There aren’t many machine guns in Apex Legends, but each existing one has a completely unique set of features. Simply put, you can’t cover the whole class of machine guns if you’ve learned how to handle only one weapon. They differ a lot, and they require various approaches in order to reveal the potential.
With the start of Season 4, the class of machine guns in Apex Legends has undergone substantial changes. Learning new tips and tricks on how to treat updated weapons is more vital than ever, and the following list is full of valuable information that you might find useful.
10 The Old School Beast
M600 Spitfire is a classic LMG, and it best represents this class of weapons in Apex Legends. It’s a common gun, and you can find it literally everywhere. Spitfire is a fairly reliable and simple LMG, and while it doesn’t necessarily behave better than many other guns in the game, Spitfire is an honest weapon.
However, it’s not the best choice when you want to invest in carrying a heavy-rounds gun. Spitfire has several downsides, and the two most significant ones are the notorious inaccuracy of the gun and the very low rate of fire.
9 The Cutting-Edge Technology
L-Star has been originally introduced to Apex Legends as a supply-drop-exclusive weapon, but it wasn’t as good as people were expecting it to be. The natural solution to this odd situation was the revised status of L-Star. In Season 4, the gun disappeared from supply drops and joined the family of regular weapons that spawn on the map.
Still, L-Star is full of issues. Despite having a high value of damage per shot, the LMG is inaccurate and excessively annoying with its blinding red muzzle flash. It also doesn’t reload now but can overheat after 25 automatic shots in a row.
8 The Devoted Destroyer
L-Star’s place in supply drops was taken over by Devotion, which was another reasonable move by the developers. This particular LMG was great before, especially when you were lucky enough to equip it with the Turbocharger modification, which reduced the warming-up time of the gun. But now, it might very well be among the absolute best weapons in Apex Legends.
As a gold weapon, Devotion comes with no slots for attachments. It has a 2x HCOG sight and a magazine of 54 rounds by default, which is more than enough to end a few lives in a row. And while Turbocharger was removed from the game, its functionality was incorporated into Devotion.
7 Hunt For Attachments
Unlike pre-equipped Devotion, both Spitfire and L-Star desperately need all the attachments you can find in order to be at least somewhat effective and competitive. Unfortunately, L-Star doesn’t accept barrel mods, so there’s absolutely no chance you could hide its muzzle flash. All you can do is to adapt, but the recoil can be somewhat countered with a stock attachment.
At the same time, Spitfire has almost all the available attachment slots, and you should do your best to fill the empty spaces with respective enhancements. This LMG needs all of them: a barrel mod and a stock to decrease inaccuracy, an extended mag to give you more firepower, and a scope to deal with awkward iron sights.
6 Mind The Rate Of Fire
The issue of the rate of fire is fair for Spitfire and Devotion but in different ways. Spitfire shoots exhaustingly slow, which is often a bummer in CQB. Rapid-firing guns like R-99 or Prowler leave you zero opportunity to fight back, especially when you try to do that after being attacked. The LMG is not suitable for close-range engagements, and you should always be aware of that.
Devotion, on the other hand, shoots increasingly fast, but it has a few moments of stuttering when you first hit the trigger. This changing rate of fire is a problem on its own, which requires careful handling. L-Star is free of these issues, but then again, its muzzle flash is the worst nightmare.
5 Forget About Politeness
Devotion is fantastic. Once you acquire it either from a supply drop or a corpse of the clumsy enemy you’ve just killed, you can be assured that CQB encounters are no longer a challenge. You can courageously storm the frontlines and run into a whole squad of three opponents, and even then, Devotion has the potential to mow them all down in a row with a single mag.
You don’t want to hold this weapon back. It’s a siege gun, and you should act aggressively and always be in the heart of combat. Even if you get blocked in a corner, Devotion can easily clear the way for you.
4 Don’t Bother ADSing
Even in the case of slow-firing Spitfire, which is not adapted for CQB, LMGs often serve the purpose of fighting face to face, mostly because of their signature inaccuracy at longer ranges. An obvious tip that might save your life a few times is not to bother aiming down sights when you are facing an enemy up close.
Hip firing usually lacks precision, but it’s not something to worry about when your target takes the most space on the screen. So don’t mind unloading a whole magazine when you happen to meet an opponent around the corner.
3 Be Persistent
Both Spitfire and Devotion have a sensible reserve of rounds in a magazine (especially when you equip M600 with an extended one), and you can often continue shooting when your enemy enters a reload animation or switches the weapon. This is by far the hugest advantage LMGs can provide, and the best-case scenario is to make the most out of it.
When you enter a firefight with an LMG in your hands, try to stop shooting only after you’ve fully emptied a magazine. Follow the enemies around the corners and storm their covers while they’re reloading.
2 Support With Suppressive Fire
Even at medium and longer ranges, LMGs can be effective to support your team by providing suppressive fire. This is justified for Spitfire mostly, but Devotion can also work. Even L-Star can do the job if you try to avoid the overheating issue. When your team is attacking, you can start putting pressure on the enemy squad by shooting at them.
The same goes for fleeing out of combat when you can provide valuable cover with bullets aimed at pursuing opponents. You don’t have to land precisely all of your shots. Most of the time, a few hits are more than enough to show your dedication and frighten off the aggressors.
1 Ammo Is Temporary
Especially in the case of Devotion, ammo count falls to zero incredibly fast when you are shooting LMGs. Moreover, if you take into consideration the advice on suppressive fire and persistent shooting, your inventory will rapidly run out of available rounds. It’s the issue to be considered at all times. Never hesitate to check the surroundings for some extra ammo.
With the latest update for Apex Legends, inventory management has changed drastically, as you can only carry stacks of 60 rounds now instead of 80. It makes storing up additional ammo an even more complicated task, so try to pay attention to your stocks.