Apex Legends

Although this product has been released, it remains under active development - information may change frequently and could be outdated or irrelevant.

Apex Legends

Developers
	Respawn Entertainment
Publishers
	Electronic Arts
Engines
	Source
Release dates
Windows	February 4, 2019
Reception
Metacritic	88
OpenCritic	81
IGDB	88
Taxonomy
Monetization	Free-to-play
Microtransactions	Boost, Cosmetic, Infinite spend, Loot box, Free-to-grind, Unlock, Currency, Time-limited
Modes	Multiplayer
Pacing	Real-time
Perspectives	First-person
Controls	Direct control
Genres	Action, Battle royale, FPS
Art styles	Stylized
Themes	Sci-fi
Series	Titanfall

Titanfall
Titanfall	2014
Titanfall 2	2016
Apex Legends	2019

Warnings

This game requires a constant internet connection for all game modes.

Apex Legends is an online multiplayer battle royale FPS game developed by Respawn Entertainment and published by Electronic Arts. It is set in the Titanfall universe and uses the same Source engine as used in Titanfall and Titanfall 2.

Apex Legends released on Origin on February 4, 2019. At launch, many players experienced issues with crash to desktop at random intervals, which appears to have been fixed for many PC players in a stability patch on March 22, 2019. The game is one of the most popular online PC games, reaching a reported 70 million players (on all platforms) on October 29, 2019, although this figure does not reflect concurrent players or PC-only players.

As of May 2020, the game remains very popular and is regularly updated with new free content as well as microtransactions and a new Season Pass approximately every 3 months, and has a very active playerbase worldwide. Season 5: Fortune's Favor, a content update, was released May 12, 2020. Following the announcement of a partnership between EA and Valve on October 29, 2019, Apex Legends was released on Steam on November 5, 2020, supporting cross-platform play with Origin.

General information

Official forum

Official Discord

/r/apexlegends subreddit

Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail		Origin code only, no disc. Available in Bloodhound Edition or Lifeline Edition.
Origin		Manual link for EA App download.
Steam

All versions require an EA account and a constant internet connection for all game modes.

Version differences

Champion Edition

Unavailable since January 27th, 2023. Included 3 exclusive skins for both weapons and Legends, 1000 Apex Coins and Legend unlocks from release (Caustic, Mirage) up to Season 7 (Horizon).

Lifeline/Bloodhound Edition

Unavailable digitally, but may be available physically. Both editions include exclusive cosmetics (depending on edition) and 1000 Apex Coins.

Founders Pack

Was available only until Season 1. Included 3 exclusive skins for both weapons and Legends and 2000 Apex Coins.

Monetization

Type	Notes
Free-to-play	Game is free-to-play and microtransactions are heavily promoted in-game.

Microtransactions

Type	Notes
Boost	Every Season (every few months), a new Battle Pass is released which temporarily boosts the speed at which these currencies and cosmetics are gained. The Battle Pass can be purchased using Apex Coins.
Currency	Apex Coins are a real money purchase. Apex Coins can be used to purchase cosmetics and unlock characters, which are frequently added into the game at regular intervals.
Free-to-grind	It is possible to unlock every character within a reasonable playtime without spending real money by earning Legend Tokens after competing in games. However the purchase of the Battle Pass, Apex Coins and Apex Packs allows users to skip the grind.
Infinite spend	No practical limit to how much real money can be spent in the game.
Loot box	Apex Coins can be spent on Apex Packs which are loot boxes that drop cosmetics which do not duplicate, and guarantees a Legendary quality cosmetic every 30 packs. Apex Packs also have a very small chance to award 'heirloom shards' currency which is used to purchase 'heirloom' quality cosmetics, and are guaranteed every 500 packs.
Time-limited	A pack including 600 Apex Coins and a skin for a Legend is released every Season for its' duration, after which the packs are made unavailable for purchase.

