With Apex Legends making a colossal impression in such a short-time, it’s only natural for both newcomers to the Battle Royale scene and veteran migrants from other titles to wonder about the best weapons offered by Apex Legends. This article will provide an explanation for each Apex Legends weapon family and each weapon in that family, followed by most of the known stats about each weapon. Hopefully, this will help ease newcomers into the game and maybe even inform some veterans about the weapons on offer.
The weapon families are presented in the order the game presents them (based on the armory screen) and are not ranked. The weapons of each family are ranked in order (first being best, last being worst) of strength/effectiveness. This is of course subjective as my opinion (except for some, which are blatantly obvious) plays into this, so feel free to disagree as everybody has their own playstyle and preferences. Don’t be afraid to experiment: this Apex Legends weapons guide is just meant to be a decent starting place and information dump for those looking for more about Apex Legends weapons.
– Apex Legends Assault Rifles
– Apex Legends Submachine Guns
– Apex Legends Light Machine Guns
– Apex Legends Sniper Rifles
– Apex Legends Shotguns
– Apex Legends Pistols
Apex Legends Assault Rifles
The assault rifles in Apex Legends are the bog standard ‘jack of all trades’ family of weapons being well balanced in all areas. That being said, they’re also not specialised in any particular fashion but are capable of holding their own at most ranges (other than extreme distances). Ultimately, medium ranged engagements are their preferred distance, but the specifics do vary a bit from model to model. As assault rifles tend to lean on firerate for their DPS, they also usually require you sacrifice more total slots of your inventory for ammo, so keep that in mind. All assault rifles have a 2x headshot bonus (i.e. a headshot does double damage).
R-301 Carbine
Damage (body): 14
Damage (head): 28
Fire Rate (RPM): 720
DPS (body): 168
Base Magazine Size: 18
Ammo Type: Light Ammo
Attachments Slots Available: Barrel Stabilizer, Light Magazine Upgrade, AR Optics, AR Stock
This might be one of the more controversial picks for ‘first place’, but I feel this weapon is a monster once it gets fed some upgrades. Sporting the highest DPS of all the assault rifles, but the shortest effective range (though not by an overwhelming margin). It has the highest fire rate, but lowest damage per bullet of all the assault rifles. However, it uses light ammunition, which is considerably easier to find than heavy ammunition (at least in my experience).
Relatively easy to control and high RPM can put down a target lightning quick if you can keep your crosshair trained on them long enough. It does only sport an 18 round base magazine size, which means you’ll be reloading in combat quite a lot with how fast this weapon chews through ammo, so it needs a magazine upgrade (and barrel stabilizer, in my view) to really see its full potential. It can hold its own in close range combat (especially compared to the other assault rifles) as well owing to its carbine style design and function. Just don’t try to engage a sniper at a distance and expect to win.
HAVOC
Damage (body): 18 (55 in single shot)
Damage (head): 36 (110 in single shot)
Fire Rate (RPM): 672 (fully spooled up)
DPS (body): 201
Base Magazine Size: 24
Ammo Type: Energy Ammo
Attachments Slots Available: Energy Magazine Upgrade, AR Optics, Standard Stock, Hop-up: Turbocharger/Select Fire
Respawn brought us our first addition to the Apex Legends’ arsenal, the HAVOC, shortly after the game launched. The HAVOC is an energy ammo consuming Assault Rifle, sporting a large amount of flexibility, both with engagement ranges and playstyles. The HAVOC is entirely unique in that it can equip more than one type of Hop-up; the Select Fire Receiver or the Turbocharger. It should be noted it can’t equip both at once, but either attachment specialises the HAVOC into a more specialised role.
Before we get into the specifics, it’s quite a well thought-out addition on Respawn’s part (though it has probably been in development since before Apex even released). The first is it adds to the rather uninspired assault rifle category. Assault rifles in Apex Legends are serviceable, but dull, having no real unique contenders in the family. The HAVOC is one of the most interesting and unique weapons in the game, really spicing up the assault rifle offerings. Secondly, it adds to the energy ammo category, which was lacking in options, making energy ammo somewhat undesirable as the two weapons on offer were also not amongst the most common.
The final addition (and possibly the most clever) is that it makes use of two underappreciated Hop-ups. Both the Turbocharger and Select Fire Receiver were only usable by a single gun and both those guns were reliant on their Hop-ups to achieve their potential, making them very underused as you’d often dump the gun long before finding the correct Hop-up. The HAVOC can use either of these, meaning these drops now are significantly more valuable and exciting to stumble upon.
