5 Best Apex Legends Close Range Weapons

Respawn’s Apex Legends is fairly unique as far as battle royales are concerned, even when it comes to player revives. It sports the typical squad ‘revive’ mechanic that lets you pick up a downed comrade, but also a ‘respawn’ feature, that lets you bring a completely eliminated squadmate back into the match. This makes securing kills (properly finishing off an enemy), but also finishing off the entire squad very important in Apex Legends. As I mentioned in another article, the best way to guarantee that is up close and personal.

By now a large portion of the playerbase knows this (or just dislike ranged combat, where things are less ‘certain), so it’s always important to have something in your arsenal that can defend you up close. We’ll go through the five best weapons that’ll see you through those CQC (Close Quarters Combat) brawls. Some of these guns aren’t specifically designed for CQC, but Apex Legends sports a chunky arsenal of weapons, that happen to be flexible and powerful enough to do very well in CQC situations.

This list is ordered from best to worst (best is number 1, worst of the top five is number 5) in terms of close range effectiveness. For everyone’s sake, I’m going to leave the Mastiff off the list. It is clearly designed to be the reigning champ of CQC and is not something you can expect to see often (only appearing in mid-to-late game).

 

1. Peacekeeper

With the rarity changes made to Apex Legends (better guns are now rarer than their objectively inferior counterparts), you can expect to see this gun a lot less than you did in the early days of Apex Legends. However, despite the nerfs, it is still a CQC powerhouse and any squad that makes it to the latter half of the game will most likely still be carrying one or more.

It sports ungodly burst, a decent magazine size, strong DPS (especially for a non-automatic shotgun) and surprisingly flexible engagement ranges (again, especially for a shotgun). It’s capable of one-tapping targets if you somehow get all (or most) your pellets into their head, which very few other guns are capable of, hence the ungodly burst. Hip-fire is reliable and you move very quickly while in ADS (aim down sights), which makes you very difficult to hit, so not only are you sporting one of the most dangerous CQC weapons, you’re also annoying to hit as well. My only real issue with the Peacekeeper is the spread seems a little inconsistent at times, but sometimes it also wipes a squad in three shots; good with the bad.

To stack matters in the Peacekeeper’s favour more, it requires no attachments to be dominant in close range. The barebones model will function in CQC better than almost any other gun, with attachments just ‘enhancing the flavour’. A shotgun bolt just makes it more terrifying (upping the DPS potential) and sights are a matter of preference (though I’d argue the standard iron sights are not the best). Where it gets interesting is the Precision Choke, which gives it the option to use it as a slug-gun of sorts. The Precision Choke will force the pellets into a tighter and tighter spread (until it caps out) while you’re in ADS, significantly extending its engagement range, to the point where it can even challenge rifles. And yes, I said option: this choke does not reduce its effectiveness at close range at all.

It’s also a space lever-action shotgun that sounds badass, so it even dominates the unique flavour front.

 

2. R-99

Putting the R-99 second was a tough choice, as both it and the Peacekeeper are both extremely dominant forces in the CQC category. The R-99 loses out mostly due to a reliance on attachments to reach its full potential. The R-99 has the highest fire rate of any gun in Apex Legends at the moment and still does a respectable amount of damage per bullet. This gives it the most DPS potential of any gun in the game, minus a fully spooled Devotion, L-Star or Mastiff.

To compound its strengths, you have a ridiculous ADS speed (which means again, more difficult to hit), respectable hip-fire accuracy and flexible engagement ranges, able to cover more than just point blank battles. However, this gun really needs a high quality magazine extension and barrel stabilizer (a lot of recoil courtesy of the fire rate) before it becomes that dominant force I spoke about earlier. If you’re good at tracking (as opposed to flicking), this thing should be your first pick for CQC.

 

3. R-301

The ‘big brother’ to the R-99. The R-301 certainly hits harder, but it doesn’t hit with the speed and ferocity of the R-99. As a rifle, it’s designed with a bit more range in mind (in which case it does do better than the R-99), but it comes at the cost of three things: ADS speed, hip-fire accuracy and overall DPS.

