Respawn's Titanfall Battle Royale game "Apex Legends" looks pretty great...and available now!

I need to finish Red Dead 2, but all I want to do at the moment is play Apex Legends.

I had a schedule! YOU BLEW IT UP DAMN YOU!

@humanity: You might be forgetting her passive, which alerts you when someone is looking at you. She's probably the best "lone wolf" in the game because of her kit.

• Passive that warns you when someone is aiming at you
• Can go invisible which makes you run faster while avoiding all damage - with a 19 second CD
• Can do that again and use the ult to create two portals who anyone can hop through - which can be used to bounce back and forth to avoid enemies or even set up a trap on the other side.

As for her portal and team mates - you can use it to set up flanks, you can use it to escape from one location to another. It's probably one of the more useful ones when used right. If anyone has a weak ult right now it seems like Pathfinders is kind of whatever. Unless your whole team has sniper rifles, not everyone will benefit from it. And you can just get shot travelling up and down it. And the opponents can use it too.

One other thing, and I'm not sure about this, but her run animation is lower than everyone else's, which provided her hitbox follows her body, means you're aiming differently to try headshot her than everyone else. But again, I don't know what sort of logic hitboxes follow in this game. I do know that people think she runs faster than everyone else, but the devs had said that's untrue and it's just a camera trick that makes her appear faster when you play as her.

I think there's a reasons that most people I run into with more than 500+ kills all seem to main her, and I think it's because her kit is best suited for playing solo than anyone else.

Also for what it's worth, I kind of agree with you that downed enemies take too long to kill. They can move around quick enough as it is, they get a shield (so long as they picked one of the many up) and that shield covers a large enough part of them.

There's no risk/reward for the execution, unless you have the yellow armour that will refill your shields when you do one. The execution animation takes just as long and you can be shot out of it and even killed.

I don't mind that downed enemies take some time to kill, but I do think that they have a bit too much HP as it is. I get using them as bait, and I get that you shouldn't be able to use them as bait and then if it's failing, just kill them straight away, but it really does seem to just take too long to finish them off. I've actually found it quicker to just kill the squad because then they all die.

FYI: In that video, your shotgun shot didn't even connect with the downed enemy. If you want to kill them quickly you need to shoot their heads, punching them takes like 4-5 hits.

@nethlem: I dunno while the first shot out of the door I miss the one where he’s down my crosshair are right on him as I pull the trigger and the muzzle flashes when he’s dead center on the screen so if it didn’t connect then it’s some weird netcode issue.

@humanity: There's no damage numbers when you shoot with the shotgun, so the game registered a miss. It looks like maybe they lagged, or shifted their body around as your center on them. It's kinda hard to tell. Could be netcode or weird hitboxes when downed, or them lagging. You have 100 hp or so when downed, so 1 shot from the Peacekeeper, dead-center, should have killed them.

What I like about the down but not out system is that it alerts you to the fact there might be other squad members around, and it plays into the respawn mechanic more than just making you resilient. It allows you to essentially be a desperate piece of last breath strategy for the rest of your team. Everyone talks about the genius of the ping system but I see few people talk about it in relation to the bleeding out state; several of the games my team have won has been because my dumb ass rushed into a situation I couldn't handle only to then act as a scout behind enemy lines for my much more talented teammates. Likewise, several of the games I've lost have been because I got too focused on raising my kill count at the expense of hunting down the squad. The inverse of both is also true.

The one thing I haven't completely figured out after probably 100 total games at this point is what constitutes a kill. I've seen people accusing others of "kill stealing" by coming in to sweep up downed characters after the hard part's done, but the game advertises both knockdowns and kills in that manner as "assists" in-game, a metric they don't actually track on the pre-game banners. I hope they role out more stat tracking metrics over time, especially overall stats in addition to per character numbers, and I hope one of those includes knockdowns. I'd also like to be able to scroll over teammates' banners and get more info about them, though that'd possibly require a slower pre-game. Alternatively, they could allow that post-game, and even allow an option to view a timeline of a particular game or all of the game's participants, similar to a Civilization post-game.

