Marking a stark departure from many other modern shooters, especially in the Battle Royale genre, Apex Legends gives you some pretty effective shields. Your base character has shields, and then there’s the Knockdown Shield which can protect you when you get downed by opponents. But while you have all of these options, the game doesn’t break down how they all work. To help, here’s how to use shields in Apex Legends.
First off, you need to know which shields you’re talking about. You have passive shields which protect you in combat, and then there’s the Knockdown Shield which helps when you get downed. For the former, you pick these up like all other items in Apex Legends. They are namely the Body Shield and Helmet, which come in different varieties, but all work mostly the same.
Each of these items adds extra layers of health on top of your character’s normal health. They’ll soak up damage first, and can be healed separately using different items than you would to heal yourself. For more info on this, check out our guide specifically about healing. Using that you can stay alive and get back into the fight much quicker. But you are more likely here because you want to know how to use the shield that actually takes some action on your part: the Knockdown Shield.
This is also found out and about in the world, with no specific spot that is more likely to spawn it. Once you have one, you cannot use it right away. It can only be used when you are down, so wait for that to happen (or avoid it entirely if you can), and then you can use the shield. To do so just hit the button on-screen, which on PC is left mouse, which corresponds to right trigger on PS4 and Xbox One. Hitting this button will put up a limited shield to protect you while you wait until your team shows up (or you can self revive if you’re lucky).
That’s all there is to know about how to use shields in Apex Legends.
