UNOFFICIAL GUIDES 21st Century Skills INNOVATION LIBRARY 21st Century Skills INNOVATION LIBRARY Apex Legends: Apex Legends: UNOFFICIAL GUIDES In 2019, the surprise launch of Apex Legends took Beginner’s Guide the gaming world by storm. Offering a fast-paced, team-based twist on the battle royale style of gameplay popularized by titles such as Fortnite, it caught the attention of more than 50 million players within the first month of its release. In this book, readers will find out everything they need to know to get started and outdo their competitors in Apex Legends. Includes table of contents, author biography, sidebars, glossary, index, Guide Beginner’s and informative backmatter. Read all the Apex Legends titles in the Unofficial Guides series: The Making of Apex Legends Apex Legends: Beginner’s Guide Apex Legends: Characters Apex Legends: Combat Apex Legends: Equipment Apex Legends: Guide to Kings Canyon Apex Legends: Microtransactions Apex Legends: Teamwork Gregory GR: V by Josh Gregory Page intentionally blank UNOFFICIAL 21st Century Skills INNOVATION LIBRARY GUIDES Apex Legends: Beginner’s Guide CHERRY LAKE PUBLISHING • ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN by Josh Gregory Published in the United States of America by Cherry Lake Publishing Ann Arbor, Michigan www.cherrylakepublishing.com Reading Adviser: Marla Conn MS, Ed., Literacy specialist, Read-Ability, Inc. Copyright ©2020 by Cherry Lake Publishing All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means without written permission from the publisher. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Gregory, Josh, author. Title: Apex legends : beginner’s guide / Josh Gregory. Description: Ann Arbor, Michigan : Cherry Lake Publishing, 2020. | Series: 21st century skills innovation library | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Audience: Grades 4-6 | Summary: “In 2019, the surprise launch of Apex Legends took the gaming world by storm. Offering a fast-paced, team-based twist on the battle royale style of gameplay popularized by titles such as Fortnite, it caught the attention of more than 50 million players within the first month of its release. In this book, readers will find out everything they need to know to get started and outdo their competitors in Apex Legends. Includes table of contents, author biography, sidebars, glossary, index, and informative backmatter”-- Provided by publisher. Identifiers: LCCN 2019024704 | ISBN 9781534159679 (library binding) | ISBN 9781534161979 (paperback) | ISBN 9781534160828 (pdf) | ISBN 9781534163126 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Video games—Juvenile literature. | Apex Legends (Video game) Classification: LCC GV1469.3 .G735 2020 | DDC 794.8—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019024704 Cherry Lake Publishing would like to acknowledge the work of the Partnership for 21st Century Learning, a Network of Battelle for Kids. Please visit http://www.battelleforkids.org/networks/p21 for more information. Printed in the United States of America Corporate Graphics 21st Century Skills INNOVATION LIBRARY Contents Chapter 1 The Battle Begins 4 Chapter 2 Meet the Legends 10 Chapter 3 Welcome to Kings Canyon 18 Chapter 4 Staying Alive 24 Glossary 30 Find Out More 31 Index 32 About the Author 32 UNOFFICIAL GUIDES Chapter 1 The Battle Begins f you’re interested in video games, you’ve probably heard about Apex Legends. Maybe I you’ve even played this fast-paced and excit- ing game yourself. With tens of millions of players, it is one of the most popular online multiplayer games in the world. It combines elements of many other popular game styles to create a completely Apex Legends takes place in a huge world that is packed with things to see and areas to explore. 4 If you have played Fortnite before, you should have no trouble getting started with Apex Legends. unique experience. Apex follows the basic battle royale structure of popular hits like Fortnite and PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds. It has class-based hero characters like those in Overwatch or Rainbow Six Siege. It also has the first-person perspective and fast player movement of series such as Call of Duty or Destiny. At the beginning of 2019, the only people who had ever heard of Apex Legends were the game’s creators. Unlike most video games, Apex was made in complete secrecy. There were no trailers or announcements to 5 UNOFFICIAL GUIDES get fans excited before the game’s release. No maga- zines or websites posted previews or showed off screenshots. Instead, the game came as a total sur- prise when it launched on February 4, 2019. Apex was released as a free download for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Windows PC. The game was a huge hit almost right away. As word quickly spread about the exciting new game, millions of Apex Legends has realistic graphics that are among the best of the major battle royale games. 