I'm not sure if other battle royale games do this but for me, one of this game's few flaws is its lack of a bigger picture. I feel like the battle passes and seasons will do a lot towards making the progression feel more substantial, but I'd also like to know where I fit into the bigger picture of the Apex landscape, whether that be a particular match or some kind of seasonal/overall numbers. I know I'm not good, but I'm also beginning to wonder if I'm actually that bad, either.

@nodima: A kill is downing someone, who doesn't get helped back up. Killing a knock-down will only give a kill, if you were the one to down them. If someone helps them back up, no kill.

Still so bummed there is no new map on their roadmap, I'm already rapidly getting bored of playing the same one over and over.

@hassun: I assume the roadmap doesn't include a new map only because they've said they view each section of the map as a traditional map in other shooters, intending each to be one certain players prefer over others and develop specific tactics for. I've also noticed the loot tiers by location aren't randomized at all, implying to me Respawn puts a lot of thought into both how each piece of a map is designed and what value that part of the map has.

I'd be surprised if there weren't a new map before the end of the year, but I'm not at all surprised they haven't decided specifically when to put it out. They probably want to study how people are playing their game and see how some of the new legends and guns affect balance on the current map before worrying about how much a new one could put all that in flux. I didn't play PUBG but didn't that take forever to get a second map? And don't most battle royales still only have one, including Fortnite (which, granted, changes over time)?

To preface, This is the first battle royal game I've played but I played alot of Titanfall 2 when it came out . All that said I'm really enjoying Apex Legends! Had a bunch of friend who switched over from siege (temporarily for some) and we had a n absolute blast this weekend.

One design choice I like is how the did the characters, as they just have the 3 abilities, and nothing else. Not trying to say how hero shooters do their character design is a bad thing, as I really did enjoy playing alot of Overwatch. This eliminates having a situation where you would lose a fight just because you are hard countered by that character.

One other thing I love other than the down but not out system works for playing with friends, as discussed by many people above.

I'm played maybe 30 matches and have enjoyed it much more than I thought I would. I'm definitely not much of a competitive multiplayer guy due to the level of toxicity in these games, but Apex does some really smart stuff that makes it easy to mute everyone while still maintaining a pretty good level of team coordination.

Kind of feels like a small character roster though, especially since there are some heroes that never seem to get used, or at least not used particularly well. I'd say a good 90% of the winning teams (including the two I've been on) are a combination of Bangalore, Lifeline, plus one of Wraith or Bloodhound. Doubtless they'll add more heroes as time goes on, but the balance seems ever so slightly off right now.

@dodobasse: Today I finished off a player that my teammate downed and I didn't even touch and got a kill for it. Hopefully my teammate also did cause I didn't want to "steal" it but I had a shotgun and was right there so I finished him off.

Of all the BR games this is the first to really click with me. The shooting is absolutely top tier which is essential for me coming from a Counter Strike background.

I feel like they made so many super smart decisions with this game. The jump master and solo launch options, the color coded ammo, the loot tier system is very well done and the various epic upgrades that can dramatically enhance some weapons are super fun. The time to kill is perfect, the knockdown shields and beacon respawns are brilliant, the communication system via pinging and tagging enemies is fantastic, and the various classes are really fun and keep things feeling fresh when you want to switch it up.

To the people complaining about spending so much time looting just to die in your first fight, you really should be jumping into hot areas or even lightly contested spots right by hot areas. First of all it sounds incredibly boring spending 5-10 minutes just looting shit, not to mention it should take 1-2min max for a squad to loot an entire area and be fairly well equipped once you are used to the game.

I notice the the GB staff seems to spend way more time than necessary just looking at the ground trying to figure out if they want to loot something and repeating this ad nauseum until the area is fully looted, even for games they have been playing for a long time. I can't help but wonder if this what many of the people who complain about looting are doing. Pretty much all of the guns in this game are effective, just grab 2 and swap out for some of your favorites if you come across them. It shouldn't take long to spring around get a couple weapon upgrades and some other essentials. It just isn't worth it or fun to spend time analyzing every item on the ground.

