Apex Legends is a fast-paced battle royale, one of the many available now. It combines the likes of Overwatch with PUBG, bringing heroes or ‘Legends’ with different abilities into the mix.
Apex Legends is much more fast-paced than PUBG, with quicker more intense games replacing the slow tension and movement-frantic firefights replacing realism.
It’s essentially fortnite meets Overwatch.
If you’re new to the game, or thinking about who to play to begin, you’ve come to the right place. Initially, you have 6 different Legends to choose from, with another 5 being ones you have to buy, either with real money or through playing the game.
The 6 you start the game with are Pathfinder, Bloodhound, Gibraltar, Bangalore, Lifeline and Wraith. Most of them being easier to play than Caustic, Crypto, Octane, Mirage and Watson, who are the Legends you have to purchase.
Each of these Legends have a passive, tactical and an ultimate ability. A tactical ability can used fairly often, but an ultimate can only be used rarely and takes a long time to charge.
Now we know a few details, let’s get on into the best beginner Legends in Apex Legends.
Best Beginner Legend – Pathfinder
Losing isn’t fun. That’s why I don’t do it.
Pathfinder is the most forgiving Legend in Apex Legends. He’s easy to pick up, but can used to a decently high level of play as you improve.
Passive Ability: Insider Knowledge – Scan a survey beacon to reveal the ring’s next location. Useful to know where you’re going next, and to plan and set up a route to get there. Really good when you’re first learning the map and need more time to figure out where you need to go, but less useful as you get better at the game and no longer need the crutch. Can be annoying to find yourself no where near a beacon, sometimes you can go entire games without making use of this.
Tactical Ability: Grappling Hook – Grapple to get to out-of-reach places quickly. With a quick cooldown of 15 seconds, this ability is one of the most forgiving in Apex Legends. You can use it to close a gap to an enemy, speed yourself ahead of the ring, or simply get on top of a building to loot. It’s a fast way of re-positioning yourself around the enemy, so you can get a different angle to take them out. Mess it up? You only have to wait 15 seconds, much less than any other abilities in the game. The only con to this is should you find yourself in an open area, it’s not going to be that useful.
Ultimate Ability: Zipline Gun – Create a zipline for everyone to use. Essentially an upgraded grappling hook, this allows your whole team to fly on a zipline. It’s great for catching an enemy squad off-guard, as long as they don’t see it. It’s also perfect for last minute re-positions as the ring closes in. If you pair this ability with a hunter, like Bloodhound, you can chase them down quicker than any other Legend.
Pathfinder allows you to make mistakes with positioning and still come out on top. Find yourself at a height disadvantage? Grapple up. Find yourself in the wrong place, surrounded or trapped by the ring? Zipline away. He can be used to get around unsuspecting enemies with ease, but as you improve you’ll find his abilities less useful than others. Pathfinder remains one of the funnest to play, no matter the skill level. All of these factors lead me to definitely say Pathfinder is the Apex Legends best beginner Legend.
Pros:
- Abilities have very forgiving cool-downs.
- More time to position for rings due to passive.
- Easiest Legend to re-position with if you mess up.
- Good for getting in close to an enemy, especially with the ultimate.
Cons:
- Abilities are less useful once actually in combat
- Less useful once you’re advanced at the game
Pairs Well With: Low Mobility Teams (Gibraltar, Lifeline), Hunt Teams (Bloodhound, Crypto).
Bloodhound
I am the hunter the Gods have sent.
Bloodhound is the first recon style of Legend that’ll you’ll be able to play as in Apex Legends. His unique ability is to see enemies through walls, and track where enemies have previously been. He, second to Pathfinder, is good for learning the game, and lets you cope after getting into bad situations. He’s very useful when paired with Legends that can obscure views, such as Caustic or Bangalore, due to his ability to see through smoke. Fairly forgiving, you don’t have to be as aware of your surroundings because a lot of the time you can find the enemy despite this.
Passive Ability: Tracker – See tracks left behind by your foes. This means you’ll always be able to see if an enemy has been through the area by using the clues they leave. You can see if they have vaulted over an obstacle, or simply run past, and so on. This lets you chase enemies down, but also lets you see if anyone has looted where you are and if you’re actually alone.
Tactical Ability: Eye of the Allfather – Briefly reveal hidden enemies, traps, and clues throughout structures in front of you. This is perfect for when you hear an enemy but don’t know where they are. Scan the area, highlight them, and your whole team can see and come take them down!
