Apex Legends: The 5 Best Legends For Beginners

Apex is a complicated game, and the unique abilities of each Legend only makes it more complex. So, if we're just getting started, who should we use? Who are the best Legends for beginners?

Best beginner legends
We're putting together a crew... | © EA

Apex Legends has a huge learning curve. There are so many modes, and so many maps, and the pace of the game requires a serious adjustment for players coming from other shooters. But if you want to get to the top (and you don't want to just use wall hacks like the last global kill leader), then you'll need to learn of all the game's ins and outs. But who should you start with? Who are the best Legends to pick if you're a beginner?

The Best Apex Legends For Beginners

Here are the five best Legends for beginners. These are the characters you can use on day one, even if you're solo-queuing. They should can all help you remain effective to the squad, even if you haven't mastered other mechanics.

5. Octane

  • Real Name: Octavio Silva
  • Home Planet: Psamathe
  • Tactical Ability: Stim. Move 30% faster for 6 seconds, costs health to use.
  • Passive Ability: Swift Mend. Auto-regen health.
  • Ultimate Ability: Launch Pad. Deploy a jump pad for you and teammates.

Octane is all about speed. At first, that might sound off-putting to new players; how can you take advantage of a fast character if you're only just beginning to play? But the truth is, especially in the lower ranks, you can use that speed to run away from fights. It sounds cowardly, but over-challenging fights is a core skill in Apex, you shouldn't play as aggressively as you do in other shooters. Plus, the speed boosts really aren't difficult to use.

What's also great for beginners using Octane is that you can rely on his passive, auto-health-regen, to stay topped up. A lot of newer players will forget to syringe in addition to getting their shields up, because auto-health-regen is so common in other games. At least with Octane, you can't make this mistake.

Octane
Octane is all about speed, and that's as good on the push as it is running away... | © EA

4. Gibraltar

  • Real Name: Makoa Gibraltar
  • Home Planet: Solace
  • Tactical Ability: Dome of Protection. A bubble shield.
  • Passive Ability: Gun Shield. Aiming down site creates a riot shield beneath the gun.
  • Ultimate Ability: Defensive Bombardment. Call in a mortar strike on a position.

Gibraltar is a bit of a chonker, but this is great for new players, because using Gibraltar will force you to play the game slowly. His riot shield and bubble shield reward passive play, and will naturally encourage you to team up and stick together. This is so much better, at least to start with, than trying to go off and do your own thing solo or take long flanks.

New players will also welcome the ease-of-use that his Ultimate Ability has. Unlike the Ults that can be risky to deploy, or depend on other things working in combination, Defensive Bombardment is simple, and doesn't take 200IQ plays to be used effectively. It's a Precision Airstrike, kinda.

Gibraltar
Gibraltar provides new players with a more defensively focused character. | © EA

3. Bangalore

  • Real Name: Anita Williams
  • Home Planet: Gridiron
  • Tactical Ability: Smoke Launcher. Smoke grenade that explodes on impact.
  • Passive Ability: Double Time. Taking shots while sprinting boosts your speed temporarily.
  • Ultimate Ability: Rolling Thunder. Call in an artillery strike that moves across the map.

A lot of you will already have predicted that Bangalore would appear on this list. She's often promoted as the "starter Legend", and that's why she's third on this list, but we still think there are even better choices...

Let's talk about Bangalore. She works in a kind of "selfish" fashion, but this is great for new players. Her Ult is like Gibraltars, basically a killstreak that all shooter fans will be familiar enough with using, and her Tactical Ability is just smoke grenades, so again: very familiar to most gamers. These Smokes are particularly effective with the Digital Thread Scope that allows her to see enemies as red outlines. But her Passive ability is what really sets her apart. She gets a speed boost whenever she's being shot at, and while this does nothing to help the team, it will help you escape. So as we said, perhaps it's "selfish", but it's perfect for beginners, who are likely running away from more fights than they're running into.

Bangalore
Bangalore will help you make sense of all the items you can find looting. | © EA

2. Lifeline

  • Real Name: Ajay Che
  • Home Planet: Psamathe
  • Tactical Ability: D.O.C. Heal Drone. You have a DOC that can be deployed to heal teammates over time.
  • Passive Ability: Combat Medic. Deploy the DOC to revive teammates.
  • Ultimate Ability: Care Package. Call in a drop pod full of gear.

Lifeline is a weird one, we were almost tempted to not include her. The thing is, Lifeline is popular even at much higher skill ranks, and you won't master her as a beginner. But we still think, what she brings to a squad and what she can teach, is really important for players to begin experiencing right away.

She's basically the healer. She can deploy a bot that hovers around healing or reviving teammates, and the effectiveness of this in a BR with slow revive speeds is obvious. The Ult is also pretty great for beginners, who might be slow at looting. It's a drop pod of goodies (guaranteed to be better than what you have) that she can call in, so when you just haven't found enough equipment, you can always rely on her for the minimum. Lifeline's healing focus is good for beginners because it teaches them to play patiently and to value the withdrawing from a fight. It's also useful to have a drone that can heal, because manually healing another player has to be timed perfectly if you want to avoid being pushed.

Lifeline
Lifeline will teach you the fundamentals. | © EA

1. Bloodhound

  • Real Name: Unknown.
  • Home Planet: Talos.
  • Tactical Ability: Eye of the Allfather. Send out a scan to see enemies behind surface and walls.
  • Passive Ability: Tracker. See enemy footsteps.
  • Ultimate Ability: Beast of the Hunt. Highlights nearby enemies as red and boosts your speed.

In first place, and probably to no-one's surprise, we have Bloodhound. Bloodhound has fantastically easy abilities to use, and they're effective for the whole team. Plus, Bloodhound is like Lifeline in that they scale well into higher-ranked play, so if you make them your main early on, then you could ride that success all the way to Platinum and beyond!

Bloodhound's passive allows them to see enemy footsteps, which is great for avoiding an ambush and easy to understand. And their Tactical Ability sends out a pulsing scan that maps the surrounding area and highlights enemies in red. Basically, Bloodhound has wall hacks, similar to a Snapeshot grenade in COD, or Ji-Soo Pak's ability in Battlefield 2042. This kind of intel makes firefights far easier, because you don't need to predict enemy movement, you can just scan for it.

The Ult is a little weird though, it's easy for beginners to understand, but it will take them time to use effectively. If you haven't tried it out yet, it allows Bloodhound to enter "hunter mode", which means constant wall hacks and a significant speed boost. When you get good at the combat in Apex, then this Ult is one of the best in the game, but if you're not aggressive with it, it's basically just a better version of the Tactical Ability.

Bloodhound
He's a folk hero in the lore, and he's definitely won over the hearts of players. | © EA

And that, ladies and gentlemen, was your guide to the best Legends for beginners to start using. Really any of these would be a great choice to use first, but Bloodhound is our number one for a reason. Also, can you think of anything more badass than the nameless local folk hero winning the Apex Games?

Jon Ramuz

Jon has a BA and an MA in English Literature, and as Content Lead for EarlyGame has written over 1,500 articles. He focuses on shooters, but also writes about entertainment and gaming in general....