A natural consequence of creating a hero shooter with different characters and abilities is that some of them will prove to be more popular than others. While developers usually try to create characters with abilities that fit into a variety of playstyles and player preferences, some will inevitably end up more useful simply more fun for most people. And that’s also the case in Apex Legends.
Interestingly, the most popular characters for people to play in Apex often aren’t the ones that are considered “the best” by some of the game’s top players. Legends like Pathfinder, Octane, and Wraith are rarely played by pros anymore, but they maintain some of the highest pick rates in the game as a whole. Usually, that’s because those characters have fun and interesting movement abilities, or they enable solo warriors to simply hot drop and frag.
Some of the characters that are the least played in the game also aren’t really the worst characters in terms of their power level, either. Some of these lesser-played characters might have weaker or less-interesting abilities, sure. But others are actually quite strong in the right hands. They just require a style of play that’s less obvious or likable to the average player base.
According to Apex Legends Status (ALS), which we’ll use to determine who are the least-played characters right now, nine legends in the game are picked in more than four percent of games (Octane has the current highest pick rate at 11 percent). Then, there are another nine characters who form the game’s mid-range of pick rates between four and two percent. But at the very bottom, there are five legends that are picked less than two percent of the time.
From passive styles to characters that players simply don’t like, here are the least-played legends in Apex.
Least-picked characters in Apex Season 17
5) Revenant—1.5 percent
Once a decently popular niche pick due to his great visual design and fun skins, Revenant has sunk down to the bottom in season 17. It’s not surprising, either: he doesn’t have particularly strong abilities at the moment, and they aren’t terribly fun to use, either.
In the right situation, players can make good use of Revenant’s Death Totem ultimate to get a good push or two on an enemy team. But at this point in Apex‘s lifespan, most players know how to play against that strategy: kite away from the pushing Rev team as much as possible, wait for their Death Protection to run out, and then light them up when they become vulnerable again. Since teams in Death Protection usually push without worrying too much about having good positioning, it’s easy to catch one or two out in the open if and when the protected form drops.
Besides that, there’s just not much to Revenant’s kit. Sure, his Silence tactical and Stalker passive abilities can be useful in certain situations, but most other characters in the game are either more consistently useful, more fun to use, or both.
4) Rampart—1.5 percent
Rampart’s is the lone controller legend on this list, with a 1.4 percent pick rate on ALS. Her place here isn’t a big mystery, either: she’s a character that thrives not on pushing forward but on taking good positions and fortifying them.
Rampart isn’t exactly weak, but she’s not exactly strong, either. She’s come a long way since her release when she could only use her Sheila ultimate in its permanently-placed form with a limited range of motion. The move to allow Sheila to be used on the run gave Rampart a much-needed buff and shift to a more active playstyle, but the fact remains that she’s still not the best character for running headlong into battle. Her Amped Cover tactical walls take time to deploy, and are still best used to help lock down buildings. And her passive, a buff to LMG magazine sizes and reload times, don’t feel very impactful (an issue that’s not helped by many LMGs not being very popular right now).
On top of that, many players don’t seem to realize Rampart’s potential as a bunker buster when they play her in an average game mode. Instead, many try to use their walls to bunker themselves into good positions, a tactic which can quickly turn into a death trap when an enemy Fuse or Caustic shows up.
While she can lay down some serious damage in the right hands, Rampart’s more defensive qualities and extremely weak passive keep her mired toward the bottom of this list.
3) Crypto—1.4 percent
Crypto saw a brief but meteoric rise at the beginning of season 16 when he was given away for free to all players that logged into Apex, but he’s sunk back down into the bottom five in season 17 after many of those new Crypto players figured out what the more seasoned Apex veterans knew already.
When used correctly, Crypto is powerful. But he’s also the character you pick when you don’t mind giving your teammates all the glory. And that’s exactly the problem with him.
All of Crypto’s abilities revolve around using his drone. He scans enemies with his drone. He accesses beacons with his drone. He collects ally banners and respawns them with his drone. And he uses his ultimate and passive abilities by first positioning his drone. If you play Crypto, you’re going to be using your drone a lot. And that means you’re often not going to be pushing forward into the fight when your teammates are.
As Crypto, you’re playing a fundamentally different game than most other legends in Apex. And most Apex players don’t want to play that game, preferring to shoot at enemies and grab kills for themselves rather than trying to set them up for their teammates while hiding behind a corner.
While Apex devs like to give buffs and reworks to characters with particularly low pick rates, there might not be any remedy for Crypto. Even with all the things he can do, his core identity remains attached to his drone. And since that’s unlikely to change, given Crypto’s drone even has a name and a place in his lore, it’s unlikely that Crypto will be getting off this list, too.
2) Gibraltar—1.4 percent
For a long time, Gibraltar represented a conundrum for Apex‘s balance team. He was one of the most dominant legends in the game at its highest level, both on the ranked leaderboards and in professional play. You’d often see every single team in an ALGS match choose a Gibraltar. On the other hand, he’s never been a very popular legend pick with the entire Apex player base, and that’s most likely because he’s a support legend that’s all about timing and teamwork. That’s still true, and he’s dropped out of the pro meta as well lately.
Gibraltar’s best qualities are all about allowing his team to reset in sticky situations. The Dome of Protection can shield a team from just about anything, allowing Gibraltar to revive downed teammates quickly and safely, while his ultimate is often more useful at denying space than it is at securing kills. With the fortified perk and his gun shield, Gibraltar was also a monster in close-range fights. But when you’re playing on an uncoordinated team, Gibraltars often get left out to dry by over-aggressive teammates. And with no movement abilities of his own and a huge hitbox, it’s easy to lose your one-vs-ones on the character if you’re not hitting all your shots. He’s also easily countered now by more popular legends like Seer and Mad Maggie.
For a lot of players, Apex is all about moving quickly from one fight to the next. And when you can play characters that slingshot themselves across the map with a grappling hook, a bounce pad, a Gravity Lift, or through an invulnerable portal, Gibraltar just feels a little bit plain.
1) Newcastle—1.1 percent
Newcastle came into the game to fulfill a very specific niche as a shield character that was an alternative to Gibraltar, and a more active support legend that could sell the superhero fantasy to players. He jumps farther when using his ultimate to travel to teammates. He protects the weak by shielding and moving downed teammates out of harm’s way. He pushes forward with his Mobile Shield.
Unfortunately, Newcastle is still a big shield character. And he’s a character that Apex players have almost completely abandoned after his launch, settling at the time of writing to a lowly 1.1 percent pick rate and title of least-picked character in Apex.
Newcastle is actually better for running into a fight than some of his fellow defensive legends, since his ultimate gives him a movement ability that can launch him across the map in the blink of an eye which can be used to engage or to escape quickly. But he’s still a big, bulky character that’s very easy for enemies to hit. For average players that will miss their fair share of shots in a close-range one-vs-one, even the Fortified perk doesn’t help them much when they’re so much easier to shoot. And his ability to move while reviving doesn’t feel as impactful or active as Lifeline’s revive, which allows you to keep on fighting while bringing an ally back into the fight.
He’s got a bit of a higher skill ceiling that can make him a good brawling character when reached, but with so much of his ability kit still tied to supporting his teammates, he lags behind other characters when it comes time to choose a legend for most Apex players.
