You’ve read our Apex Legends review, studied it, and know it by heart, including all the tips and tricks you’ll need to win, and just need some guidance choosing a character. Are you wondering who the best option is based on their class and abilities? We’re here to help. The characters in Apex Legends are some of the most endearing we’ve seen in a battle royale, but it might be difficult to decide who to play as due to their different abilities.
Maybe you’ve gravitated toward Bangalore, the attack-oriented hero with an ultimate ability that drops the boom. Perhaps you’ve enjoyed the mystery of Wraith, who can avoid attacks with her void dash or create portals to travel through. Or, maybe you chose the robot Pathfinder because he has the best one-liners in Apex Legends.
There are currently 14 legends, with more expected to join the fight as Apex Legends continues, and our Legends guide will walk you through the ins and outs of each to help you decide which one is right for you. We’ve also separated the legends into four tiers based on their overall effectiveness.
Further reading
- Everything you need to know about Apex Legends season 6
- Apex Legends mobile ‘soft launch’ coming soon
- Apex Legends crossplay will not match console players against PC players
Tier 1
Wraith
- Passive: Voices From the Void — Tells you when enemies mark your location
- Tactical: Into the Void — A quick juke through her void that avoids all damage
- Ultimate: Dimensional Rift — Lets you place two portals for you and your teammates to travel through for a minute
Though technically classified as an “attack” legend, Wraith is a multi-purpose legend with three useful abilities. As of now, she appears to be one of the most popular legends.
Wraith’s passive ability is one of the most useful in the game, as it informs you when enemies have marked your location or are near you. This lets you and your team brace for incoming fire or perhaps even get the upper hand. Her tactical ability can quickly turn a skirmish in your favor. The swift juke lets you take a new position while not taking any damage.
Her ultimate ability is one of the hardest to use effectively. This is because you have to place two portals, which can then be traveled through. Occasionally you can use the Dimensional Rift to confuse enemies by sneaking up behind them out of nowhere, but keep in mind that her ultimate takes the most work to use efficiently.
Pathfinder
- Passive: Insider Knowledge — Scans nearby beacons to reveal next ring location
- Tactical: Grappling Hook — Allows for versatile, quick movement, both horizontally and vertically
- Ultimate: Zipline Gun — Creates a new zipline
Pathfinder, the charismatic robot from the Titanfall series, is an odd legend. Its passive ability, which reveals the next ring location by scanning beacons, is decent for teams with excellent communication, though not very useful on its own. The tactical ability, on the other hand, makes Pathfinder one of the best for moving around quickly. With the grappling hook, you can latch onto walls or quickly scale buildings. Kings Canyon already has many ziplines, both horizontal and vertical, but Pathfinder’s ultimate lets you create new ziplines to get you out of tricky situations.
The perfect addition to a team with an assault and a heavy, Pathfinder moves your team around the map quickly. That said, this is the role usually reserved for a healer, which you forfeit when using Pathfinder.
Gibraltar
- Passive: Gun Shield — When aiming down sights, he holds a shield that blocks incoming fire
- Tactical: Dome of Protection — Blue dome shield spawns and blocks attacks for 15 seconds
- Ultimate: Defensive Bombardment — A concentrated mortar strike called by throwing a flare
Gibraltar is a well-rounded hero who is built to help you survive. If you’re having trouble staying alive or don’t have the greatest accuracy when shooting down the sights, you should definitely make use of his abilities.
His passive ability opens a shield that blocks the brunt of head on incoming fire. It’s not invulnerable, but it will give you more time to hone in on enemies yourself.
His tactical ability is great for the whole team, as it opens a dome shield that lasts 15 seconds. The dome shield is particularly useful when you hear an incoming airstrike or when you need to revive a teammate. Meanwhile, his mortar strike ultimate is similar to Bangalore’s but more precise.
Tier 2
Lifeline
- Passive: Combat Medic — Throws up a shield wall when reviving teammates, and quickens medical supply use by 25%
- Tactical: DOC Heal Drone — A small drone (looks like a Roomba) that heals teammates
- Ultimate: Care package filled with quality defensive equipment
Lifeline is a traditional healer who will help keep your team alive in variety of ways. Her passive ability automatically creates a shield when reviving teammates while also shortening the time needed to use healing items. When the team is low on health and short on medkits, her DOC Heal Drone can heal everyone’s health back to 100%.
