Apex Legends Weapons Guide

What are the best guns in Apex Legends?

In this guide, we aim to take an in-depth look at every gun and grenade in Apex Legends. Below you will find detailed looks into each weapon, their tier-rating, general uses, strengths and weaknesses, attachment options, recommended optics, damage, and more. We hope that you find this guide useful as a way to learn the ins and outs of the various guns you will find in the arena, and how to best utilize them. With that being said, there’s a lot to cover here, so let’s jump right into it.

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If you’re looking for a specific gun, please use this table of contents:

P2020

Weapon Tier Rating: C-Tier

The P2020 is your standard run of the mill pistol, without any overly exciting features or benefits to be aware of. It’s not the gun you loot from your first building and are beyond excited about, thinking “I’m set for the rest of the game”, but you’re happy it’s a gun at least. While you typically want to ditch this pistol in favor of a better gun as soon as possible, it is at least completely viable for defending yourself in the early game, taking that first fight, and clearing out your drop-spot to loot safely. This pistol has a high rate of fire, above average accuracy, and fires light ammo with a base 10 round magazine.

The P2020 comes with two available weapon attachment slots, allowing for a close range optic and an extended light mag. We recommend the 1x HCOG Classic for this gun, although the Holo variant does just fine as well. The extended light mag is a luxury more than anything, but it never hurts to have if you find one, just don’t go out of your way looking as you’re going to want to switch out this gun ASAP.

P2020 Bodyshot Damage: 12               P2020 Bodyshot DPS: 84
P2020 Headshot Damage: 18              P2020 Headshot DPS: 126

P2020 Legendary Skins

Like any semi-automatic gun, the P2020 rewards above average aiming skill, tracking ability, and headshot precision. To make the most effective use of this pistol, aim for the head and tap away your shots as fast as possible. Recoil is little-to-none and not something to be overly concerned with. All in all, you should be looking for an upgrade as soon as possible, but if you land and grab this pistol, you should be able to clear out your immediate area with some nicely placed headshots to open fights, and decent bodyshot DPS to follow them up.

Wingman

Weapon Tier Rating: S-Tier

What if we told you that a contender for the best weapon in the game, was a pistol? A pistol that is extremely common to find laying on the ground, with more ammo than you know what to do with. Well, if you’re a seasoned veteran of the FPS world and remember Halo: Combat Evolved and its pistol, you probably feel right at home. Three shot pistol kills are back, and they feel better than ever with the Wingman. This revolver style pistol fires heavy ammo and packs a serious punch. With a base 6 round heavy magazine, an above average rate of fire, huge chunk damage ability, and pinpoint accuracy, the Wingman is without a doubt one of the best weapons in Apex Legends.

The Wingman comes with three available weapon attachment slots, one for a close range optic, one for an extended heavy mag, and the final one for a Skullpiercer hop-up. These attachments take the wingman from an above average weapon to a straight up monster on the battlefield. The extended heavy mag increases the capacity of the Wingman from 6 rounds at base, to 8, 9, and 12 rounds respectively with the different rarity magazines. The Skullpiercer, well it takes those scary headshots and makes them outright deadly. As for optics, the Wingman is just as powerful at range as it is up close, so we recommend a 2x HCOG Bruiser optic.

Wingman Bodyshot Damage: 45               Wingman Bodyshot DPS: 135
Wingman Headshot Damage: 90              Wingman DPS: 270

Wingman Legendary Skins

We’ll make it simple, if you have good aim, use the Wingman. It’s semi-automatic nature rewards precision shooting, and the high damage output can output a ton of pressure in just a few shots. Did you know it takes 5 seconds to use a syringe? A single bodyshot early game with the Wingman and you’re taking that enemy out of the fight for 10 seconds if they want to heal to full. The Wingman is capable of firing incredibly fast without losing its accuracy, and with 90 damage (or higher with the Skullpiercer) headshots, this gun is 1-2 hits away from swinging any fight, no matter the circumstances, into your favor. If you pass one of these pistols up as you’re looting, it better be for a real good reason; if it’s not….well you bamboozled yourself this time.

RE-45 Auto

Weapon Tier Rating: C-Tier

A fully automatic light ammo pistol, you can think of the RE-45 as a better version of the P2020, however, it’s still nothing to write home about. Again, this is a weapon that you will be happy to get out of your first building or supply bin, just for the sake of having a gun, but you want to swap it out ASAP. The main benefit of the RE-45 Auto is it’s extremely high rate of fire, which allows for early game knock-downs. The RE-45 has a base capacity of 15 light rounds in its magazine and will shoot 12 rounds in 1 full second. At 11 damage per bodyshot, this means it can be a force early game, as you only need to connect to the body with 10 of these 12 shots to knock a player who hasn’t looted armor yet.

The RE-45 Auto offers 3 weapon attachment slots; one for a barrel stabilizer, one for a close range optic, and one for an extended light mag. The attachment slots on this pistol are actually relatively important and worth going after if you haven’t found yourself a better secondary (or primary) gun. We recommend an HCOG 1x classic optic on the RE-45 as your optic of choice. If you can equip this pistol with an optic, as well as a barrel stabilizer and extended mag, you basically turn it into an SMG with a little bit less stopping power. Not ideal, but worthwhile.

RE-45 Bodyshot Damage: 11               RE-45 Bodyshot DPS: 132
RE-45 Headshot Damage: 16              RE-45 Headshot DPS: 192

RE-45 Auto Legendary Skins

All in all the RE-45 Auto is nothing overly impressive, but has enough DPS and the right attachment availability to turn it into a gun worth holding. You shouldn’t pass one of these up if you have an empty gun slot, and they can do some work if your aim is on point. The main purpose of the RE-45 is to be an early game melter, shredding through unarmored players in the chaos of a hot-drop as you secure your immediate area to loot. Look to replace this pistol as soon as you can – but don’t worry if you get stuck with one, slap some attachments on it and the RE-45 is a perfectly capable sidearm.

