Arenas are here to stay as a secondary game mode with both casual and ranked gameplay, so let’s look at Arenas-specific strategies that you can use on each Legend to give you an edge against the opposition!
With Arenas having been around for a few seasons now, it seems as though it’s an alternative game mode that’s here to stay. While it’s easy to just treat this game mode as a way to practice quick team-versus-team battles, there are certain mechanics that you have to consider if you want to play this game mode optimally: the Material economy used to buy weapons and abilities, the ‘objectives’ your team can push like the Material canisters and supply bins, and the management required to know when to use your limited roster of abilities and consumables.
While sheer mechanical ability can allow you to dominate the other team, knowing how to manipulate these arena-specific mechanics can give you a distinct advantage over any opponents. With that in mind, this article will have one piece of advice for each legend which pertains to how to best wield them in arenas in a way that could potentially get you more wins in this surprisingly complex game mode.
Ash is one of the few Legends who have had one of their abilities or passives changed to work functionally in the new format of Arenas. In particular, Ash’s passive has been changed to accommodate for the lack of death boxes in this game mode; her new passive makes it so that whenever one of your teammates dies, whoever killed them has their location marked on the map and pinged.
With this in mind, it’s notable if you’re playing ahead of your team by pushing into locations and peeking out of cover, it’s entirely possible that an enemy with a sniper weapon could pick you off and make your new passive useless since you died first. This problem is especially pertinent in later rounds, since each player gets more Material to upgrade their weapons and can thus more easily afford to purchase a fully equipped sniper weapon. As a smaller piece of advice, it is also notable that Ash’s mobility ultimate costs 300 Material, double that of other mobility ultimates from Pathfinder, Valkyrie, and Wraith. If one of them is on your team, it might be advisable to have them invest Material in team-based mobility rather than you spending double what they would for it.
Just like in a Battle Royale match of Apex Legends, Bangalore’s goal is to use her passive and Smoke Launcher to push areas and provide partial cover for her team to move through. In Arenas, we can reanalyze the effectiveness of this strategy to figure out where Bangalore should be pushing and how many Smoke Launcher uses she should be consuming to do so with a bit of math.
For example, suppose Bangalore uses one use of her Smoke Launcher (which has a cost of 50 Material) to push her way to a Material Canister. This Material Canister then grants every member of her team 200 Material in the next round, leaving Bangalore’s team at a profit of 550 Material. Similarly, either of the supply bins has a total Material value of 950 Material (two Shield Batteries plus 8 Shield Cells plus One Medkit) plus the invaluable Phoenix Kit, putting you at an over 900 Material advantage if you use one Smoke Launcher use to push into the supply bin and collect everything.
In short, you should always be using the two free Smoke Launcher uses that each round gives you to obtain a Material advantage for your team and potentially even be buying more uses of your Smoke Launcher per round to extract major Material profit.
To preface this advice about Fuse, it is important to note that there is no other way to obtain grenades in Arenas other than to purchase them at the start of each round; unlike healing items or guns, they do not appear in care packages or supply bins. As a result, if you’re not buying grenades at the start of a round as Fuse, there is no way that you’ll get any usage out of his passive (which in Arenas lets him hold up to six grenades where other Legends can only hold three).
However, grenades don’t necessarily come cheap, as one Arc Star costs only 25 less Material than the cheapest gun or the cost to upgrade most of the guns (coming in at 125 Material), and even Thermite Grenades and Frag Grenades cost 75 Material. However, this cost is especially worth paying for as Fuse, since his ability to throw grenades farther and more accurately gives him the ability to flush enemies out of cover – something that is especially important in Arenas, where cover is often limited. As a result, especially in earlier rounds where Material can be quite limited, it can potentially be a viable and necessary to strategy to buy an un-upgraded gun (perhaps a cheap marksmen, sniper, or AR that can be used to punish enemies fleeing cover from range) so that you can purchase grenades to better serve your team with the utility of your passive.
Horizon can be a difficult Legend to utilize effectively in Arenas, since the mobility that she offers herself from her passive and her team from her Gravity Lifts is often a bit less useful due to the limited space available to move around within the Arena’s map boundaries. However, with that in mind, it is noteworthy that Horizon is the only Legend with access to team-wide mobility more than once per round; while Legends like Valkyrie, Pathfinder, and Wraith can move their teams with their ultimates for 150 Material once per round where they invest in their ultimates, Horizon can use up to four Gravity Lifts per round for only 100 Material each (with the first use per round being free). As a result, using Horizon for her ability to move her entire team upward towards cover or out of cover for a quick peek makes her a cost-efficient mobility and utility centric Legend within the confines of Arenas.
