Beaming down enemies is one of the most satisfying feelings in Apex Legends. To do that consistently you have to work on your recoil control which, in the case of Apex Legends, is quite easy to learn.
To control the recoil in Apex Legends you have to pull your mouse in the opposite direction of the recoil. Usually, it is down and to the side.
How Recoil Works in Apex Legends
Recoil in Apex Legends works similarly to CS:GO. When shooting with ADS (aimed down sights), every automatic weapon will follow a bullet pattern. Those patterns can slightly vary but the overall image will be the same.
Thanks to the Reddit user A_Solid_Snack you can find all the recoil patterns for automatic weapons in Apex Legends:
The goal of recoil patterns is to make your shooting more consistent and something you can work on to improve. This doesn’t work with hip-fire though. When hip-firing, bullets will fire randomly instead of in a pattern.
Tips to Control Recoil in Apex Legends
Controlling the recoil in Apex Legends is not something you can just start doing on the fly. It takes time and practice to get better at it. So we prepared some tips and tricks for you to start improving.
Practice Recoil Patterns
Head into the Firing Range and select a weapon you want to practice the recoil control for. Choose any attachments you need (we recommend the most basic ones for more realistic practice) and start practicing your spray:
- Start by shooting at the wall without controlling the recoil to see the pattern
- Gradually begin to shoot and control the pattern. You can do that by moving your mouse in the opposite direction of the pattern
- When comfortable move on to shooting targets and training dummies
- Focus on hitting crits and compare the damage output to see if you are improving with your recoil control
If you are not improving, try practicing more with the wall or at closer ranges. This method of practicing reoil is the most traditional one. It will guarantee consistency in your games once you mastered the patterns.
You can also try out a tool called Apex Legends Recoils. It’s a website that will teach you recoil patterns and how to control them. There is an option to customize the sensitivity and even enable moving targets.
Adjust Your Sensitivity
Increasing or decreasing your sensitivity will lower or increase how much you have to move your mouse to control the recoil.
It is an unpopular method to deal with the recoil. But if it’s been a while since you tinkered with your sens, this might just be the time to do it and find your best sensitivity in Apex Legends.
Play around with different settings. Think about how aggressive/passive your playstyle is and test your new sensitivity in different scenarios. Something that feels at close range may not work as well at long range.
Movement and Recoil Smoothing
Movement is one of the key mechanics in Apex Legends. It’s not just running around the map. You can slide, wall-climb and jump making fights fast-paced.
Learn to always be on the move. Be unpredictable so that your enemy can’t keep up and hit you. At the same time, you have to get used to firing while moving. Also known as strafing. Strafing means you hold one direction key (left or right) and shoot.
In Apex Legends there is actually a feature that helps you control the recoil while strafing. It’s called recoil smoothing.
When strafing your weapon will have almost no recoil. As long as you can keep your crosshair on the enemy you will hit your shots. Try it out for yourself in a Firing Range.
Work on your tracking skills and movement to take advantage of the recoil smoothing. It will be a game-changer for your performance.
Try Jitter Aim
Jitter aim is a widely used technique to control recoil in Apex Legends and other FPS games. The point is to quickly flick/jitter your mouse left and right when shooting.
This will throw off the game and reset your recoil making beaming down enemies much easier.
It can be an effective mechanic, but the downside is that your aim will not improve when using it. We’d recommend only using jitter aim in emergency situations to ensure consistency in fights.
