Horizon is one of the newest characters for Apex Legends and she brings a number of unique abilities to the table. She’s the master of gravity manipulation and can use it in battle to cause chaos, maneuver in unique ways, and get to hard-to-reach areas.
She’s a bit unique in her playstyle so players will want to take some time to become familiar with what she’s capable of and how best to use her abilities. For players wanting to get started, here are some expert tips to start of on the right foot.
Updated July 16, 2021 by Rhenn Taguiam: Horizon rules the vertical space in Apex Legends, courtesy of her mastery over spacetime. Whereas newcomer Valkyrie boasts actual flight and gliding systems, Horizon's vertical skills allow her to devastate enemy ranks from afar with her shoot-on-float mechanics. However, these rather fast-paced and technical mechanics may make Horizon seem like a tough Legend to handle at first glance. Thankfully, her accessible toolkit can make it much faster for players to pick her up quickly and wreak havoc on the battlefield with a few warm-up matches. And with Valkyrie dominating the skies with her flight, Horizons seems like the perfect counter for this rising newcomer Legend. What else should Horizon mains know?
14 Get To Higher Ground
Horizon can quickly deploy her Gravity Lift to send herself to the skies. This gives her more than enough breathing room to reload, heal a bit, or even aim at enemies from afar. Thing is, staying up for too long can leave her quite vulnerable against enemies who regain their bearings and can see her through the Gravity Lift. However, instead of staying idle in the skies, Horizon should use her Gravity Lift to get access to other vertical spaces.
In instances where battles take place near buildings and high structures, Horizon can use Gravity Lift to reposition herself. Maintaining higher ground on the rooftop of a building grants her a huge positional advantage. And even if she doesn't get to hit anyone, her position alone will require a tremendous effort from enemies just to find her.
13 Lift Enemies Off The Map
Instead of relying on Gravity Lift for a quick exit, why not use Gravity Lift to send enemies to their deaths? All maps in Apex Legends offer environmental hazards, be it lava in World's Edge or the skies itself in Olympus and King's Canyon. And remember, a misstep can send the unsuspecting player to their deaths.
Thing is, Gravity Lift can become a beast to control for people who don't know how to use it properly. Setting up a Gravity Lift near an unseen ledge can send opponents high enough to see impending doom with no way to get back to a safe surface. And even if they manage to get back in, they should be in the air high enough for Horizon and her pals to kill them off.
12 Save Allies In The Nick Of Time
While Horizon can use Gravity Lift to give herself a quick exit, she can also use it to help her team reposition to a safer location. The air time the Lift provides can provide enough space for teammates to get to higher ground, grab cover, heal and reload, or even fire back at opponents.
On top of this option, players flying in the Lift will force enemies to choose which opponent to focus on. Regardless of their choice, Horizon on the ground or allies up in the skies can fire back at enemies silly enough to attempt to get in their way.
11 Break Defense With Black Holes
Aside from its sheer dragging effect, the Black Hole can become a great way to disable defensive playstyles. When Horizon encounters an enemy squad safely tucked from behind a door or inside a room, she can use Black Hole to render their safe zone useless.
Why? Well, Black Hole can also break doors! This can immediately blow a hole (literally) through an enemy's defense. Moreover, its dragging nature can catch campers off guard and drag them to the Black Hole's event horizon. In this untimely moment, players can just bombard unfortunate opponents with Grenades and other projectiles that will collectively explode in their presence.
10 Block Pathways With Gravity
Horizon’s Gravity Lift ability reverses the flow of gravity wherever the bubble is dropped. There is no way to avoid this which can make it a useful ability to trap opponents in a specific location.
The idea is to create a Gravity Lift bubble in doorways. This makes it impossible for the enemy to leave the area as they’ll be propelled back inside. This is a great way to escape from an ambush or to keep enemies occupied while setting up a killzone outside the doorway.
9 Create Chaos Indoors
Gravity Lifts can also be dropped indoors to create chaos in general. Being propelled into the ceiling and then across the room can throw opponents for a loop leaving them disoriented. The player can take advantage of this to take them down or make a hasty retreat.
