Ranking Every Apex Legends Character

Games Lists Apex Legends
Ranking Every Apex Legends Character

Apex Legends has swiftly slid into the hearts and minds of many battle royale fans over the last few weeks, and it’s easy to see why, with its buttery smooth motion-focused combat and quirky characters. While the current roster sits at a total of only eight individuals to pick from, even that choice can be a little bit overwhelming for those looking to dive into Respawn’s latest. Fortunately we’ve put each legend through their paces, seeing what works and what doesn’t, all in the name of bringing you this definitive ranking of every legend in Apex Legends.

8. Caustic

Apex Legends Caustic.jpg

Fumigating his way through the Apex Legends landscape, Caustic offers an alternative approach to the run-and-gun whiplash of most matches. Unfortunately, his specialized toolset often puts him at odds with the game’s emphasis on speed and movement, only occasionally allowing him to shine when the situation perfectly aligns to suit his playstyle. Thanks to his zone-controlling gas traps, Caustic is the king of enclosed spaces, but far too many encounters take place across the stretch of an open plain to ever make his potent chemicals worthwhile. Caustic’s passive only compounds how out of place the legend is in the current state of things, granting vision of any enemy unlucky enough to wander too close into his miasma clouds.

Caustic does have his uses, however, and can offer up some utility by using his remote gas traps as an early warning system by booby trapping choke points and narrow pathways leading to and from key areas. His gas clouds can also double up as an improvised smokescreen on occasions, allowing you to obscure sightlines and provide some cover when the need arises. With that said,Caustic’s toolkit makes too many concessions in the face of his fellow legends to make him anything more than an angry scientist stomping around trying to make everybody experience his unique fragrances.


7. Gibraltar

Apex Legends Gibraltar.jpg

This giant of a man makes his living on the battlefield soaking up the bullets everyone else is trying to avoid. A defense-focused legend, Gibraltar earns his keep with the help of several shield abilities, each with their own pros and cons. Gibraltar’s passive is an automatically deployed front-facing shield that attaches to the weapon he is using and acts as a mini barrier to soak up a small amount of damage, providing Gibraltar continues to aim down the sights. At first this might seem like a bonus, but it’s easy to give away your position when accidentally triggering your shield while trying to get a better shot across long distances, and while the shield itself can be turned off, doing so makes having it redundant in the first place.

Gibraltar is more than just a walking shield, however, as his regular ability allows him to throw down a temporary dome of protection that stops any projectiles from passing through its defensive barrier. Once again, though, this ability comes as a double-edged sword as anyone inside the dome of protection cannot fire outside of the dome unless they leave it. What’s more, if Gibraltar gets pushed out of his protective sphere then enemies can also make use of the shield’s barrier, turning it against poor Gibraltar and his allies. Gibraltar isn’t all about defense though, as his ultimate ability can be deployed to devastating effect by calling in a mortar strike on a targeted position. This scattershot attack isn’t always going to reliably earn Gibraltar a kill each time it is deployed, but it’s a welcome addition to his otherwise defensive arsenal that makes him all the more reliable than his defensive counterpart Caustic.


6. Mirage

Apex Legends Mirage.jpg

Mirage is the class clown, always acting aloof and absent while secretly harbouring the potential for greatness, providing he can concentrate long enough to make use of his unique skill set. With his holographic suit, Mirage utilizes decoys that can be deployed to distract and confuse other players while the original Mirage flanks or flees as he sees fit. Seeing as misdirection is the aim of the game with this particular legend, his use can vary wildly and is often dependant on how observant your opponents are. In the right hands Mirage can help trick his enemies into revealing themselves, he can scout across large open areas for potential snipers waiting in the wings, and he can throw out his digital clones as mini sacrifices to distract opponents during your most vulnerable moments when reviving downed team members. Mirage’s passive ability is less than stellar, however, allowing him to create a decoy on the spot whenever he is downed while gaining a temporary invisibility cloak for a few seconds. The reality of most fights usually means that if someone has already downed you, they’ll just hang around for a few extra seconds to make sure you don’t get back up.

Mirage’s ultimate ability, Vanishing Act, grants the trickster a short window to go into hiding, deploying multiple decoys in the process as a bait and switch while he moves to a more advantageous position while under the cover of a faux invisibility. While the decoys attached to this ability aren’t very effective—they remain mostly stationary and clustered together—the shrouded cover Mirage gets can be a great way to completely reposition, both offensively to flank and defensively to escape tricky situations. This ability does come with its fair share of problems though, most notably being that it doesn’t grant you a true invisibility so enemies will still be able to see you if they are observant enough. The ability also locks you into a state where you can’t perform any actions, so if you are attacked during your cloaked state, it could leave you incredibly vulnerable. Given that his ultimate ability works much in the same way as Wraith’s standard skill, it’s easy to make the argument that the teleporting assassin ever so slightly edges out everyone’s favorite joker.


5. Wraith

Apex Legends Wraith.jpg

Wraith is a common pick for most games, but not always for the right reasons. A legend designed around movement, both covert and otherwise, Wraith’s toolbelt includes a semi-invisible shroud that lets her reposition and traverse short distances at speed. Wraith also comes with a passive that prompts her to comment whenever someone is aiming directly at her, which might sound great in practise but usually falls to the wayside among the other idle chatter of performing other actions during the match. Wraith’s ultimate ability allows her to create a usable portal that can be placed in two seperate locations, lasting for a decent amount of time before expiring. In the heat of battle, Wraith’s portal ultimate isn’t going to do much to tip the scales in her favor, but with a bit of forethought and planning, a carefully placed portal entrance can easily create a handy escape route for the entire team if things start to go south.