Just know that enemies can also make use of this drone, so you want to be in cover before deploying. Each map has tons of loot, but if you’re not finding the defensive supplies you need, Lifeline’s ultimate sends a drop pod with good armor and medical supplies.
Loba
- Passive: Eye for Quality — See nearby epic and legendary loot through walls.
- Tactical: Burglar’s Best Friend — Teleport to hard-to-reach places, and escape combat encounters with your Jump Drive bracelet.
- Ultimate: Black Market Boutique — Spawn a portable machine that teleports nearby loot to your inventory.
Finding better gear is a lot more powerful than it may seem. Loba passively buffs your whole team by finding epic and legendary loot in any given area. After playing as her, you’ll be surprised how much loot your team leaves behind. Eye for Quality is what sells Loba, though. Burglar’s Best Friend is useful, though it doesn’t help the rest of your team, and Black Market Boutique is powerful, but it runs the same risk as Lifeline’s Care Package.
That knocks Loba down a peg, but she’s still a very powerful Legend. Looting is the name of the game, but a well-placed Jump Drive bracelet can give you an edge in combat, too.
Bangalore
- Passive: Double Time — Temporarily sprint faster when taking damage
- Tactical: Smoke Launcher — Smoke canister projectile that explodes
- Ultimate: Rolling Thunder — Calls an airstrike that sweeps across the targeted area
Bangalore might even be more popular than Wraith right now. She’s a more traditional attack character with the most effective ultimate ability of the lot. After it’s fully charged, you toss a canister to the area you want to bomb, and a few seconds later, you can hear the engines overhead. The airstrike covers a sizable area, so if enemies don’t flee when they hear the noise overhead, you’re likely to knock down or eliminate at least one enemy (and sometimes a whole team).
Bangalore’s passive helps both when fleeing or running towards combat. Taking damage increases her sprint speed. And her tactical ability shoots a smoke canister which clouds an area, letting you and your team get the jump on opposing squads or reposition without being seen.
Wattson
- Passive: Spark of Genius –– Allows you to fully charge your ultimate with Ultimate Accelerants and charge your Tactical near interception pylon boosts
- Tactical: Perimeter Security — Electric fences that damage and slow enemies when crossed
- Ultimate: Interception Pylon — Destroys incoming ordnance and repairs damaged shields
A relatively new addition to the roster, Wattson is all about setting up a good defense. Her passive ability makes quick work of charging your ultimate and tactical abilities, allowing you to focus on strategic use of your abilities rather than just firing. The tactical is great, too, especially if your team is holed up in an area with high-tier loot.
The ultimate is why Wattson earns a tier two slot, though. Your Interception Pylon can destroy incoming ordnance before they can wipe your team. In particular, it’s a solid counter to Gibraltar’s ultimate, protecting your team against the mortar strike. You can have up to three Pylons present, too, all of which help charge your Tactical.
Tier 3
Rampart
- Passive: Modded Loader — Higher magazine capacity and reload time with LMGs and the minigun
- Tactical: Amped Cover — Deploy cover that protects from incoming fire while amping outgoing fire
- Ultimate: Emplaced Minigun “Sheila” — A mountable minigun that anyone can use
The newest addition to the Apex Legends roster, Rampart offers a nice balance of offensive and defensive abilities. As season 6 continues, she’ll likely move up the list of Legends. Amped Cover is a house of an ability, providing protection in a similar way to Gibraltar’s Dome of Protection while giving your team an offensive edge. It doesn’t provide coverage around an entire area like Dome of Protection, but still, Amped Cover is extremely useful for securing and protecting a position.
Unfortunately, Rampart’s passive isn’t as impressive. Modded Loader is useful if you have a decent LMG, but as any enfranchised Apex Legends player knows, you don’t usually have a choice in the early game. Emplaced Minigun is perfect if you have a position secured, but be aware that anyone can use it, including players not on your team. It’s best to deploy it only if you’re going to stick around for a while.
Caustic
- Passive: Nox Vision — Complements his tactical ability by showing enemy locations for those who pass through the gas
- Tactical: Nox Gas Trap — Lets you place up to six gas canisters that release when stepped on or shot
- Ultimate: Nox Gas Grenade — Covers a sizable area with deadly gas
Caustic has three abilities that largely feel similar. His passive and tactical abilities work together in tandem. The Nox Gas Trap lets you set up to six gas canisters on the ground. They can either be activated by shooting them or when an enemy walks over them. Once this happens, enemies who step into the gas will be revealed with Caustic’s passive ability. The gas also slowly damages those who get caught in the fumes. His ultimate is the gas trap in grenade form, and covers a much larger area.