Ultimate Ability: Beast of the Hunt – Enhances your senses, allowing you to move faster and highlighting your prey. This, critically, allows you to see through smoke. Perfect for when your vision is impaired, or the instant you get in a firefight and need to move faster. Make sure you save this for when it’s going to be useful, hunting down enemies while vision is impaired, or when you need to reach somewhere quicker. In select situations this may help you escape the deadly ring, just be aware of its 180 second cooldown timer.
Pros:
- Hard for anyone to get the drop on you
- Perfect for finding an enemy during early looting, or scoping out a new area
Cons
- His only actual combat enhancement is a movement speed boost
- Abilities are useless at medium-long range
Pairs Well With: Vision Blocking (Bangalore, Caustic), Mobility Enablers (Wraith, Pathfinder).
Bangalore
Name the weapon–I’ll still beat you.
A brilliant starting Legend, Bangalore has both utility, mobility (in a firefight), and damage abilities. She has one of the most useful tactical abilities in the game with her smokescreen, and her ultimate is wonderful for zoning teams away from area, or keeping them trapped in a building. She’s not too hard to learn, but her abilities, if used incorrectly, achieve basically nothing.
Passive Ability: Double Time – Taking fire while sprinting makes you move faster for a brief time. Great for a quick escape, this passive often surprises opponents, causing them to lose aim. Most players are used to trying to lead an enemy by a certain amount – you quickly change speed and they’ll miss, it’s surprisingly good. This, of course, isn’t useful if you’re stood still or aiming at them. Use it to quickly change position, such as sprinting around a rock after being shot, and it vastly improves your survive-ability.
Tactical Ability: Smoke Launcher – Fire a high-velocity smoke canister that explodes into a smoke wall on impact. This is a long-lasting smoke screen, great for helping you escape, to cause confusion, or distract an enemy squad while your own re-position. Just be aware, if they have threat detectors or a Bloodhound, pretending you’re safe through the smoke is going to end very badly. Requires some practice to learn how to use, and if used wrongly isn’t really of use. Use it to heal once you’ve taken damage, to close a gap if you have short-range weapons, or to distract them while you run around the side to flank them. Don’t use this as some people do, and fire it at a wounded enemy squad when you’re all full health. You just used it to let them live.
Ultimate Ability: Rolling Thunder – Call in an artillery strike that slowly creeps across the landscape. Despite what it sounds like, this is NOT going to net you kills unless used on downed opponents. It’s too slow, and easy to escape. What it does do however, is say to an enemy team, do not go here or you die. Use it to ‘zone’ an area. For example, to give yourself breathing room to heal, or to trap a squad outside the ring. Get creative!
Pros:
- The all-rounder, utility, mobility and damage.
- Great escape/zoning potential
Cons
- Difficult to use properly
- Has no combat enhancing abilities besides mobility
Pairs Well With: Low Mobility/Trap Teams (Gibraltar, Wattson, Caustic), Hunt Teams (Bloodhound, Crypto).
Gibraltar
Try to move me; it’ll be fun.
Gibraltar is the class tank of Apex Legends. He gets a shield when he aims, he can produce a dome of protection, and he’s got a mortar. What’s not to like? Well, his main disadvantage is almost every other Legend can run circles around you if you don’t play carefully. He’s low mobility, and his passive shield only comes into play if you’re facing the enemy. That said, if you position well, no single Legend should be able to kill you before you can kill them. His abilities are however difficult to get used to, and use well. If not played right he can even hamper his own team.
Passive Ability: Gun shield – Aiming down sights deploys a gun shield that blocks incoming fire. That’s right, as long you’re aiming at an enemy you get a shield that covers your upper torso, letting you win almost all firefights as long as you’re doing so. This does have a delay, however, so you’re vulnerable as you’re starting to aim, and if someone gets the drop on you, you of course won’t have the shield.
Tactical Ability: Dome of Protection – Throw a dome-shield that blocks attacks for 15 seconds. The most annoying ability to play against, but less useful then it first seems, because you can’t shoot out of it either. This is more used as a break from damage, should you need to heal, neither side able to hurt the other until it breaks itself. As such, this pairs really well with a healer like Lifeline, who can place her healing bot inside the shield to quickly get everyone back into the action. Takes some getting used to, and if used badly can cause your team problems instead of help.
Ultimate Ability: Defensive Bombardment – Call in a concentrated mortar strike on a marked position. Like Bangalore’s artillery, this is less useful than it seems, though it can do VERY high damage at mid range if it hits, along with utterly disorientating an enemy squad. Takes some practice to get used to.
Pros:
- The best Legend for mid-distance firefights
- Impossible to beat in a plain shooting match
Cons
- Immobile
- If used wrongly can be a hindrance
Pairs Well With: Mobility Enablers (Pathfinder, Wraith), Healers (Lifeline)
Lifeline
Never quit. That’s how you win.
