The tap strafing mechanic has become a staple technique for many Apex Legends players. Knowing what tap strafing is – and how to perform it in the game can be a great tool in your arsenal. Although it was originally removed in Season 10 it has since made a welcome return to the battle royale.
The Apex Legends community has frequently praised the game for featuring some of the best movement mechanics in the battle royale genre. Whether you’re sprinting across the map, sliding down a hill, or bunny-hopping, the set of animations created by Respawn are incredibly smooth and satisfying to execute.
With a lot of competitive titles, however, players can always take the game’s mechanics one step further and use techniques to their advantage in unintended ways, and that’s exactly what happened when tap strafing was first introduced to Apex.
Tap strafing is a movement mechanic that can be extremely effective when pulled off, and our handy guide will explain exactly what tap strafing is and how to do it in Apex Legends.
Contents
- What is tap-strafing in Apex Legends?
- How to tap-strafe in Apex Legends?
- Is Apex Legends tap-strafing being removed?
What is tap-strafing in Apex Legends?
The tap-strafe technique in Apex Legends allows you to make sharper movements and harder turns than normal side jumps. It uses a combination of air-strafing and bunny hopping.
The premise behind the technique is simple: Each time the move forward key is pressed and released, it slightly changes the direction of your momentum. Doing it multiple times in quick succession results in a full 180-degree turn, which is incredibly useful in fights.
Tap-strafing can be very effective in-game once used correctly. So, let’s take a look at how to successfully pull it off.
How to tap-strafe in Apex Legends
As of the recently released Season 14 update, tap-strafing is still possible in Apex Legends.
So, if you’re wondering how to tap-strafe in Apex, check out these simple steps below:
- Perform a slide jump by pressing shift, control, and space at the right time while holding one of your strafe keys depending on which direction you want to go. A will go left, and D will go right.
- At the peak of the jump, flick the mouse wheel scroll up or down while holding the strafe key without moving the mouse. If you do it right, you’ll notice a diagonal pull in the direction you’re facing.
- Once you’ve got that part down pat, move the mouse in the direction of the pull while spamming the mouse scroll and holding the strafe button, and you’ll have successfully performed the tap-strafe.
Is Apex Legends tap-strafing being removed?
When Respawn initially announced the impending removal of tap-strafing in Apex Legends, there were varying concerns. However, after some consideration, Respawn decided to simply tune this movement mechanic.
In September 2021, Respawn stated that they discovered some “unexpected side effects of the planned changes to tap-strafing.”
They went on to say: “Movement is sacred in Apex. We weigh every change to these systems carefully and value feedback.”
Movement is sacred in Apex. We weigh every change to these systems carefully and value feedback.
After further testing, we've concluded we need to take more time to get this right to make sure related movement mechanics aren't caught in the cross-fire.
— Respawn (@Respawn) September 13, 2021
That means players can still take advantage of the technique for the time being in its nerfed state.
There is no telling if Respawn plans to further change the way the feature works, but for the time being, tap-strafing is still available in-game.
So, there you have it, that’s what tap-strafing is in Apex Legends and exactly how to do it!
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