The base HAVOC model functions much like a Devotion, which means we’ll use that as our benchmark. It has a much smaller magazine size (25 vs. 44) and slower fire rate (about 600RPM vs. 900RPM), in exchange for slightly more damage per ‘bullet’ (18 vs. 17). It’s a slow and heavy weapon (your ADS speed is about the same as a Devotion), but it does feel a bit easier to control than a Devotion. The HAVOC has to spool up before beginning to fire at all, but spools up to its maximum fire rate much quicker than the Devotion. The ‘iron-sights’ on the HAVOC are incredible (best in the game, in my view), similar in design to a Wingman, but with a smaller centre dot. Finally, the HAVOC and Devotion seem to be about as common as each other, not being spectacularly rare, nor overly common either.
On paper then, given the choice between the two, you would think that the Devotion is superior to the HAVOC. Strictly speaking, both base models are quite close to each other in performance, having pros and cons you could leverage to make the gun more effective. Where the deviation occurs is the HAVOC’s flexibility. With a Turbocharger equipped, the HAVOC essentially morphs into an inferior Devotion, especially because it can’t access a barrel stabilizer. However, while it does become ‘Devotion lite’, it’s still a very strong weapon in its own right. A Turbocharged HAVOC can hold its own against any gun at close to medium range, shredding people in a blink.
The Select Fire Receiver gives you access to a special fire-mode that you access in the same way as guns with a single shot option.This single fire mode completely changes the gun’s role, allowing it to function like a pseudo sniper. When you pull the trigger, it’ll begin charging for half a second, before firing out a perfectly accurate laser beam (think the Spartan Laser from Halo). This beam costs five ammo, does 55 damage and has a 2x headshot multiplier. The beam appears to be hitscan (i.e. will hit your target the moment the laser leaves your gun) but suffers from a decent amount of damage drop-off so it doesn’t completely phase out snipers. Damage appears to be halved at about 200m, which makes sense, as it ‘loses energy’ as it travels, like a ‘real’ laser beam. This mode can be quite challenging to use as the beam doesn’t leave the chamber when you pull the trigger, but in the hands of a player who is good with hitscan weapons, this can be quite dangerous to tangle with at medium to long ranges.
All-in-all, the flexibility with how you employ this weapon is what makes it worth considering. It’s certainly a quirky weapon, in that it requires you know how to use its fire-modes to your advantage. But if you invest the time into understanding the weapon, it’s possibly the only gun that can serve you effectively at all ranges (but extreme). I’d rate this the second best assault rifle overall, held back by a slight reliance on Hop-ups, no barrel stabilizer and ammo issues (as energy ammo is still rare). Oh, and you can hear it spool-up, making it sub-optimal for an ambush (similar to a charged Peacekeeper).
Hemlok Burst AR
Damage (body): 18 per bullet (54 per 3 round burst)
Damage (head): 36 per bullet (108 per 3 round burst)
Fire Rate (RPM): 490
DPS (body): 147
Base Magazine Size: 18
Ammo Type: Heavy Ammo
Attachments Slots Available: Barrel Stabilizer, Heavy Magazine Upgrade, AR Optics, AR Stock
A solid, but unremarkable weapon. This fills the typical ‘burst fire rifle’ design you would find in almost every modern military shooter. Respectable all around stats, but somewhat hamstrung by its own design. You really only want to use this weapon at medium range. At close range, you’ll lose out to guns with superior fire rates or burst unless you completely overshadow your opponent in skill. At longer ranges, it has a large kick per burst making it hard to land more than one shot on a distance target.
All that being said, you can switch it to single shot (in which it seems to fire really fast if you spam the trigger, oddly so) for longer engagements, but it’s far from optimal, only doing 18 damage per shot and requiring you to stay exposed as you pepper the enemy. Its saving grace is the fact that at medium range a solid burst or two can drop a target in a blink, making it oddly specialised for an assault rifle.
