"Apex Legends" Character Guide for Newbies (First Four Starting Legends)

Author:

Christopher is a gamer with a fierce passion for, well, gaming! He is currently in the DeVry Video Game Design and Simulation Program.

Apex Legends Characters Bring Chaos to the Usual Even Fields of Battle Royale

Apex Legends, the new class-based team battle royale from EA and the makers of Titanfall, launched on February 4th, 2019. Apex Legends pits 20 teams of three against other teams of three in a free for all, last man standing, open-world battle royale. The focus of this Apex Legends beginner character guide is to provide tricks and tips, give an ability guide summary, and play summary of the first four starting Apex Legends’ legends (Apex Legends’ characters? Apex Legends’ heroes?) Each of the following sections and guides will cover the individual Apex Legends, their abilities and skill for newbies to the game. If you want to see the second four legends, check out this Apex Legends Character Newbie Guide for more tricks and tips on how to play the second four characters.

This newbie guide to Apex Legends’ characters will let you know what to expect from the current selection of characters before you choose them or come across them in combat. If you happen to have some questions as to what Apex Legends is or have not played it before, feel free to check out my Apex Legends newbie guide, which provides tricks and tips to help you to your first victory. This guide is no substitute experience for actually playing the Apex Legends characters. If you want to get good at the game, you have to play it. With that being said, let's get into things.

A Quick Overview On Usage, Terminology, and Explanation

To begin I will just give a basic explanation of the Apex Legends character template so I can deliver my summaries, tips, and tricks better. First, each character has a passive ability, an active ability, and an ultimate to define their playstyle. Passives, cannot be activated but it would be useful to learn what they are to know what sort of aces your enemies may be holding. Active abilities are abilities you can activate to achieve an effect, and then they go on a quick cool down. They are free and come back pretty quickly so do not be afraid to use them. Ultimate abilities are powerful abilities that could change the flow of the fight but have much longer cooldowns, but don’t hold back if you find a good opportunity to use one. Your abilities don’t matter if you die before you can use them.

Bloodhound—Technological Tracker

Passive skill: Tracker. Enemies leave behind evidence that they were there

Active Skill: Eye of the Allfather. Briefly reveal evidence of enemies in front of you, even through structures.

Ultimate: Beast of the Hunt. A transformation with bonus movement speed and a stronger version of your Active skill

Blood Hound’s passive is Tracker where foes leave behind clues for you to find. Although sometimes hard to see, if a player had recently been nearby you will be able to see footprints and other “artefacts” of their existence and movement. His Active, Eye of the Allfather, briefly reveal all enemies, clues, and traps in ahead of you. It’s basically an upgraded tracker but a bit of a longer distance and through buildings. Finally, Blood Hound’s Ultimate is Beast of the Hunt, which is a Transformation that, in a nutshell, is your Active buffed massively with a movement speed bonus. Blood Hound is all about one thing, information, and scanning. You will always be moving and looking for signs of other players and when combat gets going, abusing the wall sight with Beast of the Hunt to track your enemies from behind cover.

Gibraltar—Shielded Fortress

Passive skill: Gun Shield. Aiming down sight grants a gun shield

Active Skill: Dome of Protection. Creates a dome that blocks projectiles for 15 seconds

Ultimate: Defensive Bombardment. Signal for a mortar strike on a position you mark.

Gibraltar is the current “tank” of the game, so rightfully, he comes with a slew of defensive options and powers. Gibraltar’s passive is Gun Shield, which deploys a gun shield that blocks projectiles whenever aiming down sights. His active skill is Dome of Protection, which creates a dome around an area that blocks projectiles. And his Ultimate is Defensive Bombardment which calls a mortar strike on a position you designate. Gibraltar is big, slow, and can be hard to kill in the right circumstances.

His Dome of Protection can buy you some time in a firefight or help secure an area while mortar strike is good for area denial and flushing enemies out. Do note that there is a fair bit of delay between calling the strike and the strike hitting, so plan accordingly.

Lifeline—Combat Medic

Passive skill: Combat Medic. Revives faster. Creates shield wall while reviving. Healing items are used quicker.

Active Skill: D.O.C. Heal Drone. Heals nearby allies over time.

Ultimate: Care Package. Call in a supply drop of defensive gear.

Lifeline is the current “healer” of the game, and while she doesn’t have any directly offensive of defensive skills, she can keep the party going longer and faster. Her passive skill is (like her title) Combat Medic which generates a shield wall whenever you revive someone. It also revives them faster, as well as allows you to use healing items faster. Her active skill is D.O.C. Drone which passively heals those near where it gets deployed. Her ultimate is Care Package, which drops a package of (relatively) high-quality items. Lifeline is your consumable user, and will keep the team topped off and ready for the next fight. Her drone allows you to hold locations better and keep your team from going down if you happen to run out of medkits. Lastly, although her ultimate can have varying levels of effectiveness, everyone can see it when it is called down, so use it for some psychological warfare.

Pathfinder—Forward Scout

Passive skill: Insider Knowledge. Scan survey beacons to see the ring's next location

Active Skill: Grappling Hook. It's a Grapple hook, it does grapple hook things

Ultimate: Zipline Gun. Creates a zipline on the map.

Pathfinder is a quick and zippy robot that focuses on map knowledge, control, and can get to places quicker that other people might have a hard time getting to. His passive Skill, Insider Knowledge lets him scan survey beacons to know where the next ring will be. Pathfinder’s active skill is a literal grappling hook that gets him to places and his Ultimate is a zip line gun that creates a zip line to get everyone to places. While his playstyle is extremely straight forward, the nuance and usage of his skills to get around locales, flank their enemies and/or move his team to advantageous positions will make or break a good Pathfinder.

Apex Legends Newbie Character Tips and Tricks Guide Closing

This concludes an introduction to the Apex Legends Newbie Character Guide, covering the first half of the current characters available to players during the opening days of Apex Legends. Hopefully, through this newbie’s guide to Apex Legends’ legends, Characters, or Heroes, you will be able to know what you can do or what you may have to deal with from the enemy teams.

If I have missed anything or if I have any errors, please let me know in the comments below! Who is your favorite Apex Legends Character, Hero or Legend and why?