Devotion LMG

Weapon Tier Rating: B-Tier

“Got a hop-up here, Turbocharger” – these are the words you want to hear your squadmates say if you find yourself holding a Devotion LMG. This light machine guns fire energy ammo and has a capacity of 44 rounds per magazine. The Devotion LMG is a bit of a mixed-bag when it comes to its effectiveness. Some people have this weapon as high as an A-tier weapon or as low as a C-tier, and both those thoughts are warranted. When fully equipped, the Devotion is an outright monster, but getting it there is no easy task, which pushes it further down some lists. We think that a B-tier is fitting here as you can outright slay with this gun, but keeping up with its ammo consumption and attachment needs is a bit rough. Energy ammo is the least abundant in the game currently, and this LMG chews through ammo like there’s no tomorrow. The good news is, if your aim is on point, there actually is no tomorrow for the enemy squad.

The Devotion LMG has 4 available attachment slots; one for a barrel stabilizer, one for an optic, one for a standard stock, and one for a Turbocharger hop-up. The most important attachment is the Turbocharger. The Devotion LMG has a long spin up time before it starts firing at full speed, and the Turbocharger more or less eliminates this downside. Without this hop-up, the devotion is fairly weak, but with it, the Devotion will shred the enemies. The bad news here, Turbochargers are legendary attachments, and hard to come by.

Devotion Bodyshot Damage: 17               Devotion Bodyshot DPS: 255
Devotion Headshot Damage: 34              Devotion Headshot DPS: 510

Devotion LMG Legendary Skins

Outside of the Turbocharger, we recommend kitting the Devotion with a midrange optic such as a 2x HCOG Bruiser. Many people also like 3x or 2-4x variable optics on this light machine gun as well. Recoil is plentiful on the Devotion and causes some accuracy issues, however a rare or better combination of barrel stabilizer and standard stock mostly removes that drawback.

All in all, the devotion is a monster of a gun if you can get it kitted and keep it fed with ammo, but that is not an easy task. While powerful enough on its own to be worthwhile to carry, this LMG really shines with a Turbocharger equipped. If you are going to be running the Devotion, make sure to have your squadmates pinging all of the energy ammo that they see, as it is fairly rare compared to other ammo types and you’ll chew through a ton of it in seconds. The Devotion is best used as a midrange opening weapon, shredding the shields and health of enemy squads in fractions of a second, and is ideally utilized with a communicative team to help keep up with its ammo and attachment demands.

M600 Spitfire

Weapon Tier Rating: A-Tier

In our minds “S-Tier” is for brokenly powerful guns, and the only gun we feel comfortable putting into that category, is the Wingman. However, the M600 Spitfire is about as close as a gun as we have found to breaking into that list. We put this gun as solidly one of the best three to four guns in the game, and at the top of the charts for balanced power. The Spitfire is a light machine gun with a medium pace of fire, manageable recoil, and it packs a powerful punch. As a standalone, it is a gun capable of wiping an entire squad that has epic shields and full health with one magazine, thanks to its 35 round base capacity of heavy ammo. However, when you get this gun fully kitted, watch out.

The Spitfire has four available attachment slots, one for a barrel stabilizer, one for a close to medium range optic, one for an extended heavy mag, and one for a standard stock. The extended heavy mag makes of breaks this gun. While the base capacity is 35 rounds of heavy ammo, the extended mags increase that capacity to a max of 60 with an epic heavy mag. For those of you keeping count 60 rounds is enough to wipe two full health, full shields, squads without reloading, so long as you don’t miss. Due to its insane ammo capacity, the Spitfire can completely control a battlefield, laying down endless streams of fire, prefiring enemy peeks, and making quick work of anyone caught in the open.

Spitfire Bodyshot Damage: 20               Spitfire Bodyshot DPS: 180
Spitfire Headshot Damage: 40              Spitfire Headshot DPS: 360

M600 Spitfire Legendary Skins

As for the rest of the attachments, we recommend an HCOG 1x Classic optic for the M600 Spitfire. In our opinion, the more mid-range optics make the recoil a bit too bumpy and unwieldy, even with full attachments. With a 1x optic, you don’t really run into this problem, recoil is quite manageable even with no attachments. However, slap a barrel stabilizer and standard stock on this LMG, and what you have is a seemingly unending stream of fire, that is near perfect accuracy, with insane raw damage output.

All in all, our opinion is that if you see a Spitfire, take it. The ammo is common to find, so chewing through loads of heavy ammo is not a big concern. The attachments aren’t specific to the gun in the form of a hop-up, making it quite easy to achieve a fully kitted Spitfire. When this gun gets rolling with an extended mag, your enemies are in for a tough time. While they are busy reloading their assault rifles, shotguns, and pistols, this LMG is still going to be mowing them down, along with the rest of their squad.

Alternator SMG

Weapon Tier Rating: C-Tier

The Alternator SMG is a great gun to loot in the beginning stages of the game, however, its usefulness falls off fast after that. A twin barrel fully automatic SMG, the Alternator fires light ammo with a base capacity of 16 rounds per magazine. With a full magazine putting out 208 damage if every shot connects to the body, the Alternator can be a force before players are kitted up with armor and healing. The nice thing about the Alternator is that is has almost non-existent horizontal recoil. With the recoil being completely vertical in nature on this gun, its easy to start a spray into your enemies chest, and have the gun naturally climb upwards for headshots to finish the fight. This also makes for a very predictable and easy to control recoil pattern for novice users.

The Alternator comes with 4 weapon attachment slots available; one for a barrel stabilizer, one for a close range optic, one for an extended light mag, and one for a standard stock. While these are all beneficial, they aren’t really necessary for the Alternator, as you are looking to move on from it as soon as possible to a better gun. The barrel stabilizer and standard stock will help reduce the vertical recoil, allowing the gun to be more easily controlled, while the extended light mag will give you a higher ammo capacity to work with. As for optics, we’re fans of any variant of 1x or 2x optic on this SMG.

