Apex Legends: Beginner tips to become a Champion

3. Be wary of your surroundings

Here’s a little anecdote: I have a friend I’ve been playing video games with since high school and when we would play shooters, he oftentimes would say some odd things for trash talk. When he would walk up on someone and stealthily kill them, he would say “oh he has no ears!” Sounds insensitive and I apologize if it comes off that way, but he didn’t mean this person didn’t physically have them. It was simply a quirky way to say this person wasn’t aware of his presence.

Fast forward to 2018 when the battle royale genre craze reached an all-time high. We’d play Fortnite and when we engaged enemies, he would tell me to “use my ears.” That was his way of telling me to gauge which direction the enemies are in proximity.

So now we have Apex Legends and that oddly worded piece of advice still applies here. Listen for footsteps and gunfire. You can decide whether to tread carefully and carry out a preemptive stealth strike on your foes who might engage in close quarters combat or keep your head low and close the gap on the snipers.

This is crucial for survival because the last thing you would want is to hear gunfire from a general direction, engage the hostile area, and get caught in a crossfire. Or worse — holding out in a building and getting snuck up on or picked off by stealth and CQC.

This one has a caveat to it because playing audio through a TV or monitor already puts you at a disadvantage over those who use headsets. Unless you play your game at a really high volume, it could work. But if you stream or communicate with a microphone, you’ll probably get muted or told to turn the volume down on your game because you’re then impeding on your teammates’ hearing.

While hearing is crucial, keep a mental note of any paper trails of battle or looting. Check if the crates have been looted, if structures are empty, if doors are open or have been kicked in, or if there were recently dropped player tags with all the loot they had. Chances are there is a team or two that have suffered casualties or are trying to recuperate and are trying to regroup or respawn a teammate. Take that opportunity and use it to your advantage.