Ranked guide for not quite beginners

Given my past ~7 month experience with Apex and ranked games – level D4 playing mostly with random people from Discord (no set squad) – wanted to share my experience and provide some tips and tricks for let’s say not totally new players in the community as well as the ones who treat ranked seriously – want to be as efficient as possible and reach as high rank as possible.

Just for the reference the basic guide seems to be available here (maybe a bit outdated): https://answers.ea.com/t5/General-Discussion/New-Players-Guide-To-Understanding-Apex/m-p/10254273#M150937

As for this guide I will mention in my opinion the most important aspects of the game, that hopefully will help you the same way it helped me. Those are:

1. Teamwork and communication
2. Tactics and rotations
3. Legend, weapon and inventory choices
4. Game analysis, conclusions, training and improvement

Teamwork and communication

I will start with latter – communication.

In my opinion the most important factor of this game mode that will give you the biggest boost in various game aspects including how efficiently you will rank up or vice versa - damage your progress and results.

One/the most important facts people tend to miss in communication is - other people can’t read your mind!!!!

The whole point of the communication is to deliver clear message efficiently so that all parties execute the same plan in a coordinated matter instead of giving enemy an easy 1 v 3 1 v 3 and 1 v 3 <- typical case when communication is not good and teammates run in 3 different directions.

Given above said if people are not using in-game ping system and microphones…I really don’t see how this could work. There is just too much going on in the game especially in higher tier ranks to use only one of these two options not to mention cases where players use neither.

Microphone – short, concise messages to coordinate actions with your team. E.g. attack or fall back, look for enemy or keep looting, announcements about knocks or focusing fire on a certain player.

What people usually do here wrongly (my opinion):

1. long messages e.g. “I think given enemies dropped here and there and the fact that I have blue armor and RE-45 I think that looting place X is better than attacking place Y because ….”
2. too many messages e.g. “10 damage on Path, broke Octain, picked up ammo, running now to the left side, 20 damage on Gibi, he has purple, ship is flying over us…”
3. very low volume / lack of clarity in the speech – some people just talk with what seems to be lack of self-confidence so you hear them talk but barely and in many cases you just don’t understand the message, have to take your time to confirm, ask to repeat the message
4. being silent after knockdown or elimination – not helping team members that are still alive
5. give relative indications e.g. enemy on me (works only when you know you team mates by voice and picked legend), enemy here, on the right / left, healing, jumping, resing etc.
6. using microphone to talk about “life” – clear influence from streamers in my opinion that takes away the focus from the game and usually end up in a painful loss.

Note! In some cases, longer discussion could take place, but that should be done only in safe environment, mainly when deciding on the next tactical steps rather than ongoing battle with enemy team.

In-game ping system

Some might find this redundant if team members are using microphone.

In my opinion that is not true, given in-game ping system has following pros vs audio info:

1. information appears on the screen and stays there at least for a few seconds vs audio that is gone instantly
2. markers indicate an exact (or very close) place where particular action is going to take place
3. pings do not clutter audio queues from the game (unless spammed)
4. pings are more useful during heavy fighting when audio is just too cluttered
5. in some case it is faster e.g. ping enemy X meters away vs. saying “enemy is coming from North East 200 meters away”

To sum up – do not expect people to guess your moves, always communicate within the game as much as possible at the same time knowing when too much information is just too much and harmful for getting the message across.

Another thing I would suggest – during the game focus on the goal = win, keep your feedback to other players after the game has ended as providing feedback in game would a) clutter the audio b) shift the focus c) probably will not be 100% efficient as involved parties will divide the focus between the game actions and feedback giving/receiving.

Also don’t assume things – if you did not hear or understand something, just double-check with the team e.g. are we pushing or holding position? To prevent someone not getting the message don’t be afraid to double-down on your comms e.g. “pushing Octain on North east, pushing Octain on North east” and maybe even add ping on the location where the Octain is on the map.