Within the unique Material economy of Arenas, Mad Maggie is perhaps one of the biggest ‘winners’ of this system due to the costs of her abilities and the way in which her passive encourages her to buy shotguns. Notably, shotguns are some of the cheapest weapons in Arenas, with a fully upgraded Peacekeeper only costing 1050 Material (450 Material less than a fully upgraded R-301 Carbine) and a fully upgraded EVA-8 Auto costing even less at 850 Material.
Furthermore, Mad Maggie’s Riot Drill only costs 100 Material to buy atop of the one free usage she gets each round, and her ultimate is one of the cheapest in the Arena at only 200 Material. On top of this, unlike many other ultimates which are limited in how often you can purchase and use them, Mad Maggie can buy one Wrecking Ball every round, giving her constant pushing power. In short, Mad Maggie can reach full power at much less expense than some other Legends, making her a bit of an early game menace when Material is less abundant.
As in the Battle Royale game mode, Mirage is the king of bamboozling, a skill which can be surprisingly useful in Arenas. At face value, creating a clone of Mirage using his Psyche Out might seem like just a funny trick you can pull on enemies for only 50 Material, distracting them for a second while your team leaves cover or pushes in.
However, if you’re using this ability carefully and tactically, you can use it as a tool that is great at gathering information about the enemies safely. In particular, in bamboozling an enemy into shooting at your clone, you make them do two things: reveal the location of their team, and momentarily leave cover. Doing this multiple times when the enemy are holding the same position can allow you or one of your teammates to deal some damage to the enemy, creating an opportunity to push in and punish the enemy for being bamboozled. In a game mode like Arenas, where there are only so many positions where the enemy can take cover, gaining this information can be game-winning if used correctly.
While many of the other Legends discussed above have been talented at forcing enemies out of cover, Octane can put his speed to excellent use in Arenas by helping his team rotate into new cover positions, particularly through using his Stim. Stimming only costs Octane 50 Material per usage, with him getting two free uses of it per round and being able to store up to seven uses each round.
In a game mode where mobility is relatively limited due to needing to pre-emptively purchase it and often only being usable as a once-per-round ultimate, Octane’s capacity to obtain space for his team by rushing into new cover positions and baiting enemy fire while his team rotates is phenomenal. Furthermore, while his ultimate is costly compared to other team-mobility ultimates (costing 300 Material rather than 150), it notably combines the re-usability of Pathfinder’s ultimate with the flexibility of Valkyrie’s, making it an incredibly strong rotation tool.
In a game mode where using abilities costs something, it should be immediately clear why disabling access to these abilities is powerful. This is especially true due to the fact that Revenant’s Silence only costs 50 Material per use, along with him getting two free usages per round and him being able to hold up to six usages at once. In terms of denying basic abilities, since there is no ability cheaper than 50 Material, Revenant always goes cost-even when temporarily blocking these abilities.
With some basic abilities, like Valkyrie’s Missile Swarm and Newcastle’s Mobile Shield, costing 200 Material per use, Revenant can ensure that his team is always fighting on advantaged footing against the enemies even if they’re up in Material through collecting canisters and securing kills. In turn, this means that Revenant should typically be investing in one solid gun each round to ensure that he can win these ability-free trades against the enemy, securing a round-win for his team through denying them access to any Material advantage they have.
When taking into account what Wraith offers over other Legends, it is notable that Wraith gives her team access to the single safest rotation option in the game at the low price of 150 Material. By using her Dimensional Rift to set up a safe pathway between covered positions for her team, Wraith can make it so that her team has much greater control of the map along with the ability to move between these controlling positions with minimal risk.
Notably, Wraith undertakes very little risk herself in setting this up, as she can just use the one free usage of Into the Void she gets each round to move between cover and set up her Dimensional Rifts, or even buy more usages for only 50 Material each if she needs to be even safer. Comparing this directly against other Legends, while this mobility is less flexible than Octane’s, it costs half as much and is bidirectional. On top of that, unlike Pathfinder’s bidirectional and equally costed mobility ultimate, Wraith and her team do not have to put themselves at risk travelling between locations. Furthermore, Wraith’s mobility ultimate is the only mobility ultimate that does not have a one-round cooldown between uses, meaning that she has constant access to the safest and most reliable rotation tool in the Arena.
