Want to know who tops our Apex Legends tier list? With the release of Catalyst, Apex Legends players now have 23 Legends to choose from when taking on the battle royale known as the Apex Games. Each Legend has its own skills, playstyle, and personality, with plenty of choice for every type of player, whether you like to be aggressive, defensive, or offensive to the senses (cough – Caustic – cough).
Your ideal Legend pick depends on your strengths and weaknesses – your experience, game sense, movement skills, and aim all factor in, as does your squad composition and whether you’re playing with friends or a team of strangers. That said, although all the characters are relatively balanced, there are some Legends who have pulled away from the pack due to their powerful abilities, and some who are more niche picks. Our Apex Legends tier list aims to give you a quick look at the current Legend meta in one of the best free PC games.
We’ve ordered the Legends here in order of general effectiveness, to help you decide who to play if you’re after a big win. We’re aiming this list at the average player who has a reasonable grasp of the game, but we’ll also point out the best characters for absolute beginners, and mention the ones you’ll see in top-tier competitive play.
Here is the Apex Legends tier list for Season 15:
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| Tier | Legend |
| S | Seer, Bloodhound, Gibraltar |
| A | Ash, Vantage, Valkyrie, Caustic, Wraith, Newcastle |
| B | Wattson, Crypto, Horizon, Loba, Bangalore, Pathfinder, Vantage |
| C | Fuse, Revenant, Octane, Lifeline, Seer, Mad Maggie, Rampart, Catalyst |
| D | Mirage |
Seer
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Tactical Ability: Focus of Attention
When facing the direction of enemies within 75m, Seer can hear and visualise the heartbeats of his opponents. -
Passive Ability: Heart Seeker
Seer sends out micro-drones directly ahead of him, marking the location, health, and shields of any nearby enemies. This ability also deals ten damage and stops enemies from healing, reviving, and interrupts all abilities. -
Ultimate Ability: Exhibit
Seer throws out a projection of hundreds of micro-drones, giving him and his party the ability to see enemies running within his dome.
Unlike every other tracker in Apex Legends, Seer can stop enemies from using their abilities, healing items, or reviving teammates by hitting them with his tactical. His passive ability gives him an idea of where players are hiding, and Seer can even pick up on whether an enemy is damaged by how fast their heartbeat is. Finally, his ultimate ability reveals the locations of enemies to his entire party, giving everyone the equivalent of wall hacks.
Seer was nerfed within a month of his release to make him considerably weaker, yet he still remains a consistent pick across every rank. Seer’s abilities are almost unrivalled by the rest of the legends, allowing him to cancel enemy revives and heals. The devs like to release balance patches at the beginning of each season, so we’re going to assume he’ll receive a nerf in Apex Legends season 16.
Bloodhound
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Tactical Ability: Eye of the Allfather
Briefly reveal hidden enemies, traps, and clues throughout structures in front of you. -
Passive Ability: Tracker
See tracks left behind by your foes. -
Ultimate Ability: Beast of the Hunt
Enhances your senses, allowing you to move faster and highlighting your prey.
If you’re brutally skilled at shooting, you’ll do very well with Bloodhound (also, well done you). Their passive ability shows you if enemies have passed through nearby locations within the last 90 seconds – you can, and should, ping this information out to your team to let them know the trail is hot. Once you’ve identified a building you suspect is harboring hostiles, activating Eye of the Allfather will show you and your squadmates any enemies and traps that lie in a 125 degree cone in front of you – whilst also notifying them that you’ve scanned them.
Once activated, Beast of the Hunt makes you super fast and highlights your prey in red, so you can see them even through smoke or gas. Every time you down an enemy, the duration of Beast of the Hunt is extended for anywhere between five to fifteen seconds, meaning you can chain kills indefinitely and leave a trail of victims crawling around in the mud.
Like all the best predators, Bloodhound is also pretty good at noping out by using their ultimate to run away. What’s more, as Bloodhound is a Recon character, they now have the ability to use survey beacons to determine the next ring location. As you can tell, a series of buffs have made Bloodhound a formidable character.
Gibraltar
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Tactical Ability: Dome of Protection
Throw down a dome-shield that blocks attacks for 12 seconds. Healing items are 15% faster within the dome. -
Passive Ability: Gun Shield
Aiming down sights deploys a gun shield that blocks incoming fire. -
Ultimate Ability: Defensive Bombardment
Call in a concentrated mortar strike on a marked position.
Gibraltar is a large boi. He also has the Fortified passive, meaning he takes 15% less damage, which translates to being able to tank an extra shot – in a 1v1 scenario where you’re otherwise evenly matched, this gives you the edge. His passive ability, Gun Shield, gives him an energy shield with 75 health covering his upper body while he’s aiming down sights – crouch to cover your vulnerable little knees and you’ll be tough to take down. Please note that the Gun Shield is luminous orange, so if you’re trying to hide your hulking frame then you should disable your shield with H.
