Season 10: Emergence is officially underway in Apex Legends and players are adjusting to the slew of changes to both characters and maps. The new Recon Legend Seer joins the roster, and several existing Legends received some balance changes that will surely bring them back into the spotlight in Apex Legends. It's time to revisit every Legend to see how they fit into Season 10's meta, and piece together Season 10's character tier list.
In the tier list, Legends are placed into their respective tiers based on ability strength, team compatibility, and general ease of use. Once the Legends are placed into the tiers, the tiers are then organized alphabetically.
S-Tier
Bloodhound - Bloodhound is the game's resident tracker, excelling and hunting down prey who are trying to flee. They can also reveal a lot of information about an area thanks to their long-range scan. Thanks to Bloodhound's passive, they can track enemies relentlessly to keep up the chance when enemies try to flee, and while in their Ultimate, Beast of the Hunt, they can scan more frequently to let their team know what enemies are nearby. Kills while in Beast of the Hunt also extend the duration, allowing Bloodhound to be relentless in their chase. When it comes to giving chase and tracking down teams, no Legend can compare to Bloodhound.
Gibraltar - Gibraltar is the perfect Legend for those who want to be a defensive powerhouse. Thanks to his Dome Shield and Arm Shield, Gibraltar has a lot of ways to block damage, and thanks to his Arm Shield he is the only Legend that can tank a Kraber headshot and live to tell the tale. His ultimate, the Bombardment, is great for dealing a lot of damage in a small area out in the open. So long as Gibraltar can tank a Kraber shot and keep walking, he will always remain in top tiers.
Revenant - Revenant is the perfect killing machine in the Apex Legends universe, and his playstyle in the game is no different. Revenant's abilities capitalize on being aggressive and pushing enemy teams. Revenant's tactical deploys a silence globe that cancels enemy ability usage for a time. His ultimate summons a Death Totem that, when used, allows his team to go into a "shadow" form and push a team, but when they die they are returned to the death totem instead of going down. Revenant is incredibly popular in the meta currently, and for good reason. His kit is incredibly strong, and in the right hands he can be hard to counter. Respawn even recently buffed Revenant's passive, allowing him to climb incredibly high. He can also crouch-walk quickly, which is perfect for countering Seer's ultimate ability.
Seer - Seer is the newest Legend to join the Apex Legends roster and features a kit that revolves around knowing where enemies are at any given time. Unlike Bloodhound, who excels at tracking, Seer is all about knowing what is going on around him, and using his abilities to help sway the tides of battle in his favor. When aiming down sights, Seer can sense the heartbeats of nearby enemies. His tactical sends out a pulsewave of energy that reveals and disrupts enemies - even stopping healing actions for a short time. His ultimate creates a dome, and every enemy that is moving quickly or firing weapons in the dome is highlighted, allowing Seer to close in for the kill. Seer likely debuted a bit overtuned, and will be nerfed in the future, but for now Seer knows everything that's happening in a zone.
Valkyrie - Introduced in Season 9, Valkyrie has been a dominant force in the meta thanks to her incredibly high mobility - which she can even give to her teammates for a short time with her ultimate. She is highly mobile thanks to her VTOL jets, and even has a rocket barrage straight out of Pharah's playbook in Overwatch. Even with a few balance changes, Valkyrie reigns supreme in the mobility department, allowing both her and her team to move across the map quickly and with ease.
A-Tier
Fuse - Fuse excels at one thing: explosions. With Season 10, Fuse got even better at doing just that, while also giving his team more tactical information. Fuse's Knuckle Duster tactical had its duration increased by 100 percent, making it perfect for area denial. His Ultimate, the Motherlode, will now mark any enemies for his team that are caught in the ring of fire, making it easier to capitalize on the trapped enemies. As an added quality-of-life fix, Fuse's passive can be toggled on and off so players can either throw grenades at a short distance or long. Fuse's abilities are great for area denial and general disruption, making him a great pick on the Apex Legends roster.
Lifeline - In Season 9, Respawn removed Lifeline's revive shield - a controversial move at the time - but still made her be relevant as the game's only real Healer. Her Care Packages got better since they guarantee an upgrade of some kind (if available) to her team, and she can pick up two people at once thanks to her drone. While she's not as strong as she was with the Revive Shield, she's still great for picking teammates up mid-fight and healing her team.
Mirage - After Mirage's substantial rework ahead of Season 7's launch, Mirage has been a top-tier Legend. With full control of his Decoys, Mirage can easily confuse enemies while also revealing their location to Mirage's team. They can add a lot of disruption and confusion to team battles, which may not sound like a lot but confusion and pressure are key when players are in the middle of a fight. Mirage can also deploy a ton of Decoys with his Ultimate to further add to the chaos. The other great feature of Mirage is his ability to turn invisible when reviving teammates, which may make him just as good of a Medic as Lifeine in some regards now that she doesn't have the revive shield.
Octane - The speed demon of Apex Legends, Octane is quite popular in the meta thanks to the "Revtane" meta of using Revenant's Death Totem and Octane's jump pads to quickly and safely push a team with little repercussions. After Octane's strong buff a couple of seasons back, he has risen in popularity and usefulness. His Stim is still great for traversing distances quickly, especially when paired with being able to slowly heal out of battle to recover the lost health from Stim. The crown jewel of Octane's kit at the moment is without a doubt the reworked Jump Pad. It allows the user to traverse large distances quickly, and it has more control than ever when mid-air. It's a great tool and makes Octane quite common to see at the moment.
