The best characters to play in 'Apex Legends,' ranked

Apex Legends

"Apex Legends" is the biggest game of 2019, and tens of millions of people are already playing it on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC.
It's the latest hit in the Battle Royale genre, which is known for blockbusters like "Fortnite" and "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds."
One major twist in "Apex Legends" is that players choose from one of eight playable characters. Each of those characters has its own unique features. Which to choose?!

So you've downloaded "Apex Legends" to your platform(s) of choice, and you're ready to get wild. Great!

There's only one choice left to make: Which character to play as! The quirky robot? The spooky tracker? The brash soldier?

Of the eight characters to choose from in "Apex Legends," it can be hard to know where to start. Which ones are the best?!

Let's dive in:

How we determined this ranking:

Each of the eight different characters in "Apex Legends" has its own attributes, but there are a few commonalities among all of them. For instance, despite their different sizes, they all move at the same speed — both walking and running. And they all have the same amount of health.

Their differences are primarily based on their skills and, most importantly for this ranking, their so-called "hit box" sizes.

What is a hit box? It's the portion of any given character that is recognized by the game. So, for instance, if you're being shot at by an enemy, their bullets only register as hitting your character if they hit within the hit box.

And in "Apex Legends," there's a pretty major discrepancy between the hit boxes of various characters. As such, the following characters are arranged first by their hit box size — the total surface area where a character can be hurt — and second by their relative usefulness based on other characteristics.

8. Gibraltar.

Gibraltar has, by far, the largest hit box of any character in "Apex Legends." His hit box size is more than double that of the smallest character, and his special ability is only situationally useful.

He is, in short, the least useful character in the game. He has a personal shield, which is nice, and he can drop a large shield for your whole squad (also nice!), but he's also the most easily hit of any character in the game.

7. Caustic.

Just slightly smaller than Gibraltar is Caustic — he only barely outranks Gibraltar, and it's due to his slightly smaller stature.

Worse, his abilities are extremely situational.

Caustic throws gas canisters that both hurt enemies and block doors. But how useful is that when you're in the final circle? The answer, unfortunately, is that it's extremely limited in use most of the time.

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