Apex Legends can be a fast-paced action game that requires skilled gunplay, movement and reflexes. However, inventory management also plays a huge role, especially for beginners. Here’s a short guide on understanding inventory in Apex Legends.

Have you just started playing Apex Legends? How many times have you run into situations where you don't have stuff you need in your inventory? Like you're in an intense gunfight and you've just run out of ammo on your R-301. Or you've run away from a fight but don't have any heals? Apex Legends might look like a fast-paced shooter at face value, but the truth is, there's a lot more to it than just shooting and killing people. Inventory management plays a key role in Apex Legends.

The best players in the game know how to find exactly what they need and have it available at the ready when they're in clutch scenarios. All that goes into it is some good inventory management. And it's not very hard. They just tend to know exactly what they'll need.

It's not really that difficult, once you get the hang of things. Here's a crash course on inventory management in Apex Legends.

Basic Inventory Management: Inventory Slots

The first and most basic aspect of inventory management is understanding how inventory slots work in the game. A single inventory slot can hold a limited inventory of every type of item in the game, be it ammo, meds, consumables, or ordinances (throwables).

Here's a breakdown of what you can carry in a single inventory slot:

  • Light/Heavy/Energy Ammo - 60
  • Sniper Ammo - 24
  • Shotgun Ammo - 16
  • Syringes/Shield Cells - 4
  • Shield Batteries/Medkits - 2
  • Phoenix Kit - 1
  • Ultimate Accelerant - 1
  • Grenades/Arc Stars/Thermites - 1 (2 if Fuse)

This will help you plan for yourself, how many of these items you need in your inventory and how many slots you'd be using.

Basic Inventory Management: Backpacks

The game has three levels of backpacks in addition to the base "no-backpack" level. You get more inventory slots on the higher-level backpacks, making it easier to manage your items.

  • No Backpack - 10 Slots
  • L1 Backpack - 12 Slots
  • L2 Backpack - 14 Slots
  • L3/Gold Backpack - 16 Slots.

To get the basics right, all the information you need is how many inventory slots you have, and what you can hold in them. As such, you'd probably want to know what are the essentials and how many of them you need at each backpack level.

  • No Backpack - 2x primary ammo, 1x secondary ammo, 1x shield batteries, 1x shield cells, 1x syringes, and 3 slots for ordinances.
  • L1 Backpack - 3x primary ammo, 2x secondary ammo, 1x shield batteries, 1x medkits, 2x shield cells, 1x syringes, and 2x ordinances.
  • L2 Backpack - 4x primary ammo, 2x secondary ammo, 1x shield batteries, 1x medkits, 1x phoenix kit/ultimate accelerant, 2x shield cells. 1x syringes, 2x ordinances
  • L3/Gold Backpack - 4x primary ammo, 3x secondary ammo, 2x shield batteries, 1x medkits, 1x phoenix kit/ultimate accelerant, 2x shield cells, 1x syringes, 2x ordinances

How loadouts play a role in Inventory Management

Now that you know how inventory slots and backpacks work, the next thing you need to figure out is your loadout. Apex Legends has a wide range of weapons and weapon types and these play a major role in how you manage your inventory. For instance, if you're used to carrying a full-auto primary with a high burst damage secondary like most players, you'll need at least 3 stacks of your primary ammo and 2 stacks of secondary ammo. The number of meds and ordinances may vary depending on your playstyle. Your ammo stacks depending on the loadout you're running.

  • AR/Shotgun - 3 Stacks AR ammo, 2 stacks shotgun Ammo
  • AR/Wingman - 3 stacks AR ammo, 1 stack wingman ammo
  • AR/SMG - 3 stacks AR ammo, 3 stacks SMG ammo
  • AR/Marksman - 3 stacks AR ammo, 2 stacks marksman ammo
  • AR/Sniper - 3 stacks AR ammo, 2 stacks sniper ammo
  • SMG/Shotgun - 4 stacks SMG ammo, 2 stacks shotgun ammo
  • SMG/Wingman - 4 stacks SMG ammo, 2 stacks wingman ammo
  • SMG/Marksman - 4 stacks SMG ammo, 2 stacks marksman ammo
  • SMG/Sniper - 4 stacks SMG ammo, 2 stacks sniper ammo
  • SMG/AR - 4 stacks SMG ammo, 3 stacks AR ammo
  • Wingman/Shotgun - 2 stacks Wingman Ammo, 2 stacks shotgun ammo
  • Sniper/Shotgun - 3 stacks sniper ammo, 2 stacks shotgun ammo

The above loadouts should give you a general idea on how much ammo you'll need for each type of weapon. Unless you're going for a dual full-auto loadout like the fabled R400 (R301+R99) combo, inventory management should come easy to you.

Legend-specific & unique loadouts

There are some legends that can get away with different loadouts.

  • Lifeline's DOC heal and Octane's passive healing allows them to get away with fewer meds.
  • If you're playing Wattson, you can do away with shield batteries and rely just on shield cells (situational depending on playstyle). You might also want to reserve a slot for an ultimate accelerant.
  • Fuse's passive allows him to hold two ordinances in the same slot, allowing him to carry more of them.
  • If you're using gold armour, you can discard your batteries and replace them with more shield cells.
  • If you're using a weapon that is dependent on other items for buffed performance, you'll need to carry more of that item. These include a Sentinel (shield cells) and Rampage (thermite grenades).

Inventory management involves an element of personal choice and logic

At the end of the day, it's all about logic. Some of it comes down to personal choice because you know your playstyle the best. There are some essentials when it comes to the items you need to survive in Apex Legends and carrying them is important. Don't be afraid to think out of the box and accommodate possible circumstances you may run into. For instance, suppose you want to play the Havoc but you haven't found it yet. If you come across a turbocharger, pick it up and keep it handy until you find the Havoc. You can replace any non-essential item.

In case your inventory is running low, why not "borrow" someone else's?
In case your inventory is running low, why not "borrow" someone else's?
A rather nifty approach to inventory management in Apex Legends is relying on death boxes
A rather nifty approach to inventory management in Apex Legends is relying on death boxes

Take into account exactly what you need to survive a fight against at least two squads. In case you don't have everything you need and your team gets caught in a fight, always remember to loot death boxes whenever they're around you. You might just find what you've been looking for. Usually, the purple backpack is in the crafting pool so you might want to craft it at a replicator every time it's in rotation. It takes 75 crafting materials and every replicator on the map usually has at least 3 sets of 25 crafting materials around it.

In some cases, gold loot also affects how you manage your inventory. You can read our guide on gold tier loot to understand this better.

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