Apex Legends is over a year old now, but new players don’t age. If my personal experience is anything to go by, Apex newbies make the same mistakes I and 50 million others did last year when the Titanfall battle royale was still new. And since the game is still growing and changing, I’ve decided to run a little refresher on the common judgement errors you are bound to make if you are just now diving into Apex Legends for the first time.
Playing on shuffle
I know it’s hard not to bounce from one legend to another to try all the different flavors. It’s especially difficult to abstain when Apex Legends releases a new character with some hype trailers. However, when you are just starting up it really helps to play exactly three legends, over and over again, so you can grind the fundamentals without the added distraction of practicing 10+ different abilities and playstyles.
The same goes for weapons. Try to use the same guns and grenades in every match to minimize variables – and don’t just focus on the meta guns, because they are bound to get heavily nerfed. And speaking of grenades…
Not using Thermites
New Apex Legends players tend to shy away from using grenades entirely, and when they actually use them they seem to always gravitate towards Arc Stars for some reason. Here’s a tip: Thermites are not just the most forgiving for new players with bad situational awareness and aim, they are simply the best. Regardless of your skill level, carrying a Thermite or two in your backpack can save your life. They block off flanks, force enemies out of cover, secure escapes, and even offer some minor intel on your enemy, because the damage tics are visible through walls.
Fighting head-on
Winning gunfights in Apex Legends is very much about movement, and movement takes a long time to get good at. If you are not there yet, you should remove any possible mechanical advantage your opponents have, by flanking them and attacking them from angles they don’t expect. And even if you are a god in all of the game’s movement and gunplay mechanics, there is still no reason not to flank.
Using voice chat
To be clear, using voice chat is integral to playing well, learning, and winning in Apex Legends. But not always. There are way too many mistakes Apex players habitually make with voice chat, which render communication pointless.
For starters, if you are dropping with a random player who quickly shows themselves to be abrasive, there is little point to trying to communicate with them. They are more likely to tilt you than to help you, and there simply isn’t enough time to emotionally re-educate people in the middle of a game. And if you happen to be that person, muting your own mic is the most you can do to help your squad win.
By default, new players should just not use voice comms until they’ve familiarized themselves with the game, and are composed enough to make callouts. When you’re just beginning in Apex Legends, you are doing more harm than good by yelling things like “He’s at the thing!”, “They’re shooting!” and the classic, “Oooooh!” Just ping stuff like crazy and it will all work out.