Considering the offensive Legends covered above, with their ability to push effectively to punish enemy misplays and gain new positions to take cover, it is fitting that Caustic’s main advantage in Arenas is his ability to deter this type of playstyle. Caustic gets three free Nox Gas Traps per round and can purchase up to three more per round for only 50 Material each, meaning that it’s very cheap to come into every round with six traps at your disposal. Since each Arenas map is limited in terms of space, this means that there are only so many viable angles to push into any position that your team is holding from.
As a result, the best way to make good use of your traps is to anticipate these pushing angles and to pre-emptively deny these entry points using traps. While you obviously should be thoughtful with how you use your traps, it is also noteworthy that unlike most other defensive Legends, Caustic can pick up his utility if you’re moving to a different position, meaning that he can easily rotate with his team without having to put much to waste. As a result, Caustic proves to be a flexible defensive option who is great at denying enemy pushes.
While much of the other advice in this article is proactive, encouraging you to use your abilities in certain ways to have certain impacts, perhaps the best advice for Gibraltar in Arenas is to really put thought into when and where you want to use your abilities. Coming in at 200 Material per usage and only one free usage per round, Gibraltar’s basic ability (his Dome of Protection) is tied for the most expensive basic ability in the Arena.
Similarly, Gibraltar’s ultimate – Defensive Bombardment – is the single most expensive ultimate at 600 Material and has a two round cooldown between uses. As a result, the best advice for Gibraltar is to be sparing with your ability usage; really making sure that your team will be staying within the area of the Dome of Protection before throwing it down. Instead of relying on your defensive abilities, try to use natural cover until it is no longer possible and then use your basic ability to generate more cover later into a round.
The newest Legend brings plenty of defensive utility into the Arena, giving his team the ability to safely move between positions and generate new cover if the ring moves unfavourably. Much like Gibraltar, Newcastle’s basic ability (Mobile Shield) costs 200 Material to use; unlike Gibraltar, Newcastle’s ultimate (Castle Wall) only comes in at 300 Material per use and has no cooldown in terms of how many rounds in a row it can be used in.
Due to the ease of use that Newcastle’s ultimate has, along with its potential to bail teammates out of danger if they get caught out, one piece of advice would be to try and use them together to create the ultimate insta-cover when it’s absolutely necessary. Until then, just like Gibraltar, trying to use natural cover where possible is advised, although Newcastle can achieve this while also holding a different position than the rest of his team (assuming you’re willing to use your ultimate to rotate and help them where necessary).
The last of the cover-generating defensive Legends, what sets Rampart apart is how cost efficient her cover is. While smaller than Gibraltar or Newcastle’s shields, Rampart’s Amped Cover comes with the benefit of her starting each round with three uses of it and additional usages only costing 50 Material each (up to a total of nine usages of per round). This means that unlike Gibraltar and Newcastle, who are mostly one-and-done once they’ve set up their cover, Rampart can invest in being able to set up cover at multiple positions per round, making her great for rotating with her team and helping them hold numerous positions as the ring closes in.
With how cheap her Amped Cover is, she can also easily purchase an LMG to take advantage of her passive, allowing her to make efficient and effective use of Material both offensively and defensively.
Similarly to Caustic, playing Wattson is all about preventing the enemy from pushing into your team. One advantage that Wattson has in this regard is her ultimate – Interception Pylon. Of all of the defensive Legends, Wattson’s ultimate is the cheapest, costing only 200 Material.
For this 200 Material, you get to potentially deny many enemy abilities and consumables, putting you at a Material advantage similar to how Revenant did – just defensively rather than offensively. Knowing when the enemy will choose to launch their interceptable abilities at you and where your team will establish their core presence on the map are the keys to playing Wattson effectively in Arenas, lest you just waste 200 Material by planting a pylon then rotating away from it or letting it get destroyed by the enemy team.
Coming in at costing 400 Material, it would be easy to underestimate Lifeline’s ultimate – Care Package. For the same cost, legends like Caustic and Fuse get access to ultimates which can entirely flush the enemy team out of their position, leaving them vulnerable to being picked off from a distance. However, when we apply a little math of Lifeline’s care package, it always puts you at a Material profit upon use.
In Arenas, Lifeline’s ultimate is modified to always give you three things: two shield batteries and one fully-upgraded weapon. The shield batteries themselves only come out to 150 Material worth of items, but it’s the weapon that puts you at an advantage, as the lowest rarity of weapon that you can get is Rare in the first round, building up to it being Legendary rarity over the course of the game. While this is obviously always a gamble, the cheapest Rare weapon you can get from this care package grants you 200 Material of value and the most expensive grants you 900 Material of value, putting you at a minimum of anywhere from a 100 Material profit to an 800 Material profit from your Care Package right from the start of the game. With this in mind, it can be worth it when the enemy team has more Material than you to gamble on a care package in order to gain any advantage.