The Dome of Protection seems like a sanctuary of safety, shielding you from enemy fire, but be aware – it blocks shots from both directions, so you can’t attack advancing enemies until they pop their heads into the thunderdome. It’s not subtle, so if you use it to protect yourself when you’re weak, it’s akin to raising a big shiny flag saying ‘free kills this way’.
It is, however, still useful – if you’re out in the open you can pop it to use as cover, like a glossy boulder. Unfortunately, it was recently nerfed, meaning it now only lasts 12 seconds rather than 18. Still, you can weave in and out of the barrier to reload, use it to bait the enemy team, or combine it with your ultimate to protect your squad under the bombardment while you heal or pick up a downed teammate – healing is faster inside the dome. Gibraltar’s ultimate is great in the late game to force enemies out of cover, but beware as it damages you as well.
It may seem tempting to rampage around like a bull as Gibraltar, but your defensive advantages evaporate if you draw the attention of a whole squad, and he’s a big target, so he’s best played supportively to back up your teammates who charge in first.
Ash
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Tactical Ability: Arc Snare
Hurl a spinning snare towards a rival squad. If an enemy is caught in the snare, they take damage and suffer from limited mobility for three seconds. -
Passive Ability: Marked for Death
Ash’s map reveals the location of nearby death boxes. Using her sword, Ash can mark the locations of the surviving attacking players. -
Ultimate Ability: Phase Breach
Ash creates a phase portal using her sword to a targeted location. Unlike Wraith, this portal only spawns in straight lines.
New characters in Apex Legends typically launch with over tuned abilities that need to be dialed back after a few weeks. Though there were calls to nerf Ash within the first few weeks, that initial phase has ended and it appears players are happy with this Legend. Ash features highly aggressive abilities, making her a popular pick in casual and ranked play. At the highest level, Ash isn’t a go-to pick, but this has more to do with teams preferring to play with a defensive mindset first and foremost.
Ash’s passive ability is so powerful that you can create brand new strategies never before seen in Apex Legends. As soon as a death box appears on Ash’s map, players recognise right away that a fight has taken place and that more people could continue to die. If you pair Ash alongside characters like Valkyrie and Seer, you can travel around the map quickly and to spot potential threats from a distance. This gives Ash and her team a chance to swoop in while everyone has low health, creating an easy opportunity to rack up numerous kills.
Though the simulacrum has only been in Apex Legends for a few months, her impact on the game has been undeniable. As more aggressive strategies emerge, we expect Ash’s pick rate to slowly increase once players have worked out ways to get the most out of her abilities.
Valkyrie
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Tactical Ability: Missile Swarm
Fire 12 mini-rockets in a rectangular grid to damage and stun nearby enemies -
Passive Ability: VTOL Jets
Hover in the air using VTOL jets by holding jump for a short period of time -
Ultimate Ability: Skyward Dive
Launch into the air and skydive to a new location. Valkyrie can bring her teammates with her before take off
Respawn was fully aware that Valkyrie could be a problem when introduced in Season 9, which is why she was nerfed after just one week. While there are a lot of characters in Apex Legends with impressive traversal abilities, only Valkyrie is able to fly around the map. This powerful ability puts Valkyrie into a class of her own as she can access areas that are locked off to everyone else. In order to get the most out of Valkyrie, players need a deep understanding of each map to spot any potential opportunities.
Missile Swarm is great for taking out retreating enemies due to its seemingly limitless range. Valkyrie just needs to aim at the target from almost any distance to send a barrage of missiles towards rival squads. Though the damage from this tactical ability is poor, its utility is what makes it so effective. Whether your opponent has max health or they’re about to be downed, being able to easily deal 25-35 damage without any hassle is very useful.
As far as passive abilities are concerned, VTOL Jets may be one of the best in the game. There are huge downsides to hovering in the air: you can’t fire weapons, throw grenades, and you’re only able to fly for seven seconds before running out of fuel. These limitations aren’t an issue when you use this ability as an extra jump, or to briefly spot enemies in the distance. VTOL Jets can be devastating, especially when used to flank enemies.
Valkyrie’s ultimate ability allows her to redeploy, along with her teammates, to a different location. When you’re running low on resources, or your squad has been unlucky with the available ground loot, having the option to jet off to a completely different spot is a godsend. Skyward Dive gives you the opportunity to get out of situations where your squad has next to no chance of surviving.
Caustic
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Tactical Ability: Nox Gas Trap
Drop canisters that release deadly Nox gas when shot or triggered by enemies. -
Passive Ability: Nox Vision
Allows you to see enemies through your gas. -
Ultimate Ability: Nox Gas Grenade
Blankets a large area in Nox gas.