Essential improvements

Skip intro videos

Use the -dev command line argument

Rename or remove respawn.bik located in <path-to-game>\Media\

This method prevents the long menu load times on NVIDIA cards and the HUD flicker/disappearing issue caused by using command line arguments.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	%USERPROFILE%\Saved Games\Respawn\Apex\local\videoconfig.txt
Steam Play (Linux)	<SteamLibrary-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/1172470/pfx/

Locale is saved in %PROGRAMDATA%\Origin\LocalContent\Apex\Origin.OFR.50.0002694.dat

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
Origin
Steam Cloud

Video

Video settings

In-game 5760x1080 Nvidia Surround

Graphics feature	State	Notes
Widescreen resolution		Minimum window height must be 720 pixels.
Multi-monitor		Detects multi-monitor resolutions, however, loading menu, character selection, legends introduction is stretched across all displays. HUD is optimised for multi-monitor resolution.
Ultra-widescreen		Some of the UI doesn't scale correctly and menu doesn't extend to 32:9.
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)		Between 70º and 110º, with the default being 90º. As with other Source games, this is the horizontal FOV for a 4:3 screen, making it equivalent to 74º vertical. Precise calculation for different aspect ratios can be made with the help of this web tool.
Windowed
Borderless fullscreen windowed
Anisotropic filtering (AF)		Up to 16 samples.
Anti-aliasing (AA)		TSAA.
Vertical sync (Vsync)
60 FPS
120+ FPS		Up to 144 FPS by default. Unlocked with +fps_max unlimited. Lobby screen is capped to 60 FPS.
High dynamic range display (HDR)		Console-exclusive feature. Windows 11 AutoHDR supported.
Color blind mode

Input

In-game input settings

In-game controller settings

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support		Aim assist can be toggled on and off but it is not as strong as it is on console.
Full controller support
Controller remapping		Comes with a few button presets.
Controller sensitivity		Very Low, Low, Default, High, Very High, Super High, Ultra High, Insane presets.
Controller Y-axis inversion

Controller types

XInput-compatible controllers
Xbox button prompts		Uses Xbox One button prompts.
Impulse Trigger vibration

PlayStation controllers		DualShock 4, DualSense, DualSense Edge
PlayStation button prompts
Light bar support
Adaptive trigger support		Works over Bluetooth. Added in the Breakout update.
DualSense haptic feedback support		Wired only. Added in the Breakout update.
Connection modes	Wired, Wireless (Bluetooth), Wireless (DualShock 4 USB Wireless Adapter)

Generic/other controllers

Additional information
Controller hotplugging
Haptic feedback
Digital movement supported
Simultaneous controller+KB/M		Introduces mouse lag and sensitivity issues while moving with a joystick.

Audio

Audio settings

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls		Master, Sound Effects, Dialogue, Music, Lobby Music.
Surround sound		5.1, 7.1. Is detected automatically, to set manually see Command line arguments.
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
EAX support
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
Simplified Chinese
Traditional Chinese
French
German
Italian
Japanese
Korean
Polish
Brazilian Portuguese
Russian
Spanish

Network

Multiplayer types

Type	Native	Players	Notes
Local play
LAN play
Online play		60	Versus 20 squads of 3 or 30 squads of 2 against each other. Supports crossplay with Xbox One, PS4, Switch.
Asynchronous multiplayer

Connection types

Type	Native	Notes
Matchmaking
Peer-to-peer
Dedicated
Self-hosting
Direct IP

Issues unresolved

Shader compilation stutter

While the game offers compiling shaders when starting it for the first time, not all shaders are compiled, this can be seen in lobby when changing game modes which will result in stutter. This issue occurs everytime when a new season comes out.

The game suffers from shader compilation related stutters during gameplay, this occurs whenever a new effect is displayed and thus whenever a new shader has to be compiled.

Party Not Ready

When pressing Ready, the game states Party Not Ready, even when playing alone.

Close and open the game, or enter then leave training mode[citation needed]

Crash to desktop

There have been numerous reports of crash to desktop on both Nvidia and AMD GPUs.^{[citation needed]}

Upgrading to Nvidia driver version 419.35 is known to fix the issue[citation needed]

Issues fixed

Low FPS/stuttering on Nvidia Optimus platforms

Some Nvidia drivers might not properly detect Apex Legends as a game and automatically select and make use of the Nvidia discrete GPU to render the game on Nvidia Optimus platforms, instead it will default to using the integrated GPU that resides in the CPU (Intel-based GPU).

Configure the Nvidia display drivers to make use of the high-performance Nvidia graphics card for the game

Open the NVIDIA Control Panel. Under Manage 3d settings, open the Program Settings tab. Add a profile for Apex Legends (r5apex.exe). Change Select the preferred graphics processor for this program to High-performance NVIDIA processor. Notes The Select the preferred graphics processor for this program option is only available on Nvidia Optimus platforms that uses switchable graphics cards, such as laptops and console-sized PCs. If this option is not available then either the system is not an Nvidia Optimus platform, or incorrect iGPU and dGPU drivers are installed. Refer to your system manual and OEM drivers section to locate the proper Intel and Nvidia drivers to use.