6 APEX LEGENDS: Beginner’s Guide There are huge amounts of weapons and other tools you can use to battle other players in Apex Legends. people rushed to give it a try. Within three days of Apex’s release, more than 10 million players had downloaded the game. That number rose to 25 mil- lion within the week and 50 million in less than a month. More than one million players could be found battling online at any given time. At the same time, hundreds of thousands of people were watch- ing streams of the game on Twitch. A new game hadn’t captured so much attention since Fortnite first released in 2017. 7 UNOFFICIAL GUIDES Apex Legends was created by a team of developers at Respawn Entertainment. Respawn was founded in 2010 by two of the original creators of the successful and influential Call of Duty series. The studio’s first game was Titanfall, released in 2014. It also released a sequel, Titanfall 2, in 2016. Both Titanfall games were first-person shooters with com- petitive online modes. As they battled, players could run up walls, zip across maps using grappling hooks, and even pilot huge robots called Titans. These abili- ties helped create a fast-paced style of movement that set the Titanfall games apart from the competition. Both Titanfall games sold well and were much- loved by critics and players alike. However, they were not massive hits. After the release of Titanfall 2, the team at Respawn started thinking of ways to make a third entry in the series stand out. One idea they tried was to combine the basic controls and feel of Titanfall with the battle royale game structure that was becom- ing popular at the time. After changing a few things from the Titanfall games, such as removing the giant robots, they found that the combination worked very well. However, they also realized that the project they 8 APEX LEGENDS: Beginner’s Guide Battle of the Battle Royale Games In recent years, battle royale games have become some of the most popular competitive online games in the world. This game style has become such a big part of online gaming that it’s hard to believe it was created fairly recently. The first game to popularize the modern battle royale style was DayZ, released in 2013 as a mod for the game ARMA 2. The mod was soon spun off into a standalone game, and other developers were inspired to create their own takes on the battle royale formula. The biggest so far have been PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds and Fortnite. Long-running series such as Call of Duty and Battlefield have also added battle royale modes to recent entries. With so many battle royale options available, it takes a lot for a new game to stand out. This makes the success of Apex Legends even more impressive! were creating was very different from the previous Titanfall games. They decided to spin it off into a new series, and Apex Legends was born. If you’ve played other battle royale games or first- person shooters, Apex Legends will likely feel at least somewhat familiar when you start playing it. However, there is a lot to learn if you want to start making prog- ress in the game and winning matches. Let’s jump in and get started! 9 UNOFFICIAL GUIDES Glossary developers (dih-VEL-uh-purz) people who make video games or other computer programs influential (in-floo-EN-shuhl) introducing new ideas that become popular in the future microtransactions (MYE-kroh-trans-ak-shuhns) things that can be purchased for a small amount of money within a video game or other computer program mod (MAHD) a fan-made addition to a video game passive (PASS-iv) something that is always active without requiring a player to do anything respawn (REE-spawn) to reappear in a video game after being defeated skins (SKINZ) different appearances your character and weapons can take on in Apex Legends tactical (TAK-ti-kuhl) able to be used in a strategic way 30 Find Out More BOOKS Cunningham, Kevin. Video Game Designer. Ann Arbor, Michigan: Cherry Lake Publishing, 2016. Powell, Marie. Asking Questions About Video Games. Ann Arbor, Michigan: Cherry Lake Publishing, 2016. WEBSITES Apex Legends www.ea.com/games/apex-legends Check out the official Apex Legends website. Apex Legends Wiki https://apexlegends.gamepedia.com/Apex_Legends_Wiki This fan-made website offers up-to-date information on the latest additions to Apex Legends. 31 UNOFFICIAL GUIDES Index ammo, 19, 21 jumpmaster, 15–16 safety, 27 attachments, 21, secrecy, 5–6 22–23 Kings Canyon, 15, 19 shields, 21, 23, knockdowns, 27–29 28 backpacks, 21 knockdown shields, shotguns, 20–21, 22 banners, 14, 29 21, 23, 28 skins, 14 battle royale games, sniper rifles, 20, 22 5, 8, 9 landing areas, 15–17, 19 streaming, 7 communication, Legends, 11–17 supply bins, 19–20 25–27 microtransactions, 14 tactical abilities, developers, 8–9 12–13 downloads, 7, 14 passive abilities, 11–12 teamwork, 24–29 dropship, 15 ping system, 25–27 Twitch, 7 grenades, 23 release, 6–7 ultimate abilities, respawn beacons, 29 healing items, 21, 23 12–13 Respawn Entertain- helmets, 21, 23 ment, 8–9, 14 weapons, 14, 18–19, inventory, 21, 27 revives, 28 20–23, 26 About the Author Josh Gregory is the author of more than 150 books for kids.