Teamwork as a bond between people

This section will focus more on human relationship and how to increase your chances to find set team members.

In many cases I see that people are willing to find a team, yet when they do their expectations are that team will play great from the game one (no one likes to lose RP points right?!), play styles will align perfectly, people characteristics will be the same.

Well boo hoo that’s not how it works. Relationship and teamwork requires a lot of investment thus keeping in mind the end goal – gaining a lot of RP, progressing to your peak performance, having people to play with on daily basis etc. should not be forgotten and valued over some 100 or even 500 lost RP upfront.

My advice here is to:

1. set a clear baseline for people you are looking for to play with – region, how often you/them should play, timezone, attitude towards game (serious vs. having fun), goals in mind e.g reaching Diamond level
2. invest in your potential teammates, set squad – see how other players benefit your game, see pros in their game, how they benefit the team, focus on positive aspects first as we all have some drawbacks in our gameplay
3. communicate openly about what you think is working and what needs improvement and why, always provide clear facts, examples to avoid defensive reaction from people, adding that you want to continue playing with them, just improve these currently negative traits over time
4. agree between yourselves right from the start that you will play X games together to see if all people are on board with you, ready to invest into potential set squad
5. do not be greedy – don’t focus on damage done, k/d ratio and other irrelevant metrics, don’t take all the best loot e.g. running around with 301 and flatline when team mate is on P2020. Keep in mind that you are one team and you are there to win/do your best as a team. Someone will always die first, do the least damage, yet that does not mean that the member of the team is not valuable e.g. by drawing fire on him and potentially dying first the member is opening clear easy shots for you, in some cases maybe even risking his life to pick you up, etc. Again focusing on who does what best in the team!
6. after a few games agree on the team roles – who is making calls, who is scouting, who is support player, who is the best in pushing, doing the damage, what range fights work best for you (close/mid/long)
7. share the knowledge – see and talk about what other team members know about the game, game settings, hardware, mechanics of the game etc. that benefited their performance. If it worked for them, there is a high chance that it will work also for you. As they say team is as strong as its weakest link – so by improving other player weaknesses you make the team stronger altogether.

Finally remember that winning together is great but it takes effort and you will reach winning phase only through losing (quite a few) games. You need to keep in mind during lose loses that you met these people, formed a team to make it work not to bash other players on how bad they are.

Tactics

In ranked one of the first thing you will hear regarding to tactics will be “let’s get early KP (kill points)”. The idea behind this tactic is that upon the drop people might not have the best loot plus will probably have white shields -> there is a higher chance that you can land a few accurate shots and kill them vs. later in the game when most of teams will have higher ranked shields, better weapons, scopes and a lot of heals = you need to land a lot more good shots to land a kill.

This is all good and this tactics do work. Yet a think to keep in mind is that this still will be a 50/50 case at best – enemies will not die just because you dropped near, they still might get better loot, you still might need to land a scope-less P2020 shots as well as keep using fundamentals of positioning and teamwork as running out in the open 1 vs 3 even when you are after “early KP” will lead to the same result as always – you dying most and not getting any KP.

Additional benefit of such tactic is that if you succeed you already get some RP / lose less if eliminated early = there is less pressure to push risky fights along the way, given you already have KP and each placement you gain multiplies those KP into higher number of RP.

At the same time there is a complete opposite tactics of going for the placement or sometimes called playing the last zone. Please note that it works equally good in my opinion, especially if you feel more confident with better loot, less squads around, can read rotations good and anticipate where and when enemies will come to your position.

Why going for the last zone works? Here is some math - keep in mind that even the last zone most often than not has at least 3 enemies = 3 kill points and 3 assists points, combined with 100 RP for the 1st place that is a significant amount of RP and strong argument to those who think that RP needs to be gained quickly, team has to push as many fights as possible to finish on max RP. You can suggest playing both styles over some period of time and gather stats which works best for you as in my opinion going for early and especially max KP is riskier approach than going for the last zone.