Also if you are bad or middling at shooters you are going to improve very slowly if you are not willing to jump into highly contested areas.

@humanity: The Peacekeeper has a really tight spread when you ADS shoot with it, with the choke attachment it becomes even viable at mid-range. In the video, it looks like you are shooting right below the enemy, between his legs and arms.

But I've had this happen too with the Wingman on range, shots that look like they should have hit, not hitting. Which usually has to do with bullet drop and travel time.

I wouldn't be too surprised if this is due to very tight hitboxes and shots flying through the legs or between arms/body.

To your first comment, maybe it'll wear off at some point but to this point I've much preferred looting runs to spicy runs, and all five wins I've been a part of came from a loot run. I'm not a gambler primarily because I've lost far more than I've won when I have gambled, but I enjoy the aspects of randomness a lot. It's a large part of the appeal of team building modes in sports games, opening packs in the initial month or so having no idea what my team is going to look like. When we spend fifteen minutes covering the map slowly building from white gear to purple gear I get that sense of satisfaction in small doses over and over and feel ready to take on the world by the time the ring gets to round four or five.

I am bad, for sure, and I'm sure dropping spicy would force me to improve. But I don't find it fun at all to drop in and get killed before I even find a gun or come across a guy who got to find a blue shield and all I have is a P2020 or an arc star. I get stressed out during the rush for loot and then annoyed when the game's over so quickly. Overall I just get a lot more enjoyment out of the slow burn runs and as a Jumpmaster usually reserve spicy runs for games where I only get matched with one other player and don't have any expectations of winning the game anyway.

Goin' in hot is absolutely the only way to really improve in these games but a bit of a ramping up to that is probably still worthwhile. You can have a perfectly reasonable in between Safe loot landings and Lets Land on the Supply Ship with Every Squad In the Match.

What's interesting about Apex Legends is the opening engagements feel very different than late game fights. Apex has a very distinct attrition aspect that sees later fights, particularly those during the match's final moments, taking place between squads fully stocked with ammo, shields, kitted-out weapons, and healing items. Going for a hot landing might improve your shooting skills, but only against potentially under-equipped opponents. In my time with the game, I've found that my friends and I can (somewhat) reliably win those early fights, but we have a ton of 2nd place finishes just because that final engagement can be so difficult to win.

They originally had wall running and double (even triple!) jumping but took it out for "combat legibility".

I've found that my teammates (always randos) basically never tag the enemies unless they spot them from a distance. Almost never during a firefight, which is when the info is most useful.

Hot tip: You can ping enemies when you are down. I really wish more people did this.

Am I going crazy or is there really no tracking for how many wins you have? I see one for wins with full squad but none for just wins. I know I have like 10+ wins at this point but would be nice to see exactly how many.

Played my first two games last night and was immediately reminded why I hate playing online games. They were very angry I was a new player and very mean about it. Don't think I'll be playing again.

@genericbrotagonist: give it a chance. This isn't my experience at all.

I played my first set of games last night, looked up at the clock and whoops its 4:00am. It takes a few matches to get used to and as someone who never played much Titanfall I had to wrangle with the shooting a bit. Coming from a COD background, the shooting controls feel, I dunno, "looser" if that makes sense. Definitely a lot of fun, though.

@hippie_genocide: is it because of climbing over structures? If you want to reach a far ledge then hold the jump button while jumping and the character will double step on the wall to reach it ?

Man the matchmaking needs some real work. I'm going up against dudes with thousands of kills. I'm happy to get a single kill in 10 matches.

@morningcoffee: Yah sometimes you see some real pumped up guys and it's like.. shouldn't they be playing someone on their own level group or something??

I don't think there is any skill rating/matchmaking. Just puts a group of 60 random players together. Also, some of those people with huge kill counts may just have put tons of hours into it.

