Apex Legends Beginner's Guide 2026: Legend Classes, Currencies and Every Game Mode Explained
New to Apex Legends in Season 30? Here's everything you need before your first match: the five Legend classes and their perks, every currency from Apex Coins to Legend Tokens, and how Core and Freestyle game modes differ.
Apex Legends has grown into a 28-character roster, five character classes, and a currency system that trips up almost every new player. If you just installed the game and don't know your Assault Legends from your Support Legends, or why you have Legend Tokens and Crafting Metals sitting in your inventory, this guide covers everything you need to know before your first match in Season 30: Marked.
Apex Legends is Respawn Entertainment's free-to-play battle royale, published by Electronic Arts, and it's cross-play across PC (Steam and the EA app), PlayStation 4/5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S and Nintendo Switch. You can queue with friends no matter what they're playing on.
1. What Are Legend Classes?
Every playable character in Apex Legends — 28 of them as of Season 30, with Skirmisher Axle the newest addition — belongs to one of five classes. Classes only apply in Core modes (Ranked and Unranked); in Freestyle modes like Wildcard, every Legend plays with the same base kit and no class perk.
The Five Classes
- Assault — combat-focused. Assault Legends carry more ammo per stack, get an extra grenade slot, swap weapons faster, and gain a temporary reload and movement speed boost when their shield breaks. They can also open the secret compartment in Supply Bins for attachments. Legends: Bangalore, Fuse, Ash, Mad Maggie, Ballistic.
- Controller — area control and strategy. Controllers can use Ring Consoles to reveal the next Ring location early, get 25 extra shield HP while inside the Ring, and can recall their placed traps and gadgets remotely. Legends: Caustic, Wattson, Rampart, Catalyst.
- Recon — tracking and intel. Recon Legends scan Survey Beacons faster and without revealing their position when they do. Legends: Bloodhound, Crypto, Valkyrie, Seer, Vantage, Sparrow.
- Skirmisher — fast, mobile combat. Skirmishers can disengage or reposition quicker than other classes and can spot incoming Care Packages. Legends: Octane, Pathfinder, Wraith, Revenant, Horizon, Axle.
- Support — squad healing and utility. Support Legends move faster while healing and revive teammates quicker. Legends: Gibraltar, Lifeline, Mirage, Loba, Newcastle, Conduit.
Every Legend also has three unique abilities regardless of class: a Passive (always active or toggled on demand), a Tactical (a short-cooldown skill), and an Ultimate (their strongest ability, on a long cooldown that charges over a match).
Picking Your First Legend
There's no wrong choice, but Legends with simple, forgiving kits tend to be the easiest starting point: Bangalore (straightforward Assault gunplay with a smoke escape tool), Gibraltar (a tanky Support who can protect himself and revive safely), and Wattson (a Controller who punishes people pushing through doorways with fences) are all common beginner recommendations because none of their abilities require precise timing to be useful.
2. Every Game Mode, Explained
Apex Legends splits its modes into two categories: Core, for competitive play, and Freestyle, for more casual or experimental modes.
Core Modes
- Ranked — spend Ranked Points (RP) to enter a match and earn RP back based on placement and eliminations, climbing through ranked tiers over a split. Apex's Ranked Leagues are built around three-player squads; there's no Duos option in Ranked.
- Unranked — the same squad-based Battle Royale structure as Ranked, minus the RP stakes, for practice or casual play.
Core modes use the full loot pool (backpacks, knockdown shields, med kits, helmets, attachments) and the Legend upgrade system: you earn EVO by dealing damage, collecting EVO caches, and finding EVO Harvesters, unlocking three upgrade tiers (White, Blue, Purple) that boost your armor and let you pick a new perk each level.
Freestyle Modes
- Wildcard — a faster, more streamlined Battle Royale on Kings Canyon or Olympus. Matches run about 15 minutes, looting is simplified (no backpacks, helmets or attachments — everything drops pre-kitted), and EVO comes from picking up EVO Orbs instead of dealing damage. Everyone starts with a self-revive kit and can be revived until the last Ring.
- Bot Royale Evolved — plays like Unranked Trios but fills empty squad slots with bots when there aren't enough similarly-ranked humans queued, for a more relaxed Battle Royale. You can still progress XP, Battle Pass and challenges here, just not badges or stats.
