mind that the dome will block all bullets, both enemy and friendly fire.). Using the dome, Gibraltar can revive downed teammates and/or heal up safely, even when fighting in large open areas. His Ultimate Ability is also devastating, as it can put an enemy's push to a complete stop and/or corner weakened squads for easy finishes. While his size matches his tankiness, it also makes him a much bigger target when his Gun shield isn't deployed or when it is shattered.
Although Gibraltar's abilities are very useful in a number of situations, his defensive kit isn't too appealing for a fast-paced game that revolves around flanking and constantly repositioning.
Caustic
Team Utility: ★★★☆☆
Combat: ★☆☆☆☆
Tactical Ability: Nox Gas Trap - Drop canisters that release deadly Nox gas when shot or triggered by enemies.
Passive Ability: Nox Vision - Allows you to see enemies through your gas.
Ultimate Ability: Nox Gas Grenade - Blankets a large area in Nox Gas.
Here at the final stop, we have the Toxic Trapper, Caustic. His character and kit are themed around handling toxic gas to suppress his enemies. His Tactical Ability, 'Nox Gas Trap', is the only trap ability in the game as of now, and is actually a useful tool; placing it near narrow areas can help cover your flanks. The traps are triggered when enemy Legends walk close to it and/or when the traps are shot. You can check your map to see whether your toxic canisters are still intact or triggered/shot. Nox Gas Trap has a relatively low cooldown and Caustic can hold up to 3 canister charges, so spam away!
The biggest reason why everyone spends their first collection of 12,000 legend credit on Mirage and not Caustic, however, is that outside of the map information that his Tactical Ability brings, everything else about him is underwhelming. His "deadly" gas is very easy to get out of, and it deals just a little bit more damage than oxygen would; his passive ability is only useful if the enemy players decide to have a picnic inside your gas; his Ultimate Ability is just an upgraded version of his Tactical Ability.
Caustic's character design is fantastic, but the numbers just aren't there to keep him competitive against the other stronger Legend options.
Image source: ea.com/games/apex-legends
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