@humanity: Can't decide if this makes me feel better at the end of a game or deeply profoundly irritated.

@efesell: that screen is also from the first week this game was out, which means that guy was roughly getting 100 kills per day. I really admire the skill and dedication cause that’s no easy feat - it’s also something I absolutely can’t contend with on any level.

Yea, there's a difference between "a ton of time in the game" and "too good for their own good." I haven't played nearly as much this second week, but I was consistently the highest level player in my squad if not overall during the first week due to how much I played and that was entirely due to time spent in the game since that seems the most reliable measure for gaining XP unless you're a serial killer out there. The most kills I have with any one character is like 15 and I'm level 27...700 with any single character when you can't guarantee you'll always pick that one is insane.

I've played 78 games with a combined 24 kills and 4 championships. Which is my way of saying I kind of like that there's no matchmaking because sometimes if you aren't good you still get paired with an absolute monster who will carry you to victory and that can feel real nice because you probably helped in some other way.

Also I had a game this morning where I was the lone member of my squad (underpopulated game, I guess?) and it kind of made me understand why people peel off their squad when jumping because when you're solo it's really easy to land somewhere unpopulated and just quietly bathroom your way into the top 3. With a group of randos it's really hard to get them to turtle up.

I've done that and it isn't fun imo. I guess if your goal is to grind levels and you're shooting for top 3 and time survived xp bonuses then you can do that but I'd rather spend my time either getting kills and badges on my main hero or just plain trying to win. I've found that when I sneak around as a solo after my team has disconnected or whatever, that it ends up me vs. 3 in a small circle and there's basically no chance.

so after beating my head against this game for 3 weeks and not winning, something finally clicked yesterday. I don't know what it was but I was able to win 4 matches with 4 different characters (including 3 out of 3 games in a row), all with random players. It was super strange for sure. I don't think I got any better? Can anyone tell me if match making is easier with randoms as opposed to playing with a squad because previously I pretty much only played with people i knew? Also what the hell is up with everyone using a mic for this game and being a jackass. First thing I immediately do when I'm on the drop ship is mute the other two members of my team.

Totally fair. As someone who's never played Battlegrounds, it's less about grinding XP than finally capturing that tense feeling people talk about when playing that game. Plus I am Bad At Shooters, so defensive play IS the way I get kills because I'm rarely able to outgun someone without getting the drop on them, which is hard to do when you're teamed with restless randos always heading to the center of the circle.

@malrock: I just want to point out, that you could just lower voice in the audio menu, I think? No need to mute individually every game.

@dodobasse: ah didn't know. thanks!

Having played a lot now, I’m beginning to realize that the worst way to play is with one friend and a third random. I’ve lost just about all of these games, and more often than not it’s because the third random runs off into a fight by themselves and blows our spot. It’s practically an epidemic. Encountering people who don’t believe in team work is certainly not a new concept to me but it’s still amazing to see players run off on their own when they’re guaranteed to run into a 1 vs 3 fight and lose. What kind of game do you think this is!?

@nateandrews: The newest trend I've noticed is your squad looting way outside the circle and even when it begins closing in they continue looting and heading in the opposite direction of the shrinking perimeter, and then die or get easily picked off. Good guns is one thing, and I've had 4 games in a row last night where we landed and literally every container had attachments instead of actual guns, but staying outside the circle to continue looting is just weird.

@nateandrews: Ive had some pretty good games that have led to a win with a random third. Being the random third is much worse imo. I was jumpmaster and my two teammates were like "ya thats a good spot" and then both just veered away and looted and forced me to come to them, after landing, if I wanted to live. The entire time they talked about their last match and how close it was. It was super frustrating, but 90% of my random teammate games have been frustrating.

@sloppydetective: I think I have more wins with two randoms than with one because I find it easier to just roll with what they're doing. Sometimes this works out well, but definitely not always.

Trying to coordinate with one friend becomes useless when the third wheel can singlehandedly dismantle what we're trying to do, though that's partially on us for not bothering to chat with them!