Apex Legends

The Apex Legends System

Let’s analyze the different pieces that make up Apex Legends.

Origins: Titanfall and the Game Engine

Before becoming one of the most popular battle royale games, Apex Legends started as a spin-off set within the Titanfall universe.

Even though Apex Legends left behind Titanfall’s iconic pilotable titans, it still retains a large part of its gameplay identity.

Graphics Engine

Apex Legends uses a heavily modified version of the Source engine, originally created by Valve in 2004.

Respawn Entertainment took the branch developed for Titanfall as a foundation and progressively evolved it until it became something very close to a proprietary engine, now far removed from the classic Source version.

Today, this branch of Source continues evolving exclusively for Apex Legends. For more information, take a look at the Valve developer community page.

Modes

Apex Legends offers quite a few different ways to play.

• Training: basic tutorial and firing range
• Battle Royale: trios or duos
• Mixtape: rotation of fast-paced combat-focused modes such as Control, Team Deathmatch or Lockdown
• Limited-time modes: Respawn regularly introduces events and temporary game modes

Gameplay Loop

Even though Apex Legends includes multiple game modes, the core experience is still the classic battle royale.

Our objective is simple: be the last squad standing.

How do we achieve that?

• Positioning ourselves correctly
• Getting the best possible gear
• Taking advantage of our abilities
• Making good decisions under pressure

Based on my experience, this is the typical flow of a match:

1. Choose where to land
2. Gear up as quickly as possible
3. Find a favorable position
4. Engage in combat or react to one
5. Survive and stay inside the ring
6. Improve equipment and resources

From there, the cycle repeats itself until we are eliminated or win the match.

Weapons

Apex Legends weapons can be classified in two different ways:

• By category: assault rifles, SMGs, light machine guns, marksman weapons, sniper rifles, shotguns and pistols

• By ammo type: light, heavy, energy, shotgun, sniper, arrows and mythic

We can only carry two weapons simultaneously (with exceptions such as Ballistic, who can carry a third one).

From there, each player’s personal playstyle comes into play:

• versatile short and long-range combinations,
• lightweight weapons for greater mobility,
• aggressive close-range loadouts,
• precision-focused setups, etc.

Legends

The current 28 legends are divided into five major classes, each one providing specific advantages that add more tactical depth to the game:

• Assault

  • Access hidden compartments inside weapon bins
  • Increased ammo capacity
  • Automatic reload for holstered weapons

• Skirmisher

  • Can spot items from afar
  • Improved mobility for allies
  • Health regeneration after knocking down enemies

• Recon

  • Enemy detection abilities
  • Visual highlighting of visible opponents

• Support

  • Access to medical compartments
  • Faster revives

• Controller

  • Information about the next ring
  • Improved defense and shield regeneration

Loot

Looting is one of the fundamental pillars of Apex Legends.

We need to quickly obtain solid equipment in order to survive the fights that will inevitably happen throughout the match.

Items can be obtained in several ways:

• Supply Bins
• Items scattered across the ground
• Arsenal Stations
• Care Packages
• Death boxes from eliminated players
• Loot boxes carried by flying creatures

Items come in different rarity tiers (distinguished by color and iconography): common, rare, epic, legendary, mythic.

The higher the rarity, the better the advantages and performance.

Combat and Armor System

Combat is the core of the game. Winning a match without fighting other squads is extremely unlikely.

To eliminate an enemy we must:

1. Knock them down by depleting their shield first
2. Finish them off by reducing their health to zero

While a player is downed they can still:

• move slowly
• partially protect themselves
• be revived by teammates

Our shield progressively evolves during the match, becoming stronger through EVO points earned in different ways:

• Collecting EVO harvesters
• Dealing damage
• Reviving allies
• Interacting with map elements

Health and shields can be restored using consumables or specific legend abilities.

Reviving Teammates

If one of our teammates gets eliminated, there are still several ways to bring them back into the match.

During the early seasons, reviving teammates was much more difficult, which caused many players to leave matches prematurely.

Over time, several solutions were added to improve this:

• Mobile respawn beacons
• Crafting banners in replicators
• Direct respawning from death boxes

Respawns now return players with the weapons they had when they were eliminated, as long as nobody looted them beforehand. In earlier seasons, players respawned completely unarmed, making survival extremely difficult.

All these changes have made matches far more dynamic and less frustrating.

Movement and Ring Closure

As in any battle royale, constant movement is essential.

The map progressively shrinks through the ring, a safe zone that continuously forces squads to reposition.

Staying outside the ring causes constant damage until death, making rotations and route control just as important as raw combat skill.

The System as a Whole

All these pieces come together to form a highly enjoyable experience.

In the end, Apex Legends feels like much more than a simple shooter. It works as a tactical system where information, space and timing are just as important as aim itself.

Board Games and Apex Legends

Apex Legends shares more similarities with board games than it might initially seem. While thinking about this analysis, I constantly found myself drawing parallels with mechanics and sensations commonly found in tabletop game design. Let’s look at a few examples.

Asymmetrical Characters and Synergies

As of Season 29, Apex Legends features 28 different legends, each with their own abilities. This allows for countless combinations and team synergies.

In the board game world, clear examples can be found in games such as Unmatched or Gloomhaven, where asymmetrical characters and tactical cooperation are essential parts of the experience.

The Shrinking Board

In Apex Legends, as in other battle royale games, the map progressively shrinks until players are forced into confrontation.

Blood Rage implements a very similar concept through Ragnarök, destroying regions of the board each era and gradually reducing the safe playable space.

In both cases, the design forces players out of comfortable positions while maintaining constant tension throughout the game.

The Constant Threat of Third Parties

In Apex Legends, we can never fully relax. While fighting one squad, another may appear at any moment, attracted by noise or movement.

That feeling strongly reminds me of games like Nemesis or Specter Ops, where noise mechanics and uncertainty turn every confrontation into a potentially disastrous situation.

Loot and Fast Inventory Management

Looting in Apex Legends involves a lot of instant resource management. We constantly decide whether to keep a weapon, swap attachments, save ammo or free up space for something better.

These rapid decisions resemble games such as Galaxy Trucker, where players must select and reorganize components under pressure and within limited time.

Locations with Visible Resources

One of the most interesting systems introduced in recent seasons is the Arsenal Stations mechanic.

These stations always appear in fixed locations across the map and contain weapons and ammo from a randomly selected category. They also allow players to upgrade those weapons once per station.

What makes them especially interesting is how they transform loot into a kind of “spatial economy”: the map stops being just a backdrop and starts defining routes, hotspots and strategic decisions.

Similar ideas can be found in board games such as Scythe, where each region produces specific resources and positioning directly shapes our strategy.

Similarities with Eurogames

As strange as it may sound, Apex Legends shares certain sensations with many modern eurogames.

Just like in games such as Brass or El Grande, success here also depends on mastering aspects like:

• optimization under pressure
• efficient resource management
• positioning
• reading opponents’ intentions
• tempo control

It’s fascinating how such a frantic FPS can share so many design ideas with fundamentally strategic board games.

In fact, Apex Legends even has its own tabletop adaptation, although I still haven’t had the chance to try it.

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