Caustic has recently grown in popularity thanks to a series of (mostly clown-themed) Legendary skins and the release of his heirloom, a giant gaseous hammer. Caustic’s ability lets him drop up to six gas canisters on the map, which emits gas that damages enemies’ health by increasing increments every second. It also slows both enemies and teammates, because nobody has the nose to endure such an offensive emission.
A recent nerf to Caustic’s gas abilities in the Chaos Theory Collection Event update dropped him down a few places on our list. The developers made this change as a response to high level players complaining about how oppressive the Nox gas is. Not only does Caustic’s gas do less damage over time, his ultimate also has a longer cooldown which makes him less effective.
The clouds of toxic fumes can be used like a smoke grenade, to provide cover and obscure lines of sight. Thanks to your passive, you can also see through the gas and put the afflicted out of their misery more easily. You should use your gas traps to lock down a building – you can block doors with them to trap enemies in a room or bunker down and hold a position, though you’ll have to forgive your poor teammates for leaving you alone in there, stinky.
You can use your gas to counter various Legends’ abilities; chuck a trap into Bangalore’s smoke and you’ll be able to see the enemy run away retching; fumigate Gibraltar’s dome to kill any flora and fauna that dare linger within. Pop one next to Revenant’s Death Totem to kill him instantly when he returns; you smell so foul even an edgy skeleton robot, who doesn’t need to breathe, conks out when exposed to your putrid effluvia.
Caustic also has a deadly Nox Gas Grenade that works exactly like a gas trap – just over a wider area. Throw one into the battle to deal damage to your foes, and make use of Caustic’s Fortified status to soak up any return damage.
Wraith
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Tactical Ability: Into the Void
Reposition quickly through the safety of void space, avoiding all damage. -
Passive Ability: Voices from the Void
A voice warns you when danger approaches. As far as you can tell, it’s on your side. -
Ultimate Ability: Dimensional Rift
Link two locations with portals for 60 seconds, allowing your entire team to use them.
Interdimensional skirmisher Wraith is one of the most popular characters in Apex Legends, and it’s not just because she has really cool looking eyes. Wraith’s mobility skills are incredibly useful, and she has a very small hitbox. Wraith’s toolkit is perfect for aggressive plays, while also providing a safe way out if she needs to disengage.
Her Tactical Ability, Into the Void, makes you invulnerable to damage, but also leaves a bright trail behind from which you can be followed. The skill takes a second to activate, and doesn’t take you very far, so you should use it with caution. It’s better to use Into the Void to initiate fights and get yourself safely into a good position to take an engagement, rather than to escape. You can also use Into the Void while taking a zipline to avoid the enemy lining you up and shooting you down like a fairground duck.
Wraith’s passive, Voices from the Void, lets you know when an enemy is looking at you and lets you ping the info out to your teammates. If possible, use Into the Void whenever this skill activates – if they’re about to take a shot at you (which is likely, they’re not just admiring your sick Apex Legends legendary skin) you’ll be able to avoid all damage and reposition to somewhere safer.
Your portal skill, Dimensional Rift, is one of the best abilities in the game, with endless strategic possibilities. It can be used to save a downed teammate, to quickly get a respawned teammate geared up, or to set up an escape for anticipated engagements where you can retreat through the portal, heal, snipe them if you’re feeling cheeky, and dive back in. Wraith can be difficult to master, but we’d recommend her to relative beginners because even as you’re learning, her toolkit offers multiple methods of escape for when you find yourself at a disadvantage.
Newcastle
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Tactical Ability: Mobile Shield
Throw a deployable drone which transforms into a portable mobile shield -
Passive Ability: Retrieve the Wounded
Newcastle can drag and protect downed allies to safety while reviving them at the same time -
Ultimate Ability: Castle Wall
Jump towards a target and instantly spawn a building held together with several armoured walls
Introduced in Apex Legends Season 13, Newcastle has made a splash to the legend meta already with his impressive defensive abilities. From a competitive perspective, Newcastle doesn’t quite have what it takes to overthrow Gibraltar from the top, but he’s still strong enough to land directly in A tier so quickly.
Newcastle’s ultimate ability, Castle Wall, allows him to leap across great distances to reach his target. This is particularly strong on Stormpoint which contains a number of empty areas that are in desperate need of some protection. We can’t say for certain that Newcastle deserves to belong in the highest tier just yet, but we’ll continue to monitor his performance to see whether professional teams begin to alter their squad compositions.
Wattson
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Tactical Ability: Perimeter Security
Connect nodes to create electrified fences that damage and slow enemies. -
Passive Ability: Spark of Genius
Ultimate Accelerants fully charge your Ultimate Ability, and you can carry two per inventory slot. Standing near interception pylons dramatically boosts your Tactical Ability recharge. -
Ultimate Ability: Interception Pylon
Place an electrified pylon that destroys incoming ordnance and repairs damaged shields as long as it stands. (Max: 3)
Wattson, the Static Defender, is the ideal choice for those who want to play it safe and bunker down. The strategy with Wattson is to pick a building and decorate it lovingly with fences – you’ll want to cover all the doors, and place some diagonal fences inside too. You can also lay a fence across a Wraith’s portal to trip your enemies up if they try to burst out of one and surprise you.
