'Apex Legends' Character Guide & Tier List - Best & Worst Characters Ranked

Apex Legends features eight unique Legends at launch, and we want you to pick the best ones for your squad. While all tier lists are extremely fluid as metas develop, here's a current ranking of characters from best to worst.

God Tier

1) Lifeline

• Tactical: Heal Drone that heals teammates over time.
• Passive: Combat Medic: Revive teammates faster while shielded, heal 25 percent faster.
• Ultimate: Drop a Care Package with valuable gear.
• Why: Especially since many players are just getting their feet wet in Apex Legends, it's likely lots of damage will be taken from opposing players. There's no better way to counter that than to have a good healer. Her abilities take a while to charge, but they keep you and your teammates alive. Lifeline is a must in any good team composition.

2) Bangalore

• Tactical: Smoke grenades.
• Passive: Sprint faster while taking damage.
• Ultimate: Call in an artillery strike.
• Why: If you're looking for a Legend that's going to control the area of play, Bangalore is a top choice. Her abilities stack in a way that makes a ton of sense in combat. You can scoot around firefights, throw grenades to obscure enemy lines of fight, then call in an air strike. Especially as that final circle narrows, Bangalore is who you want inside it.

3) Mirage [Unlockable]

• Tactical: Holographic decoy.s
• Passive: Drop a decoy and clock when knocked down.
• Ultimate: Deploy a team of decoys while cloaked.
• Why: At least for now, Mirage's advantage is all about confusion. He's one of the more unique characters on the roster, so the legions of new players still haven't figured out how to properly counter his perks. As long as people continue to fall for his tricks, this Legend works wonders for easy kills.

Good Tier

4) Wraith

• Tactical: Teleportation without taking damage.
• Passive: Warnings when danger is near.
• Ultimate: Link two spots with Portals for 60 seconds that anyone can use.
• Why: Mirage and Wraith's spots can probably be swapped depending on the amount of currency in your coffer. Their advantages are somewhat similar. Wraith's teleportation abilities confuse new players and they allow her to constantly break troublesome lines of sight. Her voice-focused passive also makes her a solid scout, which future-proofs her for when fans figure out how to effectively counter her movement.

5) Gibraltar

• Tactical: Deploy a shield that deflects attacks for 15 seconds.
• ADS deploys a shield on your gun.
• Ultimate: A concentrated mortar strike.
• Why: If Bangalore isn't your style, it's possible Gibraltar might be. He's also an offense-focused Legend with great capability to clear out foes as the play area shrinks. Where he falters in some regard, though, is just not being quite fast enough. His abilities allow him to take more shots, but it's probably more versatile overall to have Bangalore's extra burst in movement. If you have a new player that really wants to shoot, Gibraltar may be a safe place to start. Once you get better, Banglore is a more suitable choice.

6) Bloodhound

• Tactical: Briefly reveal hidden enemies, traps and clues.
• Passive: Tracks footprints of foes.
• Ultimate: Move faster and highlight your prey.
• Why: As a purely scout-focused character, Bloodhound is probably the best Legend to have on your squad. His extra burst in speed allows him to not just ping, but also to be worthwhile on the battlefield. Especially as players get better, we could see Bloodhound playing a key role on more aggressive squads. The ability to effectively hunt down enemies with a good set of skills is pretty nice.

Not Great Tier

7) Caustic [Unlockable]

• Tactical: Release gas when shot.
• Passive: See through your own gas cloud.
• Ultimate: Creates a large gas cloud.
• Why: It's possible Respawn may have been a little timid to make an unlockable Legend too powerful, but Caustic is absolutely one character that could use a buff in a future update. Despite his play revolving around gas clouds, the damage that creates isn't high enough when there are so many movement-focused Legends on the roster. You could use his abilities as a form of a souped-up smoke grenade, but Bangalore already does that pretty well. For now, don't waste your currency on this guy.

8) Pathfinder

• Tactical: Grappling hook
• Passive: Scan a beacon to reveal the ring's next location.
• Ultimate: Create a Zipline for the team.
• Why: There just aren't many cases where Pathfinder's abilities are all that useful. In terms of scouting, Bloodhound is an all-around better option. In some ways, Pathfinder is focused on enhancing the vertical game in a way that's not very necessary. All Legends are pretty good at reaching high-up places, and his passive is almost no use to those with experience in the battle royale genre. No Legend is absolutely terrible, but you can sure do better than Pathfinder.

We've ranked Apex Legends' various characters for the sake of simplicity, but trios should be mindful of team composition too. You don't, for example, want a squad that features both Bangalore and Gibraltar or Pathfinder and Bloodhound. Look at this list and consider how each ability works together to select the best option for your individual team. Because the character roster is so small right now, finding complementary sets of skills shouldn't be too difficult.

Apex Legends is available now on PS4, Xbox One and PC as a free download.

Who do you think is the best Legend in Apex Legends? Are we shortchanging any characters? Tell us in the comments section!