VK-47 Flatline
Damage (body): 16
Damage (head): 32
Fire Rate (RPM): 10
DPS (body): 160
Base Magazine Size: 20
Ammo Type: Heavy Ammo
Attachments Slots Available: Heavy Magazine Upgrade, AR Optics, AR Stock
This is your ‘slower but stronger’ assault rifle, dealing more damage per bullet compared to the R-301 but with a slower rate of fire. This weapon is solid, but I find it to be outclassed by the R-301 in almost all situations except for longer range engagements, which is usually where you don’t want to be using an assault rifle. While it performs better than the R-301 at medium ranges, I find it less effective than the Hemlok for those types of battles, so I haven’t really found a particular use for this weapon yet. That’s not to say it’s useless, far from it, it’s perfectly serviceable, having won many games off the back of it, but I feel like everything it can do, the other two ARs do better.
It does sport 2 extra bullets in the base magazine compared to the other two, but that hardly makes up for its shortcomings. It also can’t even equip a barrel stabilizer, which is a very strong attachment slot to have in general. It does have access to the single fire mode like the Hemlok, but it suffers from the same issues as the Hemlok and the automatic nature allows you to manually control your shots anyway. Maybe someone out there can use it better than I can, but I rarely see many people willingly use it, especially towards endgame where you can basically choose any weapon you desire.
Apex Legends Submachine Guns
Your close range ‘bullet hose’ style weapon often sporting higher than average firerates, but a lower than average damage per bullet. As you would expect, you want to be up close and personal with opponents to get the best value out of these weapons. To further cement the idea that these aren’t precision weapons, the headshot multiplier is only 1.5x rather than 2x. Like the assault rifle family, these weapons are even more reliant on their fire rate to do damage, so you’ll need to square away even more inventory slots for ammunition.
R-99 SMG
Damage (body): 12
Damage (head): 18
Fire Rate (RPM): 1080
DPS (body): 216
Base Magazine Size: 18
Ammo Type: Light Ammo
Attachments Slots Available: Barrel Stabilizer, Light Magazine Upgrade, SMG Optics, SMG Stock
This gun is an outright monster. At close range, if you don’t get one-tapped by a Peacekeeper or a Mastiff, the ball is – essentially – in your court. Admittedly, it’s quite difficult to land the majority of a magazine on a target (especially without upgrades), but the DPS this thing does is, frankly, quite intimidating. Only the Mastiff and Devotion (fully spooled up) out-DPS the R-99. You’ll see this gun on late game death boxes quite a bit as it’s gaining quite a lot of traction as a player eraser.
It is heavily reliant on a barrel stabilizer and magazine upgrade (sporting a tiny 18 rounds as the base size), but once you have them, it is a perfectly viable substitute (I’d even consider it an upgrade in the event of high tier armour where one-taps are impossible, except for the mighty Mastiff) for a Peacekeeper. It takes a little bit of getting used to, but it’s well worth the investment when you can tear someone down before they’ve finished blinking. Like the R-301, it’s a bullet hose, the most bullet hungry gun in the game in fact, so you’ll need to carry quite a bit of ammo to keep it fed, which means less grenades and meds in general.
Prowler Burst PDW
Damage (body): 14 per bullet (70 per burst)
Damage (head): 21 per bullet (105 per burst)
Fire Rate (RPM): 800
DPS (body): 186
Base Magazine Size: 20
Ammo Type: Heavy Ammo
Attachments Slots Available: Heavy Magazine Upgrade, SMG Optics, SMG Stock, Hop-up Select Fire Receiver
A very strange weapon sporting a ‘futuristic twist’ on the iconic P-90 (an already futuristic looking weapon). This is a five round burst SMG, with the option to switch it to fully automatic upon getting a specific upgrade. I find this gun particularly frustrating to use without upgrades, it sports a 20 round magazine and fires five round bursts, so four bursts and you have to reload again. So unless you’re a burst weapon wizard, you’re not going to be having the best of times with this gun. On top of all that, it chews through heavy ammo quickly, which as far as I can tell, is rarer than light ammo.
If you can source a magazine upgrade and the ‘select fire receiver’ (don’t forget to set the gun to fully automatic once you get it, as it doesn’t swap automatically) then this gun becomes quite powerful. But now it’s just competing with the R-99, but requires harder to get ammo and a very specific upgrade and even then it still puts out significantly less DPS. It also can’t get access to a barrel stabilizer, which is the key attachment for making SMGs stable enough to keep them trained on your target. I personally don’t see a reason to pick this up over an R-99 unless you can find the fully-kitted Legendary version on the map somewhere or you can’t find an R-99 (which appears to be slightly rarer than the standard Prowler) and really want an SMG.