In the event of enemy activity on your position, you’ll activate your Ultimate ability, which makes your fortress very difficult to attack. To make sure you have it when you need it, you should always carry at least one Ultimate Accelerant; more if you have the space. You can’t totally rely on your toolkit, though, as eventually enemies will traipse through your fence and you’ll have to shoot them in the face, so a good close range gun is a must. Wattson is also a Low Profile hero who takes an extra 5% damage, but you should still have the upper hand on foes that try to invade your personal space.
Wattson used to be a popular pick in professional level competitive play, but this has tapered off in recent months despite Wattson receiving a buff. Crypto is a hard counter to Wattson, and his popularity as an S-tier character means Wattson is unlikely to move up in the tiers without a significant buff.
Crypto
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Tactical Ability: Surveillance Drone
Deploy an aerial drone that allows you to view the surrounding area from above. If the drone is destroyed, there is a forty-second cooldown before you can deploy another. -
Passive Ability: Neurolink
Enemies detected by the Surveillance Drone within 30 meters of your position are marked for you and your teammates to see. -
Ultimate Ability: Drone EMP
Your Surveillance Drone sets off an EMP blast that deals shield damage, slows enemies, and disables traps.
Crypto is geared around acquiring intelligence regarding your surroundings and using that info to take the best fights and ensure your safety. He’s best used with a squad that works together to make the most of his skills. You’ll be deploying your Surveillance Drone regularly, piloting it up to 200 meters away and pinging out enemy locations and items. Crypto’s passive, Neurolink, makes it even easier for you to identify enemies in view of the Drone, even when you’re not actively piloting it (so you can park it up to keep vision up of an area). However, the critical downside of the drone is that while you’re away with the fairies, your corporeal form is standing there like a lemon, totally vulnerable to somebody bursting in, knocking the joystick out of your hands, and shooting you in the head.
The drone can be used to rescue squadmates’ banners from outside the zone, instantly respawn them at a respawn beacon, or instantly hack a survey beacon to gain some ring knowledge. You can even use it to bait and distract a team while you escape or attack them from another angle. Otherwise, you don’t want your drone to be spotted; flying low is a good way to hide it. Your EMP is a fantastic initiation tool; it does a chunk of shield damage to all enemies in the radius and destroys Caustic’s gas traps, Wattson’s fences, Gibraltar’s dome, and Lifeline’s drone. If you’ve got the EMP up, you should use your drone to find players hiding in a building, take them by surprise, and rush in – but note that if you’re too far away from your targets, you’ll get there too late to make the most of the initiation. Once you’ve EMP’d a building, park your floating buddy on the roof overlooking an escape route to make sure they don’t slip through your fingers.
Crypto has grown in use in the recon meta, but he is a very difficult character to master. Don’t expect to find yourself as the kill leader, but your vital information could be the key to grabbing those wins. You’ll need plenty of practice before taking Crypto into the ranked ladder, but your teammates will be thankful if you support them well.
Horizon
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Tactical Ability: Gravity Lift
Reverses the flow of gravity, lifting players upwards and boosting them outwards when they exit. -
Passive Ability: Spacewalk
Increase air control and reduce fall impacts with Horizon’s custom spacesuit. -
Ultimate Ability: Black Hole
Deploy NEWT to create a micro black hole that pulls players in towards it, and hits them with a gravitation blast at the end.
The last few additions to the Apex Legends roster haven’t had a drastic impact on the game, but Horizon has put a stop to that trend with her unique abilities. The Spacewalk passive ability gives her better mobility than most of the cast, and it pairs extremely well with the latest map, Olympus. The only Legend that features better mobility than Horizon is Pathfinder, and even then you could make the argument that Horizon is technically better overall.
Large maps that feature tall buildings suit Horizon perfectly as she can navigate structures with multiple layers with ease thanks to her tactical ability, Gravity Lift. This ability can be used both offensively to gain the higher ground, or used defensively to send your enemies in the air. With a short cooldown of just 15 seconds, you should be able to use Gravity Lift at least twice during a fight to give your team an advantage.
Gravity Lift has a hidden perk that Horizon players need to utilise – while in the lift, your accuracy remains at 100%, unlike when moving on a zipline or on a geyser. When coupled with a sniper rifle, you can pick off enemies from angles that would be impossible for every Legend in the game. Keep in mind that the Gravity Lift can also be used to move downed teammates away from the action, ensuring they aren’t eliminated from the game.
