A new Legend has joined the Apex Games with the arrival of Apex Legends' Hunted season, with players now able to unlock the scout sniper Vantage using their hard-earned Legend Tokens. Born on the icy wastelands of the planet Págos, Xiomara "Mara" Contreras was raised alone by her mother, Xenia, and grew up to be a highly skilled sharpshooter. Unfortunately, the chance discovery of her mother's true origins as an escaped convict led to Mara suffering a severe injury. Her mother activated a distress beacon so that Mara could be rescued at the cost of her incarceration. As a result, Mara has joined the Apex Games in Apex Legends as Vantage, using her newfound fame to draw attention to her mother's wrongful conviction. Unlike last season's defense-focused Legend Newcastle, Vantage serves as an eagle-eyed scout and sharpshooter with potential that makes her deadly in the right hands.
Like all Legends, Vantage has a unique passive, tactical, and ultimate ability, all of which aid her scouting and sniping. Her passive Spotter's Lens allows Vantage to scout by aiming down sights, allowing her to determine what Legends spotted players are using as well as their distance from her, and most importantly what Evo Shields they have equipped. Her tactical Echo Relocation lets her position Echo, her winged companion, and launch up towards it to quickly reposition. Her ultimate Sniper's Mark involves Vantage using her custom sniper rifle to spot enemy targets, granting a damage bonus for her team against any enemy unfortunate enough to be marked.
With Valkyrie introduced in Season 9 and Seer introduced in Apex Legends' Season 10, the game's Recon class has been well-served in recent years. However, abilities and passives vary greatly between Recon Legends, and players will find Vantage offers some unique benefits to any team, particularly when equipped with a few solid tips and tricks.
The Best Tips, Tricks, & Strategies For Vantage In Apex Legends
Players should keep the usual Apex Legends tips and tricks in mind when playing Vantage. This includes remembering to use their chosen Legend's passive, tactical and ultimate abilities instead of relying solely on weapons and sticking with and supporting their team. Here are some useful tips, tricks, and strategies unique to Vantage:
Use Sniper's Mark Throughout The Game
Unlike other Legend ultimate abilities, Vantage's Sniper's Mark has a total of five charges, allowing her to fire a maximum of five shots at enemies with her sniper rifle. Legends such as Apex Legends' Mad Maggie have ultimate abilities that have to recharge after a single use. However, as Sniper's Mark has five charges, players shouldn't worry as much about missing shots, and they can be less conservative about when they decide to use Vantage's custom weapon. As each shot amounts to only 20% of her total ultimate meter, players also constantly receive new charges and reload.
In essence, a Vantage with good aim has her ultimate ability available almost all the time. Vantage's rifle does a considerable amount of damage per shot, and hit enemies also take additional damage from Vantage's teammates. This makes Sniper's Mark a brutal ability for enemies to face in long-range combat; Vantage can efficiently shatter Evo Shields and leave entire squads vulnerable for her teammates. Unfortunately, it's not clear how long this will last; Apex Legends' Seer was quickly nerfed soon after his debut, as his abilities were considered overpowered even by the developers.
Don't Forget To Pick Up Other Guns
Vantage excels at long range, but not all firefights in Apex Legends take place at a distance. In fact, sniper rifles are a poor choice when facing enemies equipped with shotguns and SMGs at close range. As such, players must equip themselves in a way that lets them fight effectively at all distances. Assault rifles such as the Flatline and R-301 are excellent choices due to their flexibility; when equipped with 2x, 3x, or even 4x scopes, skilled players can cover themselves in the close to mid-range while still having access to Vantage's passive ability.
Of course, Vantage benefits most from having long-range weapons to pull off some of the most impressive trick shots in Apex Legends, but the hitting power and versatility of Sniper's Mark give players the chance to try an unorthodox strategy by not carrying any sniper weapons at all. Sniper's Mark essentially means that Vantage is already armed with a powerful sniper rifle, freeing up her two standard weapon slots for other guns. Of course, recon Legends support their team, but they won't always be able to do that from a distance, so it's best to be prepared.
Make The Best Of Vantage's Passive Ability
Passive abilities can easily go overlooked in Apex Legends; when playing some Legends such as Crypto, even skilled players might not notice any game-changing effects from their passives. However, they're an essential part of the game for new Apex Legends players to get to grips with, and Vantage's passive is currently one of the most useful in team play. Aiming down sights at enemies with Vantage when using any scope with a 2x magnification or greater allows players to collect much information about their prospective targets. This includes what Legends enemy players are using, their current distance, and the tier of their Evo Shields.
Information is power in Apex Legends, and by using Vantage's passive, players can make tactical decisions about how and when to engage their opponents. This is most beneficial when this information can be given to teammates over voice chat, as Vantage's squad can plan ambushes and defences tailored to approaching enemy squads, as well as pick out priority targets such as Apex Legends' evil simulacrum Ash for quick eliminations. Typically, the only way players can figure out their opponents' shield strength is to shoot them, so Vantage gives her team a quieter way to get that information, encouraging tactical play.
Vantage's passive also gives her scopes a bullet drop indicator. At long range, players usually have to eyeball bullet drop. This isn't necessarily game-changing, but it's nice to have regardless.
Practice With Echo
With tactical abilities, learning good placement is critical. Some Legends, such as Wattson, with her electric fences and interceptor pylon, only excel when players learn when and where to place them. Apex Legends is reportedly the most stressful FPS out there, and if asked, players might point out that using tactical abilities in a firefight might have something to do with that. Vantage's tactical deploys her bat-like companion Echo up in the air away from her. Vantage can then launch herself up to Echo, allowing her to reposition with an additional double jump available if players time it right. This is an excellent option for Vantage to reposition herself, surprising enemies by quickly setting up a new sniper's nest in a matter of seconds.
However, how Vantage's tactical ability works take some getting used to. It doesn't work instantaneously like Wraith or Ash's powerful portal abilities, so enemies can easily hit players while they're prepping it or shoot them in midair. This might tempt players to have Echo deployed all the time so that they can skip a step and jump out of trouble with a single button press. However, players should avoid having Echo deployed too often; sharp-eyed players can easily spot Echo, and there are a lot of players using Vantage at the moment who might spot another Echo in the air and decide to start a fight.
The best way to use Vantage's tactical is for players to look in the direction they want to move in and press and hold the tactical ability button. While this doesn't necessarily allow precise repositioning, it should get players roughly where they want to go and has the benefit of being a little quicker.
It'll be interesting to see if Vantage makes it to Apex Legends on mobile one day, but until then, players looking to try out a new Recon Legend on the reforged King's Canyon map can do so now.
Release Date
-
Apex Legends
- Released:
- 2019-02-04
- Developer:
- Respawn Entertainment
- Franchise:
- titanfall
- Genre:
- Shooter, Battle Royale
- Platform:
- Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PC
- Publisher:
- Electronic Arts
- ESRB:
- 13+
- How Long To Beat:
- 60-80 hours
