Apex Legends’ 3v3 mode, Arenas, has a completely different meta to the battle royale. Here’s our ultimate tier list for what Legends are a must-have on your squad. 

Season 11 is here, and Arenas keeps growing as Apex Legends’ roster of characters does. While the best Legends to use in the Battle Royale mode has been very kind to newcomer Ash, the Arenas mode retains its own meta.

The 3v3 deathmatch mode takes Apex Legends’ characters and drops them into smaller, bespoke maps where abilities can make all the difference. Still, not all Legends are made equal, with some characters that perform well in the core battle royale being less useful in Arenas, and vice versa.

Without further ado, let’s dive right into what Legends you’ll want to be picking up to maximize your chances of snagging those sweet Ws in Arenas.

Best Apex Legends Characters: Arenas

Bloodhound

Apex Legends’ resident hunter, Bloodhound, carries across their reign of terror into the Arena. Their Eye of the Allfather Tactical is a must-have for any Arenas squad, as the small maps and huge radius of the scan makes hiding pretty difficult for your opponents.

This is just amplified by their Ultimate, Beast of the Hunt, which allows you to scan more quickly and well as increase your movement speed. You’ll be able to dodge bullets without even breaking a sweat, whilst giving your teammates constant information on the enemy’s location.

Just as is the case in the Battle Royale mode, Bloodhound should be a staple on any Arenas squad that’s looking to cause some chaos.

Lifeline

Lifeline’s absolutely adorable, but if you come across her in the Arena you won’t be so enchanted by her quips. Her combat medic prowess makes her the perfect supportive pick for Arenas players who still want to take a bit more of a back seat in the Apex action.

Her D.O.C Heal Drone is necessary for keeping frontline allies safe as they unleash havoc on the enemy squad, and her ability to deploy D.O.C to res any fallen comrades is invaluable.

For more tentative players or players that are a little newer to the 3v3 concept, Lifeline is the pick for you.

Octane

Apex’s resident Speedy Gonzalez is perfect for starting off your Arenas run with a bang. His Stim Tactical will of course get you from A to B quickly, and despite the health it costs, you make this up with his Swift Mend passive.

Additionally, his Jump Pads are perfect for hopping into the backline to cause some chaos. Giving Octane himself access, or another offensive teammate, his mobility makes him a pretty good choice when you’re jumping into game.

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Overall, Octane’s self-healing, especially when healing loot is harder to come across in Arenas, and agility make him the perfect combination of speedy and deadly, just as he was designed to be.

Revenant

When you think of a fight to the death game mode, designed to prove who’s the bloodiest of them all, Revenant comes to mind as the perfect participant. Turns out this rings true, as the Simulacrum Assassin nets himself the top tier thanks to his abilities.

Considering that Arenas matches are pretty short and sweet, his 20s long Silence Tactical hits pretty hard when you’re unable to use abilities for a decent chunk of time. It’s perfect for cutting off any choke points and deterring enemy advances.

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That Death Totem can be quite the nightmare, too. As in the Battle Royale, the fact that you get two chances to wipe out the opposition is invaluable, and this is just amplified in the close quarters of the Arena.

Bangalore

Bangalore has been a staple in Apex from the start, but it turns out she translates beautifully into the new game mode.

Her mobility when under fire combined with her smokes makes it easy to avoid sharpshooting enemies that have snuck unto the high ground, and also allows allies to make a quick getaway under cover.

Similarly to the Battle Royale, a well-placed ult can leave the enemy squad slowed and shaken, but it only really works on open maps, so maps like Party Crasher aren’t going to offer too much in terms of team-wide strikes.

Gibraltar

Gibby is as lovable as he is deadly, and the Shielded Fortress’ prowess translates well into the chaos of the Arena.

His Gun Shield is the ideal tool in a mode where people are literally gunning at you from the get-go, and a well-timed Dome of Protection can be the best way to save allies in a pinch. The iconic bubble can also make a huge shield, buying you all time to recharge, heal and get ready to go.

Unfortunately, in the same vein as Bangalore, his ultimate is best utilized in maps with open spaces. His defensive capabilities in the Arena, though, are second to none.

Mirage

The Outlands resident charmer, Mirage, is a little more impressive in the Arena than on the fields of the Battle Royale (but sadly by no means less insufferable).

The supportive role that the trickster’s passive plays is great for getting you and your allies out of sticky situations. Being able to res a teammate whilst completely invisible obviously has its perks, but dropping a clone when you’re downed can also be confusing for enemies in the heat of battle.

Of course, his duplication tactical and ultimate abilities are useful, but he still lacks the punch needed to secure a spot in the S-tier. That’ll dent his ego a bit.

Seer

Season 10 legend Seer is similar in many ways to Bloodhound, with a focus on identifying enemies through walls. His Focus of Attention ability can identify enemies and their health bars, while his Heart Seeker passive identifies heartbeats via a directional prompt.

So, why isn’t Seer has high up the Tier List as Bloodhound? Sadly, it’s because his Focus of Attention is more focused than Eye of the Allfather – meaning if you line it up poorly, you won’t see anything but may give away your position. On the plus side, though, it can disrupt enemy heals if you do get it right.

His Ultimate, Exhibit, still feels useful in many situations, though, helping put him at the high-end of the list.

Valkyrie

Valkyrie, the self-professed queen of the skies has certainly made her mark on the Apex meta, but she isn’t quite as sky-high in the Arenas meta as a lot of people believe she is.

Her passive VTOL Jets are fast enough to get out of the way, but are also very loud and leave you vulnerable.

While Valk’s mobility is useful for getting you out of tricky situations, her ultimate has very little use in the tight spaces of the Arena. It can propel you upwards and out of the way, but sadly the bigger they are the harder they fall, and you’re likely just to land slap bang in the enemies’ clutches.

