5 Pings ‘Apex Legends’ Should Add

Apex Legends has a wonderful ping system that lets players communicate seamlessly even without voice comms. It’s been applauded by the community and critics – we said in our video above and in the full review of Apex Legends that nothing else compares to it right now – and Epic Games appeared to approve of it as well since Fortnite has now copied it.

But despite how convenient it is and how accessible it makes Apex Legends to those who can issue and respond to certain pings, it’s still got room for improvement. The most basic pings are to tap the ping button once to indicate where the team should go or to ping a certain weapon or object while a double-tap will warn teammates of enemies’ locations, but there’s an entire wheel of pings that would probably be used more if it had better options. Pings that tell teammates where you’re looting and if an area’s been visited by enemies already are situationally useful, but we’ve got a few ideas for pings that could replace those options and be used more often.

Check out our suggestions for pings Respawn Entertainment should add to Apex Legends below and see if you agree.

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Ultimate Cooldown/Ready

One of the most common requests for a new ping in Apex Legends has been for a ping that tells teammates whether an ultimate ability is ready or not, and if it isn’t, how long it’ll take until it is ready.

Some abilities like Lifeline’s care package are highly valued in Apex Legends but wouldn’t benefit from a cooldown ping as much as others. When a care package is ready, you just go get it, but knowing how long a Pathfinder or Wraith has until a portal or zipline is ready can be deciding factor when trying to figure out what a team should do if they’re under fire.

The ping is also a pretty standard one in games that have these types of abilities. Imagine going into a teamfight in League of Legends or Overwatch without pinging your abilities to let teammates know where you stand. It’s entirely possible to go without the pings, but it makes coordinating efforts much easier.

Do Not Engage

Apex Legends players probably want to say a lot to their teammates who don’t cooperate with the team, but one of the most useful pings in late-game scenarios would be one that tells teammates to fall back or not to engage.

While early-game fights are quick and happen often, players choose their battles wisely later in the game as the number of squads go down. There’s always that one teammate though who sees you ping an enemy’s location and takes that as a signal to fire off a shot from a long distance. Close-quarters combat is supreme in Apex Legends where players can heal up quickly from poke damage, so all that player’s done is give away a squad’s location and given the enemies time to respond. Having a ping that let’s teammates know “hey, there’s an enemy over there, but let’s not engage,” would go a long way later in the game.

Fall Back/Retreat

The default ping in Apex Legends is perhaps the most useful one in directing teammates, but it loses some of its meaning during hectic teamfights. Players can still ping a location to tell their teammates where to go, but all the squad will hear is a “let’s go here” line instead of one that’s combat related.

Instead, an alternative would be adding a “Retreat” ping to the wheel that would be more recognizable in a teamfight. Instead of having a more casual ping heard during a teamfight where players are focused on multiple things at once, a ping with an associated voice line that tells teammates “let’s fall back to that building” would be more noticeable and effective in coordinating fights.

Group Up

Here’s a familiar scenario to any Apex Legends player who plays with one or two random teammates: After dropping into a location, all three members split up and scour the buildings for loot. Once the area’s been cleared, one member uses that ever-useful default ping to point the others in the right direction. You agree with them and follow, and while the third teammate hasn’t voiced their acknowledgement yet, you assume they’re just wrapping up some looting and will catch up. Instead, the third player (who’s probably playing Wraith) heads the opposite direction without announcing that with any pings.

There are two options at that point if you’re choosing not to use a mic. You can try using the default ping again to see if the third teammate will get the idea or you can use the more urgent double-tap ping to try and get their attention. The latter runs the risk of making your future pings questionable to teammates though who aren’t sure what you mean. Legends will automatically say the team’s spread out if that’s the case, but if the other pings don’t do anything to persuade a teammate, an automatic voice line likely won’t either.

The alternative to all this is for Respawn to add a “Group Up” ping. Overwatch has one, and it’s useful when teams need to get organized. In both games, it’s easy to get too focused on your individual efforts, but hearing a suggestion from a teammate snaps you out of your tunnel vision and lets you see that your teammates might have a plan.

You’re Welcome

Saying “you’re welcome” isn’t a ping option that would go on the ping wheel and is far less serious than the other ping suggestions, but it’d be a welcome way to communicate more with a squad and build a sense of teamwork.

Whenever players drop healing resources, ammo, a weapon, or any other item, anyone who picks it up has the option to tell them thanks for the loot. Doing so plays a voice line for that Legend and makes it appear in the text chat, and being able to say “you’re welcome” back to them would let you know they got some use out of your loot donation and would bring the vocal transaction to a close.

The Legends are all pretty unique with interesting voice lines, so anything that’ll make them say more would be a welcome addition. Hearing Lifeline say “no problem” or Caustic give a short grunt as a sign of approval would only add to the Legends’ identities and would show other players that you’re down with being a strong teammate.

Apex Legends is now available as a free-to-play game fore the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC platforms.