'Apex Legends' Best Guns, Weapons Guide, Tier List, and Everything to Know

Respawn Entertainment’s brand-new battle royale game set within the Titanfall universe, called Apex Legends, has a lot of weapons and even more attachments for them. So in a world where an Alternator is the name of a sub-machine gun and not the part of your car that recharges the battery, how are we to make sense of the 18 weapons in the game?

Also Read: Apex Legends Tier List and Character Guide: How to Win This Battle Royale

Anyone who’s played Titanfall 2 has the advantage of knowing all of these weapons. Apex Legends takes place 30 years after that game, so most of the weapons and combat will feel remarkably similar — except there are no Titans here.

In every match of Apex Legends, players dive down into the play area in 20 teams of three with no gear whatsoever, scavenging for items, armor, and weapons. The most intense competition of each match happens in the first minute or so in a frenzied dash to beat your teammates to the best items in the area.

Here’s what you need to know to make sure you get the best guns and weapons in each Apex Legends match you play.

What to Know About Gear in Apex Legends

The same rarity tiers of common, rare, epic, and legendary found in many shooters these days (Fortnite included) are used in Apex Legends. Players should grab everything in sight, especially if it’s blue, purple, or gold. (Note: It’s impossible to pick up gear that’s worth less than what you have, which is a brilliant mechanic that every other game needs to copy.)

Getting a Body Shield, Helmet, and a Knockdown Shield should be an early priority in very match, as each of these items will increase survivability. Any healing items that replenish health or shields are also obviously good to have on hand.

Guns, however, are even more important.

Getting to Know the Guns of Apex Legends

Currently, Apex Legends includes 19 different guns split into familiar categories: pistols, shotguns, SMGs, assault rifles, LMGs, and sniper rifles. These are pretty standard weapon types across various shooters (first- or third-person) so anyone who’s played a game like Call of Duty or Titanfall should know what they’re dealing with.

Very few pistols are worth using unless a necessity. Shotguns are only useful at close range, as are SMGs (for the most part). At least one assault rifle is pretty much necessary. The larger LMGs are more powerful but also more unwieldy. Sniper rifles excel at longer ranges. These are the basics of gunplay in games.

New players should take time to familiarize themselves with the various weapon types and what they look like, especially because the names don’t make it clear at all. (The “Peacekeeper” could be anything, right?) Because everyone only gets to hold onto two weapons at a time, an obvious strategy is to always have two different archetypes.

Also included among the loot are weapon attachments that upgrade the magazine, barrel, and stock of some weapons. Ammo types vary wildly, even among same weapon types. (There’s a handy chart circulating on Reddit that explains which weapons take what ammo.)

Apex Legends Weapons Tier List

Because Apex Legends is still so new, it’ll take some time for a legitimate weapons tier list to shake out. And as the meta changes with new game updates, so will those tiers.

One Reddit user, u/heyylookitsme, posted a solid tier list on the r/apexlegends subreddit, but it’s one of many.

Many of the same weapons will pop up on most tier lists out there, namely the Devotion and Spitfire LMGs, Peacekeeper shotgun, and the Wingman pistol. Lists such as the one from Ranked Boost argue that the Mastiff shotgun is a top tier weapon (it’s also one of the rarest), along with the Triple Take and Kraber sniper rifles. Mastiff and Kraber, however, are incredibly hard to find.

In Apex Legends, however, players should always hunt for the weapons they’re naturally best with.

Apex Legends is currently available for PC via Origin, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.