Octane
- Passive: Swift Mend — Heals one health point for every two seconds he doesn’t take damage
- Tactical: Stim — Moves 30% faster for six seconds at the cost of 10% health
- Ultimate: Launch Pad — Deploys a launch pad at his feet that can be used by any player to vault high into the air
The first post-launch Legend, Octane is locked behind a pay (or experience point) wall. His abilities are focused on perpetual motion. His passive regenerates health automatically whenever he’s not taking damage. This makes him a great legend for surveying areas. His tactical is by far his best ability, though. Stim lets you get the upper hand by moving significantly faster (30%) than anyone else around you for six seconds. This is incredibly useful and worth the cost of 10% health (he heals himself over time, after all). Stim lets you catch other players off guard and makes Octane a hard target to hit in motion. He’s great with shotguns and other close-range weapons like SMGs. Stim also helps in situations where you need to revive downed teammates.
Octane’s ultimate holds him back from becoming a tier one legend, simply because Launch Pad isn’t super practical. You can use it to get the jump on other players, but there’s also a chance that those players and others will see you flying through the air and pin your squad down. It’s also more practical to use Stim as an evasive ability than it is to use Launch Pad.
Bloodhound
- Passive: Tracker — Reveals recent footprints, when doors were opened, time of death, etc.
- Tactical: Eye of the Allfather — Reveals enemy locations in the area
- Ultimate: Beast of the Hunt — Heightens senses to see cold tracks/enemies and greatly increases movement speed
While all of the legends have tactical abilities, Bloodhound is a true tactician. They help you hunt enemies and avoid surprises with a specialized ability set. Bloodhound’s passive shows recent footprints, door openings/closings, and times of death when you stumble across fallen players’ gear.
Bloodhound’s tactical ability can tell you if enemies are in the surrounding area, so you know whether it’s clear to move in quickly or if you have to proceed cautiously. Beast of the Hunt, Bloodhound’s ultimate, unveils cold tracks, highlights nearby enemies, and increases your movement speed. It’s perfect for late-game situations when only a few teams remain. Still, all of these abilities only work well as a part of a well-oiled team.
Tier 4
Mirage
- Passive: Encore! — When knocked down, a decoy spawns and you are cloaked for five seconds
- Tactical: Psyche Out — Creates a decoy to trip up enemies
- Ultimate: Vanishing Act — Become temporarily cloaked and unleash multiple decoys
Mirage is locked behind a paywall (or through a dozen or so hours of grinding). All of his abilities are pretty similar, relying on deceiving the enemy. When Mirage falls to the ground, a decoy comes to life and he is cloaked for five seconds. This gives you time to scramble away and avoid being finished off.
His tactical ability also deploys a decoy, but this time you can use the decoy to get the drop on your enemies. His ultimate is a combination of the two to the extreme. Unleashing Vanishing Act cloaks Mirage and creates multiple decoys. Simply put, if enemies are nearby and you have Vanishing Act available, it can lead to some very easy kills.
Revenant
- Passive: Stalker — You move faster when crouch-walking and can climb higher
- Tactical: Silence — Deal damage and prevent enemy abilities for 10 seconds
- Ultimate: Death Totem — Downed or killed teammates return to the totem instead of dying
Revenant is a new addition to the legends lineup, and in his first showing, he’s not too impressive. His passive is the best ability, allowing you to quickly move between cover to avoid enemy fire. The tactical and ultimate abilities do mostly the same thing, though: Delay the inevitable.
Silence reads as an offensive ability, though in practice, both Silence and Death Totem are defensive tactics. There are some niche cases for these abilities, especially in the close corners of the late game. At all other points, though, they’re largely irrelevant.
Crypto
- Passive: Neurolink — Enemies are marked on your team’s map within 30 meters of a Surveillance Drone
- Tactical: Surveillance Drone — An aerial drone that allows you to view nearby areas from above
- Ultimate: Drone EMP — An EMP blast from your Surveillance Drone that deals shield damage, disables traps, and slows enemies
Crypto is an interesting legend. He’s a scout, vetting nearby areas before your team moves into them. However, his move set is structured strangely. Everything is based around his tactical ability, which allows you to send a drone to scout from the sky. Without it, you can’t take advantage of the passive or activate your ultimate ability. Furthermore, enemies can destroy the drone, and if they do, you’ll have to wait 40 seconds before deploying another.