Alternator SMG
Damage (body): 13
Damage (head): 19
Fire Rate (RPM): 640
DPS (body): 138
Base Magazine Size: 16
Ammo Type: Light Ammo
Attachments Slots Available: Barrel Stabilizer, Light Magazine Upgrade, SMG Optics, SMG Stock, Hop-Up: Disruptor Rounds
This is the abject failure of the SMG family. With the lowest fire rate by a significant margin and second lowest damage per bullet of the family (only one damage more than the R-99). It is the most stable and mobile SMG of the family, but it isn’t by such a significant margin that the inferior throughput and tiny clip make it worthwhile.
Whereas the Prowler is an inferior but serviceable version of the R-99 with upgrades, the Alternator can’t even claim that much. The addition of Disruptor Rounds is an interesting way to try and keep this weapon relevant later on when most players tend to have better shields. However, you should still ditch and avoid this weapon where possible.
Apex Legends Light Machine Guns
Another bullet hose style weapon, though rather than raw close range combat potential, the LMG focuses on suppression and solid damage output at a variety of ranges (but once again, not extreme ranges). Essentially assault rifles with much larger clips but slower ADS (aim down sights) and worse hipfire. All LMGs retain the 2x headshot multiplier. Like the previous two families of Apex Legends weapons (SMGs and assault rifles), you’ll need to haul around a metric crapload of ammo to keep them chugging. In the case of the Devotion, that can be quite difficult as energy ammo is as rare as unicorns compared to the other ammo types.
L-Star EMG
Damage (body): 21
Damage (head): 42
Fire Rate (RPM): 720
DPS (body): 252
Base Magazine Size: 40 (2 spare, 120 in total)
Ammo Type: Special, all ammo found with the weapon.
Attachments Slots Available: N/A
For the longest while, Apex Legends only sported two ‘power’ weapons. The Kraber (sniper) and the Mastiff (shotgun), both of which were semi-automatic weapons. With the introduction of the L-Star EMG, we now have a fully automatic power weapon. If automatic weapons are your jam (snipers and shotguns aren’t for everyone) then you won’t be disappointed by this beast.
The L-Star sports a magazine size of 40, which is on the mid/lower end of LMG magazine sizes. However, it has the highest damage per bullet of the LMGs and the second highest firerate. This means the L-Star boasts the second highest DPS in the game, behind a fully spooled up Devotion by 3 DPS. The L-Star, of course, doesn’t have the spool-up mechanic of the Devotion, meaning its much more effective in general as you’re not as exposed while you wait for your gun to spool up.
The L-Star does have a unique mechanic of its own, which is ‘heat’. Essentially, as you fire the weapon it will accumulate heat. Once you reach the L-Star’s thermal limit, it will forcibly shutdown, forcing your character to replace the ‘cooling cell’ at the weapon’s barrel. Take note, this isn’t the reload (which is done at the gun’s grip), so you essentially have ‘two reloads’ if you fail to properly manage your heat. Heat can be tracked on the gun’s ammo tracker (the actual gun, not your HUD) or by an audio cue, which beeps as you when it gets close to overheating. If the L-Star is fired at full auto, it will take 22 shots before it will overheat, just over half the magazine.
Finally, and very importantly, the L-Star is very accurate. While aiming down sights, the L-Star has considerably little recoil for the first 8-10 shots. Moving predictably up and to the left, after that it will pull to the right and zig zag, making it considerably difficult to control. When fired in controlled bursts (about 5-8 is optimal) the gun is extremely accurate, predictable and easy to control. Like all energy weapons, projectile speed is faster than ‘solid ammo’ (bullets) and has no arc (drop), making it even easier to land shots at range. Do not bother using this gun’s hipfire at any range but point blank, as the recoil is extremely pronounced (same pattern), being very difficult to control.
Like all power weapons, you can’t pick up extra ammo for the L-Star, so what you have when you pick it up is all you’ll get unless you find another L-Star. Considering the rate at which the L-Star flings ammunition, 120 shots will disappear fast, making this the shortest lived of the power weapons. You can only find the L-Star in air drops (not Lifeline air drops, neutral map drops) and usually late game air drops. It is, however, worth the risk to obtain as it will literally cook an enemy in under a second if your aim in on point.
