Apex Legends has largely avoided the pitfalls of excessive tinkering (here's looking at you Fortnite and Warzone), and with the arrival of Season 5, Lifeline has been significantly altered. Here's our guide to best leveraging her new modus operandi.
Since the vast majority of Apex is tailor made for encouraging squad play, Lifeline is often cited as the primary representative for that ideal. As a launch character, utilising her move set effectively can often be a critical component in swinging the outcome of a tense engagement.
The arrival of recent seasons have seen a number of minor adjustments to her stats and passive abilities, and while she remains a popular character for her design and voice work, it's easy to underestimate the value of her move set.
She is an often underutilised asset, and there are a few key things you can factor in to your strategy to maximise her potential.
Remote revives aren't an excuse to Rambo
An enormous update to Lifeline's D.O.C drone is the ability for it to revive squad mates while you continue the fight. Much like Lifeline's own revive animation, it deploys a shield to cover the process.
The issue here will come from players mistakenly encouraged to go maximum risk now their robotic buddy is picking up the slack. Don't spread yourself too thin and push wide; if anything, you'll want to stay tighter to your team mates and take advantage of the revive shield.
Laying down covering fire will also prevent opportunistic foes from rushing the situation, and is much more likely to yield a positive result. D.O.C is your friend. Don't leave him behind!
Loot to victory
The recently added blue supply bins open up a second tray of medical goodies whenever Lifeline is in the vicinity. Coupled with the recent bump in support items in her Care Package Ultimate, she's rapidly becoming a veritable supermarket.
The key takeaway here is: know your role. Grab the guns you need, but focus on hoovering up any and all medical supplies for your squad and sharing the wealth.
In return, they should absolutely be funnelling you Ultimate Accelerants with reckless abandon, to ensure you're calling in a minimum of three drops per round.
Respawn
Placement is everything
This is an age old problem, dating back to some of our earliest adventures in the Battlefield franchise: medics and support characters ignoring an incoming threat to revive people in the open, or drawing too much attention with said support manoeuvres.
Lifeline will only be a winner if there's some accepted common sense thrown into the mix. Her Care Package makes a lot of fuss upon entry and landing. Don't drop it in the middle of an open plateau without first seeking a reasonably concealed position. It can even be used to draw in unsuspecting enemies!
Don't rush to the revive either, even if D.O.C can pick up some of the slack. Your downed team mate is essentially a beacon to attacking teams that you're vulnerable. That's what knockdown shields are meant to be used for; to give your wounded buddy the chance to deflect incoming fire whilst moving into cover for a revive.
In the meantime, take a breath, secure your immediate surroundings, and then be the saviour. Lifeline is equipped for this. Don't ignore it.