Alternator Bodyshot Damage: 13               Alternator Bodyshot DPS: 139
Alternator Headshot Damage: 19              Alternator Headshot DPS: 203

Alternator SMG Legendary Skins

At the end of the day, the Alternator leaves you feeling better than some other guns in the early game, and is more than serviceable for early game fights. But this isn’t a weapon you want to be stuck with in the mid or late game. Don’t be disappointed if you land on one, but keep your eyes out for a replacement as soon as possible. Despite its double barrel nature, the firing rate isn’t overly fast, and a limited magazine size makes prolonged fights with armored targets a bit scary.

R-99 SMG

Weapon Tier Rating: A-Tier

The big brother of the Alternator SMG so to speak, the R-99 is a force to be reckoned with. The R-99 fires light ammo and comes with a base magazine capacity of 18 rounds. While there is more horizontal recoil here than there is with the Alternator, the recoil is still primarily vertical in nature. The horizontal recoil seems to go out to the right when firing before coming back to the left, which if you are shooting center of mass, should keep you relatively on target. Focusing on the vertical recoil turns the R-99 into quite an accurate secondary weapon.

The R-99 comes with four available attachment slots; one for a barrel stabilizer, one for a close range to mid-range optic, one for an extended light mag, and one for a standard stock. Like other guns, a combination of the stock and barrel stabilizer makes the recoil much easier to manage on the R-99. In fact, with rare or higher quality attachments, you basically won’t notice the recoil at all. The extended mag is a very important attachment here as the R-99 has an incredibly fast firing rate, and will tear through a full magazine in the blink of an eye. Extending that magazine capacity makes all the difference in the world when it comes to securing your knocks and kills. As for optics, like with other SMGs, we recommend any of the 1x or 2x optics here.

R-99 Bodyshot Damage: 12               R-99 Bodyshot DPS: 216
R-99 Headshot Damage: 18              R-99 Headshot DPS: 324

R-99 SMG Legendary Skins

While our original testing of the R-99 had it labeled in the B-Tier and as a top-notch secondary gun, we’ve since revised that opinion. The R-99 is no slouch and is an absolute force to be reckoned with in close range, or medium range if you have good recoil control. This SMG absolutely shreds through opponents, has an incredibly fast pull-out time and reload speed, and pushes massive DPS that is not reliant on headshots. The quick in and out nature of the gun allows you to slide around corners, dump a magazine into an enemy and knock them down, and get back behind cover in no time at all. Often times, with proper positioning, you can 3v1 squads without them even landing a shot on you as they try to figure out which angle you will peek from next. The R-99 is a high skill cap weapon in the sense that it is extremely reliant on recoil control and positioning, but use it properly, and you’ll be racking up kills with ease.

Prowler Burst PDW

Weapon Tier Rating: C-Tier

Oh boy, here we go. The Prowler Burst PDW may just be our pick for the weirdest gun in Apex Legends. On the one hand, you have an SMG that looks very similar to a P90 (although some of the skins make it look like a Covenant version out of the likes of Halo). On the other hand, you have a gun, that by default, shoots in 5 round bursts. The Prowler fires heavy ammo and comes with a base magazine capacity of 20 rounds, or 4 bursts. The upside is, a full burst connection to the head will 1-shot an enemy early game before they have armor or a helmet. The downside, is well, pretty much everything else. However, this gun can be transformed into a slightly weaker assault rifle through the user of attachments.

The Prowler Burst PDW comes with four available attachments slots; one for a a close to mid-range optic, one for an extended heavy mag, one for a standard stock, and a hop-up attachment slot for the Select Fire Receiver. The Select Fire hop-up is the most interesting part of this gun, as it gives the Prowler the ability to toggle from a burst fire shooting methodology, into a fully automatic one. By doing this, you essentially turn the prowler into a weaker variant of an assault rifle as there is no available barrel stabilizer to help with recoil control, and base damage numbers are lower than other assault rifles. Still, the fully automatic rate of fire is pretty solid, and in a pinch, the Prowler can be serviceable as an assault rifle. We do not recommend relying on this however as the likelihood of finding both a Prowler and Select Fire hop-up, without finding a better gun in between, is fairly unlikely.

Prowler Bodyshot Damage: 14               Prowler Bodyshot DPS: 186
Prowler Headshot Damage: 21              Prowler Headshot DPS: 279

Prowler Burst PDW Legendary Skins

All in all, the Prowler Burst PDW is one of the weirdest guns in Apex Legends, and one of the weaker ones to boot. While it’s an interesting design with the ability to toggle between burst and fully automatic shooting, the reliance on a hop-up to do so makes the gun less than ideal. If you find yourself with a Prowler early game, focus on connecting your headshots and hope to instantly down, or at least severely chunk the HP of your enemies. If you do manage to find a Select Fire with this gun, it’ll work out just fine as an assault rifle and primary gun until something better comes along, but don’t look to be holding onto the Prowler all the way til the end of the game.

EVA-8 Auto

Weapon Tier Rating: B-Tier

A staple of any FPS game, the EVA-8 serves as the auto shotgun in Apex Legends. While not as powerful as more traditional shotguns, such as the Peacekeeper or Mastiff, this gun still packs a powerful punch. With a firing rate of 2 shots per second, and fully automatic firing methodology, the EVA-8 is capable of shredding early game opponents with ease. High chunk damage headshots in rapid succession also make this a very viable secondary gun even into the late game, although there are better alternatives. The EVA-8 uses shotgun shells, has a capacity of 8 shots, and fires with a figure eight spread.

The EVA-8 Auto comes with two available attachment slots; one for a shotgun bolt, and one for a close range optic. The optic doesn’t matter too much here as the EVA-8 doesn’t suffer heavily from hip-firing due to its more forgiving nature being an auto shotgun, but it can still be helpful. We recommend the legendary 1x Digital Threat optic if you can find it, otherwise any 1x should do the job just fine. As for the shotgun bolt, it’s a luxury more than anything with the EVA-8 as it serves to increase the firing rate of shotguns. While the bolt is helpful here, it does not make or break the gun.

