Crypto is one of the more difficult (and less popular) characters inApex Legends, and it’s no wonder why. His abilities feel sluggish and uninspiring compared to most others in the game, offering little to no direct benefit for massive downsides, but despite these apparent issues, he can be a devastatingly powerful legend when mastered.
RELATED:Apex Legends: Best Tips & Tricks For Beginners
If you’re struggling to play well with Crypto, don’t get discouraged. His main advantage is that he can gather all sorts of information, and it can take time to learn how you should best playoff that information. Getting good at Crypto is a long road paved with experience, but these 10 tips can help you pick up the basics of this drone-based legend and set you on the right path in no time.
10Scout Ahead
Crypto is unique among Recon legends in thathis abilities are best suited for long-range scouting and fight initiationinstead of scanning in the middle of an engagement. If you want to use him to his full potential, you’ll have to use his drone to scout ahead.
Check buildings to see which ones have teams bunkered inside, fly closer to fights to learn precisely where they are, and fly high tospot distant teams before they even have a chance of seeing you.All of this is valuable information, and in most cases, Crypto is the only legend that can reliably use his abilities to gather it.
9Talk To Your Team
Crypto can get tons of information with his drone, but thatinformation does your team no good if you never share it.While you can communicate simple concepts with pings, the information you get from using your drone is rarely so easy to convey.
If you want to play Crypto at his best,you’ll have to hop on the mic and give your squad mates all the details.Remember to keep it brief, and don’t overload them with information that’s not relevant. Yourstimmed-up Octanedoesn’t need to know about the Bangalore ultimate you saw 300 meters away when you’re about to get into a fight yourself.
8Use The Drone To Cover Your Back
The drone can and should be used for more than just scouting ahead. At its core,the drone is another set of eyessince it’ll scan anything that comes within 30 meters of its field of view. You can use this fact to help cover your back when rotating or engaging in fights.
Placing your drone at a choke point in the mapor covering a popular angle outside a point of interest can give you an advanced warning if another team is following you oraiming to third-party a fight.This type of preventative drone usage comes in handy more often than you’d think. Just imagine the worst-case scenario and place your drone somewhere that will tell you if that scenario is poised to come true.
7Check Big Signs And Survey Beacons
There are two extra ways Crypto can get information with his drone, and they’re both extremely powerful. The first is from the big signs littering the map. These signs, often on cliff faces or buildings, usually display the champion’s banner, but if you look at them in the drone,they tell you how many squads are within 200 meters,the maximum flight distance of the drone. Use this frequently to tell whether there’s a squad in fighting distance of you at the moment.
RELATED:Apex Legends: Must-Pick Weapons For Beginners
Survey Beacons are also an incredible tool. When used by the drone,they’ll reveal the location of every squad on the map,which can help you either plan safer rotations or find your next fight quicker. The only drawback to this is that teams will be alerted when scanned this way, so the nearby enemies might seek you out or prepare for your attack.
6Initiate With Your EMP
Some would say that the best part of Crypto’s kit is his ultimate, the EMP. This 60-meter blastbriefly stuns everyone in the radius and deals 50 damage to enemies' shields.It can be an invaluable initiation tool that can help you win fights quickly and cleanly, but to do all that, you have to use it as often as you can.
If your EMP is off cooldown, try to initiate your next fight with it.Communicate with your team so that they wait for you, fly your drone in close, and hide it behind a wall near the enemies. The EMP goes through walls, so this will keep your drone alive and prevent the enemy team from doing anything to stop the EMP.
5Deploy Your Drone On The Move
Crypto is the type of legend that wants to stand still, to wait a few more seconds while he finds the perfect positioning for his drone, but this is simply at odds with the game. Nearly every other legend (and the players using them) wants to join the fight as soon as possible, soif you want to fight with your team, you’ll have to adapt.
If you tap the button to deploy your drone, Crypto will throw it out in front of him after a short animation, and this process never slows you down. You might lose some accuracy in your positioning, but it’s worth it to keep pace with your team. Keep in mind thatyou can also slide when you deploy your droneto control the drone for a few seconds while Crypto is still moving forward.
4Use Your Drone In Every Fight
Crypto is useless without his drone; you could even say the drone is the real legend here. That’s why it’s key that youtry to use it in every fight.Don’t worry about your drone being destroyed unless you have a clear use for it in the near future (to scan a Survey Beacon or fire off an EMP).
RELATED:Apex Legends: Best Legends for Beginners
Of course,you want to keep your drone alive as long as possiblesince its value comes from being the longest scan ability in the game, but you have to use it first and foremost. If you’re at a loss for ideas, you can quickly deploy your drone and use it as you would a Mirage Clone to distract opponents or use it whenever you approach cover to see over it briefly.
3Put The Drone In The Right Spot
When you’re using your drone in a fight, positioning is key to getting the most value out of it. The best place to put your drone is in the air. When it’s about 11 meters high and looking downward, it’ll be able to scan the most area possible and see behind cover with ease. However,this also makes it easier for the enemy team to shoot down.
If you can’t use an aerial drone, there is another fantastic option. Putting your drone behind a piece of cover and having it face toward your position will make itscan any enemy trying to push you,acting as a sort of scanning trap. This type of position doesn’t always pay off, but the drone is at its safest.
2Recall Early And Often
You can recall your drone at any point, returning it to you after a short animation, and this ability to return the drone is essential to making the most of it. The drone can be shot down if enemies spot it, and firefights in Apex are often very mobile with teams advancing and retreating frequently. If you fail to recall,your drone will either sit in a useless position or get shot down by enemies.
Even if it means only getting a brief scan,don’t be afraid to recall the drone.Recalling has the additional benefit of keeping your enemies guessing. They may have figured out where your drone was before, but recalling gives you another chance to dupe them.
1Play To Respawn Your Teammates
Crypto is arguably the best legend at respawning teammates, and it’s all thanks to his trusty drone. While in the drone,you can both pick up teammates' banners and activate respawn beacons(without any charge time). And since this is all done through his drone, Crypto never once has to put himself at risk to do so.
The only other competitors to Crypto’s respawning capabilities are theSupport Class legendswho can all craft teammates' banners at crafters. Still, if you’re playing Crypto and a fight goes south,consider ducking out early in hopes of respawning your teammates.
