Getting Started

Before you drop into the arena, you need to understand how Apex Legends handles player identity. Unlike traditional shooters where you create a custom avatar, Apex is a hero shooter. You do not create a character; instead, you select from a roster of distinct "Legends," each possessing a unique passive, tactical, and ultimate ability.

When you first boot up the game, you will be guided through a mandatory tutorial. Pay close attention here. It covers the absolute basics of movement, looting, and shooting. Once completed, you will be prompted to choose your first Legend. Do not overthink this choice. The game gives you six free Legends to start, and they rotate periodically.

For your very first games, choose a Legend with a low skill floor—meaning their abilities are straightforward and immediately useful. Bloodhound is widely considered the best beginner Legend. Their tactical ability scans for enemies through walls, which is invaluable when you don't yet understand map layouts or where gunfights are happening. Lifeline is another excellent choice because her passive allows her to use healing items faster, and her ultimate calls in a drop pod of high-tier loot, directly compensating for a beginner's lack of looting efficiency.

After selecting your Legend, head into the Firing Range. This is a sandbox mode where you can test every single weapon in the game against stationary and moving dummies. Spend at least 20 minutes here. Figure out which weapons feel good in your hands, test the attachments, and practice jumping and sliding. Do not queue up for a real match until you can consistently hit the dummies while moving.

Close-up view of board game pieces and dice on a game board. Perfect for recreation and strategy themes. — Photo by Pixabay / Pexels

Core Mechanics

Apex Legends is built on a heavily modified version of the Source engine, the same engine that powered Titanfall 2. Because of this lineage, the movement in Apex is incredibly deep. However, as a beginner, you only need to master a few core mechanics to survive.

Movement and Sliding

Walking is a death sentence. You must constantly be strafing, jumping, and sliding. Slide-jumping is the most fundamental movement technique. To do it, sprint forward, crouch to initiate a slide, and then press jump at the bottom or midway through the slide. This preserves your momentum and makes you incredibly difficult to shoot. If you hear gunfire, you should already be slide-jumping away.

Shield and Health System

This is the most crucial system to understand in Apex. Your character has two separate health bars stacked on top of each other. The bottom bar is your Health (represented by green bars), which maxes out at 100. On top of your health is your Shield (represented by red, blue, purple, or gold segments). When an enemy shoots you, your shield takes damage first. Only when your shield is completely broken does damage bleed into your actual health.

Shield cells and shield batteries are used to recharge your shields. Syringes and med kits are used to heal your health. You can use shield cells and syringes while moving, but med kits and shield batteries require you to stand still and perform a long animation. Knowing when to use a quick shield cell versus committing to a slow battery can mean the difference between winning a fight and dying mid-animation.

Armor and Helmets

Armor comes in four tiers: White (Common), Blue (Rare), Purple (Epic), and Gold (Legendary). Higher-tier armor has more segments, meaning it takes more damage to break. Furthermore, if your shield is broken, it will automatically begin regenerating after a short delay—except if you take health damage. If an enemy breaks your shield and hits your health, your shield regeneration is delayed. Always try to disengage and heal your shields before taking health damage.

Helmets function similarly to armor but specifically reduce the damage you take from headshots. A purple helmet reduces headshot damage by a massive 40%. If you find a helmet, always pick it up, no matter what else you have to drop.

Knockdown Shields

When your health reaches zero, you are not instantly killed. Instead, you are "knocked down." You can still crawl slowly and ping enemies. More importantly, you are equipped with a temporary Knockdown Shield (which corresponds to the tier of body armor you had). Pressing your interact key brings up a frontal shield that blocks incoming damage for a few seconds, giving your teammates a window to eliminate your attacker and revive you. Use it wisely—if you pop it the exact moment you go down, a smart enemy will just wait for it to break before shooting you again.

Glowing neon sign with pixelated Game Over text in a dark arcade setting. — Photo by cottonbro studio / Pexels

Early Game Tips

The first few hours in Apex Legends can be overwhelming. The maps are massive, the loot pool is deep, and experienced players will seem impossibly fast. Focus on these actionable priorities to build a strong foundation.