- Mixtape — a rotating playlist of non-Battle-Royale modes (arena shooter formats like Control and Team Deathmatch have cycled through it) that changes roughly every hour.
- Limited-time modes — event-exclusive modes that show up for the length of a specific in-game event, then disappear.
There's also Private Match (invite up to 60 players and five observers, no XP or progression), plus Training and the Firing Range for practicing movement, weapons and Legend abilities before you queue into a real match.
3. The Currency System, Explained
Apex Legends runs on five separate currencies, and mixing them up is one of the most common new-player mistakes.
Apex Coins
A premium currency bought with real money, used to purchase Apex Packs, Legends, and featured cosmetic items. You can earn a small amount from a Battle Pass, but there's no other free source and you can't gift them to other players.
Crafting Metals
Earned only from Apex Packs, Crafting Metals let you craft specific cosmetics (Legend skins, weapon skins) from the Legends or Armory tab. Costs scale with rarity: 30 Metals for Common items, 60 for Rare, 400 for Epic, and 1,200 for Legendary. Mythic and Iconic items can't be crafted at all, and Crafting Metals can't be refunded once spent.
Legend Tokens
Earned purely by playing — completing matches and leveling up. From level 4 onward you earn 600 Legend Tokens per level, and Tokens keep accumulating even after you hit max level. Use them to unlock new Legends, buy Legendary skin recolors, or reroll Daily Challenges. You can also unlock Legends by purchasing a Legend Spotlight Pass with Apex Coins, which rewards a Legendary skin for that Legend when completed.
Heirloom Shards and Exotic Shards
Heirloom Shards drop from Apex Packs at under a 1% rate per pack (guaranteed within 500 packs under certain conditions) and are spent in the Mythic Store on Heirloom items. Exotic Shards are earned through the Battle Pass or bought directly, and go toward customizing Apex Artifacts — universal melee cosmetics usable by any Legend.
4. What's Live Right Now: Season 30, Marked
Apex Legends is currently in Season 30: Marked, which reworked Bloodhound into a hunter-focused kit and refreshed the World's Edge map alongside changes to looting, Corrupted Attachments, and updates to Loba and Rampart. A midseason patch has since landed on top of that — see our breakdown of the Marked midseason legend and weapon changes for what shifted since launch.
Apex Legends is also running an in-game crossover with Street Fighter 6 right now, bringing Fighter Form cosmetics and a themed event into the client — our full rundown of the Apex Legends x Street Fighter 6 event covers what's included. Worth knowing too: EA is migrating Apex on PC to its own EA Javelin Anticheat system this week, replacing Easy Anti-Cheat — if you're on PC, our explainer on the Javelin Anticheat switch covers exactly what changes and what you need to do.
5. Settings and Habits Worth Adopting Early
- Turn on crossplay carefully. It's on by default so you can play with friends on other platforms, but console players can opt out of matching with PC players in the input settings if they'd rather avoid mouse-and-keyboard lobbies.
- Use the Firing Range before Ranked. It's the only place to test a Legend's abilities and a weapon's recoil pattern without match pressure.
- Start in Unranked or Wildcard. Both let you learn movement, looting and rotations without spending Ranked Points on a bad game.
- Don't spend Legend Tokens on cosmetics. They're your only free path to unlocking new Legends — save them for that first, and use Apex Coins or Crafting Metals for skins instead.
Quick Recap
- 28 Legends split across five classes — Assault, Controller, Recon, Skirmisher, Support — each with a Passive, Tactical and Ultimate.
- Core modes (Ranked, Unranked) are the competitive, full-loot experience; Freestyle modes (Wildcard, Mixtape, Bot Royale Evolved) are faster and more casual.
- Five currencies: Apex Coins (paid), Crafting Metals and Heirloom Shards (from Apex Packs), Legend Tokens (from playing), and Exotic Shards (Battle Pass or paid).
- The game is currently on Season 30: Marked, with a Street Fighter 6 crossover event live and a PC anticheat migration underway.
For match-by-match strategy once you've got the basics down, check out the rest of our walkthroughs and guides archive.