Apex Legends Mobile: Tips and tricks to help you play better

Apex Legends Mobile is likely going to be the biggest single mobile game release in 2022 unless something surprises us. The game had millions of downloads in its first week and it competes very favorably against other shooters in the battle royale genre. It’s rather new, but there are some Apex Legends Mobile tips and tricks that can help you become a better player.

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Configure your controls as soon as possible

Apex Legends Mobile has both controller support as well as an editor for your virtual controls. You can access both in the settings. Not only does this help familiarize yourself with Apex’s layout, but it lets you immediately jump in to put things where you need them on the screen to be successful.

We have tutorials already for configuring virtual controls and configuring hardware controllers for Apex Legends Mobile. We recommend checking out both of those, setting a few layouts, and taking it to the firing range to see if it feels right. Play a few games, tweak as needed, and get yourself to a comfortable space with your controls.

We also recommend practicing and getting good with three and four-finger control methods if you don’t use a hardware controller. The higher-end players use four-finger controls, Apex Legends Mobile supports those control methods natively, and it will absolutely give you an advantage over two-finger players. We have a rough guide for that in our virtual controls tutorial linked above.

Finally, different Legends may have slightly different control structures that work best for them. Apex Legends Mobile lets you save three layouts so we recommend using all the tools the game gives you. Use all three of those layouts.

Learn about the Legends, good combos, and how they work

Apex Legends Mobile lives and dies by the appeal and fun of its various Legends. There are four types of Legends, including offensive, defensive, recon, and support types. Each type has a role to play. There are ten Legends as of the release of the game, but there will certainly be more coming in future updates.

We have a guide for Legends here if you want to read about each one. We recommend playing a few games with each Legend to see which ones fit your playstyle best. Aggressive players should choose offensive or recon Legends, while more timid players may play better with support or defensive Legends.

Additionally, team composition can play a role in success or defeat. A lot of successful squads can combo their abilities to create some additional havoc on the battlefield. For example, Bangalore and Caustic both have smoke-like abilities that cover the battlefield and obscure view. Bloodhound has an ability that lets him see through it. A team with all three can be pretty nasty, especially if the other team doesn’t have a Bloodhound.

Our Legends guide has a few ideas for some super basic squad combinations, but we encourage you to look around for more. You never know what will emerge as the meta. We know developers try to prevent their games from having a meta, but one inevitably appears anyway. That said, Apex Legends Mobile is far more balanced than some other games we could mention (Destiny 2), so you should have enough freedom to choose.

Players new to mobile shooters should utilize solo player mode

A lot of FPS fans try a mobile shooter for the first time and, to be blunt, are really not great at it. The move from controller or keyboard to touch controls is rather abrupt and it takes some practice to get things right. It took me a solid few months before I was comfortable with my first mobile shooters so don’t get discouraged if you’re not amazing right away.

Luckily, Apex Legends Mobile helps with that. There are several solo player modes that let players practice without being fodder for the more experienced players. We have a list here of every game mode available as of the time of this writing. Some options include replaying the tutorial mode and a Free Practice mode with mastery missions and more tutorial levels.

It can be a big hit to the ego when you go from a high-level player in another shooter to a low-level player in a mobile shooter. Our advice is to relax, give it some practice, and tinker with the controls to see if you can get comfortable with it before rage quitting. The game is quite fun once you get used to it, especially if you try out some of our Apex Legends Mobile tips and tricks.

Study the loadout section

This is one of the best ways to learn about the weapons in Apex Legends Mobile. The Loadout section of the menu shows you every gun available in the game along with its stats. You can compare weapons with each other to see which ones have better range, damage, and more. You can also tap the button in the bottom left corner to see what your Legend looks like holding it. That can help you identify it if another player has the gun.

Additionally, players can actually upgrade their weapons. You’ll unlock various attachments for each weapon that’ll increase range, precision, rate of fire, and other stats. Plus, you can change the skins and make each gun look cooler too. These upgrades and skins represent an outsized percentage of your rewards for playing, so you’ll likely be in the Loadout section a lot.

You’ll use a lot of abilities when you play, but you’ll use your weapon more. Plus, in some Apex Legends Mobile game modes, you’ll be able to choose your own loadout to an extent so it’s worth it to see how much you like each weapon and to practice with all of them. In Battle Royale modes, loot is random so you may not always get what you like. These are all reasons why you should know your way around the game’s weapons. You can go to the Firing Range mode and practice with every weapon.

Make and play with friends

All of the best players have teams and that’s true in every FPS game. In fact, it’s so well-known that we don’t even consider that an Apex Legends Mobile tip or a trick. However, we still recommend making some friends, getting a squad together, and playing with a team. Playing with the same people has a load of benefits. Easier and faster callouts, they can help you find your preferred loadout, and you can more easily combo Legend abilities.

We have a tutorial on how to add friends and create squads here. It’s quite easy to do. You can also make friends with recent players that you had chemistry with or trawl the recommendations and see if you can make some friends that way. It makes things easier when you know who your friends are.

Additionally, you can voice and text chat with squadmates in-game. Voice chat is the fastest possible way to communicate in any game and thus, it automatically gives you an advantage. Yes, we have yet another tutorial here on how to voice and text chat with squadmates.

Finally, there are resources outside of the game to help find new squadmates. Reddit has a couple of LFG subreddits for this game. It’s worth searching around and seeing if there are other sources as well. You can find a friend anywhere.

Other Apex Legends Mobile tips and tricks

There are some Apex mobile tips and tricks that don’t fit into the above categories. We’ll list a few of them below and hopefully, it helps.

• The dropship is one of the most overlooked parts of Apex Legends Mobile. Where you drop can give you a distinct advantage, especially if you know where loot drops are. Additionally, you can drop down quickly if you go straight down or use the controls to fly further away. Either way, where you drop matters.
• Try to stick with your teammates, even when you solo-queue. Apex Legends Mobile sticks you in a squad regardless of what you do. It may benefit you to stick around your teammates, especially since you’re likely facing at least a few premade squads. You get to practice being on a team, even if the other players are bad, and that helps you long-term.
• Watch other players. This can be on Twitch or YouTube and either live or in something like a clip video. You can likely learn some cool stuff or some different moves to add to your arsenal. The moment you think you’re done learning is the moment you’ve peaked in terms of skill.
• As with all shooters and basically any PvP-oriented game in general, you should always stick to the high ground whenever possible. It’s much easier to aim down and shoot at targets beneath you than it is shooting at targets above you. Apex Legends Mobile is highly vertical, so keep that in mind.
• Think outside the box. Many people may see Octane’s Jump Pad and think of it as just an escape route to higher ground. It definitely is that, but why not be a little crazy and occasionally use it to jump over an obstacle with a squadmate and mow down an opponent from above? Apex Legends in general seems to promote the use of creative thinking in-game, and we’re here for it.
• Map familiarity is everything. Apex Legends uses a huge map with a lot of buildings, nooks, crannies, hiding spots, and loot drop locations. The sooner you learn about the map, the better you get. There is only one right now, but we’ll probably see others come out in the future.
• Use your time wisely and try to stay calm. Heal yourself with items when you can, reload your weapons, and try to get a better angle on anyone coming at you. Sometimes, people get shot in-game or get stuck outside the ring and they start to panic. They usually quickly get mowed down. This is easier said than done.
• Finally, play the game. There is no better education than hands-on education. You have to get killed to learn how to not get killed and the only way to learn the ins and outs of Apex Legends Mobile is to go into the game and try it out.

Of course, better and more experienced players than me can probably give you even better advice, but the above information should help at least a little bit.

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