EVA-8Bodyshot Damage: 63               EVA-8Bodyshot DPS: 126
EVA-8Headshot Damage: 90              EVA-8Headshot DPS: 180

EVA-8 Auto Legendary Skins

All in all, the EVA-8 is a powerful auto shotgun and one that you should be happy to have as your secondary weapon, even well into the mid or late game stages. Early game, this shotgun will shred through opponents in no time at all, and put them on the back-foot if not straight back to the lobby. While there are better shotguns to run as your secondary weapon, this one is more than capable of doing the job it needs to do. There will also typically be plenty left lying around in the late game to pick up after a respawn if you need a fast gun to get back into the action.

Peacekeeper

Weapon Tier Rating: A-Tier

This is your prototypical shotgun, but with a couple unique twists. The Peacekeeper is a lever-action shotgun that packs an extremely powerful punch. In our opinion this is the strongest secondary weapon in the game (if you’re counting the Wingman as a primary, which we do). The Peacekeeper uses shotgun shells as it’s ammo and has a capacity of 6 shots before needing to be reloaded. This gun offers insane burst damage to open or finish a fight, and makes for a great tool to quickly 1-shot downed players to eliminate them and stop their vision. One of the two unique twists of this shotgun is its spread, the Peacekeeper spread is in the shape of a sheriff star, giving it a very tight spread that is easy to hit center mass on a target without missing a pellet.

The Peacekeeper comes with three available attachment slots; one for a shotgun bolt, one for a close range optic, and one for a Precision Choke hop-up. The shotgun bolt serves to increase the firing rate of the Peacekeeper, which with its standard limitation of a single shot per second, is quite useful. As for optics, we again recommend the legendary 1x Digital Threat optic if possible, or any 1x optic will do the job. The Precision Choke offers the other unique twist on the Peacekeeper. This hop-up allows the Peacekeeper to “charge up” while you are aiming down the sights. What this means is while ADSing, the Peacekeeper will charge (indicated by a blue glow getting tighter around the crosshair); the further it charges, the tighter the spread on the shot becomes. When a Peacekeeper is fully charged with a Precision Choke hop-up, it can fire at extremely long ranges for a shotgun, well into mid-range combat levels, and still output devastating chunk damage.

Peacekeeper Bodyshot Damage: 110           Peacekeeper Bodyshot DPS: 110
Peacekeeper Headshot Damage: 165          Peacekeeper Headshot DPS: 165

Peacekeeper Legendary Skins

When it comes down to it, it’s generally a bad idea to pass a Peacekeeper up. This is easily one of the strongest weapons in the game, and is as useful at the end of the game as it is in the first building you loot. Capable of 1-shotting unarmored players early game, executing downed players in a single shot, or dealing devastating burst damage to open or close a fight, the Peacekeeper is an all around killing machine. If you get yourself one of these shotguns, with all the attachments, you shouldn’t have a problem taking out anyone who is unfortunate enough to cross your path.

Mastiff Shotgun

Weapon Tier Rating: A-Tier

Let’s make things simple here, the Mastiff is a legendary shotgun that comes off of care packages only, and man does it live up to that legendary status. The only thing keeping the Mastiff out of the S-tier is the fact that it is not readily available to be obtained every game. This shotgun absolutely shreds anything it comes across in close range, dealing devastating damage with every single shot. If you find yourself lucky enough to come across one, and win the likely fight over the drop, do not pass it up.

The P2020 comes with two available weapon attachment slots, allowing for a close range optic and an extended light mag. We recommend the 1x HCOG Classic for this gun, although the Holo variant does just fine as well. The extended light mag is a luxury more than anything, but it never hurts to have if you find one, just don’t go out of your way looking as you’re going to want to switch out this gun ASAP.

Mastiff Bodyshot Damage: 144               Mastiff Bodyshot DPS: 144
Mastiff Headshot Damage: 288              Mastiff Headshot DPS: 288

Mastiff Shotgun Legendary Skins

As a legendary weapon, the Mastiff comes with all of its attachments built directly into the gun. Meaning whenever you pick up a Mastiff, it is fully-kitted by default. There are no attachments to be added to this shotgun, nor can any be removed to put on other guns. This is as simple as it gets, pick up gun, click on enemies, watch them fall.

At the end of the day, the Mastiff lives up to the hype with ease. This shotgun is incredibly powerful, has a longer effective range than you would expect, and tears through enemies like a knife through butter. One weird thing to keep in mind, is that the Mastiff has a very untraditional spread, with the pellets spreading almost directly in a horizontal line. This makes it a bit less effective to be hip-fired, but by “quickscoping” you can mostly bypass this spread. Overall, grab the Mastiff, get up close and personal, and watch your enemies fall.

Mozambique Shotgun

Weapon Tier Rating: D-Tier

Every FPS/Battle Royale has to have a gun that is the worst gun in the game, it’s just the nature of how things work. That honor in Apex Legends goes to the Mozambique. People like to joke that if you find yourself with nothing but a Mozambique, you are better off trying to punch your opponents to death – while that isn’t completely true, it’s not far off. This shotgun is a triple barreled pistol/shotgun hybrid with a very fast firing rate, quite a bad spread with low accuracy, and offers about the damage of a peashooter. The Mozambique has a capacity of 3 shots and fires shotgun shells. It’s main purpose is to serve as a finishing weapon in the first two or three minutes of a game, switching to fire three quick shots after weakening an opponent with your assault rifle, SMG, or pistol. Other than that, it essentially exists just to put more shotgun shells on the map to be looted for the shotguns that are actually useful.

The Mozambique shotgun comes with two available attachment slots; one for a shotgun bolt, and one for a close range optic. Like the gun itself, these attachment slots are essentially useless. The Mozambique already fires incredibly fast and has a 3 shot capacity, making the improved firing speed from the shotgun bolt a non-factor. Likewise, the spread on this shotgun is so bad that optics are largely useless, as you have to be pretty much hugging your enemy to hit them for any kind of somewhat meaningful damage. If you have to put an optic on this shotgun, treat it like the others, you can’t go wrong with a 1x Digital Threat or other 1x.

