We have compiled a checklist of 10 action items that we think is the most important to improve at Apex Legends.
1. Improve Your Aim
Imperial Hal has said before on his stream that the different your aim alone can get you from Bronze to Diamond. So this is why this is listed as the first way to make you better at Apex Legends.
First question is are you using Mouse & Keyboard (MNK) or are you using a controller. If you are on controller make sure to enable aim assist and tune the aim assist settings. And you are on controller but still want to use mouse and keyboard then checkout: Can you play Apex Legends with keyboard and mouse on ps4 & ps5 ?
For Mouse and Keyboard, you should adjust your mouse speed to a mouse speed where you can comfortably click on the target but not slow enough where you can’t follow the target when the target is dodging.
Once you have tuned any of the above, you are now ready to practice. Because despite any settings that you might have set, the muscle memory that you develop with practice is invaluable here.
2. How To Handle Recoil?
- Go into the firing range.
- Pick the gun that you want to practice recoil with, because this will vary for every gun.
- Enable particles in the video settings if it is disabled. Shoot against a wall without controlling aim. You will notice the pattern that it makes on the wall.
- Now while shooting, try to move your aim to the other side of the pattern. This will counter the recoil pattern keep your aim to the point.
- When using an extended mag the pattern recoil does not change and remains the same.
- Barrel stabilizer helps a lot with recoil.
- Practice until you are comfortable.
3. How To Jitter Aim?
You have another choice if you are on mouse and keyboard. Learning recoil pattern is better for long term but if you working during the day like me and you are short one I would suggest you practice jitter aiming. What is Jitter aiming you say? It’s simple you point, move your cursor around quickly around the point/target while shooting.
If you are in doubt of whether you jitter aiming correctly, practice on the square boxes in the firing range with a devotion at range. Compare the damage without jitter aiming and with jitter aiming (just shake your wrist, kind of). The pro player who is best at jitter aiming (personal opinion) is probably Sweetdreams.
This applies only to automatic guns of course you can’t jitter aim with a wing man, repeater, shotguns or snipers.
4. Practice In The Firing Range
The best way to practice is in the firing range. You should practice in the following order:
- You should first practice without any attachments.
- Then I would suggest to practice with Sights
- Then you can add other attachments to get a feel of what changes
- Shoot targets at different ranges
- Enable bots in the firing range and practice with moving targets
- Learn how to dance and shoot at the same time.
5. How to Dance In Apex Legends?
What I mean here is that you must have noticed while practicing that it was much easier to shoot targets which did not move. The same goes for you. It is important to remember and develop the habit to Strafe left and right while you are shooting. Then add a few crouches up and down to this maneuver. At first you will forget most of the time that you need to do this in exchanges. But with time, you will do it automatically. This will help you dominate many one on one situations.
6. Hot drop!
Ok let’s get out of the firing range now and practice in real. Most of the websites would tell you to practice in a normal game first or even arena. I don’t believe you should do this. No matter the rank you are at, I think you should 1. play ranked 2. Hot drop!
What I mean by Hot Drop is to drop where most of the players are dropping down. This will force you to learn how to fight and will allow you to quickly ramp up on your personal skills. If your teammates are flaming you can mute them at the start of the game (probably a bad idea in the future though because strategy starts to become more important as from Platinum).
7. Learn How To Use Cover
Cover is your best friend. Make it a point that you will never engage in a fight without cover. This advice alone will increase your survival rates drastically. What you need to realize here is that there is only one gun in the game that can kill anyone in one shot(Kraber). So most of the time when you exchange hits, if you are on the losing end of that exchange you will be able to hide behind cover to recover your shield or health. Then you get a second chance to exchange damage. As you play around cover you will start to develop your own creative strategies. For example, I try not to peak the same place twice. Because the other side might expect me to do that.
8. Learn When To Push
In arenas it is easy to know when to push. If you have done at least 75% damage worth of health to the other side and your team is not healing, then you can push. Of course it is better if you have downed one of them.
For battle royale, this is a lot more complicated. If you are on a one squad to one squad situation then feel free to use arena tactics. But if there are 3 (including you) then try your best to third party. What does third party mean? Basically wait for the two other squads to fight then push/attack them when they are fighting.
If you are an anime fan there is an excellent reference in Hunter X Hunter, Gon says once when he is trying to steal a badge from Hisoka (someone who is much stronger than him) that the best moment for a Hunter to hunt a prey is when the prey is hunting another prey itself. This way it is distracted and you can just swoop in to kill it.
9. Increase Your Overall Awareness
Battle Royales are much more than shooting games. Strategy is going to make a big difference in your success rate. But before coming up with strategy you need to increase your awareness of what is happening. Keep asking yourself on why the enemy or your teammate has done what they did.
The next part is to look more often on your map. Estimate how long you need to travel to a safe spot. Identify the crafters, neutral drops and respawn beacons. Try to guess where the zones will end (yes you can get better at this too). Learn the “common sense” of apex legends for example if you have a Lifeline or Gibraltar is better to give them a gold back because they have special buffs for reviving. If you are a Wraith it is easier for your to move in front and scout because your passive will tell you when you are being aimed at.
You will learn all of this as long as you keep asking yourself 2 questions:
- Why has this happened?
- What can I do about it?
10. Learn Movement Mechanics
I have kept this one for last because I think it might be overrated. There several movement techs in the game but the 2 most useful ones I feel are slide jumping and tap strafing. There are video tutorials on youtube that you can see about it. They do give an edge both in fights and for getting around the map but not as much as the other points.