The problem with Wraith is that her skillset actively promotes players to forsake their team in the hopes of performing risky solo maneuvers that can easily go awry. Wraith’s portal is also usable by enemies too, and it’s easy to walk through a portal entrance thinking you’re on your way to safety only to find another team has spotted the visually noisy doorway and decided to camp out in anticipation for your hasty retreat. In the right hands, Wraith can be an excellent asset to any team composition, but it’s all too easy to be a bit too overzealous with her abilities which comes as a detriment more often than not.


4. Pathfinder

Apex Legends Pathfinder.jpg

Another legend centred around the art of movement, Pathfinder is the closest link to the fluidity of Titanfall 2’s parkour design that we’ve got right now. A highly agile legend in the right hands, Pathfinder’s signature move is his grappling hook that can allow him to perform gravity-bending feats that propel him over large distances and up sheer vertical climbs. With some practise, a well-versed Pathfinder can easily swing right around the usual angles to outflank an unsuspecting enemy. Combine this with Pathfinder’s ultimate ability, which allows him to create a stationary zipline for anyone to use, and it’s easy to see why this cheerful robot pal is a staple in most team compositions.

Pathfinder’s passive ability is the only thing that lets the legend down. While it is great to use it to reveal the next ring locations early, the beacons he has to use in order to trigger the ability are few and far between, and it’s unlikely knowing where the next ring is going to be will help swing the match in your favor. What’s more, the utility of his deployable zipline can sometimes come back against you, as it’s pretty obvious to see where you’re hiding if you use it to ferry your team into high vantage points, and sometimes just the act of throwing it down can persuade fellow team members to use it without being aware that it could potentially make them a giant flying target for any nearby enemies looking towards the skies.


3. Bloodhound

Apex Legends Bloodhound.jpg

With so much of the game’s focus being placed on movement and the constant dance of positioning between colliding teams, there’s one legend that comes equipped to handle the uncertainty of even the most nimble enemy. With a skill set specifically designed to track and reveal opponents, Bloodhound is the perfect counter to a number of the game’s quirky abilities. Bloodhound’s standard ability is the bread and butter of this particular fighter, allowing you to ping across a small radius around you to reveal any nearby enemies, traps, and clues about recent activity in the area. This ability is alone to make Bloodhound a powerful forward scout in any team, allowing you to scout around dangerous corners and through interiors from relative safety. Combine this with the passive tracking ability that reveals a number of activities as clues to Bloodhound, and it becomes much harder for anyone to get the drop on this technological tracker.

The thing that makes Bloodhound truly shine however is their ultimate ability: Beast of the Hunt. This rage mode allows Bloodhound to become much faster, allowing them to easily outpace anyone unlucky enough to get caught by the rampage. The ability also washes out the color of the game, briefly switching to black and white for the duration while highlighting enemies in a stark red hue, which can be a powerful aid when fighting against large groups of opponents. With an ability list that actively counters the majority of other legends, Bloodhound is one of the strongest fighters around right now, and definitely makes a worthwhile addition to any roster.


2. Lifeline

Apex Legends Lifeline.jpg

Death isn’t always the end in Apex Legends but you’re still better off doing everything you can to prevent it from happening. No other legend is better at doing this, for both herself and her allies, than the combat medic Lifeline. For her standard ability Lifeline is able to deploy a stationary healing robot that can regenerate the health of nearby allies, and while the drone itself isn’t all that effective at healing damage fast, having health regeneration on demand can be a powerful boon when fighting across multiple encounters as the match progresses. Lineline’s passive is just as powerful as it not only lets her deploy a fairly strong forward facing barrier when reviving down allies, but it also allows her to use consumables 25% faster than other legends, letting you crush through shield tanks much faster than your opponents.

Lifeline’s ultimate isn’t the fanciest, and it’s not going to win any prizes for allowing you to pull off some incredibly skillful trickshot or cunning juke, but what it lacks in flair it makes up for in overall utility. By calling in her ultimate, Lifeline summons a slimmed down version of the care packages that can random drop across the battlefield throughout the match. These care packages often contain high level weapon mods, equipment, and even consumables to help keep you and your allies stocked up and supplied. This is even more of a bonus if you and your team are unable to fully gear up at the start of the round, as simply having a pocket care package summonable every few minutes can be enough to get your team back up to scratch before the ring gets too claustrophobic.


1. Bangalore

Apex Legends Bangalore.jpg

If you’ve been seeing an abundance of Bangalore players recently, it’s likely because everyone has come around to the fact that her passive, Double Time, is quite possibly one of the strongest in the game yet. Not only does this ability trigger automatically when you need it the most, it also greatly improves your sprinting speed, allowing you to easily close the distance across large open areas, outrun or outflank opponents, and just generally be a menace to anyone trying to gun you down. With speed being such an essential element to the game’s dynamic, this legend excels in running fast. Her standard ability only compounds her use too, allowing you to lay down a blanket of obscuring smoke that can conceal and confuse opponents, granting Bangalore and her allies a degree of control over larger areas on demand.

To add to her already extensive ability to move around and control the battlefield, Bangalore’s ultimate serves up a sweeping artillery strike that covers a large radius. After spitting out dozens of rockets across the landscape, each dropped missile will then proceed to explode, causing chaos and confusion across a wide area while Bangalore and her team sit back and wait for any unlucky stragglers attempting to flee the blast radius.


Andy Moore is a gaming freelancer based in the UK. When he’s not writing, he can be found staring blankly out of the nearest window, or spending way too much time on Twitter.

Share Tweet Submit Pin