Apex Legends Bangalore Guide

by hamfz

Overview

First and foremost, Bangalore is a natural flanker. She has a small hitbox, highly mobile passive, and her primary ability affords her a very reliable escape mechanism. Her ultimate is an excellent zoning tool that can be used offensively and defensively. I personally think she is a must-have in a tryhard team, and probably the best “solo” character in the game currently.

Now let’s look at her abilities and their details:

Passive:

• Provides a 25% speed buff for 2 seconds when Bangalore is hit, or shots are fired near her
• Seems to have a relatively low cooldown, may be as little as 5-7 seconds, I do not have the exact data on this though

Primary

• A smoke grenade launcher with 2 charges
• Smoke last 15 seconds
• Smoke can be seen through with Bloodhound’s ult and Digital Threat scopes
• Each charge has a 33 second cooldown respectively
• Smoke explosion on a target deals 10 damage

Ultimate

• Thrown grenade that marks a target location for a creeping artillery strike
• Damages and concusses both enemies and YOUR TEAM
• Each strike deals 40 damage
• Concussion lasts 8 seconds
• Total strike duration is 8ish seconds
• Artillery explodes 2 seconds after flares
• Explosions last for 5 seconds
• 270 second cooldown
• Each “missile strike” is marked on the ground by an orange transparent missile, if you find yourself inside of a Bangalore ult, navigate accordingly and avoid standing on one before it explodes
• Her strike begins from the point that you throw your flare, and expands in a line out from this. The explosions follow the same expansion, center explodes first compared to outer missile markers
• Can concuss your teammates, and damage yourself
  

Passive ability strategy

Bangalore’s passive combined with her small model makes her one of the best characters in the game if we ignore the other abilities. While I don’t have the exact internal cooldown yet, this ability seems to proc multiple times in fights and provides the ultimate flanking and escaping tool.

The following summarizes how to get most value out of her passive.

• Push aggressively! I know that is an overall theme to this guide but, Bangalore makes this a very safe proposition. Sometimes I even push in the open against a known enemy in order to trigger a passive proc and push FASTER
• React quickly! If you are pushing into a bad position, or find yourself caught my an enemy, have an escape route and use the speed boost to get away and into safety. You can frequently retreat to heal or whatever else is needed

• While pushing, if taking fire use it to quickly reposition your attack during the proc. Even after taking damage your speed boost gives you a massive advantage for closing in on an enemy and securing good damage from an unexpected angle

• Use it for fast hip firing strafing. Make even more use of your speed boost in close quarters combat by limiting your ADS usage and hip fire with maximum strafe speed.
• Pull off MASSIVE flanks. When you get this proc don’t be afraid to go on a wide flank or circle and enemies position. Worst comes to worst you can use your smoke grenades to retreat if your flank doesn’t pan out

• Pair the speed boost with close quarter weapons like shotguns and SMGs. Be continually on the move from door to window or one side of a rock to the other, don’t hit from the same location twice. People get easily overwhelmed by her speed in close combat situations.

• You don’t even have to be hit to proc this. I don’t know if this is intended or what, but sometimes just having bullets go past me seems to do it.

You can’t really plan for the proc in most cases, it just an added bonus that works very well with the rest of her kit and people who naturally play aggressive. It also makes her INCREDIBLY hard to hit. Strafe, slide and run side to side as you try to escape enemy fire. See the following clip of me potatoing against a bangalore who makes good use of their passive proc.
https://clips.twitch.tv/PrettiestShinyDadTheThing

The mobility is insane.

Primary Ability Strategy

Her smoke grenades are probably the most useful primary ability in the game currently. (I feel like I am repeating myself). The most important thing you can do is use this EARLY and OFTEN. While its defensive usage is pretty self-explanatory, aggressive usage of her smokes are what make Bangalore a huge threat. I will separate the strategies based on each case.

Defensive:

These are the obvious ones that most people think of, but we should touch on them anyway.

