How To Manage your Inventory and Drop Items in Apex Legends

Apex Legends is a looter shooter as well as a Battle Royale juggernaut. One key element in being successful in the game is managing your inventory. Like most loot shooters, you are constantly provided with opportunities to upgrade your gear and will quickly run out of space. This tutorial is going to show you how to access and manage your inventory in Apex Legends.

As a key aspect of the game, managing your gear and inventory space is essential. You don’t have many gear slots so you have to optimize what you carry for your character and play style. You can then add more gear to complement that while trashing the stuff you don’t need or doesn’t offer advantage.

Accessing your inventory in Apex Legends

Accessing your inventory in Apex Legends depends on what you’re using to play. On PS4 and PS5 it is accessed through the Options button, on Xbox One and Series X/C it is Menu, and on PC you access your inventory with the Tab key.

You will then see a new window with all your gear. Gear with a red circle with a line through it means it cannot be used with your current weapon. Unless you’re planning to upgrade or change weapon type, this stuff should be dropped.

Armor does not take up inventory space as you wear it instead of carry it. One thing to know about armor is that it has its own health bar. After fighting, check the health of your armor and make a decision about whether to continue using it or replacing it with an equivalent if you find it. Monitoring armor health can make a real difference in the game and is something newer players players tend to miss or ignore.

Increasing your inventory space in Apex Legends

With inventory space being limited in Apex Legends, picking up a backpack to increase your inventory space is absolutely a priority. There are also three levels of backpacks that can be found as loot throughout the game. These backpacks increase your inventory by two spaces per level, with a maximum of 6 extra slots.

 

Managing your inventory in Apex Legends

As with most games, there is a loot hierarchy in Apex Legends. This should influence what you keep and what you drop.

• Gray is common loot
• Blue is rare loot
• Purple is epic loot
• Gold is legendary loot

Generally it makes sense to drop lower grade loot for the better stuff every time you get the opportunity. So drop the gray SMG for a blue one and then replace it with legendary if you’re lucky enough to find one.

The same for all weapon attachments, except scopes and specialist attachments. There are a bunch of attachment types in Apex Legends so you need to be careful. You might have a blue long range scope equipped on your sniper rifle and come across a purple short range scope. While purple is higher, short range isn’t so good for a sniper so is not worth changing to. The game is pretty good at showing you quickly what each attachment is and can do making decisions easier.

As well as a gear hierarchy, you also have to manage ammo. There are different types of ammo for the different weapons in the game. They are also color coded.

• Orange – light rounds for pistols and SMGs
• Red – shotgun shells
• Dark Blue – heavy ammo for LMG
• Green – energy ammo for energy weapons
• Light Blue – sniper ammo for sniper rifles

It makes sense to concentrate on the ammo you’re using for your current weapon and then change the ammo if you change weapon type. Usually, if you find a particular weapon type in Apex Legends, you will also find corresponding ammo next to it or close by. Make sure to spend a couple of seconds ensuring you have the correct ammo for the weapon. You don’t want to get into a firefight with only a single magazine and no spares!

Organizing your inventory in Apex Legends

It can be important to keep your inventory organized throughout the game, as being able to quickly drop or switch an item in the middle of the fight can be the deciding factor. Luckily, Apex Legends employs a very useful automatic inventory organizing system, which functions as follows:

• Ammo is the first item shown in your inventory, on the top left.
• Next are health items, including Med kits, Syringes, Shield Batteries, Shield Cells, and Phoenix Kits.
• Following that comes explosives, which include frag grenades, Thermite bombs, and arc stars.
• Finally, unused weapon attachments are shown last.

Dropping items in Apex Legends

You’re going to be dropping a lot of stuff in Apex Legends- it is a part of Battle Royale and part of team play. You may want to drop items you cannot use or are too low level to make sure you always have space, or you might want to share items with teammates who can use them.

Either way, on PS4 and PS5 press X to drop an item, press A on Xbox One and Series X/C, and left mouse on PC. There is also an option to drop a full stack of items, such as ammo or shield cells; on PS4 and PS5 press Square, press X on Xbox One and Series X/C, and right mouse on PC.  If you’re dropping for a teammate and they aren’t next to you, ping the item so they know what and where it is. They can then make an informed decision about whether to pick it up or not.

Inventory and gear management is a key component of Apex Legends. The constant trading up and juggling gear is something you need to learn to do on the fly and fast. At least you now know the basics. Good luck out there!