The first thing to consider is gearing out your character. There are four pieces of gear to be on the lookout for (excluding guns of course) each of which we will detail further below. These four pieces of gear consist of body armor, helmet, backpack, and knock-down shield. While each of these are pretty self-explanatory in what they do, there is a bit of nuance to them. So let’s dive right into it!

Outside of guns, body shields are the single most important thing you want to find early game. Body shields do not provide damage reduction as they do in other games. Instead, body shields in Apex Legends provide the character with more health. Body shields are available in common, rare, epic, and legendary rarities. While health is restored by syringes and med kits; body shields are replenished with shield cells and shield batteries. Here’s a look at what each of the rarities offers:

• Common Body Shield (Level 1) – 2 Shield Bars (50 HP)
• Rare Body Shield (Level 2) – 3 Shield Bars (75 HP)
• Epic Body Shield (Level 3) – 4 Shield Bars (100 HP)
• Legendary Body Shield (Level 2) – 4 Shield Bars (100 HP) – Bonus Special: Executioner – Fully regenerate shields upon successfully completing a Finisher

Helmets are the other defensive option for combat in Apex Legends. While less important than a body shield, helmets are crucial in their own right. Helmets help to reduce the damage you take from headshots. Helmets come in common, rare, epic, and legendary rarity, each with their own benefit. Unlike games like Z1 Battle Royale and PUBG, helmets do not break in Apex. Here’s a look at what each of the rarities do:

• Common Helmet (level 1) – Reduces headshot damage taken by 10%
• Rare Helmet (level 2) – Reduces headshot damage taken by 20%
• Epic Helmet (level 3) – Reduces headshot damage taken by 25%
• Legendary Helmet (level 4) – Reduces headshot damage taken by 25% – Bonus Special: Fast Charge – Reduces tactical and ultimate ability recharge time

Knock-down shields are the piece of gear you hope you never need, but never want to be without. A knock-down shield does exactly as the name indicates, shields you while you are knocked down. This shield is able to be activated at will when downed, however it is not deployed at all times, allowing you to hide while downed. The shield only blocks the front of your character; leaving knocked players vulnerable to damage from the sides or back in order to be executed. Knock-down shields also come in the standard four rarities; common, rare, epic, and legendary. Here’s a look at what each of the rarities do:

• Common Knock-down shield (level 1) – Shield blocks up to 100 damage and has a grey aura
• Rare Knock-down shield (level 2) – Shield blocks up to 250 damage and has a blue aura
• Epic Knock-down shield (level 3) – Shield blocks up to 750 damage and has a purple aura
• Legendary Knock-down shield (level 4) – Shield blocks up to 750 damage and has a golden aura – Bonus Special: Resurrection – Can self-revive a single time when downed. Knock-down shield degrades to epic quality once this ability is used.

Backpacks, you just feel naked without one. Backpacks in Apex Legends unsurprisingly increase carrying capacity of your character. With the amount of ammo (and different types), grenades, healing, and other utility items you will carry in Apex Legends, it’s easy to run out of space. Without a backpack, you can barely carry anything it seems. Backpacks provide no direct combat benefit (except at the legendary level), but the ability to carry more ammo, healing, and utility will undoubtedly help to secure wins. Backpacks come in the standard four rarities; common, rare, epic, and legendary. Here’s a look at each rarity of backpack:

• Common Backpack (level 1) – Adds 2 inventory slots to carrying capacity
• Rare Backpack (level 2) – Adds 4 inventory slots to carrying capacity
• Epic Backpack (level 3) – Adds 6 inventory slots to carrying capacity
• Legendary Backpack (level 4) – Adds 6 inventory slots to carrying capacity – Bonus Special: Fast Heal – Healing items take half as long to use (includes shields)

Kitting your gun (aka getting all of the attachments for it) is an extremely important aspect of the combat in Apex Legends. There are a variety of attachments that are each very powerful in their own right, and help to make your weapon more effective, and your squad more likely to win a fight. There is a lot of overlap between the weapons, but some types of guns have their own unique attachments as well. Let’s dive right in to the various attachments and optics in Apex Legends.