The most useful Legend out of combat, Lifeline is an immobile healer. She can’t heal you as you move, but set up a base of operations with either Gibraltar or Wattson, and you have a safe spot to heal on up. She’s also very useful for dropping in a more sparse looting area, as her ultimate ability lets her call in some high-level defensive gear to give you a boost. Because of how immobile her healing is, and her lack of other useful abilities, she’s actually relatively difficult to make useful, unless you have a well-oiled machine team.
Passive Ability: Combat Medic – Revive knocked down teammates faster while protected by a shield wall. Healing items are used 25% faster. Reviving is always a dangerous activity, and this helps you achieve it without being blown to pieces, the shield actually being quite strong. It’s easy to be overzealous with this however, and difficult to tell when it’s worth taking the risk.
Tactical Ability: D.O.C Heal Drone – Call your Drone of Compassion to automatically heal nearby teammates over time. This lasts for 20 seconds, and heals 5 health a second. This means if you stand next to it the whole time, you can heal to full. Get that? Stand next to it the whole time. In a game about quick movement and fast firefights, this is a difficult achievement to unlock. When paired with defensive legends however, it does become significantly easier. Without help, you’re going to have to use this as more of a ‘sneaky heal around a corner’, or a ‘shoot, run, heal, shoot, run, heal’ type ability. Used wrongly, it is sadly useless.
Ultimate Ability: Care Package – Instead of a random kill-streak this contains 3 pieces of high-quality defensive gear, and it takes 6 whole minutes to charge. This makes it one of the longest cool-down abilities in the game. It however means that no matter how well looting goes initially, you can get some good gear, as long as you survive. The key to making the most use of this is finding some tasty ultimate accelerants. When you’re Lifeline, your team should be donating all of these to you, so you can get them better gear, make sure it’s known!
Pros:
- Healing. HEALING.
- Free high-quality equipment IF she has time to charge
- Safe, can do well with little loot
Cons
- Abilities require a lot of stationary time, ALL of them
- Requires good knowledge of when to use abilities
Pairs Well With: Low Mobility Teams (Gibraltar, Wattson), Vision Blockers (Bangalore, Caustic).
Worst Beginner Legend – Wraith
There’s a thin line between life and death. You’ll find me there.
Wraith is the cool character, lets face it. She looks the most interesting, and so many people love to play stealthy, difficult characters. It’s almost a masochistic pleasure. Before people get uppity about what I’m saying, I do this constantly too. Wraith is my guilty pleasure to play, but also who I’m terrible at. She’s easily the hardest to use out of the Legends you can start with, due to having abilities that are challenging to utilise properly. Wraith, I’m afraid to say, is the worst beginner Legend in Apex Legends.
Passive Ability: Voices from the Void – A voice warns you when danger approaches. This ability means that when any enemy spots you (pings you, aims at you, attempts to snipe you), you get a warning and the ability to warn your team-mates. Very useful for when you’re in an open, large area, and another squad spots you without your knowledge. Not very useful when you’re in close quarters and the shotgun shells hit your face first.
Tactical Ability: Into the Void – Re-position quickly through the safety of void space, avoiding all damage. A hard ability to use well. The key points to know before even trying – it has a significant wind-up time before the ability actually goes off, and you are not invisible when you use it, there’s a clear trail that shows the enemy where you’re going. It does make you harder to track, so some may miss it, but anyone observant is going to track your exact path. What it does do however, is mean you’re immune to damage. Using it to cross a choke point watched by an enemy squad is a good use. It can also be a viable escape, just be aware they can see where you run.
Ultimate Ability: Dimensional Rift – Link two locations with portals for 60 seconds, allowing your entire team to use them (or an entire enemy team). You also gain a 25% movement speed boost while you find where to place the portal exit. This makes it best used to run through a tough area (possibly also using Into the Void), placing the exit, and your whole team dropping through. A fun, albeit situational use of the ability, is to set a trap with your squad at the other side of the portal, run through, and try to tempt and enemy squad through with you. It works surprisingly often.
Pros:
- Allows entire squad mobility
- Hardest Legend to lock down
Cons
- Difficult to use properly
- Has no combat enhancing abilities besides mobility
Pairs Well With: Low Mobility/Trap Teams (Gibraltar, Wattson, Caustic), Hunt Teams (Bloodhound, Crypto).
After the long and difficult deliberations, the Legends, by difficulty are:
- Pathfinder (least difficult)
- Bloodhound
- Bangalore
- Gibraltar
- Lifeline
- Wraith (most difficult)
Apex Legends is available now, free to play on PS4, Xbox One and PC. Click here for general hints and tips to help you secure more wins!
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