Loot Quickly and Efficiently: The first 60 seconds of a match are a mad dash for gear. Do not inspect every single item. Pick up the first weapon you see, even if it's not your favorite. Grab body armor immediately. Open chests quickly by mashing the interact button rather than waiting for the opening animation to finish. A quick bar of armor and a gun are infinitely better than spending 15 seconds looking for your preferred optic.
Stick with Your Squad: Apex is fundamentally a team game. Solo players almost never win. If you land away from your squad, you are essentially playing a 1v3 against any enemy team you encounter. Follow your Jumpmaster down to the ground. If you get separated in the early game, ping your location and run directly toward them. There is strength in numbers, and sharing health items and ammo is vital.
Master the Ping System: Apex Legends popularized the contextual ping system, and it is your greatest tool as a beginner. If you don't know what to do, ping. See an enemy? Ping them. Need ammo? Ping your weapon. Want to go to a specific building? ping the floor. If you are downed, your entire job is to ping the enemy's location so your teammates can get revenge. Double-tapping the ping button creates a "going here" marker, which is excellent for guiding your team. You can communicate 95% of necessary information without ever touching a microphone.
Understand the Ring: The play area constantly shrinks due to an encroaching energy ring. Taking ring damage quickly chips away at your health and can kill you. As a beginner, prioritize staying inside the ring over looting. If you are far from the ring, start moving early. Running from the ring while being shot at by a third party is a guaranteed death. Plan your route so you are moving toward the next safe zone while looting along the way.
Play the Edge of the Circle: Instead of running to the absolute center of the safe zone (where every other team is converging), try to position your squad on the outer edge of the circle. This ensures that you only ever have enemies in front of you. If you are in the center, you can be attacked from 360 degrees, which is disorienting and lethal for new players.

Close-up of hands holding cards in a colorful board game setup, showcasing strategy play. — Photo by www.kaboompics.com / Pexels

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Every Apex player has made these mistakes. Recognizing them early will save you immense frustration and significantly increase your win rate.

Hot Dropping (Landing in High-Traffic Areas): Locations like Fragment East (World's Edge) or Sorting Factory (Storm Point) are incredibly popular. Landing here guarantees you will find good loot, but it also guarantees you will be in a chaotic fight within 10 seconds. As a beginner, you need time to think. Land in named locations on the edges of the map, or drop in "hot spots" (unmarked clusters of buildings slightly away from major landmarks). Surviving to the final five teams teaches you far more than dying in 30 seconds.
Ignoring Audio Cues: Sound is arguably more important than sight in Apex. You must learn to distinguish between the sound of an enemy sliding, opening a door, ziplining, or shooting from far away. Never play the game with music on, and avoid having loud conversations in the background. Wear decent headphones. If you hear footsteps above you, don't sprint blindly forward—ping the audio cue and prepare for an ambush.
Shield Swapping Mid-Fight: If you find a higher-tier shield on the ground during a gunfight, do not pick it up. Picking up a shield drops your current shield, forcing you to pick the new one up and attach it. This takes precious seconds where you cannot shoot or move quickly. Wait until the fight is completely over, or you are safely behind cover, before swapping armor.
Shooting at Everything That Moves: Discipline is critical. If you see an enemy team 200 meters away fighting another squad, do not shoot at them. By shooting, you reveal your position to both squads, and suddenly, you are fighting a 1v6. Use this time to reposition, heal, or flank. Only engage in fights where you have a distinct advantage, such as catching an enemy off guard or holding the high ground.
"Loot Goblin" Behavior: This is the syndrome of ignoring the game to hoard loot. If your squad is pushing forward and you are in the back of the building opening a bin to look for a level 3 backpack, you are hurting your team. Loot what you need to be combat-ready (two weapons, armor, helmet, a stack of shields, a stack of health, and ammo) and then move. A backpack with extra slots is a luxury, not a necessity.
Refusing to Respawn Teammates: When a teammate dies, they drop a banner. If you grab their banner within 90 seconds and take it to a Respawn Beacon (found at green markers on the map), they come back to life with basic gear. Many beginners leave banners on the ground because they don't want to take the time. Bring your teammates back. A squad of three will almost always beat a squad of two.

Close-up of colorful game pawns and a dice on a paper board under sunlight. — Photo by Ricardo Utsumi / Pexels

Essential Controls & Settings

The default settings in Apex Legends are notoriously suboptimal. Taking five minutes to adjust your settings and keybinds will instantly make you a better player.

Key Bindings

The most important binding change you can make is moving your crouch/slide button. If you are using the default 'C' key to crouch, you are forced to take your ring finger off 'D' to slide, which restricts your movement. Bind crouch to your mouse scroll wheel. By pushing the scroll wheel down, you can slide without ever taking your fingers off the WASD keys. It takes about an hour in the Firing Range to get used to it, but it is a mandatory change for improving your mechanics.

Additionally, bind your "Ping" function to a highly accessible mouse button, such as Mouse Button 4 (the side thumb button on most gaming mice). Pinging needs to be as frictionless as aiming down sights.

Video and Performance Settings

Apex is a fast-paced game where seeing enemies clearly is paramount. Prioritize high framerates over pretty graphics. Turn all settings to "Low" or "Disabled" except for Texture Streaming Budget, which you can set to Medium or High depending on your VRAM. If your FPS drops below 60 during a firefight, you will lose.