M600 Spitfire
Damage (body): 20
Damage (head): 40
Fire Rate (RPM): 512
DPS (body): 170
Base Magazine Size: 35
Ammo Type: Heavy Ammo
Attachments Slots Available: Barrel Stabilizer, Heavy Magazine Upgrade, LMG Optics, LMG Stock
This gun is a contender for one of the most powerful and versatile guns in Apex Legends. It has it all: high damage per bullet, decent fire rate, respectable range, enormous clip size and access to most attachments. Its only drawback being a lack of mobility when ADS and requiring a large amount of heavy ammo to keep serviceable.
It works as an amazing squad support weapon for suppression, as a mid-ranged brawler and can even work as a close ranged weapon when ADS. You can essentially replace any assault rifle style weapon with this and it’ll do the job just as well and, in some cases, even better. It does require a barrel stabilizer to reach full potential and boasts the largest magazine of any weapon once it equips an upgrade. It is also common enough that you should be able to find one most games. They’re quite popular into the late game as a fully kitted one is a force to be reckoned with.
In my view, one of the best weapons in the game at the moment, a true all-rounder that you can’t go wrong with (unless you try to snipe with it, of course).
Devotion LMG
Damage (body): 17
Damage (head): 34
Fire Rate (RPM): 900 (fully spooled up)
DPS (body): 255
Base Magazine Size: 44
Ammo Type: Energy Ammo
Attachments Slots Available: Energy Magazine Upgrade, Barrel Stabilizer, LMG Optics, Hop-up: Turbocharger, LMG Stock.
I rate the the Devotion worse than the Spitfire for two reasons. The first is ammo: energy ammo is very rare, possibly because only two weapons use it. The second is the Devotion needs the Turbochargee hop-up to really reach its full potential, which is a Legendary upgrade. If you can solve the second problem and sort of deal with the first (which, ultimately you can’t, you’re just delaying the inevitable when you need to ditch it and pick up something more sustainable), then this gun is close to the king of the pile. Fully spooled up, this thing does the most DPS of any weapon in the game.
However, its shortcomings are too hard to work with. Ammo will be a perpetual problem inhibiting your ability to do what it wants to do most of all; spray copious amounts of hurt at anything that moves. And while carrying one around until you find the right hop-up is feasible and it will function as a decent ranged suppression weapon (you can’t manually spool it in anticipation either) without one, it might end up being a liability just as easily. Ultimately, the Spitfire doesn’t have these problems. If you do find a Devotion with Turbocharger quite early, then keep it around until you can’t feed it anymore.
Apex Legends Sniper Rifles
Sniper rifles are the reigning champs of long ranged combat in terms of Apex Legends weapons. Once you get a scope attachment, these are the only guns that will really function effectively at the longer distances in this game. They’re all semi-automatic in nature and sport the 2x headshot multiplier. They’re also not very ammo hungry, so it leaves extra inventory space for other things.
Kraber .50-Cal Sniper
Damage (body): 125
Damage (head): 250
Fire Rate (RPM): 36
DPS (body): 75
Base Magazine Size: 4 (8 spare, 12 in total)
Ammo Type: Special, all ammo found with the weapon
Attachments Slots Available: N/A
The Kraber is the ‘god sniper’ based on your typical .50-cal bolt action design. It’s a Legendary weapon that can only be found in supply drops (and usually late game supply drops). These will not spawn in Lifeline’s care packages. You can’t pick up extra ammunition for this weapon; it comes with a set amount of magazines and that is all.
If you consider yourself a ‘sniper’ player, this is the holy grail. Two body shots will always kill (assuming no healing between the shots) and a headshot will kill in all circumstances unless an opponent has purple body armour, purple helmet (50% headshot reduction) and full HP/shields. Which, to be fair, as you usually find this gun late into matches, a large amount of your opponents may very well have full purple (or better) defensive equipment. It comes with a preinstalled 6x/10x variable scope and is quite easy to handle, despite its absurd size.
Longbow DMR
Damage (body): 55
Damage (head): 110
Fire Rate (RPM): 86
DPS (body): 71
Base Magazine Size: 5
Ammo Type: Heavy Ammo
Attachments Slots Available: Barrel Stabilizer, Heavy Magazine Upgrade, Sniper Optics, Hop-up: Skullpiecer, Sniper Stock
The Longbow is the bread-and-butter sniper rifle of Apex Legends. In the absence of a Kraber (which is most of the time), this is the sniper’s choice of weapon. Semi-automatic and a dominant force of long distance engagements, it has access to a whopping five attachment types – which is all of them and the only gun that does this.