Horizon’s ultimate is the icing on the cake as it synergises with every Legend in the game. The Black Hole ultimate ability pulls nearby players into a micro black hole, giving your team a great opportunity to damage an entire squad by focusing on a single area. Throwing grenades into the black hole is the best way to damage enemies as the blast should be contained to that area.
Loba
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Tactical Ability: Burglar’s Best Friend
Throw your bracelet to teleport to another spot on the map. -
Passive Ability: Eye for Quality
You can see epic and legendary loot through walls. -
Ultimate Ability: Black Market Boutique
Place a device that lets you teleport nearby loot to your inventory.
Loba is the looting queen. Her tactical ability allows her to teleport across the map for a quick reposition (or to beat your teammates to a supply drop), however it’s not without its problems. While most bugs have been fixed, her bracelet still sometimes struggles to go through open windows, and some inconspicuous areas of King’s Canyon are a no-go for some reason.
Being able to see loot through walls is a useful ability, but it doesn’t extend to loot ticks or death boxes, despite the fact they often contain epic and legendary items. But Loba is most useful when she deploys her ultimate – which starts the game 50% charged – and you can loot to your heart’s content. You and your teammates can each take two items from the surrounding 113m radius.
You can take items from inside locked Vaults, but beware. Only Loba can take these, and you’ll set off the alarms, alerting all nearby enemies to your nimble-fingered presence. You’ll also only be able to take one item before your boutique explodes, so choose carefully.
Bangalore
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Tactical Ability: Smoke Launcher
Fire a high-velocity smoke canister that explodes into a smoke wall on impact. -
Passive Ability: Double Time
Taking fire while sprinting makes you move faster for a brief time. -
Ultimate Ability: Rolling Thunder
Call in an artillery strike that slowly creeps across the landscape.
Bangalore is a solid, well rounded legend with a good set of abilities that aren’t too difficult to use effectively – perfect for beginners, but tricky to justify at higher levels. Her smoke canister has two charges and is best used to create cover and concealment between Bang (yes, that’s what we’re calling her) and the enemy; she can use healing items while throwing the canister, too, making this an efficient way to heal up. The smoke can also allow you to loot or revive safely. When running away, fire the smoke slightly ahead of you so it’ll go off as you run into it, allowing you to take a big lungful of fumes in lieu of a lungful of lead. You should chuck a cloud over the top of any vulnerable teammates who could use the time to heal up. Be warned, though; the gold Digital Threat upgrades and Bloodhound’s ultimate ability can both see through the smoke, which is a lethal combination – let’s hope your team are the ones with X-Ray vision. Alternatively, pick up a Digital Threat scope yourself, plunge the enemy into a smoke cloud, and get hunting.
Bangalore’s passive, Double Time, gives you a speed boost when sprinting under fire, which you can use to make it safely into cover or to return fire whilst being harder to hit. Rolling Thunder, the artillery strike, isn’t as powerful as Gibraltar’s similarly bombastic ultimate, but is still a good way to provide cover and chase the enemy out of their hiding spots so you can shoot them. It will activate in front of the thrown flare in a wave sequence; the missiles will hit the ground and explode eight seconds later – which admittedly gives opponents plenty of time to avoid damage. You can use it offensively by throwing it out and running alongside it as it explodes to push an enemy squad out of position.
Pathfinder
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Tactical Ability: Grappling Hook
Grapple to get to out-of-reach places quickly. -
Passive Ability: Insider Knowledge
Scan a survey beacon to reveal the ring’s next location, which also decreases your Zipline Gun cooldown by 10 seconds. -
Ultimate Ability: Zipline Gun
Create a zipline for everyone to use.
How the mighty have fallen. Pathfinder, the forward scout, is a zippy information gathering robot who swings around the map providing team mobility and chirpy, endearing quips. You may well have heard how frustrating it is to try and hit the lanky clanker; to counter his small hitbox, Pathfinder – like Wraith – has the Low Profile attribute which increases the damage received by 5%.
The Grappling Hook is an incredible mobility tool; beginners will still be able to benefit from its repositioning abilities, but with enough practice the hook becomes so versatile you’ll be propelling yourself all over the map at breakneck speed. This grapple guide by Mokeysniper will teach you how to make the most of the Grappling Hook to get the drop on your foes. In combat, you’ll want to use your mobility to distract and flank your enemies, allowing your teammates to gun them down while they watch your aerial ballet. However, its cooldown has been nerfed multiple times, making it less useful than it once was. Now, it’ll take between 10 – 35 seconds to recharge, depending on how far you grappled.
Insider Knowledge suffered when every Recon character gained the ability to use survey beacons, however, Pathfinder also recharges his ultimate ability, giving him a slight advantage. However, as he – like Bloodhound – is vulnerable for seven seconds when scanning it, your best option to survey the ring locations is by doing so instantaneously with Crypto’s drone.