Mozambique Bodyshot Damage: 144          Mozambique Bodyshot DPS: 144
Mozambique Headshot Damage: 288         Mozambique Headshot DPS: 288

Mozambique Shotgun Legendary Skins

When it comes right down to it, if you find yourself with nothing but a Mozambique, you’re in a pretty bad spot. This gun is capable of getting kills, don’t get us wrong, it’s just that any other gun is more capable. The Mozambique is almost entirely useless outside of the situation of landing in the same building as an enemy, picking one up immediately, and pushing the opponent. The goal here is to get a couple quick shots into your opponent before they pick up a gun of their own, thusly scaring them out of the building so you can loot in peace. Ideally, they mistake the Mozambique for something that is a more serious threat and take off as soon as you shoot them. Just don’t give chase or you’ll likely find yourself running into an enemy team with guns much more capable of taking you out.

G7 Scout

Weapon Tier Rating: B-Tier

The G7 Scout is classed as a sniper rifle, but it doesn’t really handle like one. It plays very similar to the Hemlok, when the Hemlok has been toggled to single fire, or a more traditional DMR. The G7 Scout offers an incredibly fast firing rate which is one thing many people do not realize when first starting to use the gun; it has the ability to shoot up to 4 bullets per second. With a base capacity of 10 light rounds, extended magazines are crucial for maximizing the potential of the G7, even more so than most guns. What this gun does offer is a medium-long range option with pinpoint accuracy which is capable of putting the enemy squad on the defensive immediately.

The G7 Scout comes with four available attachment slots; one for a barrel stabilizer, one for an optic of any kind, one for an extended light mag, and one for a sniper stock. While the Scout is capable of holding anything from a 1x up to a 10x optic, we recommend focusing on variable or midrange optics with this gun. Our optics of choice here include the 3x HCOG Ranger, 2x-4x Variable ACOG, or 4x-8x Variable Sniper. The 3x Ranger is a good all around option, while the variable scopes offer more variety in engagement ranges, allowing for higher accuracy at distances up to 300 meters or more, while still being viable in the midrange. Like other guns, you want a barrel stabilizer and sniper stock on this gun as soon as possible to help with recoil control and accuracy between shots. The extended light mag is a very important piece to the puzzle overall, as expanding upon the base 10 round capacity gives the G7 Scout much more staying power in a fight.

G7 Scout Bodyshot Damage: 144          G7 Scout Bodyshot DPS: 144
G7 Scout Headshot Damage: 288         G7 Scout Headshot DPS: 288

G7 Scout Legendary Skins

All in all, the G7 Scout is a very solid all around gun. It can be absolutely deadly in the hand of a top-tier aimer, as 4 headshots can come through in 1 second, even dropping a target with full health and legendary shields. The Scout is viable for engagements at all distances, even close range due to its high firing rate. One thing to keep in mind, unlike sniper rifles in other games, the Scout has perfect (or near perfect) accuracy while hip-firing. So if you find yourself in a face to face fight, don’t be afraid to pull this gun out and tap away at the head of your opponent, and watch them hit the floor before they know what happened.

Longbow DMR

Weapon Tier Rating: B-Tier

The Longbow DMR is the more prototypical sniper rifle in Apex Legends. This gun fires slowly, takes heavy ammo, and packs a serious punch if you land your headshots. In all honesty, the gun itself is worthy of an A-Tier rating. However, we feel that due to all the mobility and healing in Apex, sniping is just in a weaker spot overall compared to full auto or shotgun playstyles. The Longbow comes with a base capacity of 5 rounds per magazine. While this should never be your primary gun, it is a more than viable secondary that can open up fights in a very strong manner.

The Longbow DMR is currently the only gun in the game with five available attachment slots. The available attachments include a barrel stabilizer, optic, extended heavy mag, sniper stock, and Skullpiercer hop-up. The stabilizer and stock are important, as they are with any gun, to help with accuracy and recoil between shots. As with the Scout, we recommend mid-range optics with the Longbow; a 3x HCOG Ranger or 2x-4x Variable ACOG make this gun very powerful for mid-range peek fights and opening engagements with chunk damage. The extended heavy mag is a luxury more than anything, while it is nice to have, you will rarely find yourself with the opportunity to shoot more than 5 rounds with the Longbow, without having ample time to reload. Finally the Skullpiercer, as is the case with the Wingman, adds a considerable amount of damage to to headshots of the Longbow, and is an amazing bonus to the ability to instantly chunk an enemy’s health pool and have them out of the fight having to retreat and heal.

Longbow Bodyshot Damage: 144          Longbow Bodyshot DPS: 144
Longbow Headshot Damage: 288         Longbow Headshot DPS: 288

Longbow DMR Legendary Skins

At the end of the day, we love the Longbow DMR, and find it to be an extremely powerful weapon. However, sniping as a whole just doesn’t feel as impactful in Apex Legends due to plentiful healing and mobility options. Utilize this gun as an opener for engagements, putting the enemy team on the defensive immediately after a headshot. The chunk damage will quickly turn a fight in a 3v2 in your favor, allowing you to push the enemy squad, take favorable positioning over them, and close out the fight with closer range weapons. Try not to get caught out in the open hardscoping opponents, as you move very slowly while scoped in with the Longbow, and become a sitting duck waiting to be knocked.

Triple Take

Weapon Tier Rating: C-Tier

This is another weird gun with a very cool design, but ultimately falling short on performance. While not as bad as the Mozambique, the Triple Take is still a bottom tier weapon for a variety of reasons. The Triple Take fires energy ammo and has a capacity of 5 rounds per magazine. This sniper rifle features three barrels, hence the name Triple Take, which fire three projectiles in a horizontal spread (each shot still only consumes 1 energy ammo). This horizontal spread is noticeable even at lower ends of medium range; meaning even direct hits will often only result in partial damage.