Wraith - The ever-popular Wraith has almost always been toward the top of the tier lists thanks to her ability to safely exit an engagement should things turn sour. Her tactical allows her to be alerted whenever enemies are aiming at her, and her ultimate is a great tool for moving her team across an area safely (or for setting a trap on an enemy team). She has always been a strong character on the roster, and in Season 10 that is no different.
B-Tier
Bangalore - Banglore has, and likely will always be, Apex Legends' safest Legend to pick. She is the game's typical "soldier class" of Legend. Her abilities are well-rounded and useful for multiple different purposes, making her a solid pick overall. Her smoke abilities work great on any Legend that isn't Seer or Bloodhound, allowing for a tactical getaway or general confusion mid-fight. Her Rolling Thunder ultimate deals damage over a wide area, allowing for good zone control. She's just a solid pick for nearly any occasion.
Caustic - Respawn brought down the hammer on Caustic pretty hard in Season 8 with a huge nerf to his gas damage. In Season 10, Caustic's gas got a damage buff, going from the flat five damage per second to a scaling damage that goes up every two ticks. It also now scales indefinitely, which pairs well with the fact that his trap cooldown got reduced as well. This makes it very dangerous to have prolonged fights against Caustic when he is hunkered down. His gas grenade ultimate did have its duration, but the cooldown is also reduced, making it slightly less effective in final ring fights. Overall this brings Caustic into a great spot at the moment, with his main drawback being open-field engagements.
Crypto - Crypto was in A-Tier in last season's tier list, and while nothing changed for Crypto this season, it is becoming harder and harder to recommend Crypto over the other two main information dealers: Seer and Bloodhound. While each of the three main Recon Legends (Pathfinder doesn't really provide any recon in the same way these three do) help mark enemies, their roles are very different. Seer is great at zone control and information, Bloodhound excels at tracking and hunting down teams, and Crypto is great and long-range scouting. However, with Apex Legends being such a fast-paced game, it's getting harder to safely scout with Crypto's drone without being dropped in on by another team. That being said, Crypto's drone is still powerful and provides a ton of useful information without putting Crypto's location in jeopardy, making him a great pick for the team that is playing more passively (though the EMP is great for when you want to push).
Horizon - Horizon reigned supreme after she was introduced for some time before Respawn brought down the nerf hammer. With Season 10, Respawn is dialing back those nerfs to bring her back into the meta more. Her Gravitational Lift will now lift players faster than it did when nerfed, but not as fast as it did at launch. This will make it much better for confusing an enemy or getting out of an engagement. Her Black Hole ultimate is incredibly powerful, and while the slow effect of it got nerfed slightly this season, it's still a powerful crowd control tool that is great for setting up big pushes. Overall, Horizon is easily one of the better picks in the game right now. Plus with Season 10, Horizon has one of the wildest Battle Pass skins in the game.
Loba - Apex Legends' professional thief has slowly climbed the tier list over the past few seasons, and she's in a pretty solid spot currently. The Black Market is a great tool for looting an area or pulling a fast-one on an enemy team as they finish a fight. It enables quick looting of high-demand items, but at the cost of revealing one's location to anyone nearby. Her Tactical ability finally works reliably, allowing for her to teleport in or out of engagements with little risk to herself, which is a huge step up from how it used to work. Her passive of seeing high-tier loot through walls is always a nice tool for finding the best loot in the area. While Loba doesn't have too much going for her in the moment-t0-moment combat department, she can really support herself and her team during the looting phase.
Pathfinder - Pathfinder's journey in Apex Legends has been a tumultuous one. After being one of the top Legends in the game for so long, Respawn hit Pathfinder with some heavy-handed nerfs that ruined him. Now, after a series of smaller buffs, Pathfinder is finally back to a good spot. Mobility is king in Apex Legends, and players who are skilled with Pathfinder can navigate the map with ease, and even move their whole team thanks to Pathfinder's Ziplines. With the removal of Pathfinder's "Low Profile" debuff, he's in a great spot in the meta currently, but his Grapple's variable cooldown still could use a little work to feel more fluid.
Wattson - After fixing a painful bug that crippled Wattson for a large chunk of the last season, Wattson is back to her usual, fence-setting self. Wattson, much like Caustic, is great at area denial. However, Wattson's fences are less effective in open areas compared to Caustic's traps. This is balanced out by Wattson's Pylon ultimate which can deny ordinance of any kind - including ultimate abilities like Gibraltar's Bombardment. Fans have long been calling for a Wattson buff to bring her more into the spotlight, but Respawn is still standing by its opinion that Wattson does not need a buff.
C-Tier
Rampart - Rampart rounds out the tier list in C-Tier. Not a terrible Legend by any means, and quite good in certain situations. However, her play style and abilities just don't fit in quite as well with the fast-paced, high-octane nature of Apex Legends. Her amp walls are great for cover, and her turret can dish out a ton of damage to those foolish enough to stand in front of it, but ultimately her only major advantage these days is her LMG buffing passive - especially with the new Rampage LMG in the game.
D-Tier
This season, no Legend is truly in a bad enough position to land at the bottom rung of the tier list. Everyone has received some sort of buffs or, at the very least, bug fixes to keep them relevant in certain situations.
As is the case with many new Legends, Seer has debuted in a spectacularly broken fashion, and players are still trying to figure out how to counter him. While a nerf is on the way for this new Recon Legend, odds are he will likely still be very strong. But as Season 10 carries on and players enjoy all that Season 10 has brought, players will likely learn how to adjust to a Seer-dominant meta before too long.
Apex Legends is available now on PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One.