The Zipline is a fantastic repositioning tool for you and your team, so you should be using it as soon as possible to move your squad into spaces other teams can’t get to as easily. You can use it to move into an advantageous position in the circle once you’ve learned where the next ring will land, and it’ll hopefully be off cooldown again once other squads have caught up to you, so you can use it to escape or to flank another team.
Vantage
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Tactical Ability: Echo Relocation
Position your winged companion Echo on the battlefield to launch toward him. You have to be able to see Echo in order to launch. -
Passive Ability: Spotter’s Lens
Aim down the sights of your eyepiece (unarmed) or a long-range scope to identify key details about enemy targets. -
Ultimate Ability: Sniper’s Mark
Equip your custom sniper rifle to track enemy targets and apply a team-wide damage bonus to every tracked enemy.
Vantage’s kit may look like it has been designed specifically for snipers, but you don’t have to break out the old tent and binoculars to get the most out of Season 15’s legend. Unlike a traditional sniper, Vantage can utilise her tactical ability to reach areas that are out of bounds for most characters. While you can use this as an opportunity to hunker down and highlight enemies using her passive ability, there’s nothing stopping you from playing aggressively as you hunt down new targets.
Speaking of Vantage’s passive ability, Spotter’s Lens can be game-defining when used in ranked play thanks to the amount of information it provides. Once you take a close look at an enemy target, the HUD displays the number of people left on the enemy team, what type of armour they’re wearing, and your distance from the target. This can be crucial as you approach the final moments in a match, providing vital information to let you know whether the odds are stacked against you.
Finally, Vantage’s ultimate is unique in that you can utilise it before reaching 100%. Landing a shot with this bullet automatically tags your target, showing your team exactly where the enemy is. This isn’t the best sniper rifle in the game, but it’s a great option to open fights as you can focus fire on the same targetted enemy.
Fuse
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Passive Ability: Grenadier
Grenades can be stacked in piles of two instead of the usual one. Fuse can launch grenades using his arm cannon, firing ordnance faster, further, and more accurately compared to the other Legends. -
Tactical Ability: Knuckle Cluster
Launch a cluster bomb that deals damage on impact before turning into several smaller explosives. This ability can inflict self damage, so it’s important to avoid the follow-up explosives. -
Ultimate Ability: The Motherlode
Launch a mortar in mid-air that encircles the target in a wall of flame. This explosive explodes in the air, taking a few seconds for the flames to land before dealing damage.
Fuse can utilise ordnance in a way like no other Legend can thanks to his unique passive abilities. Not only can he stack grenades in his inventory, he can also launch ordnance much further and faster. This has proven to be extremely effective at mid to long range as Fuse can land grenade hits in areas that no one else is able to. Against defensive teams, Fuse’s ability to bombard an area with grenades can be deadly… as long as they don’t have a Wattson with her ultimate at the ready..
Knuckle Cluster is a decent alternative to throwing actual grenades, but it’s difficult to land every hit as most enemies can move out of the way. You can force each hit of the Knuckle Cluster to land by using Horizon’s Black Hole ability, but that’s not really worth doing for just 50 damage. Unfortunately, Fuse’s ultimate also isn’t a viable option to use alongside Black Hole as the radius is far too large to damage targets in a specific area.
Though Fuse may be a popular character in standard Apex games, he probably won’t see much play in high-level competitive matches. Similarly to Wattson who excels in professional Apex games but is rarely picked in standard play, Fuse is the exact opposite and will unlikely make a splash at a high level.
Revenant
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Tactical Ability: Silence
Throw a device that deals damage and disables enemy abilities for 20 seconds. -
Passive Ability: Stalker
You crouch-walk faster and can climb higher than other Legends. -
Ultimate Ability: Death Totem
Drop a totem that protects those who use it from death for a set amount of time. Instead of being killed or downed, users will return to the totem.
Revenant has become more and more useful as the Apex Legends meta has got more aggressive (looking at you, Bloodhound). His Silence tactical is very useful – it prevents enemies from activating their tactical and ultimate abilities (note that it doesn’t prevent passives from activating, or interrupt abilities that have already been activated). It affects you as well, so beware of throwing it too close. You can chuck out a grenade at the same time for added impact, or use it to prevent foes pushing through a door or corridor while you heal up.
Crouch-walking faster is helpful because crouch-walking makes no noise, allowing you to sneak up on your enemies. ADS while crouch-walking to move even faster. The climbing buff is good in city fights, but it still has nothing on Pathfinder’s grapple.
Revenant’s Death Totem is where he really shines. The ability allows you and your squad to turn yourself into shadows, returning to the totem when killed with 50% health remaining, and your shields intact. You may be tempted to activate the totem together and charge in as a squad, but the smarter play is for one or two of you to activate your shadow form and push the enemy team. When you’re close to death as a shadow, the remainder of your team will use the beacon and join you in the fight – you then die and heal up to full before rejoining the battle with your ghostly squad, who do the same thing once they die. In this way you can sustain the fight instead of splitting it into two phases, and prevent the enemy from taking a break to heal.