Middle ground between these two is so called 3rd party approach – meaning you do not take fights 3v3 or any other equal 50/50 cases, rather only attack enemies who are already fighting someone else (except cases where you see solo players on the map / have advantage in numbers).

This is considered the easiest way to gain RP and truly so (if executed correctly). Why? Enemies are already focused on someone else, probably no full health, given proper rotation, positioning will be fired on from multiple sides (your side and other enemy squad side) thus lacking cover just to name few of advantages.

In my opinion the main thing to keep in mind when going with 3rd party approach is not to be greedy. Say if two teams are fighting do not expect that you will kill all 6 players, probably it will be closer to 3 or sometimes even less. Do keep in mind is that those kills will be easier than straight up 3v3 aka 50/50 fight and you will keep the loot of both teams = able to recover, improve your loadout, which is the whole point of this tactics.

Same applies to situations when you as a 3rd party get 3rd partied – important to understand that in such cases you are no longer in 3rd party situation and tactics must change. Sometimes even drastically given other two teams might end a fight or decide to focus on you instead that for your team means that you are not shooting at already busy team but have multiple teams focusing on you.

Finally, the tactics I call “uneven matchup / incorrect rank” = lobbies when you realize that enemies are either much worse or much better than you. In such (exception) cases you should not be stopped by either pushing everyone to progress as fast as possible, finishing most of the games with max RP or vice versa not be ashamed to leave the fights where you get stripped of your health and armor almost instantly meaning in lobbies that contain much more skilled players. Some people are afraid, their ego do not let them to back out of the fights, but think about such lobbies full of skilled players like you say finishing top 5 in Formula 1, even without setting any records, gaining any significant stats – in Apex terms 0 kills or assists, “low” damage. Be proud that you survived that long among much more skilled players!

To finalize this section, some random facts, statements from my side regarding overall tactics in the game that apply to any of them:

• It is ok to leave a fight you started if you see that it is not going well, to your advantage
• If someone from the team gets knocked you don’t have to rush to pick him up – we are in ranked, people do not quit after 5-10 seconds after being knocked, don’t take unnecessary risks
• If you get hit, you don’t need to heal instantly, base your decision on enemy loadout, situation in a fight, evaluate whether your team can cover you while during healing, whether they will not be knocked during your heal time, also try not to heal all at the same time, announce that decision to the team and coordinate who goes first as in cases when you stop shooting more often than not enemies will close the distance = push you
• Taking fights in the ring/zone is still ok during first two rings (sometimes even ring 3), they do not do enough damage to kill you instantly, also feel free to use space inside rings to rotate (more on that later), just ensure you have enough heals before doing that
• Unless you need armor swap or ammo, do not focus on knocked people in the middle of the fight (read about scoring system in Apex to get the point). Same applies to looting – if team is fighting, do not leave them announced to go get a better shield or ammo near by
• Do not feel bad if you can’t save your teammates – sometimes it is much better to just abandon hopeless fight and continue game for placement with 2 or even 1 person on the team vs. dying all at the same time and spot trying to win a fight where you are outskilled and/or outnumbered. Team also should be honest about their mistakes, take responsibility of individual actions and encourage teammates not to take risks after you/teammate has taken a risk that did not pay off = don’t give enemies easy KP

Rotations

In my opinion rotations are not the main thing that will make or break a players ranked progress unless you are in top tier levels, competitive environment. Why? Because most people you will be playing are still random teams, who don’t have a set tactic, in most cases are not aware of possible zones, thus will act randomly.

Still there are a few points I would like to mention here.

Starting with two basic tactics for rotations – first in the zone vs. playing the edge / last in the zone.

Pros and * of both:

First in the zone

Pros: no need to worry about taking damage by the ring, have probably more options/paths to retreat from the fight if needed, can take “the best” position, prepare for incoming fights, somewhat easier to apply 3rd party tactics given there is always some teams that come in later and last that usually fight eachother closer to the zone’s edge = you can join in as 3rd party.