While nobody could truly recommend that you play Loba in Arenas in good faith, if you do genuinely want to pick Loba in Arenas, play to deny the enemy access to the two supply bins around the map or any care packages that arrive. As was said in the beginning of this article, each supply bin contains over 900 Material worth of items, making obtaining them by either using Loba’s 50 Material basic ability or 200 Material ultimate always worthwhile. All of that being said though, Loba offers very limited utility when compared to other Legends, so prepare to have to win disadvantaged fights when playing as Loba in Arenas.
Bloodhound is another Legend who received some changes in the Arenas game mode, namely to their ultimate – Beast of the Hunt. In particular, upon using your ultimate as Bloodhound, you gain two free uses of your basic ability, Eye of the Allfather, replacing your normal uses.
Doing a quick cost analysis, since each Eye of the Allfather costs 150 Material, and you can buy up to two extra uses of it per round, using your ultimate is similar to buying the two extra uses of your basic ability and then getting the speed bonus and heat-vision of your ultimate for 150 Material. This makes it relatively cost efficient to interchange how you’re using your ultimate and basic abilities, as if you intend on scanning for enemies with your basic ability more than once per round, consider investing in your ultimate for the combat advantage instead.
While piloting Crypto is distinctly more difficult than some of the other Recon Legends, the information that his drone can get you is unparalleled. That being said, unlike Bloodhound and Seer who can obtain this information without much counterplay, Crypto’s drone is relatively easily destroyed by enemies. As a result, the best way to make sure that you’re not left without any abilities in Arenas when playing Crypto is investing the 50 Material needed to get additional drone uses each round, up to three uses. While each drone can still be destroyed, this at least means that you don’t become entirely useless as each round progresses.
Like many of the more mobile offensive Legends discussed above, Pathfinder excels at moving from cover to cover due to the ample amount of mobility in his ability set. Through using his Grappling Hook, Pathfinder can disengage from fights relatively easily or otherwise maneuver between cover points with ease.
However, where Pathfinder really excels is his ultimate – Zipline Gun – which allows him to just target a relatively far-off location and make it so that his team can go there easily. This allows him to ensure that his team can rotate on very short notice from a position where all of them are, or makes it so that Pathfinder can push into a location and then get his team to follow-up with his ultimate while also giving himself an exit option (all for only 150 Material). All of these ways of using his abilities make Pathfinder excel at maneuvering any Arenas map to put his team at an advantage.
Where Bloodhound excels at detecting enemies generally around themselves and Crypto is good at scanning out large, wide areas, Seer has to be tactical and precise when aiming his basic ability – Focus of Attention. As a result, where other scanners can afford to be a bit more proactive with their scans, the best advice for Seer in Arenas is to be reactive.
Whenever an enemy has revealed themselves and taken some damage due to peeking out, ensure that your team is ready to push and fire off your basic ability to disrupt their healing. Since each usage of this ability only costs 100 Material (right between Bloodhound and Crypto’s abilities), it can be worthwhile to purchase more than one per round to give yourself multiple opportunities to push in against enemies who are rotating often.
Valkyrie is the last Legend to cover and is also the final Legend to be changed in Arenas, with her ultimate now not going as high into the sky while also fully refunding itself if it’s cancelled. With these changes to her ultimate in mind, it is noteworthy that it only costs 150 Material per usage, making it an exceptional tool for rotating quickly. That being said, Arenas is a game mode where leaving cover while another team is explicitly looking to kill you is often a bad idea, so exposing yourself with Valkyrie’s ultimate and passive can often be dangerous.
While you might be thinking that maybe she makes up for this by being able to posture aggressively with her basic ability, her Missile Swarm costs 200 Material to use beyond the first usage each round, making it tied for the most expensive basic ability. As a result, the best way to play Valkyrie is the ensure that you are putting thought into each ability; she can move herself and her team around the map with uncontested freedom, as well as forcing enemies to flee cover easily, but all of this comes at a high cost to her safety and Material funds.
With all of the advice given above, perhaps the biggest guiding idea is to think critically about the way in which fighting in the Arena is fundamentally different than in the Battle Royale mode. Since the other team is always explicitly trying to kill you and every ability you use comes at a cost, thinking more about when to spend your Materials and more closely examining things like natural cover are more important than ever. By being critical about these aspects of the game, you can give yourself an advantage over your enemies, so make sure to apply these ideas and win some Arena games!