Combine the Death Totem with Silence to create the most mayhem. It’s worth noting, however, that Revenant works best with other offensive legends – see Bloodhound – rather than defensive legends like Wattson. A recent buff to Octane has seen Revenant’s pick rate drastically improve as the duo link up well together. Death Totem can be used with Octane’s Jump Pad to travel quickly across the map, creating awkward scenarios for opposing teams who have to deal with the same squad twice.
Octane
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Tactical Ability: Stim
Move 30% faster for six seconds. Costs health to use. -
Passive Ability: Swift Mend
Automatically restores health over time. -
Ultimate Ability: Launch Pad
Deploy a jump pad that catapults teammates through the air.
Octane, the adrenaline junkie, is a slippery fish who is hard to catch. His Stim ability costs you 10 health, but gives you a temporary speed boost that is excellent for repositioning or flanking in a fight. You should also use it at the start of each match to give you a huge advantage in looting so you can secure your landing spot as fast as possible. Take your teammates’ loot before they can get to it – that’s the Octane spirit. The Stim’s health cost isn’t lethal; using it when you’re under 10 health won’t make you keel over instantly and leave you twitching in a puddle, so if you need to escape in an emergency you should use it to retreat. Try to strafe while stimming to make yourself harder to hit. If you’ve got nifty movement skills, it’s possible to bunny hop whilst healing after using a stim – a tricky move to master, but one that could end up saving your life.
Swift Mend means you don’t have to worry about topping up your health too much when you’re out of combat, meaning you can save your heals up. Use your ultimate to traverse canyons or save time climbing obstacles. If you hit the jump button when you hit the pad you’ll get extra height and distance from your portable trampoline, and it now gives you the ability to double jump while in the air. If you’re using the Launch Pad to evade pursuers, you can destroy it after you’re done using it. It’s not the greatest ultimate in the game; other Legends have more useful mobility ultimates, and you’re at risk of being shot down while you sail slowly through the air.
Lifeline
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Tactical Ability: D.O.C. Heal Drone
Call your Drone of Compassion to automatically heal nearby teammates over time. -
Passive Ability: Combat Medic
Lifeline calls in her drone to revive a teammate – this ability was nerfed in Season 9 to remove the protective shield while a teammate is being revived -
Ultimate Ability: Care Package
Call in a drop pod full of high-quality defensive gear.
Lifeline, the Combat Medic, is a good choice if you like your teammates and want to use all your abilities to make them happy. Your Heal Drone is most useful after fights while you’re looting up, but should be used as much as possible off cooldown if your team needs healing while you’re temporarily stationary. You can also headbutt it around a little to move it but this takes practice. The Drone took its Hippocratic robo-oath very seriously and will heal nearby enemies as well – don’t give that little traitor the chance.
Your passive protects you while you revive your teammates; meaning as soon as one of your squad goes down you should leap in like the hero you are and bring them back to their feet. If you’re lucky enough to find a gold backpack, your patient will also receive an extra 50 health and 75 shields once they’re up, meaning they’re back in the fight straight away. You can also leave D.O.C. on resurrection duties so you can get back in the fight while your teammate is receiving attention. It’s also of greater value to you to use shield cells to top up during battle because of your faster healing rate.
Her ultimate calls in a Care Package, the contents of which are of varying utility, but you should be able to grab some purple armour for your team. The downside is that it attracts a lot of attention, but the care package itself can be used as cover, so you might want to call it down in the final circle just for the strategic protection. Lifeline doesn’t have a way to disengage, which means you’ll have to play more carefully than other Legends, and you’d better hope your team deserves all your selfless generosity.
Mad Maggie
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Tactical Ability: Warlord’s Ire
Any enemies Mad Maggie damages are temporarily highlighted, and she moves faster while holding a shotgun. -
Passive Ability: Riot Drill
Launch a drill that burns through structures and shields. -
Ultimate Ability: Wrecking Ball
Unleash a ball that fires off speed-boosting pads and detonates near enemies. Use the speed pads to chase your enemies down while your ultimate tracks them down.
On paper, Mad Maggie’s abilities put her in the perfect position to alter the meta by providing a counter to Gibraltar’s dome shield. Maggie’s main problem is that her Riot Drill only covers half of the dome shield, stopping the ability from being extremely effective. If this ability ever received an upgrade to cover the entire dome, there’s a good chance this tweak could bring Maggie up to the big leagues.
Sadly, the rest of her abilities can’t compete with the best Legends in the game. Her passive isn’t a game-defining ability and her ultimate doesn’t pack the punch it should. Maggie’s ultimate temporarily stuns players for a few seconds, but this isn’t threatening enough against well-organised squads.