• Using smoke for cover to retreat from battle
• Using smoke for cover to revive a teammate
• Using smoke for cover to loot dead boxes
• Using smoke for cover to heal
• Use your smoke in combination with your ultimate to create a massive safe zone for retreats or tactical resets of the fight

These are self-explanatory and I assume even the newest players to Bangalore naturally will recognize some of these situations. However, The real skill cap from this skill comes in its aggressive usage though.

The concept of an aggressive smoke should be familiar to experienced Counter-Strike and Battlefield players, although they are slightly different in usage respectively.

In CSGO, we frequently see smokes used both for offensive pushes and defensive holds that usually cover chokepoints like hallways, doors, and narrow parts of the map. But, these smokes are usually used to “zone out” the other players. This is because a player pushing through a smoke grenade is putting themselves at a disadvantage in many cases to the players on the other side (outside of the smoke), as the other player can usually see the player moving through the smoke first.

In Battlefield, smokes are used to aggressively push positions based on a similar concept. Further, there is much more opportunity to “smoke out” an enemy position,rendering their defensive holding almost useless as they are now sitting in a smoke that they can’t see through while the aggressing team pushes up to the boundaries or the flanks of the smoke.

In both cases, the smoke is being used to zone the other players. With Bangalore, we have TONS of opportunities to use aggressive smokes with these same principles in mind. Using your smoke offensively gives your teammates who may not be playing characters who are naturally aggressive the opportunity to be aggressive AS A TEAM, while the enemy team recovers from disorientation. By the time the smoke fades/they retreat out of it, your team can be on top of them from a variety of angles and usually doing good damage to them in the process. In many cases, its is better to use an aggressive smoke EVEN if you are using it to be defensive. (The only exception would be if your team is desperately retreating, here an aggressive smoke on the enemy would just mean their vision is obscured only for the duration of how long it takes them to push through it.)

So the old adage applies here in regards to smoke usage: “A good defense is a good offense”.

Here are some more offensive smoke strategies/situations

• Use smoke to invade an enemy holding such as a building
• When smoking out an enemy, play the edges of the smoke. Playing the edge of a smoke is an IMPORTANT concept. The idea is that you are working around the less dense edges of the smoke looking INTO the smoke for enemy shadows/movement/sounds. Usually the player deeper in the smoke will have their vision more obscured. Further, once identified, there are many cases where you can push into a smoke aggressively to finish off a disoriented enemy player.
• Create a zone that allows your team to push the enemy aggressively
• Use offensive smokes as an “panic” button during a firefight when you are at a disadvantage
• Use it often! You have two charges and 33 seconds isn’t that long of a cooldown. I try to use both of my smokes early on in every engagement.
• And last but definitely not least, prioritize getting a Digital Threat! Being able to see through your own smokes is incredibly powerful. It exponentially multiplies the usefulness of offensive smokes. Likewise, if you start getting shot through your offensive smokes, recognize that they could have a Bloodhound or digital threat of their own.

You can apply these strategies from any distance as well as her smoke launcher has a very long range. The following clips highlight a few of these concepts:

The first clip is probably the best example of using smokes to create an offensive zone that your team can quickly be aggressive with. Notice how I play the edge of the smoke here, using the less dense edges to cover me while I look for players both in the smoke and leaving the smoke. https://clips.twitch.tv/ArtsyFunTofuPartyTime

The second clip demonstrates me using my smoke as a panic button during a firefight when I realize that I was outgunned by 2 players. Then, instead of retreating and losing the damage I did, I play with the edge of the smoke to flank and finish the two players. Also notice how much Bangalore’s passive works to amplify the disorientation of the enemies with her quick movement.

https://clips.twitch.tv/AbrasiveOpenTruffleVoHiYo

Bangalore’s smoke is probably the best defensive and offensive utility currently in the game. It is also incredibly fun to get creative with. Just remember, smoke out your enemies from afar or up close and use the following seconds of cover to position on a flank they won’t expect.

