Apex Legends players devise simple ways to improve Firing Range dummies

Apex Legends added a Firing Range to the game in November, 2019 and the game’s playerbase is still coming up with inventive ways to make it an even better practice environment.

The point of a Firing Range is simple: You want players to have an opportunity to warm up and practice elements of the game (like different guns, characters or mobility techs) without needing to worry about the circle or enemies gunning them down.

Adding this training mode was therefore a highly acclaimed update, but the title’s fans have come up with a few new ways to improve it – namely giving hitbox and damage rate options for the game’s dummies.

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While players can easily practice different guns, attachments and equipment, they are limited to the training dummies’ default hitboxes and damage rates. For a game like Apex Legends, where different Legends have vastly different attributes, this runs counterintuitive to how players should be able to practice.

• Read more: Respawn explain why Apex Legends “needs” skill-based matchmaking

Overwatch, similarly dependent on differing abilities and roles, has Custom Game options, where players can create fully simulated environments to practice against A.I.-controlled heroes of differing difficulties. Although Respawn Entertainment may not have the time or capacity to implement something like that just yet, adding customization to the practice dummies would go a long way.

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As suggested by ‘ActuallyAcey’ on Reddit, giving the dummies characteristics like “Low Profile” and “Fortified” would enable players to more efficiently train for heroes they typically struggle with. While this is a great first step, other fans jumped on to make other suggestions: Different equipment for dummies (e.g. helmets) and movement options (e.g. crouch-spamming or strafing).

This issue similarly arose in Overwatch’s Practice Range, where fans were dissatisfied with the simple training bots available to them and eventually pushed for the option to spawn any character in the game to practice with.

• Read more: Apex Legends devs tease “big things” coming for new Kings Canyon hatches

Even Overwatch’s initial training bots displayed movement and some shooting, however minimal, and that’s what Apex Legends fans are now clamoring for.

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Dummies are great for simply practicing your comfort on different guns’ recoil, firing rate and damage, but an ideal training experience would permit players to train for specific Legends that may be ruining their games.

In the past, characters like Pathfinder have driven players mad due to insane evasiveness while Gibraltar has felt like a complete bullet sponge. If developers can’t include A.I.-controller Legends to practice with in the Training Range, fans’ ideas to customize dummies would be a fantastic start.