Apex Legends
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Developers | |
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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 released by Respawn Entertainment. It is set in the Titanfall universe and uses the same Source engine as used in Titanfall and Titanfall 2.[1]
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.[2] The game is one of the most popular online PC games, reaching a reported 70 million players (on all platforms) on October 29, 2019,[3] 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,[4] and has a very active playerbase worldwide. Season 5: Fortune's Favor, a content update, was released May 12, 2020.[5] 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.[6]
General information
Availability
Source | DRM | Notes | Keys | OS |
---|---|---|---|---|
Retail | Origin code only, no disc. Available in Bloodhound Edition or Lifeline Edition. | |||
Origin | [7] Manual link for EA App download. |
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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.[8][9] 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 |
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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.[10] 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.[11] |
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[12]
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Rename or remove respawn.bik located in <path-to-game>\Media\ [13]
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- 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 |
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Windows | %USERPROFILE%\Saved Games\Respawn\Apex\local\videoconfig.txt |
Steam Play (Linux) | <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/1172470/pfx/[Note 1] |
- Locale is saved in
%PROGRAMDATA%\Origin\LocalContent\Apex\Origin.OFR.50.0002694.dat
Save game cloud syncing
System | Native | Notes |
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Origin | ||
Steam Cloud |
Video
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.[14] | ||
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. |
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High dynamic range display (HDR) | Console-exclusive feature. Windows 11 AutoHDR supported. | ||
Color blind mode |
Input
Keyboard and mouse | State | Notes |
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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 |
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XInput-compatible controllers | ||
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Xbox button prompts | Uses Xbox One button prompts. | |
Impulse Trigger vibration |
DualShock 4 controllers | ||
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DualShock button prompts | Uses PlayStation Button prompts. | |
Light bar support | ||
Connection modes | Wired |
Generic/other controllers |
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Additional information | ||
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Controller hotplugging | ||
Haptic feedback | ||
Simultaneous controller+KB/M | Introduces mouse lag and sensitivity issues while moving with a joystick. |
Audio
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.[15] Supports crossplay with Xbox One, PS4, Switch. |
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Asynchronous multiplayer |
Connection types
Type | Native | Notes |
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Matchmaking | ||
Peer-to-peer | ||
Dedicated | ||
Self-hosting | ||
Direct IP |
Issues unresolved
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] |
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Crash to desktop
- There have been numerous reports of crash to desktop on both Nvidia and AMD GPUs.[16][citation needed]
Upgrading to Nvidia driver version 419.35 is known to fix the issue[citation needed] |
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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[17] |
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Notes
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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.
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Cannot look around in-game
Disable Origin In-Game Overlay |
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Notes
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Mouse stuttering
Lower mouse polling rate |
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Notes
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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[18] |
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Notes
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Other information
API
Technical specs | Supported | Notes |
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Direct3D | 11, 12 | D3D12 accessed via the -eac_launcher_settings SettingsDX12.json launch option. |
Executable | 32-bit | 64-bit | Notes |
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Windows |
Middleware
Middleware | Notes | |
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Cutscenes | Bink Video | |
Anti-cheat | Easy Anti-Cheat | [19] |
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.
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-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 |
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-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.
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-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.
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-noborder |
Launches the game in borderless mode. Use with -window to launch the game in borderless fullscreen.
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+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 | ||
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Minimum | Recommended | |
Operating system (OS) | 7 | |
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) | 56 GB (~3.8GB for 1 localized language) | |
Video card (GPU) | AMD Radeon HD 7730 Nvidia GeForce GT 1030 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.[20][21] Pre-Nehalem/Silvermont and pre-Bulldozer/Bobcat chips are unsupported.
Notes
- ↑ File/folder structure within this directory reflects the path(s) listed for Windows and/or Steam game data (use Wine regedit to access Windows registry paths). Games with Steam Cloud support may store data in
~/.steam/steam/userdata/<user-id>/1172470/
in addition to or instead of this directory. The app ID (1172470) may differ in some cases. Treat backslashes as forward slashes. See the glossary page for details.
References
- ↑ Apex Legends: the Titanfall 2 engine evolved? - last accessed on 2020-05-09
- ""Commonalities with Titanfall 2 extend beyond the setting - the highly modified Source engine used in Respawn's last title is rolled out once more for Apex Legends, with a number of tweaks - essentially, the inclusion of necessary modifications required in order to deliver a large, expansive map with extensive draw distances.""
- ↑ Apex Legends crashes may soon become more rare - last accessed on 2020-05-07
- "According to Respawn, this patch introduces fixes for almost every common crash with the exception of a few rare problems and “out-of-memory” issue which is still pretty rare for most players."
- ↑ Apex Legends reaches 70 million players - last accessed on 2020-05-08
- ↑ Apex Legends Battle Pass: price, release date and roadmap - last accessed on 2020-05-09
- "Apex Legends Battle Pass seasons run for approximately three months."
- ↑ Apex Legends Season 5 Start Date--Loba Joins The Game Soon - last accessed on 2020-05-09
- "The Season 4 battle pass is scheduled to conclude on May 12 at 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET / 6 PM BST."
- ↑ EA AND VALVE PARTNERSHIP - last accessed on 2020-05-08
- ""Multiplayer games—like Apex Legends™, FIFA 20, and Battlefield™ V—will become available next year, and players on both Origin™ and Steam will have the ability to play together.""
- ↑ [Help] r5apex.exe - ida pro(important segment seems to be destroyed) - UnKnoWnCheaTs
- ↑ Changelist #17531628 - SteamDB - last accessed on 2023-02-15
- ↑ Verified by User:SargeCassidy on 2023-02-15
- Originally also available on Origin/EA app, it is now gone from there as well, though codes can still be redeemed.
- ↑ How Apex Legends’ Microtransactions Work - last accessed on 2020-04-17
- "Everyone is guaranteed at least one Legendary item every 30th loot box."
- ↑ Apex Legends: How to Get Heirloom Shards & What They Do - last accessed on 2020-04-17
- "You’ll be guaranteed to get an Heirloom Shard drop every 500 crates you open."
- ↑ Verified by User:Mrsnowman on February 11, 2019
- ↑ Verified by User:Jazztickets on 2023-08-08
- ↑ Titanfall 2 Graphics, Performance, & Tweaking Guide - last accessed on 2020-04-03
- ↑ Apex Legends Is a Surprising Threat to Fortnite's Dominance - last accessed on February 15, 2019
- ↑ Apex Crashing? Please Post Your Issues Here | March 16th Game Crash Megathread : apexlegends - Reddit - last accessed on 2019-03-17
- ↑ Solution for low fps on Apex Legends - last accessed on May 2023
- ↑ Titanfall 2 Graphics, Performance & Tweaking Guide - last accessed on May 2023
- ↑ Apex Legends FAQ - An Official EA Site
- ↑ Quick Update Before the Weekend : apexlegends - Reddit. Please note a typo on the side of the developer. Phenoms do have SSE3. It's SSSE3 that they lack.
- ↑ Cpu does not have POPCNT! help - Answer HQ - last accessed on May 2023