*: “the best” positions in the zone usually will be heavily contested, first choice of each team, you might get surrounded more often than not, given there is no ring covering at least one of the attack directions, for many people this seems like camping – will need to prove your point via communication as discussed above.

Playing the edge

Pros: no sense of urgency, can move with the ring, in most cases can be sure that no one will attack from behind = the ring, in my opinion easier to read your options, where you should/should not go vs. when rotating first, also you will have more intel, potentially teams already fighting within the zone as you rotate in, potential for 3rd party tactics

*: if you mess up your timing you will most likely be dead by the ring or forced into choke-point most likely guarded by someone that on its own is an con, need to read rotation of other players well not to be stuck between ring and enemy team in an open/bad place to take a fight, less time to rotate into the next zone compared to other teams who are more inside the zone = most likely you will have to play the edge over and over again

Some tips in case you are bad with reading rotations of others or getting into the zone fast enough – die by the ring or in choke-points very often:

• Take a look at the game map, memorize it, always review map during the drop and during the game – what are best points of interests (places to be), where the next ring is etc.
• Scan beacons with legends who can do that as often as possible
• Have a mobile legend on the team – Valkyrie, Octain, Pathfinder, not the most mobile but still – Wraith
• Learn how much distance you can run without any assistance, visualize that in any situation on the map
• Loot fast / keep an eye on ring timer

To conclude – in my opinion rotations more often than not will not make or break your ranked game but if you do it well it definitely make things easier.

Legend, weapon and inventory choices

I will not talk here about cases where some legend or weapon is overpowering in the game – you will know it anyway as majority of teams will play them and most likely kill you with it if you don’t = sign that you might look into currently overpowered legend or weapon topic online, experiment playing the combination as well.

Besides that, I would quote if not mistaken coach Nihil (google him, very useful info on his channel): “…if you are dying too often, losing 1v1 fights, think about what legends/weapons you are plying…”.

I would also add that there will be cases where personal preference will come in play e.g. whether you prefer Flatline or 301, Eva 8 or Prowler, yet in most cases there are just “must do’s” or at least we can call them “safe options” that will work for everyone. Again more often than not you can see that in any season by what others play, statistics online regarding legend and weapon picks, etc.

At the same time, I personally say that:

1. it does not matter whom you play unless you are getting into later/last zone on regular basis – most fights will take in generic, semi-open place and will be decided mostly by your mechanical skills rather than legend or even weapon choices
2. getting back to teamwork topic – legend and weapon choices should derive from your team’s preferences rather than what other play, as in the end 3 people will not be able to play the same legends at the same game and most likely it would also not be wise to play the same weapon either

So experiment, keep up with the latest changes, see what works best for you and what others kill you with. There is no right answer in my opinion!

Game analysis, conclusions, training and improvement

The part people take way too emotionally, personally and in most cases call toxic.

I already mentioned in teamwork and communication section that feedback is essential, so is game analysis and training, to draw conclusions and improve or at least not make same mistakes in future games.

My approach here is to:

1. record all my ranked games when I reach Diamond level (in lower tier levels you might get away with mistakes more often than not and also have less hackers, so recording might be less valuable)
2. review questionable episodes be it my actions, teamwork related or fishy enemies – again just to be 100% or close to that sure what happened as in game you will often perceive things differently, inaccurately
3. talk your findings over with players in the team – they might improve or give you tips to improve your gameplay
4. take note of the mistakes you are making and review the list over time – see what has been eliminated, what returned and thus need special attention as repetitive issue etc.
5. review also good games where you won, look for improvements even there as sometimes you will win just because others played even worse
6. not a fan of training yet if you see a need to improve some aspect of your game e.g. map knowledge, accuracy, particular weapon recoil – do invest time in training daily so that you don’t end up with repetitive issue

Hope this helps (and there will be at least one person who reads it from top to bottom :D)!