It’s not very ammo hungry either, meaning you don’t need to lug heaps of ammo around to keep this beast fed. That being said, the gun itself is fairly rare, so don’t expect to find one every match. Despite it having access to five types of attachments, optics is the only real necessity as the base iron sights leave a lot to be desired.
G7 Scout
Damage (body): 30
Damage (head): 60
Fire Rate (RPM): 240
DPS (body): 120
Base Magazine Size: 10
Ammo Type: Light Ammo
Attachments Slots Available: Barrel Stabilizer, Light Magazine Upgrade, Sniper Optics, Sniper Stock
While certainly not a popular opinion, the G7 Scout is probably my favourite ‘sniper’ weapon. It does not hit as hard as all the other weapons in this category, but it does fire significantly faster, making it superb for long range fire support.
It scales really well with magazine upgrades, but is reliant on finding decent optics before it’ll be any real use (like the Longbow, it has horrible iron sights). Once you do find some nice optics (I prefer 3x/4x for this style of weapon personally) and a barrel stabilizer, it’s quite the force to be reckoned with, being a solid performer at all ranges but close.
Triple Take
Damage (body): 23 per bullet, 3 bullets (69 in total)
Damage (head): 46 per bullet, 3 bullets (138 in total)
Fire Rate (RPM): 88
DPS (Body): 101 (assuming all three shots hit the body)
Base Magazine Size: 5
Ammo Type: Energy Ammo
Attachments Slots Available: Energy Magazine Upgrade, Sniper Optics, Hop-up: Precision Choke, Sniper Stock
The Triple Take is a very strange weapon, one that I would rank better than the Scout if it weren’t for its reliance on the Precision Choke to actually fulfill the role of a sniper. This gun acts like if the Longbow and Peacekeeper had a child. It fires three rounds per pull of a trigger, with one round going straight out from your crosshair and one fanning to the left and one to the right (for a total of three) of the centre shot. The longer the bullet travels, the further the rounds fanout. This means long range shots will only have one bullet connect, doing essentially a third of the damage potential.
Now, this makes it surprisingly effective up close for a sniper, but incredibly underwhelming at anything beyond medium range (which, admittedly it is quite good at). To alleviate this, you can equip a special Hop-up called the ‘Precision Choke’, which will charge the gun when you aim down sights and when it reaches maximum charge, all three rounds will hit the exact same point, returning it to a sniper, while retaining its close and medium range benefits.
This all sounds amazing in theory, but in practise, this design hamstrings it a bit. The first issue, is it requires the Hop-up to do its job as a sniper, otherwise it’s just a really odd medium ranged weapon, that while powerful, would still struggle with higher fire rate weapons that dominate that range. The second is, once you get said upgrade, it now has to ‘charge’ to line up the shots, heavily impacting your fire rate and therefore, your ability to secure a knockdown. It also can’t access a magazine upgrade, which means you’re stuck with the five total shots per magazine. Maybe there are some wizards out there with this weapon, but I find the odd design tends to hold it back, especially the reliance on a specific upgrade.
Apex Legends Shotguns
Shotguns are the other close ranged specialist weapon family in Apex Legends. Unlike SMGs, shotguns trade raw DPS and range for higher burst potential. A well aimed shot from a shotgun can be devastating, turning a duel around in an instant. Shotguns sport 1.5x headshot multipliers, encouraging bodyshots (which is usual for shotguns). The exception to this is the Mastiff, which for some ungodly reason sports a 2x headshot multiplier. Shotguns are also quite ammo efficient across the board (even the EVA isn’t so bad), allowing you to carry more meds and grenades.
Mastiff Shotgun
Damage (body): 18 per pellet, 8 pellets (144 in total)
Damage (head): 36 per pellet, 8 pellets (288 in total)
Fire Rate (RPM): 96
DPS (body): 230
Base Magazine Size: 4 (16 spare, 20 in total)
Ammo Type: Special, all ammo found with the weapon
Attachments Slots Available: N/A
Like the Kraber is to snipers, the Mastiff is to shotguns. It’s also a Legendary weapon with its own unique ammo system, so the amount of shells you’re given with it is all you’re getting unless you find another Mastiff. It only spawns in care packages spawned by the map (not the ones spawned by a Lifeline) and is more common in late game care packages.
Unlike the traditional spread of the other shotguns, this fires in a flat horizontal fan like pattern, making it patently absurd at taking out groups of clustered enemies. For some ungodly reason it boasts a 2x headshot multiplier unlike the other shotguns, which means if you somehow get every single pellet into an enemy’s noggin, they’re dying, no matter what they’re wearing.
