How You've Been Playing Apex Legends Season 6 All Wrong

Apex Legends' sixth season has arrived, and that means plenty of changes to freshen up the battle royale game — some of which are pretty experimental and seem likely to result in major gameplay shakeups. Among them, there's a new Legend, Rampart, and a new weapon, the Volt SMG. Developer Respawn has also introduced a crafting system, which lets you find materials throughout the map and craft eight different pieces of loot via the Replicator. The armor system has been updated, and there's a new emote, the Holospray, too.

Respawn has altered Legends from the Recon class, letting them now use Survey Beacons to get the next ring location. Some characters have been balanced a bit more, too — the devs lowered select cooldowns for Loba and Bangalore, and made it so players cannot use Wraith's Dimensional Rift for two seconds after being recalled by the Death Totem. This modification was made to partially address a devastating combo that involves chaining Revenant, Wraith, and Crypto's ultimates together.

Given all the new elements, you might be playing Apex Legends all wrong if you're not taking advantage of what Season 6 has to offer.

Rampart's strengths lie in her defensive prowess. Her tactical ability is her Amped Cover, which includes an energy shield that heightens the damage of weapons her teammates fire through it while protecting against enemy bullets. Her passive ability is Modded Loader, which gives her increased magazine sizes and a faster reload time with all of the game's LMGs and the Minigun. Finally, her ultimate is the mounted Emplaced Minigun she calls "Sheila," which features a high ammo capacity but has a long reload time.

As you can imagine, Rampart's Amped Cover is pretty annoying to run into as an opponent, but, as YouTuber Alarmix points out, there are a few ways to counter it. First, don't let Amped Cover deploy completely before you start shooting. There's a short period of time when first placed when the shield has no health and can be easily taken out. Additionally, the top portion of the shield has less health than the bottom, so concentrate your gunfire on the energy shield instead to reduce the buff your opponent's ammo gets by going through it.

As a Respawn developer pointed out on Reddit, grenades may be your best bet to take out Amped Covers quickly.

One of the changes that may have major repercussions in Apex Legends going forward is the fact that all players now drop onto the map with built-in Evo Armor capability. Once you're on the ground, there are multiple ways of leveling up your Evo shields that you might not be taking full advantage of yet.

Basically, you drop into the game with level zero Evo Armor. You get level one armor once you deal some damage, and can get that armor all the way up to red simply by hurting your opponents. You can also still find higher-tier Evo Armor as you loot supply bins and boxes during a match, and Legendary Body Armor remains up for grabs. In other words, luck continues to play a part.

However, if looting doesn't get you better shields as you play, or if you don't see anyone for half the game (which does happen) you have a third option: crafting. According to the devs, you can deposit your evolving armor into any Replicator at any time. This reduces the amount of evo points you need to get it to the next level. If you're close to the next tier, sticking your armor into the Replicator might just send it over the minimum you need.

Bear in mind that while your armor is in the Replicator, you have no protection. However, once you get it back, you'll be at full health.