Wraith

The Interdimensional Skirmisher has dominated the Apex meta since she first stepped out of the void, and she’s still a solid pick in the Arena.

Combining the warning from her Voices from the Void Passive and Into the Void Tactical will make her a menace to catch off-guard, and her minute-long Dimensional Drift can move you and your allies out of a tough spot.

The issue with it, though, is that Arenas maps are pretty small. Just as with Valk, getting your portal into an area that’s totally obscured will be a pretty difficult task, and you don’t want to be leading your entire team directly into the lion’s den.

Ash

Apex Legends’ latest addition is a solid choice for battle royale, but Ash feels less powerful in Arenas. That’s because while her Ultimate is ideal for flanking maneuvers, the smaller maps of Arenas feel a little too confined to coordinate using it.

Her passive is modified in Arenas, because there are no deathboxes. Instead, when your teammate dies, their killer’s location is marked.

Finally, the arc snare can be handy in a 1v1 fight to give you an extra advantage, but it’s hardly worth dropping one of the better-ranked Legends in this list for.

Fuse

The Australian addition to the Outlands fray hasn’t exactly wowed many players during his short time in the game, and sadly he’s not topping the Arenas tables either.

While his explosives come in handy for lighting a fire under the enemy’s respective tails, there’s very little else he brings to the Arena. His abilities are pretty selfish, which can get awkward in a team-based game.

However in terms of raw damage, he still packs quite the punch, so while he’s not at the top of our list, he’s not scraping the bottom of the barrel either.

Horizon

Scottish scientist and former menace Horizon isn’t as strong as she once was, much to the disappointment of those who chose to main her.

While her Gravity Lift Tactical is still great for scooping allies into the sky and dropping them in a safer spot, the nerfs to her kit mean that it’s no longer as viable offensively. You can’t rain hell from the skies anymore, as her strafe speed and gunplay have taken some real hits.

Her ultimate is still great for piling enemies up in one place, but due to materials costs, you can’t exactly hammer the center of the Black Hole with grenades like you would in a Battle Royale. Overall, she’s not great but she’s not terrible. She’s a solid B-tier for sure.

Pathfinder

Pathfinder might not want to be our friend anymore after he sees where he places on this list, but sadly the loveable robot’s kit doesn’t lend itself very well to the high-intensity action of the Arena.

While mobility wise he ranks similar to Octane and can easily penetrate the backlines with his Zipline Gun and Grappling Hook, his Insider Knowledge Passive is useless in this game mode, unlike the Spanish speedster’s invaluable passive.

Additionally, there’s not much use for these key abilities unless you’re pushing as a squad, otherwise, Pathfinder will find himself blown into scrap metal as he plummets towards the oncoming fire of the enemy team.

Rampart

Luckily for the quick-witted defensive Legend, it seems like she has more of a place in the Arenas meta than she does in Battle Royale. Well, kind of.

Her passive does give you the added bonus of increased magazines and reload times across LMG weapons such as the L-Star and Spitfire, which means you don’t need to spend those all-important credits on additional fixtures in the store.

Setting up your Amped Cover Tactical shields and then dropping Shiela can let you mow down enemies. And you can now take Shiela on the move, if you’re willing to drop the materials on a charge. She’s a coinflip-style Legend, so are you willing to take the risk?

Wattson

Wattson is perfect for locking down chunks of territory on the vast expanses of Olympus, Kings Canyon and World’s Edge, but in the tight spaces of the Arena her abilities are a little hit and miss.

While maps like Party Crasher are suited to Wattson’s fences, locking down a site on any of the other maps is a pretty difficult task. We might see this improve on a map like Golden Gardens, coming into rotation in Season 9.

It’s her Interception Pylons that save her. While grenades aren’t always high on the wishlist in the Arenas, her ult will stop them in their tracks, letting your allies take on the opposing squad without having to worry about them. Additionally, they charge your shields, and who wouldn’t want that?

Loba

Despite recent buffs to her Tactical, the Arena is not really the best place for high society thief and fan-favorite support, Loba.

Both her Eye for Quality Passive and Black Market Boutique are useless due to the Arena’s store system, and other than shield shells and syringes there’s not much to pick up with her Ult. It can provide a nice shield, but that’s about it.

While her Burglar’s Best Friend Tactical is great for getting her out of tight spots, you’ll likely just wind up in a tougher one because you’ve split from your team or, alternatively, landed right in the middle of the fray.

Caustic

While Caustic has started to move up the rankings in the Battle Royale, the Arena doesn’t seem to be his home yet. His Fortified Passive makes him a little tankier, but sadly that’s where it ends.

Sure his gaseous abilities are great for forcing enemies out of areas, but the issue with the Arena is that they’re more likely to just run straight for you instead of tear off into the sunset. Additionally, since the density of his clouds has been reduced, they’re not the best smokescreen either.

Caustic mains might be able to pull off some cool tricks in the deathmatch game mode, but for most players, the toxic scientist won’t be high up the picklist.

Crypto

As players continue to peel away from Korea’s most notorious hacker in the Battle Royale, it seems like they’ll be doing so in the Arena as well.

The main reason for this is that literally everything centers around using his drone as both a scout and offensive weapon. While you’re using it you’re a sitting duck, and if the tiny eye in the sky gets destroyed your’re left with nothing but your gun skills to get you through.

Sadly, Crypto has little to no viability in the Arena, so don’t expect to see him gracing your team’s ranks anytime soon.

So that’s it for our Arenas tier list! As the meta continues to shift we’ll keep this page updated, so make sure to check back anytime there’s a new patch.

All images courtesy of Respawn Entertainment.

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