Barrel stabilizers are one of the two most important weapon attachments in the game for most guns. Barrel stabilizers will equip to some pistols, SMGs, Assault Rifles, LMGs, and Sniper Rifles. These are primarily useful on fully-automatic weapons, however, they do help on single shot weapons as well. Barrel stabilizers come in four rarities; common, rare, epic, and legendary. Let’s take a look at what each version does:

• Common Barrel Stabilizer (level 1) – Small recoil reduction when firing gun
• Rare Barrel Stabilizer (level 2) – Moderate recoil reduction when firing gun
• Epic Barrel Stabilizer (level 3) – Large recoil reduction when firing gun
• Legendary Barrel Stabilizer (level 4) – Larger recoil reduction when firing gun – Bonus Passive – reduced visual muzzle flash from gun

• Common Extended Mag (level 1) – Magazine capacity increased by a small amount
• Rare Extended Mag (level 2) – Magazine capacity increased by a moderate amount. Slightly increased reload speed.
• Epic Extended Mag (level 3) – Magazine capacity increased by a large amount. Noticeably faster reload speed.

Exclusive to shotguns, as the name suggests, shotgun bolts are a very important attachment for those who like to get up close and personal. The purpose of the shotgun bolt is to increase the firing rate of a shotgun, thus increasing your potential DPS output and ability to win close quarter engagements. These attachments are able to be equipped to the Mozambique, EVA-8, and Peacekeeper. Shotgun bolts come in three rarities; common, rare, and epic. Here’s a look at what each rarity provides:

• Common Shotgun bolt (level 1) – Slight increase to firing rate of shotguns
• Rare Shotgun bolt (level 2) – Moderate increase to firing rate of shotguns
• Epic Shotgun bolt (level 3) – Maximum increase to firing rate of shotguns

Stocks come in two varieties, the standard stock, and the sniper stock. Standard stocks are utilized with Assault Rifles, SMGs, and LMGs; while sniper stocks are utilized with Sniper Rifles. While less crucial than other attachments, the stock offers a great deal of added power to your guns. Both standard and sniper stocks have the same effects and come in three rarities; common, rare, and epic. Here’s what they do:

• Common Stock (level 1) – Slight handling improvement and reduced aim drift. 15% faster raising and lowering of weapon.
• Rare Stock (level 2) – Moderate handling improvement and reduced aim drift. 25% faster raising and lowering of weapon.
• Epic Stock (level 3) – Great handling improvement and reduced aim drift. 35% faster raising and lowering of weapon.

Hop-ups are the “special” attachments in Apex Legends that offer unique and powerful upgrades for specific weapons. Currently, there are four hop-up attachments in the game. Skullpiercer Rifling, Selectfire Receiver, Precision Choke, and the Turbocharger are the four hop-ups. The Turbocharger is a legendary hop-up attachment, while the others are epic quality. Let’s take a look at what each of them do:

• Skullpiercer Rifling – Increases headshot damage. Equippable on the Wingman (2.25x multiplier) and Longbow DMR (2.5x multiplier)
• Selectfire Receiver – Adds an additional firing method for a weapon. Equippable on the Prowler Burst PDW (offers full-auto firing) and Havoc Rifle (offers single fire hit-scan sniper like beam shot).
• Precision Choke – Allows a weapon to charge while aiming down the sights, this charge reduces the spread of the weapon’s projectiles. Equippable with the Peacekeeper and Triple Take.
• Turbocharger – Removes the time for an energy weapon to charge-up before firing. Equippable with the Devotion and Havoc Rifle.

One of the things that Apex Legends does best is to offer a wide variety of optics for different preferences and engagement ranges. Optics are valuable on any weapon as they reduce screen clutter from iron sights, allowing you to identify targets more easily, track more reliably, and connect with more of your shots. Optics also provide a zoom when aiming down the sights, allowing you to take fights at longer ranges with accuracy. There are 10 total optics in the game, with a variety of different styles. Different optics are equippable with different classes of weapons. Let’s take a look:

• 1x Holo (common) – Equippable with all guns – No additional functions
• 1x Digital Threat (Legendary) – Equippable with Shotguns, SMGs, and Pistols – Threat Highlighting functionality
• 1x HCOG ‘Classic’ (common) – Equippable with all guns – No additional functions
• 2x HCOG ‘Bruiser” – Equippable with all guns – No additional functions
• 3x HCOG ‘Ranger’ – Equippable with Sniper Rifles, LMGs, Assault Rifles, and SMGs – No additional functions
• 6x Sniper – Equippable with Sniper Rifles – No additional functions
• 1x-2x Variable Holo – Equippable with all guns – Variable Zoom functionality
• 2x-4x Variable AOG – Equippable with Sniper Rifles, LMGs, Assault Rifles, and SMGs – Variable Zoom functionality
• 4x-8x Variable Sniper – Equippable with Sniper Rifles – Variable Zoom functionality
• 4x-10x Digital Sniper Threat – Equippable with Sniper Rifles – Variable Zoom and Threat Highlighting functionalities