As for her passive ability, while it’s great to see your enemies temporarily after they receive damage, this doesn’t help the rest of your team when chasing down rival squads. It’s not all doom and gloom, however, as professional Apex teams continue to experiment with hyper-aggressive team compositions. It’s clear this Legend has potential, but it’s difficult to justify picking her when most high-level teams prefer to play defensively. Mad Maggie has strong abilities overall, but they’re currently underpowered to stop her from reaching the higher tiers.
Rampart
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Tactical Ability: Amped Cover
Build a crouch-cover wall which deploys an amped wall above it, which blocks incoming fire and amps outgoing shots. -
Passive Ability: Modded Loader
Increased magazine capacity and reload speed when using LMGs. -
Ultimate Ability: Emplaced Minigun “Sheila”
Deploy a mounted machine gun that rapidly fires devastating bullets.
Rampart was introduced in Season 6 and has received numerous buffs to finally move her out of the bottom tier. More recently, Rampart received a buff to her tactical ability reducing its cooldown. Her cover is useful if you find yourself in a fight with nowhere to hide, however, it can be easily destroyed while it is setting itself up, so your best bet is to fortify a position before a firefight.
Combine the amped cover with Sheila for ultimate annihilation, but beware of third parties. Sheila takes two seconds to get her barrels spinning, and she is incredibly loud while doing so – the perfect invitation for third parties to hit you from the flank, outside of the emplaced minigun’s firing circle.
Having an extended magazine capacity can be useful in certain 1v1 situations, but making sure you hit your shots is more important than simply having more ammo. Rampart encourages camping positions, but can’t defend them as well as legends like Wattson, and isn’t as versatile as other defenders like Gibraltar.
Catalyst
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Tactical Ability: Piercing Spikes
Throw out a patch of ferrofluid which turns into spikes when enemies are near. Catalyst remains immune to enemy spikes. -
Passive Ability: Barricade
Reinforce doors, strengthening them and locking them to enemies. Spaces where doors have been destroyed can also be reinforced. -
Ultimate Ability: Dark Veil
Raise a permeable wall of ferrofluid. Enemies who walk through it will be slowed and partially blinded for a brief time.
Perhaps the ultimate defensive legend, Catalyst can lock down a structure for you and your team, and ensure that any team who decides to push you won’t live to regret it. Catalyst has seen a lot of play since her release, with players trying to get to grips with her kit. She pairs well with legends like Wattson, and if you find yourself inside a building as the last circle collapses, you’ll have no trouble at all securing the win.
All of her abilities, if used together, can completely close off an avenue of approach for your enemies, as not only does she have the capability to lock doors behind your squad, but place traps should your opponents persist with the chase.
Catalyst’s ultimate ability, Dark Veil, may seem to be nothing but a defensive tool, but the chaos it can cause when used in the middle of a firefight can disorient the enemy long enough for you to mow them down. The Apex Legends community was impressed by Catalyst initially, but as time has gone on, it seems clear she doesn’t have what it takes to compete with the best legends at the moment.
Mirage
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Tactical Ability: Psyche Out
Send out a holographic decoy to confuse the enemy, which you can control with H. -
Passive Ability: Encore!
Turn invisible when downed, reviving, and respawning teammates. -
Ultimate Ability: Life of the Party
Deploy a team of six controllable Decoys to distract enemies.
Mirage’s gimmick lets him send out decoys to confuse the enemy, unfortunately, the decoys aren’t particularly confusing. Nevertheless, they can still be used tactically to some advantage – they can scout out traps and block shots, and the cooldown is low so use them as much as you can If you’re entering a building, send a decoy in ahead of your squad to see if you can bait out any reactive fire. Pressing H makes them controllable, meaning they mimic your movements and make them seem more realistic. This leads to Mirage being able to bamboozle more enemies than ever before but isn’t useful for much other than scouting.
Mirage’s passive has gotten more useful after a series of buffs. Now, Mirage is a great pick when reviving or respawning teammates, as both you and your teammate will be invisible, which can be incredibly useful in a pinch. However, there are a number of little giveaways that enemies can look out for to mitigate the passive buff.
Your ultimate is also useful in close-range firefights – use it to escape in a chaotic fight or to move aggressively. You’ll cloak for a second before your decoys are deployed, and opponents will be easily confused by the seven Mirages bobbing around the area. In general, the decoys are best used in a manic fight between multiple squads to sow confusion and distress. It comes as no surprise that Mirage is the worst legend in the game, he desperately needs a rework that the devs simply aren’t interested in doing right now.
That concludes our Apex Legends Season 15 tier list – now it’s time for you to launch your chosen Legend from the dropship and battle it out to be the last one standing. Alternatively, you could practice your aim in the best FPS games on PC, or hop into one of the best co-op games with your squad to perfect those teamwork and communication skills.