Frametime inconsistencies and microstutter at high FPS

The game can feel stuttery even at higher frame rates which is most likely caused by inconsistent frametimes.

Disable the ingame FPS limiter by adding +fps_max unlimited as a launch command, then use RTSS or AMD/Nvidia Control Panel to limit the ingame FPS.

Cannot look around in-game

Disable Origin In-Game Overlay
Locate game in Origin Library. Open game Properties Page. Uncheck 'Enable Origin In Game'. Notes This is usually caused by a conflict of another overlay, i.e. disable Discord's overlay.

Mouse stuttering

Lower mouse polling rate
Open your mouse specific settings. Check if polling rate is high. Lower polling rate to 500 or below. Notes Lowering polling rates reduces the rate of mouse updates to the PC.

Geometry pop-in/Low Level-of-Detail(LOD)

Tweaking "Model Detail" adds considerable amounts of detail to cliffs, rocks, trees, and other game elements. In addition, higher detail levels will reduce the degree of pop-in as you move quickly through a level, increasing image quality and immersion.

Edit Config File to increase Model Detail

Find and open %USERPROFILE%\Saved Games\Respawn\Apex\local\videoconfig.txt in your text editor. Find and modify setting.r_lod_switch_scale from 1 to 2, 3, or 4 for better visual quality. Save the file and make it read-only. Notes Don't open in-game "Settings", doing so will revert "Model Detail" to "1". There are diminishing returns past "2", which is a massive jump up from "1"(the in-game maximum applied by the "High" setting). "Model Detail" has a minimal impact on modern GPUs, "2" will set you back 3 FPS, "3" 2.1 FPS, and "4" 1.3 FPS.

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	11, 12	D3D12 accessed via the -eac_launcher_settings SettingsDX12.json launch option. *This requires a tweak to /Apex Legends/EasyAntiCheat/Launcher/SettingsDX12.json after the 2024-01-09 title update; set the value for executable from r5apex.exe to r5apex_dx12.exe

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Cutscenes	Bink Video
Anti-cheat	Easy Anti-Cheat

Command line arguments

View this Steam Support Article regarding launch options as well as the relevant Valve Developer wiki page for further information and a list of useful Source engine launch options.

These arguments can be set in Steam, Origin or in the shortcut for the game executable.

-high can cause an issue where the Apex client believes there is an Origin update. Remove -high if you have this problem. Example screenshot here.

NVIDIA Reflex Low Latency requires a Geforce GTX 9xx GPU at minimum, and graphics drivers of version 456.71 or higher.

Flag	Description
-dev	Used to skip intro videos/logos since -novid doesn't work for this game. Can cause HUD flicker issues and long menu load times on NVIDIA cards, see Skip intro videos section for an alternative method that avoids these issues.
-high	Forces the game to launch as a high priority process. Can cause a login server issue, see note above.
-fullscreen	Launches the game in exclusive fullscreen mode.
-window	Launches the game in windowed mode. Use with -noborder to launch the game in borderless fullscreen.
-noborder	Launches the game in borderless mode. Use with -window to launch the game in borderless fullscreen.
+cl_showfps 1 or 4	Displays FPS/Network information in the top-right corner (1) or top-left corner (4).
+cl_showpos 1	Displays information of the player's position/velocity at the top-left corner.
+fps_max 0	Uncaps the FPS.
+miles_channels X	Sets the number of audio channels to Integer X. For example, 2 results in stereo sound.

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	10
Processor (CPU)	AMD-FX 4350 Intel Core i3-6300	AMD Ryzen 5 Intel Core i5-3570K
System memory (RAM)	6 GB	8 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	75 GB (~3.8GB for 1 localized language)
Video card (GPU)	AMD Radeon HD 7730 Nvidia GeForce GT 640 DirectX 11 compatible	AMD Radeon R9 290 Nvidia GeForce GTX 970

A 64-bit operating system is required.

The game requires CPU with SSSE3 and POPCNT instructions. Pre-Nehalem/Silvermont and pre-Bulldozer/Bobcat chips are unsupported.