Deciding which character to unlock first in Apex Legends can be tough if you don’t have a lot of Legend Tokens or Apex Coins. While the answer may be a little different for everyone, we’ve put together this guide to give you an idea. It all depends on whether you’re looking for a high-tier character, an easy one to play, or a certain role. Continue reading our guide below for our recommendations on who you should unlock first.
Updated (8/25/2021)
Who Should I Unlock First in Apex Legends
Before we get into which character/legend you should unlock first, there are a total of 17 characters right now. I put together a small table below showing each one currently available as of Season 9. If you’re someone who has been playing Apex Legends for a while, you’ll have more than enough Legend Tokens to buy them all.
However, not all of us have enough to buy them all at 12,000 Legend Tokens each. For an idea of what character you should unlock, continue reading below the table where we have suggestions for each playstyle. Just a quick reminder, characters included below the table are not free.
*Characters in bold are free.
| Wraith | Bloodhound | Gibraltar | Lifeline | Pathfinder |
| Bangalore | Caustic | Crypto | Fuse | Horizon |
| Loba | Mirage | Octane | Rampart | Revenant |
| Valkyrie | Wattson | Seer |
Characters For Beginners
One of my favorite characters to play in Apex Legends is Loba because of how well she can equip a team. She’s a great support character that I recommend beginner players unlock first. By using her Black Market Boutique ultimate, you can loot pick up two items within a large area. And as much ammo as you want. This makes it easy to get your preferred weapons early and loot zones quickly.
Despite a small nerf increasing her ultimate cooldown, it still recovers at a quick speed. Also, the developer buffed her tactical ability by making it not slow her to use or when she comes out of it anymore. For those that don’t know, she throws her bracelet teleporting to it. Assuming the Season 9 fixes to her bracelet were effective, she’s a solid pick.
Offensive Apex Characters to Unlock
The largest character category in Apex Legends is offensive. This is where you’ll run into a couple of popular picks that often land higher on tier lists. Despite Wraith usually being at the top, she’s a free character. If you’re looking for a strong offensive pick, you’ll want Octane or Horizon. Revenant tends to fall short, but you can still make some strong plays using him too.
Octane is a fun choice because of how quickly he moves for playing aggressively. His tactical ability works well for chasing enemies, but he also loses health for a movement speed boost. Season 9 increased the damage taken from 12 to 20 which is a sizable amount. Octane definitely isn’t for everyone, but he’s a blast to play. You can loot an area quickly and help your team get around with jump pads.
Horizon has fallen off sharply from Season 8 due to certain balance changes. Nerfs to her gravity lift has made her a less common pick in higher ranks during Season 9. This has led to Wraith being picked more frequently again instead. However, that doesn’t mean she can’t still be a strong character in lower rank play.
Strong Defensive Characters
The defensive category is a tough one since Caustic keeps getting nerfed and Rampart is still a little too situational. This is why Gibraltar (free) and Wattson are the better picks of the group. If you’re a fan of defending a building with traps, Wattson is the better pick compared to Caustic right now. You can block doorways and ziplines with electric fences that damage and slow enemies. This is especially huge if the ring is small and you have a nice area to defend.
As long as you don’t get countered by Crypto, your ultimate is great for amplifying your defense too. It zaps incoming grenades, artillery, and other abilities too. Just be careful to not zap your own team’s grenades away instead. Plus, her ultimate also regenerates shields for those nearby.
Strong Recon Characters
Crypto is a great recon pick that also functions as a support in many situations. One major trick new players don’t know about Crypto is that his drone can grab teammate banners. And then going a step further, your drone can instantly respawn teammates at a respawn beacon.
That aside, he’s a great character for spotting enemies and checking banners for how many squads are nearby. The one disadvantage is that you’re vulnerable while using a drone. Finally, his ultimate ability is an EMP dealing damage 50 shield damage and removing traps.
The latest addition to Apex Legends that’s currently a popular pick is Valkyrie. Tier lists are still trying to figure out where she lands because her abilities can be situational. As we all know, positioning is huge in almost any shooter game.
This is where Valkyrie excels at flying up high or using her ultimate to reposition her entire team. Her ultimate launches her squad into the air to fly back down somewhere. The main area she’s weak in right now seems to be her tactical ability. It doesn’t deal a significant amount of damage.
Making a quick update to this article to mention Seer who’s great for tracking enemies. Their passive ability lets you track the general location of enemies through walls. And you can use their tactical to see enemy health bars in real-time. This can be a fun recon character to play similar to Bloodhound.
Every Other Character in Apex Legends
Instead of calling the remaining Apex Legends characters weak, we’re lumping them together here. The reality is, they often land lower on tier lists because of balance changes nerfing them. However, we wouldn’t be surprised if this changes at a later time with much-needed buffs. Without making this guide even longer, here’s a quick bullet list on them.
- Revenant – I mentioned this offensive character briefly before. His tactical ability is great for harassing/silencing enemies. And you can make some huge plays using his ultimate ability well.
- Mirage – A fun character for tricking players with fake clones. His cloak revive can come in clutch at times too.
- Fuse – Harassing enemy teams with grenades from extremely far away is always a good time. Recent updates have buffed his tactical making him much more viable.
- Rampart – A great defensive character that ends up being a little too situational. However, the Season 9 Arenas mode works well for her.
- Caustic – He’s another solid character for defending a building or setting traps as an alert system. He really needs a gas damage buff right now. Unfortunately, he’s the target of many memes due to how weak it is.
That’s all there is to our guide on who you should unlock first in Apex Legends. If you have any questions for us, feel free to comment below the article. Otherwise, be sure to visit our Apex Legends guide hub for more useful tips and tricks. We’ve also added a few guides below that you may be interested in.
- 10 Best Tips and Tricks For Beginners
- How to Get Heirloom Shards
- Best Apex Legends Beginner Characters
Jeff is a journalist with over 10 years of experience writing, streaming, and making content about video games. With an associate degree in journalism, he’s a sucker for RPGs, survival games, roguelikes, and more.