The Triple Take comes with three available attachment slots; one for an optic, one for a sniper stock, and one for the Precision Choke hop-up also used by the Peacekeeper shotgun. Remember what we said about weird design, this sniper rifle shares shotgun attachments. For optics here, we recommend anything from the 1x HCOG Classic, to the 3x HCOG Ranger, or the 2x-4x Variable ACOG. Going beyond a 4x is not recommended, as the horizontal spread at those distances render this gun largely ineffective. The stock helps with accuracy and recoil as it does with other snipers. Meanwhile the interesting piece here, is the Precision Choke. Treating the three projectiles of the Triple Take as similar to shotgun pellets, the choke helps to tighten the grouping, extending the effective range of the Triple Take.

Triple Take Bodyshot Damage: 69          Triple Take Bodyshot DPS: 69
Triple Take Headshot Damage: 138        Triple Take Headshot DPS: 138

Triple Take Legendary Skins

All in all, the Triple Take is a weird gun, and not a very good one. With snipers already being relatively weak in Apex Legends, this gun faces a variety of added issues. The reliance on a hop-up to become accurate is a big hurdle to jump. Meanwhile, the lack of abundant energy ammo on the map makes this gun more trouble than it is worth in many cases. In all honesty, we recommend completely ignoring the sniper rifle label if you find yourself with a triple take, and using it as a pseudo-shotgun. While it’s no Peacekeeper, the Triple Take can put out some serious damage up close and personal where all three projectiles are more likely to connect. While it has some potential, there are simply better options for close, medium, and long range engagements that you should be using instead.

Kraber .50-CAL Sniper

Weapon Tier Rating: A-Tier

The Kraber .50-CAL Sniper is a legendary sniper rifle that only comes from the in game care packages (note: like the Mastiff Shotgun, it does not come from Lifeline packages). The Kraber functions in the same way as the Mastiff and uses its own unique ammo which can not be replenished. The Kraber comes with 16 shots and a 4 round magazine capacity. While this gun isn’t nearly as versatile as the Scout, and lacks the longevity and early game potential of the Longbow, it is our only sniper rifle to make the A-Tier grade. Why is that? Well for one simple reason, the Kraber is the only sniper capable of downing a full 200 health player in a single headshot. In fact, it’s the only gun in the game capable of doing this outside of the Mastiff, and it almost never happens with the Mastiff to the horizontal spread. That alone puts the Kraber at the top of the charts, as a single shot can completely turn a fight, or even a game, completely around.

As it is a legendary weapon, the Kraber comes fully “attached” with everything it can possibly have. There are no attachments that can be added to Kraber, and likewise no attachments to remove from the Kraber. All of the bonuses from attachments are simply built in to the gun itself, making it extremely powerful to pick up and use immediately.

Kraber Bodyshot Damage: 125          Kraber Bodyshot DPS: 125
Kraber Headshot Damage: 250        Kraber Headshot DPS: 250

Kraber .50-CAL Sniper Legendary Skins

When a care package falls from the sky, you want to get involved. Whether you end up with the Kraber, or the Mastiff, you’re going to be having a good time and melting people in every fight you take. This sniper rifle is the most powerful weapon in the game, with it’s built in long range digital threat scope, and ability to down players in a single shot. 125 damage body shots are enough to take a player out of the fight until they heal back up, but headshots reign supreme with this gun. Connect with a headshot, and you turn a fair fight into one where your squad has a significant advantage. When it comes down to it, no other gun in Apex Legends has that potential.

Hemlok Burst AR

Weapon Tier Rating: B-Tier

The Hemlok Burst AR is the Apex Legends variant of a M16A4 assault rifle. This assault rifle shoots in 3 round bursts standard with a hefty vertical recoil in the burst. This gun also comes with the ability to swap to a single shot variant, allowing more precise shots. The Hemlok offers an incredible rate of fire and solid damage. It comes with an 18 round base capacity of heavy ammo per magazine. The Hemlok is a borderline A-Tier assault rifle, but just lacks a little bit in the DPS department to make that jump to the next level.

The Hemlok Burst AR comes with four available attachment slots; one for a barrel stabilizer, one for an optic, one for an extended heavy mag, and one for a standard stock. The barrel stabilizer goes a long way for helping with recoil control on this assault rifle when in burst-fire mode, and is also quite beneficial when single firing. Extended heavy mags are always a good to have as more ammo means more stopping power and time between reloads. The stock is a great luxury, as it is with any gun, helping to reduce sway and draw time. As for optics, we recommend a 3x HCOG Ranger or 2x-4x Variable ACOG to take advantage of the single fire mode on the Hemlok.

Hemlok Bodyshot Damage: 18          Hemlok Bodyshot DPS: 144
Hemlok Headshot Damage: 24        Hemlok Headshot DPS: 288

Hemlok Burst AR Legendary Skins

All in all, we recommend using the Hemlok in single fire mode nine times out of ten. Single fire mode is incredibly accurate, much more so than the burst-fire, and has an incredible rate of fire. If you are a precise aimer capable of chaining together headshots, you’ll be dropping people in the blink of an eye with this gun. Burst fire mode on the other hand is great when enemies get up close and personal. The Hemlok on burst fire functions as a kind of pseudo shotgun with an incredible firing rate. Aim for the chest and connect full 3 round bursts, allowing the recoil to draw the second and third bullets up towards the neck and head of your enemy naturally in close range.

R-301 Carbine

Weapon Tier Rating: A-Tier

The R-301 Carbine, where do we start with this one. This is definitely the best in class for assault rifles, and borderline S-Tier for weapons in general. If this assault rifle just did a little bit more damage it would be absolutely broken. While it doesn’t look like much on its own, if you’ve ever gotten the fully kitted gold version of the R-301 Carbine, or even just had one fully attached, you know what we mean. This gun is an absolute laser when kitted out. Baseline, the R-301 has a vertical recoil that is quite manageable, however, when fully attached the recoil all but disappears. Aim center of mass with this gun and the recoil is so subtle, you won’t miss a single shot. The R-301 Carbine fire light ammo and comes with a base capacity of 18 rounds per magazine.

