Apex Legends: How to Play and Master Axle (Skills, Passives, Tips)

Axle is the newest character to be introduced in Season 29 of Apex Legends. She’s a skirmisher and a “combat racer,” and from that alone, you can tell that she’s more about high-speed and high-intensity action.

But as with most new characters that get added into the game, players might have a hard time playing Axle, let alone mastering her. And I’m here to help with that.

Without further ado, let’s get into the basics of how to play Axle and eventually master her.

How to Play and Master Axle

To learn how to play Axle, you first have to know her basic kit.

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Axle’s passive ability, Drift, allows her to gain increased control while sliding. Her tactical ability, Nitro Gate, deploys a speed gate that provides users with a massive boost in speed.

And lastly, her ultimate, Kickstart, deploys a drone that seeks enemies and launches them into the air for easier crowd control.

All of these abilities synergize into a playstyle that allows you to control the fight even before it starts. So if this is the type of playstyle you’re into, then you might find Axle to be your next main.

As a Skirmisher, Axle has the ability to see the contents of a care package right before it hits the ground. This is pretty useful as it allows you and your team to plan ahead and decide whether it’s worth taking or not.

Not only that, but she also gains access to the Trailblazer passive, which grants her a speed boost when running toward teammates.

This is a great synergy to her abilities, granted she’s moving pretty much all of the time. And lastly, her shield and health regenerate every time she knocks down an enemy.

This is quite useful as it lets her maintain the aggressiveness on the battlefield, especially when there are lots of enemy teams around.

With that out of the way, let’s take a closer look at all of her abilities.

Passive Ability: Drift

Axle’s passive ability is called Drift, and this allows her to gain increased control while sliding. While this might sound pretty basic, the thing is that there’s no cooldown to this ability.

In essence, she can pretty much chain her slides during combat, making her extremely hard to track, especially during high-action fights.

As long as you time your slides perfectly, you should be able to keep your momentum while shooting your target.

This can be rather hard to master, but once you do, even experienced players will have a hard time hitting you when you move around a lot.

To make the most out of this ability, you don’t want to slide in a straight line during combat. Instead, what you want to do is circle your target all while sliding.

This way, it will be extremely hard to hit you while you keep on shooting at them.

Tactical Ability: Nitro Gate

Next, we have Axle’s tactical ability called Nitro Gate.

Axle basically throws a device onto the ground, and anyone who steps on this device will go into a fast, boosted slide. This ties in to Axle’s passive, allowing her to move around the battlefield faster than most characters, all while sliding.

Now, everyone who goes into these devices can benefit from the said boost, even enemies!

It can be used to push into enemy lines aggressively so you can take them down even before they can track you. However, since these devices have their own health pool, enemies can destroy them before you can get to use them.

For some advanced gameplay, you can actually throw these devices directly onto your enemy. This will force them to perform that boosted slide which disorients them, so you can shoot them down before they reposition themselves.

This tactical ability works as an excellent crowd control skill since you can control where your target will go depending on where they’re currently facing when hit by your devices.

Alternatively, you can use this ability to escape enemy gunfire so you can reposition yourself properly.

Ultimate Ability: Kickstart

Now, let’s talk about Axle’s ultimate ability, Kickstart. What it does is it deploys a drone that seeks a nearby enemy and forcibly launches them into the air.

Once it reaches its target, it will then explode, dealing 25 damage while launching the enemy into the air.

However, just like the Nitro Gates, the drone can be destroyed as well. Enemies will typically get a warning when they’re being chased, giving them the chance to destroy it before it explodes.

What makes this ultimate really strong is that it can be used for pushing. Once one of them gets launched into the air, you and your teammates will have an opening to take down the target.

And that’s not even the crazy part!

Kickstart also has the ability to hit multiple enemies at once. So if an enemy team is bundled together, you would be able to crowd control all three of them and take them down in one fell swoop.

Another thing that makes the ultimate really strong is that you can use it to scout areas where you think enemies might be hiding.

Since the drone seeks any nearby enemies, it will expose the locations of those who are hiding behind walls or corners.

All in all, Kickstart works as a crowd control, scout, and enemy tracking all in a single ability.

Tips for Playing Axle Effectively

Momentum is the name of the game when playing Axle. As much as possible, use momentum to your advantage to catch your enemies off guard. This will help you gain an upper hand during fights.

The main rotation for Axle’s playstyle is simple: slide, force movement, and displace enemies with your abilities.

You don’t want to play passively and sit around for long periods of time. You want to make use of Axle’s momentum every chance you get.

Since you can actively regenerate your health and shield after taking down an enemy, you shouldn’t be afraid to get aggressive during gunfights.

For this, I would recommend using a shotgun or SMGs for that constant action in the close to mid-range.

That’s everything you should know about Axle: how to play her, what her skills are, and how you can play her effectively during matches. Good luck!