IF YOU ALLOW APEX LEGENDS TO RANDOMLY TEAM YOU UP WITH SQUAD MEMBERS (STRANGERS), EACH OF YOU WILL HAVE different experience levels and varying skills as gamers, yet you’ll need to work together to achieve victory.
When you’re viewing your squad lineup at the start of a match, determine who is the most accomplished and experienced gamer. If you’re a newb, stick with that person. Pay attention to the number of kills and level of your squad mates.
Becoming a skilled and experienced gamer who is able to achieve kills in a wide range of firefight scenarios using many different types of weapons certainly makes you an asset to your squad. Knowing how to best utilize your Legend’s special abilities and skills also allows you to achieve more kills, assist your squad, and ultimately win matches.
If you’re new to playing Apex Legends and your Legend is designated as the Jumpmaster (the person who decides where the squad will land), quickly transfer this responsibility to a more experienced gamer, or at the very least, accept their landing location suggestions. When you’re assigned the Jumpmaster role, the message “You Are Jumpmaster” appears near the bottom-center of the screen.
If the Jumpmaster is more experienced and is planning to land in a popular and potentially highly congested area, recommend a less popular landing spot to reduce the chances that you’ll need to fight right away. Meanwhile, if you’re the most experienced gamer in your squad, and you see the other two gamers have minimal experience playing Apex Legends, consider landing in a more remote spot to give them extra time to build up their arsenal.
During freefall, it’s possible to break away from your squad, choose your own landing location, and then regroup with your squad mates later. This is useful if you determine that the Jumpmaster has chosen a bad landing location and you believe the squad will likely be killed quickly by landing there. It’s also useful if you want to loot a different location and not have to compete with your squad mates to quickly grab the best loot at the landing location.
CLEAR AND CONCISE COMMUNICATION IS KEY
The key to success when working with your squad is communication! If everyone is using a gaming headset and is able to talk to each other during a match, this makes things so much easier. However, if one or more squad members does not have a gaming headset, you’re able to rely on the Ping feature within the game to communicate. Shown here, one of the squad mates Pinged a specific location. In this case, the Ping’s yellow beacon appears near the center of the screen, to the right of the truck.
Avoid random chatter with your allies, particularly during firefights. You always want to share important information as quickly as possible. Focus on sharing only the information that’s immediately relevant. This often includes details about nearby enemies. Be sure to share the enemy’s distance, direction, and description as quickly as possible.
When sharing direction, don’t use phrases like “ahead of,” “in front of,” “behind,” “to the left,” or “to the right.” Unless you know your squad mates are facing the same direction as you, these directional phrases are worthless.
Always share directional information using the compass that’s displayed near the top center of the screen. Also, if you’re planning on taking a specific action against an enemy, in addition to sharing the enemy’s distance, direction, and description, quickly summarize and share with your partner or squad mates what you’re about to do and how you’re going to do it. Even when everyone is able to talk using headsets, it often saves time to rely on the game’s Ping feature to quickly share important tidbits of information.
When you’re going to push an enemy, for example, either ask your partner or squad mates to accompany you, flank the enemy from different directions, or stay back and provide cover fire, for example. Make sure everyone knows and agrees upon what they should do to successfully execute a well-coordinated and perfectly timed attack.
Be sure to inform your squad mates of actions that might leave you or them vulnerable. For example, announce when you need to reload a weapon, replenish your soldier’s health, or if you’re knocked down and need to be revived. If you call for help and need to be revived, be on the lookout for nearby enemies, and be sure to warn your allies of their existence and location as they approach.
As a courtesy, when playing Apex Legends with a gaming headset, turn off any background noise in the room, such as the TV or any music that’s playing. This can be distracting to your squad mates and keep you from hearing in-game audio that’s important.
Anytime you’re traveling together with your squad mates, don’t stay extremely close together. Leave some distance between your Legend and others. This will help prevent multiple squad mates from getting caught in an explosion from an enemy’s special abilities or a grenade attack.
After killing one or more enemies, if it’s safe, gather near the downed enemy’s crate and then pick and choose which items you want to grab. This is a good time to share weapons, ammo, and items with your nearby squad mates, if needed.
Remember that each Legend has their specialties. Make sure you handle the responsibilities of someone in that role. For example, if you’re controlling a healer, your squad mates will expect you to Revive them as needed. If you’re controlling a tracker, it’ll be your job to keep tabs on your enemies and keep your squad mates apprised of their locations.
If one squad member is an excellent marksman using a Sniper Rifle, it should be everyone’s responsibility to gather the best weapon(s), weapon attachments, and ammo for that gamer. Prior to the squad launching an attack, the sniper should stay behind a bit, find and position themselves with a clear line of sight to the target area, and use their skills to shoot at enemies from a distance while other squad mates push the enemy’s location for a close-range firefight.
It’s common courtesy and typically in your best interest as a squad to Revive knocked down squad mates after a battle. If all three squad mates are close together, one can stand guard while the other Revives the third soldier who has been knocked down.
PINGING IS OFTEN MORE EFFICIENT THAN TALKING
Instead of focusing on talking nonstop with your squad mates, take advantage of the Ping system, and listen carefully to the in-game contextual dialogue that automatically happens. Each legend, in their own voice, will share important information. As a result of this dialogue and the in-game Ping system, actual conversation between gamers can (and often should) be kept to a minimum.
It sometimes makes sense for squad mates to separate during a match, so that each gamer can build up their own arsenal. From the Map screen, it’s easy to set a rendezvous marker, so everyone can easily meet up at a designated location at a specific time. It’s also possible to Ping a specific location at a rendezvous point on the main game screen. The diamond-shaped (golden) icon, which in this case was placed near the center of the screen, represents a Pinged location on the map.
If one of your squad mates is too chatty and downright annoying, you have the ability to mute them. To do this, access your Legend’s Inventory screen, select the Squad tab at the top of the screen, choose the player’s name you want to mute, and select the Mute option. Unless they mute you too, they’ll still hear everything you and the third squad mate says, but you won’t hear them. Notice the three icons displayed below the two squad mates. Click on the left (speaker) icon to mute their voice. Click on the middle (Ping) icon to mute their Pings. Click on the right icon to mute their text messages during the match.
Keep tabs on your squad mates. When needed, approach and Revive them if they get knocked out. As you approach a fallen comrade, proceed with caution as the enemy that took them out could still be in the area waiting to ambush you.
After Reviving a knocked squad mate, share a Health replenishment item from your inventory if you have one handy and there’s time to safely access your Legend’s Inventory screen to drop the extra Med Kit, for example.
To drop an item, stand near the Legend you want to share an item with. From the Inventory screen, select the item you want to drop, and then press the button/key associated with the Drop command. The item will be removed from your inventory and dropped onto the ground, where the Legend standing near you will see it and easily pick it up. If for whatever reason your squad mates fail to see what you’ve tried to share with them, Ping the item once it’s on the ground.
Only risk respawning a killed squad mate if you’re able to safely grab their Banner and then make it to a respawn location quickly. If you wind up going too far out of your way, you could get caught up in enemy fire, or find yourself a great distance from the safe zone when the circle moves and shrinks.
WHAT MIGHT BE IN STORE FOR APEX LEGENDS
Initially, Apex Legends required all gamers to participate in three-player squad matches. In the future, however, it’s likely that Solo, Duo, and even many player squad game play modes will be introduced. If this does happen, the same communication skills used when playing with a three-unit squad will still apply when experiencing a Duo or multi-player squad mode.