Most importantly, find the Field of View (FOV) slider. The default is usually around 70 or 80. Crank this up to between 104 and 110. A higher FOV allows you to see much more of your surroundings, preventing enemies from sneaking up on your peripherals. It will feel slightly "zoomed out" and fishbowled for the first few days, but your brain will adjust, and you will never be able to go back to a low FOV.

Mouse Sensitivity

Do not play on a high sensitivity. A common beginner mistake is using a sensitivity that allows them to do a full 360-degree turn by barely moving the mouse. This makes precise aiming impossible. You want a low sensitivity that requires you to use your whole mousepad to turn around. A good baseline is an eDPI (DPI multiplied by in-game sensitivity) of around 800 to 1200. If your mouse DPI is 800, set your in-game sensitivity to roughly 1.0 to 1.5. Spend time in the Firing Range tracking moving dummies. If your crosshair violently overshoots the target, your sensitivity is too high.

Progression System

Understanding how Apex handles unlocks will help you manage your expectations and avoid wasting currency.

Account Leveling

You earn Account XP by playing matches. Surviving longer, getting kills, and dealing damage all contribute to your XP gain. Leveling up your account (up to level 500) rewards you with Apex Packs (the game's loot boxes), which contain cosmetic items like weapon skins, Legend skins, and banners. It is important to note that Account Leveling does not unlock new Legends or weapons. All weapons are available to everyone from the moment they drop in.

Legend Tokens and Unlocking Characters

To unlock new Legends, you need Legend Tokens. You earn 600 Legend Tokens every time you level up your account (after level 4). New Legends cost 12,000 Legend Tokens. This means you need to reach level 24 to unlock your first post-launch character just by playing. Never spend Legend Tokens on anything else. You will occasionally be tempted to spend them on recolors of Legend skins in the store. Ignore these. Hoard your tokens strictly for unlocking new characters.

Apex Coins and the Battle Pass

Apex Coins are the game's premium, real-money currency. You can use them to buy the Battle Pass, purchase specific items in the rotating store, or unlock Legends immediately. The Battle Pass is entirely optional and contains purely cosmetic rewards. However, buying the premium Battle Pass instantly grants you 1,000 Apex Coins upon reaching level 97, meaning the pass effectively pays for itself every season if you play enough. It also grants a permanent 10% XP boost, helping you level up faster to earn more Legend Tokens.

Crafting Metals

Crafting Metals are a rare currency earned by opening Apex Packs or completing Battle Pass challenges. They are used to craft specific cosmetic items from the "Collections" tab. As a beginner, ignore Crafting Metals entirely. Save them for far down the line when you know exactly which weapon or Legend skin you want to craft.

Resources & Where to Find Help

Apex Legends has a massive, dedicated community. If you want to improve, you should leverage the resources created by top players and data miners.

Official and Community Resources

Apex Legends Subreddit (r/apexlegends): This is the central hub for the community. It is filled with highlight clips, developer responses, balance discussions, and incredibly helpful text guides. If you have a specific question about a mechanic, searching this subreddit will almost certainly yield a detailed answer.
Apex Legends Wiki (apexlegends.fandom.com): Whenever you need hard numbers, this is where you go. The wiki lists the exact damage values of every weapon, the exact charge times of abilities, the number of shots required to break a shield, and the spawn rates of loot. It is an invaluable encyclopedic resource.
Official EA/Respawn Trello Board: Respawn Entertainment maintains a public Trello board that tracks known bugs and issues. If your game is crashing or a specific feature isn't working, check here first to see if the developers are aware of it.

Interactive Map Tools

Because the loot in Apex is not strictly randomized, community-created interactive maps are mandatory tools. Websites like ApexMap.gg and MapGenie.io allow you to see the exact spawn locations of Respawn Beacons, Crafting Replicators, FlyerRespawn locations, and high-tier loot bins. Before a match, you can plan your drop route by looking at these maps to ensure you hit a cluster of high-tier loot buildings.

YouTube Content Creators

Watching high-level gameplay is the fastest way to understand the "flow" of a match. Do not just watch montages of players getting 20 kills; watch educational content. Creators like ShivFPS are famous for their "Road to Predator" series, where they play on low-level accounts and explain exactly what they are doing and why. Ghastlys offers incredible guides on weapon mechanics and movement techniques. Thordan Smash provides excellent analysis on map positioning and game sense. Watching these creators will teach you how to rotate, when to engage, and how to manage your inventory efficiently.

Discord Servers

If you are tired of playing with random teammates who don't communicate, look for Apex Legends Discord servers designed for "LFG" (Looking For Group). The official Apex Legends Discord has channels specifically for finding teammates based on your platform and skill tier. Playing with even one voice-comm teammate will drastically improve your win rate and make the learning process much more enjoyable.

Animal Crossing

Animal Crossing Tier List - Best Characters & Builds