At the very least dropping a gravity bubble in a room will disrupt movement indoors. Players will try to avoid the gravity lift which can throw off their plans as they navigate around the new obstacle.
8 Evade & Heal With Gravity
During a firefight, it’s hard to get away in order to heal from any damage that’s sustained. Horizon can use her Gravity Lift to propel herself away long enough to get a heal in. Especially when her passive ability Spacewalk allows her more time in the air.
The idea is that the player can drop a player and launch themselves over an object or away from battle. During flight, they can quickly heal from their injuries and be ready to go again once they hit the ground.
7 Lift Projectiles Away
The Gravity Lift doesn’t just affect players it also affects projectiles. Anything that passes into the bubble of distorted gravity will come under its effects. This provides the means to deflect or divert incoming projectiles from other Legends.
Everything from rockets to grenades will be launched up and out when they hit the gravity bubble. If the player anticipates an incoming barrage or is going against someone wielding explosive skills it’s a great way to divert their projectiles from powerful weapons away.
6 Knock Enemies Away From Cover With Black Hole
Horizon’s ultimate, Black Hole, causes a mini black hole to appeal and draw everything in its vicinity to the center. Many characters are helpless to its effects and will be quickly drawn in. The player can use this to their advantage when fighting enemies behind cover.
Essentially the player can drop the Black Hole next to wherever the player is hiding. Then they simply wait for the gravitational pull to drag them out into the open. Some characters like Octane can escape the gravity’s pull, but they’ll need to leave cover to do it.
5 Drop Enemies From Heights
Horizon’s passive ability Spacewalk reduces the impact that comes from falling from a height. As a result, she’s able to recover much sooner from the fall. This means if two characters hit the ground at the same time, Horizon is able to recover and start shooting sooner.
This can be used to knock players off of tall heights, drop-down alongside them, recover, and start blasting while they’re still reeling. It takes some timing and a lot can go wrong, but it can be a handy way to knock another player off their game and get some free shots on them.
4 Throw Enemies Off With Gravity
While there are a lot of strategic ways to use Gravity Lift, it’s also helpful to simply throw them around. Enemies will expect the player to use a Gravity Lift once it’s dropped, which can be helpful for tricking them in a fight.
They can also be dropped near opponents who will get launched upward when they enter. During this time, players will momentarily lose their aim and become disoriented. Just having one on the ground is enough to give opponents pause as they wonder how it’ll be used.
The split-second confusion should provide Horizon and the team enough time to fire back. Even if they don't finish off their opponents, the panic alone can cause enemies to start making mistakes.
3 Snipe From Bizarre Locations
The Gravity Lift allows Horizon to access areas that are can be hard to reach if not impossible for other characters. As a result, Horizon can set up in a random location with a long-range weapon and cause some chaos.
Because most characters can’t move around this way most players won’t expect Horizon to be fighting from certain angles. Using this to get a headshot before relocating to another equally strange place can confuse players and keep them pinned down.
2 Air Slide
After becoming familiar with Horizon’s movement and abilities it’s possible to combine effects to move tremendous speeds across great distances. Gravity Lift when combined with a well-timed slide can propel Horizon very quickly.
Granted this is incredibly dangerous on maps with drop-offs and cliffs. But when mastered it allows the player to quickly escape danger or rapidly drop in on an opponent. This is great when using a close-range powerful weapon like a shotgun.
1 Drag Grenades With Black Hole
A really nasty trick is to intentionally manipulate projectiles with the Black Hole. The idea is to plant Newt near an enemy, throw grenades near the forming Black Hole, and have them be dragged towards the stuck players for maximum damage.
With careful timing and coordination with teammates, players can wipe out an opposing team hiding behind cover without ever seeing them. The Black Hole will draw both the grenades and the opposing players together for devastating effect. It does require careful timing or else the grenades will destroy NEWT before the Black Hole is ever created.