These three things are basically what defines an automatic’s effectiveness in CQC. You can sum this gun up as a: ‘more flexible R-99 without the close range specialisation’, which makes sense considering that’s exactly what it’s supposed to be. It’s still effective enough that you should feel comfortable in CQC with it as long as your tracking is on point as it has probably the lowest recoil of any automatic weapon in the game.

 

4. M600 Spitfire

The Spitfire basically does the same thing the R-99 and R-301 do in close range, leveraging its fire rate for high DPS — it just doesn’t do it as effectively. The potential for a massive magazine is always welcome, but hip-fire usage is the definition of spray and pray. If you’re good at tracking and can ADS targets in close range this thing can delete people at the same speed an R-301 can (multiple people if you have the juicy 60 round magazine). The drawbacks being that you can’t rely on the hip-fire should the need arise, you’re a slow target while in ADS (compared to the above guns) and ammo management is harder than the above four guns (heavy ammo is harder to hoard).

 

5. HAVOC Rifle

With the considerable nerfs to the Wingman, it’s lost its spot as a dominant CQC weapon in my view. The fire rate and magazine nerfs have considerably impacted its CQC performance, especially hipfire. While a possibly contentious choice, the HAVOC was always my next-in-line CQC weapon.

While a weapon that requires time to spool up seems like the antithesis of a good CQC weapon (as TTK is king in close range), the HAVOC can still hold its own given the chance. Its DPS once spooled up is one of the highest in the game, is very accurate in ADS and while the spread from hip fire is considerable (smaller than the crosshair indicates), it is easy to control as it has a very predictable pattern (directly up). Additionally, it contains a huge amount of damage in a single magazine compared to some of the other CQC weapons (like the 301 and 99 without magazine extensions), which makes it a lot more forgiving of missed shots as you may not need to perform that reload to secure a kill.

Admittedly, the nerfs to the magazine size (down to 24 from 32) and the spool up time always hold it back from being a true powerhouse in CQC as it basically adds a half a second to its TTK (which is considerable drawback indeed). Keep in mind an overwhelming amount of player can rarely fully optimise a gun’s TTK consistently. Also, energy weapons can now equip magazine extensions, which can circumvent the loss of magazine size and even outright buff it with a purple one, making it even more powerful in CQC than it used to be.

Finally and very importantly, the HAVOC’s primary weakness vanishes with a Turbocharger. Once equipped, this turns the HAVOC from rank 5, to rank 2 on the list of overwhelming CQC weapons (I’d argue even better than the Peacekeeper once higher level armour gets involved, as the main drawback that stops its ascent to godhood is no more). This kind of potential can’t be ignored, especially as it’s still so effective without it.

So you’ve reached the end of the list and you’re probably asking yourself, do I actually think so little of the EVA-8? Yes, I do, and here is why I think that. The EVA-8 has inconsistent spread and damage (the Peacekeeper suffers similarly, but it can delete people randomly), no burst and far more importantly, it is an ineffective weapon outside of all ranges that aren’t point blank. The area in which an EVA-8 is scary is laughably small and even in that range it is still capable of being dominated by all the above guns as they sport far superior DPS or burst (or in the Wingman’s case, accuracy and range). You can do well with it (it does gain relative value the worse your aim is, so it is good for beginners), but you can theoretically do well with a Mozambique too. In a line: An inflexible one-trick that is mediocre at said trick.

Hopefully this article will help people pick their preferred close range setups come their next game (I’m fond of the Wingman and Peacekeeper personally). Being proficient at CQC in Apex Legends is not something you can avoid forever, as ranged combat tends to be more of a pressure tool so people can close in for the squad wipe. So even if you don’t like to swoop in, you’ll have to deal with people trying to swoop in on you sooner or later.

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 Beginner’s Guide
– Apex Legends Characters From Best To Worst
– Apex Legends Tips For High Kill Games