The R-301 Carbine comes with four available attachment slots; one for a barrel stabilizer, one for an optic, one for an extended light mag, and one for a standard stock. The barrel stabilizer on the R-301, particularly at rare-legendary rarities, all but removes the recoil, turning this assault rifle into a near perfectly accurate laser beam. The extended light mag is crucial here, offering additional shots without reloading and a longer steady stream of fire onto whatever target you lock on to. The stock is also incredible here, taking sway out of the equation only furthers the accuracy of this gun, and turns the draw time into nearly that of an SMG. As for optics, you can’t really go wrong. The 1x HCOG Classic allows for great short and mid-range engagements, keeping incredibly accurate as far as you can see targets clearly. While the 3x HCOG Ranger and 2x-4x Variable ACOG optics give further engagement ranges if you like to play a little more outside the fray. Even up to 4x ranges, this assault rifle offers pinpoint accuracy and the ability to shred targets.

R301 Bodyshot Damage: 18          R301 Bodyshot DPS: 144
R301 Headshot Damage: 24        R301 Headshot DPS: 288

R-301 Carbine Legendary Skins

All in all, the R-301 Carbine is easily the best assault rifle in the game. While the Havoc can rival it, and even outdo the R-301 in time to kill and DPS output, the R-301 is much more forgiving with aim and attachment requirements. Light ammo is nearly unlimited on the map so you will have no issues there. Similarly, extended light mags are the most prevalent form of extended mag due to the presence of light ammo pistols and SMGs. This makes the R-301 very easy to fully equip, and very consistent to rely on from one game to the next. Consistency is key in a battle royale game where RNG has a heavy impact on your loadout each game, and the R-301 offers that consistency, both in terms of availability, and shot accuracy.

VK-47 Flatline

Weapon Tier Rating: C-Tier

Unsurprisingly, the VK-47 Flatline is the Apex Legends variant of an AK-47 assault rifle. This assault rifle packs a powerful punch with each shot, but suffers in terms of accuracy. Firing heavy ammo, the VK-47 Flatline has a base capacity of 20 rounds per magazine, slightly more than other assault rifles, although it also has a slightly lower firing rate. While we have this assault rifle in the C-Tier, it is still quite viable, however it is just outclassed by other assault rifles or heavy ammo guns such as the M600 Spitfire. The VK-47 has one major pitfall that keeps it from being an A-Tier gun, and that is it’s issues with accuracy and recoil, particularly at midrange to long range distances. Due to the lack of a barrel stabilizer, this gun doesn’t get any more accurate as you loot up, which is the primary reason it falls into the C-Tier rating.

The VK-47 comes with three available attachment slots; one for an optic, one for an extended heavy mag, and one for a standard stock. The lack of a barrel stabilizer really hurts this gun as accuracy is it’s main concern. As for what it does offer, the extended heavy mag gives this assault rifle great stopping power and a high capacity of heavy ammo per magazine. The stock helps with accuracy some by reducing swap, and improving draw time. As for optics, we don’t recommend the VK-47 Flatline for anything beyond close range or the closer side of mid-range engagements, thusly we recommend either a 1x HCOG Classic or 2x HCOG Bruiser optic.

VK-47 Flatline Bodyshot Damage: 16      VK-47 Flatline Bodyshot DPS: 160
VK-47 Flatline Headshot Damage: 32    VK-47 Flatline Headshot DPS: 320

VK-47 Flatline Legendary Skins

All in all, the VK-47 Flatline is a viable assault rifle that is outclassed by many other guns in the game. It offers heavy damage per shot, worthy of the heavy ammo it uses, and above average DPS. It does lack however in effective engagement distances due to accuracy issues and unwieldy recoil. If you get this gun in the early game, you are sitting pretty to clear out your loot zone, find some better options, and move into the mid-game. If you come out of the early gun with this still as your primary weapon, it’s not game over, but you will need to pick your fights carefully to be sure you can get in close enough to stay on target with your shots.

Havoc Rifle

Weapon Tier Rating: B-Tier

The Havoc Rifle is the first new gun added to the game post-release, and possibly the most interesting gun design in Apex Legends. This assault rifle can be modified radically by its attachments, completely changing the nature of the gun. The Havoc does offer the highest damage in class for assault rifles and is incredibly powerful, however it remains in the B-Tier due to a couple of major drawbacks. The first being that it requires energy ammo, with an 18 round capacity per magazine. Energy ammo is the rarest type of ammo in the game, and the type where you can often find yourself starved of reserves and sitting with an empty gun. Combine that with a very fast firing rate and the ability to chew through ammo, and you have a recipe for disaster. The Havoc Rifle is also more dependant on its attachments than any other gun in the game, and has some very specific needs, making it difficult to unlock its full potential. Make no mistake though, if you manage to kit out a Havoc, and keep yourself loaded on ammo, this is a borderline S-Tier weapon.

The Havoc Rifle comes with three available attachment slots; one for an optic, one for a standard stock, and one for a hop-up. The hop-up attachment slot can be filled by a Turbocharger hop-up to enhance the Havoc Rifle’s capabilities, or a Select Fire Receiver, which modifies the way the gun handles. We’ll get more into the Select Fire in a minute though. Similar to the VK-47 Flatline, the Havoc Rifle lacks a barrel stabilizer attachment, which leads to some accuracy concerns at longer distances, however it is not quite as unwieldy to control. The stock helps out by reducing sway and draw time. Optics wise, we recommend a 1x HCOG Classic or 2x HCOG Bruiser for the Havoc Rifle, as those will be the most effective scopes in its effective range. The Turbocharger is a near necessity to unlock the full potential of the Havoc Rifle, which is another reason this gun slips into the B-Tier. Without a Turbocharger hop-up, the Havoc has a wind-up time before it begins firing, and a longer wind-up before firing full speed, similar to the Devotion LMG. With a Turbocharger equipped, this drawback is basically eliminated, and you have one of the strongest guns in the game. The only problem, Turbochargers are legendary hop-ups, making them hard to find, and far from guaranteed once you have the gun.