This gun is basically an ‘I win’ button for close range combat, as it essentially requires the Mastiff to user either die before firing, or whiff significantly for them to lose in a duel situation as only the Devotion really out DPS’s it.
Peacekeeper
Damage (body): 10 per pellet, 11 pellets (110 in total)
Damage (head): 15 per pellet, 11 pellets (165 in total)
Fire Rate (RPM): 58
DPS (body): 106
Base Magazine Size: 6
Ammo Type: Shotgun Shells
Attachments Slots Available: Shotgun Bolt, Shotgun Optics, Hop-up: Precision Choke
All things considered, the Peacekeeper is probably the most powerful and most popular gun in Apex Legends currently. Now, when I say most powerful, I don’t mean you can charge a Mastiff user and expect to win, but this weapon is very common for how powerful it is. You can basically expect to find one every match (assuming you survive your initial landing). Almost every squad that survives early game has one player rocking this; more often every member has one.
It has the most range of any shotgun (including the Mastiff), has the highest damage per shot (besides the Mastiff), the second largest clip (inc. Mastiff) and the longest range (inc. Mastiff). Its capability for burst is only really surpassed by the Mastiff (and potentially the R-99 depending on aim).
It also has access to the same Precision Choke Hop-up the Triple Take has, which allows it to extend its range by quite a significant margin. You charge the Peacekeeper in the same fashion as the Triple Take (ADS mode and it’ll begin charging) and it’ll forcibly cluster the pellets into a tight spread, extending your range to about that of a short-to-medium range weapon. This extends the gun’s effective engagement range significantly.
Unlike the Triple Take, the Peacekeeper isn’t reliant on the hop-up to be effective at fulfilling its role either. An un-upgraded Peacekeeper is still one of the most dangerous weapons in the game and can knock-down close range opponents with ease. Unless you have a specific aversion to shotguns, becoming familiar with this weapon will almost assuredly improve your ability to win close range brawls. It’s common, absurdly powerful and very damn cool (being a lever action space shotgun).
Eva-8 Auto
Damage (body): 7 per pellet, 9 pellets (63 in total)
Damage (head): 10 per pellet, 9 pellets (90 in total)
Fire Rate (RPM): 128
DPS (body): 134
Base Magazine Size: 8
Ammo Type: Shotgun Shells
Attachments Slots Available: Shotgun Bolt, Shotgun Optics
It’s really hard to sing this shotgun’s praises when it’s overshadowed so thoroughly by the Peacekeeper. The Eva-8 Auto sacrifices everything great about the Peacekeeper for pure fire rate, which at first might make you think it’s better than the Peacekeeper for super close battles, but even then, it isn’t.
It has inferior spread, hamstringing its effective range quite significantly, can’t burst nearly as hard and all that extra fire rate doesn’t actually translate into significant DPS gains. If you were to run this as intended, you might as well just use an R-99, as it puts out superior DPS (by a huge margin) while maintaining some flexibility with its engagement ranges.
Mozambique “Shotgun”
Damage (body): 15 per pellet, 3 pellets (45 in total)
Damage (head): 22 per pellet, 3 pellets (66 in total)
Fire Rate (RPM): 180
DPS (body): 135
Base Magazine Size: 3
Ammo Type: Shotgun Shells
Attachments Slots Available: Shotgun Bolt, Shotgun Optics, Hop-Up: Hammerpoint Rounds
The Mozambique is a tri-barreled pistol, that fires three pellets per shot. These pellets do the most damage of any shotgun pellet (besides the Mastiff), but there is only three of them. This gun is honestly a pure desperation weapon. You only ever want to use this when you have absolutely no other options available, boiling down to a landing weapon and not much else. While its DPS stat is decent on paper, the spread on the gun is bad and so is the magazine size.
It can now equip a special Hammerpoint Rounds Hop-Up, which like the Alternator, P2020 and RE-45 helps to keep it a little more effective later on in the game. Like these three other guns, however, they’re still flat-out inferior to other weapons in their respective families.
Unless you’re somehow spectacular at landing all three shots in succession, you’re going to have trouble making this thing work. Even if you somehow guaranteed every pellet and every shot went into someone’s head, it still wouldn’t kill a player in purple armour (even with no helmet) before you need to reload. Avoid it.