Ultimate Ability Strategy

At first glance, Bangalore (and Gibraltar) have what sounds like the coolest ultimates in the game. Unfortunately, at least for Bangalore, this doesn’t play out to be as much of a threat as it sounds on paper. While you certainly can kill people with it, it is better to use it as a zoning tool (almost like a very large smoke) than as an offensive damage dealing tool. There are a few reasons for this: the damage is minimal, good players know how to avoid the explosions, and most importantly, it prevents your team from pushing as aggressively because of threat of concussion to your team. If anything, offensive Bangalore ults are more akin to a get out of jail card for the enemy team, giving them the cover they need to run away and reset the fight.

Given the above, there are two main situations that come to mind where her ult shines:

• The defensive ult
• The offensive REPOSITIONING ult

The defensive ult is what I usually find myself using the most. The area of effect is massive and it provides a great tool for letting your team to retreat, or tactically reset a fight to re-engage from a different angle. Along that vein, sometimes the line between a proactive defensive ult to reposition and an offensive repositioning ult can be a blurry line. The general theme being that you are guaranteeing a zone of control for a few moments, whether stopping an enemy push, or holding them to their current location, that allows your team to take advantage of reposition as needed.

Here are some defensive situations:

• Enemy team is winning the fight. Throw the ult on them/between you and their push. Retreat.
• Enemy team gets the jump on you or a teammate. Same thing as above.
• Control a third party. If your team is engaged in a fight and you get third-partied or pinched from a different angle, use your ult to quickly zone out the other team as you clean up the other fight and quickly prepare for the next one.
• You are separated from your team and need a super panic button to escape an aggressive enemy. Drop it between you and them and run

These are the majority of how I use Bangalore’s ult. I would much rather save it for one of these situations where I really need it and use her smoke to be aggressive than vice versa.

While I generally think you shouldn’t use it offensively, there are situations where it can be useful. It isn’t as much for the damage as it is for the zone control it provides you, and likewise, your teammates. If you drop an ultimate on an enemy team in a building complex, you have pretty good guarantee that they aren’t leaving before your team has the time to surround them from various angles or get into position for a coordinated push. The same applies for teams holding up in chokepoints, behind some rocks, etc.

Offensive ults are generally only useful at the BEGINNING of a fight before there is much risk of having a teammate caught in the crossfire. If the fight is already developed and you have done good damage or knocked an enemy, just finish it with guns and grenades. Save the ult for a potential third party or a future fight. The key to offensive Bangalore ults is to remember the positioning aspect: if your team doesn’t take advantage of the disorientation/defensive reaction of the enemy by getting wider/more aggressives angles on them, then you pretty much just created a momentary lapse in the battle that at best slows you down, and at worst draws attention from nearby third parties. With all of that said, it is still usually more beneficial to save the ult though, saving it for those situations where a team is dug into a position and your artillery strike will provide you with a chance to be aggressive where you otherwise couldn’t.

The following clip demonstrates how to “zone” a team. It also shows off that blurry line between defensive and offensive ult. In the example we reacted to the other team aggressively balloon jumping onto our overextended teammate. Given that we were all generally in the open compared to the enemy, I quickly recognized the danger and threw a “proactive” defensive ultimate. While it may not have been necessary in this situation, it provided my teammate the ability to reposition defensively as I positioned more offensively, widening our attack to “envelop” the enemy team with better angles. This flipped our position from being on the defensive to the aggressor, where we went on to win the game.
https://clips.twitch.tv/FastRamshackleFalconLitFam

Final Thoughts

I think the gist of what I have learned about Bangalore has been covered in the previous three sections. I wanted to use this final word to put it all together and highlight the mindset I take into playing Bangalore, and some key takeaways.

First, her kit by far has the most offensive and defensive utility. If you are playing with a set team and find yourself as being the “aggressive one”, or want to solo queue and have higher chances of carrying your team: I would play some Banglore.

Second, USE HER SMOKES OFFENSIVELY AND FREQUENTLY. Learn to play around the edges of your smokes. It is super fun, do it!

Lastly, always remember that you have a great amount of control over the flow of the fight. Don’t be afraid of proactive usage of your abilities. Everything in her kit is useful, and combined with her incredibly small hitbox, is why I think she is currently the best in the game (as of posting this at least).

And don’t ult your teammates.

Note: If you are playing with a Bangalore you trust, prioritize giving them your Digital Threat.