Havoc Rifle Bodyshot Damage: 18      Havoc Rifle Bodyshot DPS: 202
Havoc Rifle Headshot Damage: 36    Havoc Rifle Headshot DPS: 404

Havoc Rifle Legendary Skins

On the other hand, you have the Select Fire Receiver. This hop-up gives the Havoc Rifle the capability of toggling into a pseudo sniper rifle. With this hop-up equipped, you can toggle the firing methodology of the Havoc into that of a single charged beam shot. This beam shot does a lot of damage, and handles like a sniper rifle with a short wind-up. This is also a case of the Havoc’s interesting design, as this beam rifle functionality is the only case in Apex Legends of a gun being hitscan in nature (meaning you hit exactly where your crosshair is instantly, with no projectile travel time or bullet drop to account for).

When all is said and done, the Havoc Rifle does have incredible capability, and at full strength is potentially the best weapon in the game. However, that power is not without drawbacks. The reliance on a Turbocharger hop-up to unlock the full power of this gun is a big hurdle to jump, a hurdle that severely reduces consistency game to game and puts more of a reliance on the RNG looting nature of a Battle Royale game. The other drawback is the use of energy ammo, which is far from abundant. If you are committed to using the Havoc, make sure to let your squad know, and have them ping all of the energy ammo that they see on the map while looting so you can stay stocked up. If you happen to find a Turbocharger early, along with a Havoc, we encourage you to run this gun as your primary as it is a straight up killing machine. If you’re going for high kill games and montage worthy clips, it’s worth the risk to try to kit one of these

Frag Grenade

The classic grenade. These can be found in just about any FPS or Battle Royale game. There’s nothing overly surprising about the way the frag grenade handles in Apex Legends – grab it, chuck it, watch things go boom. Land it at your enemies feet and they are going to be taking a hefty chunk of damage and none to happy about their situation. One important thing to note is that frag can not be “cooked’ to explode faster after release. At first glance this grenade seems pretty weak as there is so much mobility in Apex Legends that it is somewhat easy to avoid, however, there’s more to it than that.

While the frag grenade is easy to avoid, avoiding in itself is a dangerous act. Throwing the frag at a player behind cover will force them out of their cover and into the open. While they are running out helplessly, likely focused on where they are moving instead of where you are positioned, they will be an easy target to turn into a bullet sponge. This process can be taken further the more grenades you have, blanketing an area forces your enemies to stay constantly on the move, dodging grenades, and opening themselves up to shots from your squad.

The frag also bounces, making it great for clearing out enemies around corners, camping in buildings, and trying to get off a mid-fight revive. These grenades fit perfectly through the bars on windows in buildings around the map, meaning if someone tries to camp a door with a shotgun, you can take them out without ever risking getting shot. Likewise, if an enemy is camped around a corner, or trying to get off a sneaky revive, or even just hiding in a Bangalore smoke cloud, the frag grenade will flush them out or finish them off. One last thing to note with the frag grenade, is that if you land it at the door of a building, it will blow the door up and remove it – no more building camping for your opponents.

Thermite Grenade

The thermite grenade is an incendiary type of grenade, burning a wide area of the ground upon detonation. Thermite grenades apply a ticking DoT (damage over time) effect to players who walk through the affected area. This damage seems to stack and scale the more time you spend in the area of effect. Probably the weakest of the three grenades currently in Apex Legends, these are still quite powerful when used correctly. There are two primary methods for effectively utilizing the thermite grenade.

The first major use of the thermite grenade is to flush enemies out of buildings, corners, crevices, or other campy spot. Due to the stacking damage nature of this grenade, enemies need to move quickly when an area is burning. Coordinated squads can make great use of this by preemptively calling a thermite grenade out, throwing it into an opponent’s hiding spot, and having squadmates ready and waiting to catch them running. It’s also a very useful tactic in those clutch 1v1 situations to deny your opponent favorable angles to shoot at you from cover, swinging the fight back into your favor. You can also drop one on a downed player to finish them off and prevent attempts at a revive.

The other primary use is area denial. This involves using the thermite grenade preemptively, and not necessarily counting on getting any damage out of it. With this kind of use, you are throwing thermite grenades into spots with favorable angles and cover to prevent your opponents from getting there, throwing them between enemies to prevent them from rotating and helping each other in the fight, or throwing them in a tight hallway area to prevent enemies from advancing. Thermites are particularly useful when zoning an opponent out of the ring. If you opponent has to come through a corridor in order to make it to safety, you can burn the ground in front of them, this will cause them to have to choose between damage from the ring or from the grenade. Give them no good option and they are likely to panic, netting you some free kills.

Arc Star

The arc star is the best grenade in Apex Legends in our opinion. While these looking like throwing stars that you wouldn’t expect to do much of anything, they are actually extremely powerful. Remember sticky grenades in Halo? Yea, it’s like that, but more annoying. Arc stars explode with a type of EMP effect, damaging everything in a significant radius around the grenade. They also stick to whatever the first thing they hit may be, yes that includes enemies, yes that also includes teammates who strafe in front of you while throwing (use with caution if your friends like to stack up on you).

The arc star does more than just damage though, even though it does a boat load of that as well. The added effects are what make this grenade better than any of the others in Apex Legends. When hit by an arc star, players enter a state similar to that when they are hit by a Bangalore ultimate. This means the player is slowed and has a distorted UI and vision. You know who’s easier to shoot than a weak opponent who is slow and half blind? Nobody, that’s who. Blow them up and mow them down with ease.

Arc stars are also great grenades to use defensively while retreating in a fight. Due to the way they stick to any surface, it’s easy to drop them precisely on corners or terrain as you make your retreat. This makes it harder for your opponent to chase as you retreat and heal up, as they will need to wait for the arc stars to detonate before being able to push through. If you’re lucky, you’ll catch your opponent off guard with one of these grenades while retreating, allowing you to either turn around and take the fight to them with the upper hand, or get a clutch shield battery or phoenix kit heal off while they are slowed and disoriented. All around, the arc star offers more utility than any other grenade, and should be your go to throwable.