Apex Legends: Tips To Escape Bronze Rank
Once you hit account level 20 in Apex Legends, the ranked ladder opens up to you and a whole new world of competitive Apex Legends begins. Everyone starts out in Rookie rank, which is easy to climb since there’s no entry cost. So long as you hit at least 13th place, even with no kills, you gain RP. But some people do end up getting stuck in Bronze rank. So here are tips to consider when you’re trying to reach for your Silver rank.
Always Be Moving
In Apex Legends ranked you’re always going to be looking at that RP counter up in the corner. Waiting for it to tick into the positive and just like in Rookie, so long as you hit 13th place, you’ll get something. But you do not want to rank up just by surviving, because it’s not going to do you any favors in the long run.
Since the entry cost in Bronze is so low, you want to use your time here to hone and improve your skills. The most important thing you need to do in Bronze lobbies is taking fights, win or lose. You’ll never get better by avoiding them for free placement RP.
So, keep moving! Listen for fights, move towards them and engage. Learning how to take fights and win them is the bread and butter of FPS and battle royale video games so don’t avoid it if you have nothing to lose. Once you can rack up 2-6 kills, then you can focus on survival. The higher placement you have, the more points you get for those kills.
Don’t Sweat the Smurfs
Smurfs are, unfortunately, a way of competitive life. Players at higher ranks get bored or want more TikTok clips and so they do ‘challenges’ like Bronze to Masters with no shields. Or, maybe someone took a few seasons off and came back now deranked into Bronze. You are going to occasionally come across people in a Bronze lobby that should not be there.
Don’t take this personally, and don’t let it affect your drive or mentality. One of the great things about Apex Legends is that you can let losses roll off your back and jump back in. In other competitive video games, you may be up against a team that is so far beyond your skill you have no hope of winning…but still have to play out another 5-20 minutes of the game.
When you get sent back to the lobby, think about what went wrong and if you can do better next time. If you can’t, just forget it and jump back in. Your mentality is going to take you far or keep you weighed down.
Lay of the Land
Whether ranked or in PUBs, you need to learn where the good loot is. Loot makes everything better and makes climbing easier. With that in mind, don’t forget the first tip about not being afraid to fight. That means off drop too! Take early fights, and don’t be afraid to drop in a contested POI with another team.
Sometimes when a second or third team is flying toward the same POI, you might feel the urge to pull off to a secondary location, so you have time to loot. But they’re going to have time to loot as well and because you gave them the primary POI, they’re going to have better loot than you. Dropping with them might mean you have less time to loot, but so do they. Learn to thrive in these situations
In Bronze rank, the entry cost is so low, that now is the time to learn how to take early fights with minimal loot. If you’re going to lose those fights, you want it to be in Bronze, not Gold or Platinum.
Play Like You're On a Team
Because you are! Just like with loot, the more you have, the better off you are, the more you play with your team, the more likely you are to win. It doesn’t matter how good or bad you think they are. Having another target to draw enemy fire and another gun on your side will never be a detriment to you.
When landing, you want to land near your team but not on them. You all need your own loot, but you need to be near enough that you can get to them if a fight breaks out. Divided, you will fall, so practice awareness and stay near your teammates. Running away to survive will not do you any favors in the long run. Ride together, die together.
You should also pay attention to loot and help your teammates get better equipped. There’s a setting in Gameplay for compact or detailed weapon information. If you have this set to detailed, there is a little icon that will pop up in the upper right-hand corner of attachments, armor, etc. It’s a little person holding their hand up. This lets you know that this item is an upgrade for someone in your squad. Ping it for them!
Find Your Comfort Weapons
If you’re serious about increasing your rank and skill, you’ve probably spent some time watching professional streamers or Apex Pros in the ALGS. You see them running Wingman and Peacekeepers or an iron sight Sentinel and dropping people in one or two shots. They’re able to handle guns like that because of how much they play, not because the guns themselves have an aim and pull the trigger to win.
Just because you see pros using the higher skill ceiling weapons doesn’t mean you have to. By all means, practice with and become familiar with all the guns so you can properly use them in quick, off drop fights. But lean into whatever weapons you like and are comfortable with. The Wingman takes time and practice to use it effectively and even Pros will whiff entire clips. They just don’t post those moments to their TikToks or Twitter.
Start with automatics like the R-301 and Flatline or the CAR SMG and R-99. They’re good all around weapons and are often at the top of any tier. As you start to get a good feel for all the weapons, you’ll be more comfortable switching between different ones. Your preference may even change from season to season, but always take guns you're comfortable with over a gun that is “meta” if you’re not used to using it.
You can use the firing range, as well as Gun Run and Team Deathmatch, to practice using all the different weapons in a situation where there’s no risk of losing RP.
Full Heals Can Lose Fights
This one is going to seem weird at first. How are you depriving yourself of being fully healed when you go into a fight? We’re not talking about starting fights but finishing them. Fights in Apex Legends can often end very fast, but sometimes they’re more prolonged and drawn out.
During a fight, you may have a chance to grab some cover and pop a shield battery or a syringe. At lower ranks, it’s very common to try and fully heal before you go back in. If your team is on a full reset, by all means, do so. But if your enemy team is also hurt and backing off to heal, it could be more advantageous only to heal a cell or two and go back in for the kill.
If your team is still fighting and you drop back to full heal, they’re at a player disadvantage every second you're gone. There's no perfect rule to learn how much you should heal, or when you should. It’s going to depend on your teammates and the enemy you're fighting. But the more you keep it in mind, you’ll start to get a grasp on it.
Imagine you’ve lost all of your shields, but your team is still fighting. You start a battery and your team calls that they’ve downed one of the enemy squads. Now it’s 2v2 while you heal, or if you had just popped a single cell and ran back in, now it’s 3v2, a clear advantage. Always be ready to move and attack based on what is happening.
There are a ton of other ways to improve your game, both in general and Bronze, as you climb the ladders. Apex Legends has a very high learning curve and a higher skill ceiling, but with enough time, patience and practice, you’ll find yourself climbing the ranks in no time.