Apex Legends Pistols
As you’d imagine, these are the sidearms of the Apex Legends weapons and have no real speciality in comparison to the other weapon families. However, despite their smaller stature, they still occupy the same space as a usual weapon (i.e. they occupy a full weapon slot). To compensate for their reduction in overall effectiveness, your mobility is better with one of these drawn (especially your ADS speed) compared to a typical weapon. The pistol family has a 1.5x headshot multiplier except the Wingman (Magnum style revolver), which sports a 2x headshot multiplier.
Wingman
Damage (body): 45
Damage (head): 90
Fire Rate (RPM): 156
DPS (body): 117
Base Magazine Size: 4
Ammo Type: Heavy Ammo
Attachments Slots Available: Heavy Magazine Upgrade, Pistol Optics, Hop-up: Skullpiercer.
The Wingman single-handedly saves the pistol category from being garbage. This gun is on par with the Peacekeeper for being absurdly powerful, yet very common. In short, this is your ‘space’ six shooter (and one of my personal favourites).
It packs one hell of a wallop, is extremely accurate, sports a 2x headshot multiplier and fires at a respectable pace. It has access to a decent amount of attachments (including the Skullpiercer, which increases headshot damage) and scales extremely well with a magazine attachment, capping out at 12 rounds in the chamber, triple its base size. Due to its high damage per bullet, you also don’t need to really carry more than a single stack of heavy ammunition to keep it lethal, which frees up space for other things.
This gun is extremely versatile and will function at all ranges but sniper range. It is more than capable of butchering people in close and medium range combat, only beginning to suffer from its slow projectile speed at longer distances.
Ultimately, this is the marksman’s weapon, as there is nothing unique about the Wingman, but being entirely contingent on your ability to click on heads (or any part of them really) with reliability; at which point it morphs into one of the best weapons in the game. This can be verified by the fact that you’ll see a lot of late game players running around with one, as it does just about everything.
RE-45
Damage (body): 11
Damage (head): 16
Fire Rate (RPM): 750
DPS (body): 137
Base Magazine Size: 15
Ammo Type: Light Ammo
Attachments Slots Available:Barrel Stabilizer, Light Magazine Upgrade, Pistol Optics, Hop-Up: Disruptor Rounds
This gun is basically Apex Legends’ version of an ‘Uzi’. Firing very fast with little recoil, but falls apart in every other department, it does function well enough at point blank ranges and a little bit beyond, but after that it struggles to keep up. Probably the fourth worst weapon in the game, really only useful for the initial landing brawls.
Better than the Mozambique, P2020 and possibly the Alternator (in my view anyway), but not something you want to hold onto for too long. Its main issue is that it competes with far more powerful close range weapons that are about as common (Peacekeeper and R-99).
Just like the Alternator this weapon has been given the Disruptor Rounds Hop-Up, which maintains its effectiveness a little later into the game. Its main issue is that it competes with far more powerful close range weapons (Peacekeeper and R-99).
P2020
Damage (body): 12
Damage (head): 18
Fire Rate (RPM): 430
DPS (body): 86
Base Magazine Size: 10
Ammo Type: Light Ammo
Attachments Slots Available:Light Magazine Upgrade, Pistol Optics, Hop-Up: Hammerpoint Rounds
This is the last gun you want to see when you just land — it leaves something to be desired in every single category (even its iron sights are bad). It only has a 1.5x weapon multiplier, so despite all its shortcomings, you can’t even leverage headshots as hard as other weapons. Even a superb marksman will struggle against the brute force of any other weapon. Ditch ASAP and never look back.
Like the Mozambique, the P2020 can use the Hammerpoint Rounds Hop-Up, helping it stay a little more effective later into the game. However, even a superb marksman will struggle against the brute force of any other weapon, Hop-Up or no. Ditch ASAP and never look back.
Well that about covers it for all the weapons currently in Apex Legends. Respawn recently teased two new weapons that will – presumably – be released shortly, so keep an eye out here for the info on them when they drop.
From our Apex Legends review:
“Even the most jaded of battle royale fans will find their interest rejuvenated by Apex Legends thanks to Respawn’s attention to detail, superior gunplay, and fantastic innovations, though the loot boxes and progression system certainly need addressing.”
MORE APEX LEGENDS:
– Apex Legends Season 2’s Battle Pass Is A Significant Improvement
– Apex Legends Characters, Ultimates, Abilities & More
– Apex Legends Wattson Guide: Abilities, Skins & Tips
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