Apex Legends is a battle royale where you don’t play alone, and your first three matches usually go like this: you have no idea what you’re picking up, where you’re running or why your teammates went the opposite way. None of that is your fault; the game explains the bare minimum. We’ll go through what a match looks like from the dropship to the final ring, what to grab in the first few minutes, how the ping system works so you can communicate even without a mic, and how to get a fallen teammate back into the game.
What a single match looks like
A battle royale match has 60 players. In Trios that means twenty squads of three, in Duos thirty pairs. Everyone flies in the dropship along a straight line over the map, and someone in your trio is the jumpmaster: they choose where to drop, and the rest of the party rides along with them until they break off.
Jumpmaster is assigned automatically and can be handed off. When you’re new, feel free to pass it to someone else and watch where more experienced players head. The drop decides the whole match more than your aim does: landing where five other trios are headed ends within a minute and a half.
There’s only one goal: survive as the last squad standing. The whole party wins, even if only one of its members is left at the end.
The first five minutes: what to pick up
You hit the ground with starting gear: an Evo Shield, a Knockdown Shield, two Shield Cells and two Syringes. Everything else is picked up off the ground and out of bins. The order in which to grab things in the first minutes is always the same:
- Any weapon. The first one you see. You can be picky a minute later; in the first seconds, what matters is whether you have anything to shoot with at all.
- Ammo for that weapon. Apex has five ammo types, and their colors match the weapon icon, so only take what fits the weapon you have.
- Helmet and Knockdown Shield. A helmet reduces headshot damage, and a better Knockdown Shield gives you more time before an enemy finishes you off.
- Backpack. Without one, you run out of space before you manage to collect healing items.
- Healing. Keep picking up Shield Cells and Syringes as you go, even when you’re not missing anything. They always run out at the worst possible moment.
- Weapon attachments. Sights, magazines, stocks: last of all, and only for what you’re actually carrying.
What each weapon does and which ones are worth holding on to long term in Apex is covered separately in our overview of weapons in Apex Legends.
The ping system: communicate even without a mic
This is something Apex Legends brought to the genre first, and today almost every shooter uses it in some form. With one button you mark a location, an item or an enemy, and the game itself recognizes what you’re looking at: a ping on an open door means something different from a ping on an enemy. Your teammates see the marker in the world and a message in chat.
EA patented the system and in 2021 released it for free to other developers as part of an accessibility pledge. That’s exactly why you don’t need a headset: a party of strangers in Apex communicates better with pings than with voice. What’s worth pinging from the start:
- Where you’re going. Before you start running there, not once you’re already on your way.
- What you need. Pinging ammo or a shield in your inventory sends the team a request, and whoever has extra drops it on the ground for you.
- Where the enemy is. A double click marks an enemy. This is the most valuable information in the game.
- What’s left in a death box. After a fight, pinging the contents of a box saves the whole trio half a minute of searching.
When a teammate goes down: banner and respawn
A knocked teammate isn’t out of the game yet. First they’re down and can be revived right on the spot. If an enemy finishes them off, they leave a death box behind with their banner in it, which can only be collected within 90 seconds of their death; after that it expires.
With the banner, run to a respawn beacon. It’s marked on the map, and out in the field you’ll recognize it by its green pillar of light. The interaction takes a few seconds, can be heard far and wide, and the incoming dropship is hard to miss; nearby trios know exactly what’s going on, so it pays to respawn only once you have the area under control.
Even if the banner expires, it’s not over: it can be crafted at a Replicator. Some legends can also collect banners from a distance, and others make respawns much faster, which is why it’s worth knowing what each legend can do before you pick one.
The ring and rotations
The playable area gradually shrinks, and outside it you lose health. The ring isn’t just a timer; it’s the main tool the game uses to decide matches, and new players deal with it too late.
The rule is simple: move before the ring catches up with you. Whoever leaves at the last moment runs through open ground, with ring damage pushing from behind and, up ahead, trios that arrived in time and took the hill. Whoever gets there first picks a position and waits for the others. In the late rings, positional advantage outweighs gear advantage.
Ranked or unranked?
A new account can’t jump into ranked right away: you need to reach level 20 and complete three sets of Road to Ranked challenges. These only count in Core mode, not in Mixtape or Wildcard.
That restriction is actually good news. Before you get into ranked, you’ll play a few dozen matches and learn the maps. Make use of it: in unranked you can try a legend you wouldn’t otherwise dare to play, drop somewhere with fast-paced fights and learn how to win gunfights. In ranked, on the other hand, the entry cost and teammates playing for rank discourage you from experimenting.
The most common beginner mistakes
- Splitting from your party. A solo runner won’t succeed in Apex, even with great gear. A trio that sticks together beats three individuals with the same weapons.
- Taking a fight you can’t back out of. If the first exchange doesn’t go your way, retreat. A gunfight also draws in a third party, which will wait until you’ve finished each other off.
- Not picking up healing. At the end of a match, what matters is who has something to recharge their shield with, not who has the better sight.
- Ignoring sound. Apex has loud, easy-to-read audio. Footsteps above you and open doors you left closed are free information.
- Switching legends every match. Pick one of the easy-to-control legends and stick with it for at least twenty matches before you start trying others.
FAQ
Sixty. In Trios that’s twenty squads of three, in Duos thirty pairs. The last surviving group wins.
No. Apex Legends has a ping system that lets you mark a location, an item or an enemy, and your teammates see the message on screen and in chat. You can communicate everything important without a mic.
Ninety seconds from their death. After that the banner expires, but it can still be crafted at a Replicator and your teammate brought back at a respawn beacon.
Level 20, plus completing three sets of Road to Ranked challenges, which only count in Core mode.
The jumpmaster is the member of the trio who chooses the drop location and leads the team during the landing. The game assigns it automatically, but it can be handed to another player while still in the dropship.
Information verified as of 5 September 2026. Before you pick a legend, go through our overview of legends and their abilities; for gear, check out our breakdown of weapons, and whether the game runs as it should is covered in our article on system requirements. Where to find people to play with is covered in our article on the community around the game. The rest of our guides are in the Apex Legends section.