Apex Legends: How to Turn Aim Assist On or Off

In an FPS, most battles are decided by which player has the best aim. If you’re using a mouse and keyboard, you’ll usually get an advantage over controller players, which presents a challenge to balance the game across platforms. In Apex Legends, controller players are compensated with a built-in aim assist system that slightly nudges your cursor towards the target you’re aiming at. However, aim assist can get it wrong sometimes and cause you to shoot at a different target than you intended.

If you think aim assist is not the best system for you, we have good news! You can quickly turn off aim assist in the game’s settings. Find out how in this article.

How to Turn Off Aim Assist in Apex Legends?

If you’re using a console, or you’ve plugged a controller into the PC, the game detects a controller and automatically turns on aim assist for your Apex Legends matches. While aim assist as a whole is usually a net positive and helps players more than it causes problems, some might prefer a more natural approach without AI aids. Thankfully, if you’re one of those players, you can turn aim assist off in two different ways, both of which are quite simple.

Follow these steps to turn off aim assist in advanced controls:

1. Open the game’s “Settings” menu.
   
2. Go into the “Controller” tab on the top.
   
3. Scroll all the way down. One of the last lines should read “Advanced Look Controls…” Open it.
   
4. In the advanced controls, scroll down until you see “Targeting Assistance.” Turn that setting to “OFF.”
   
5. If you want to re-enable aim assist later, turn “Targeting Assistance” on again.

The advanced look controls are also a great way to customize your input and control how much your character turns when you move the joysticks. There are various options to tinker with, so you can spend some time acquainting yourself with the process.

You can use the Firing Range to test out the new settings without aim assist. For more effect, you can use the Firing Range AI easter egg to turn DUMMIEs into moving combatants to get a better semblance of a real game.

There’s another method to use to turn off aim assist, but some players might have a harder time adjusting to this change. Here’s what you need to do:

1. Go into controller settings (“Settings” > “Controller” tab).
   
2. In the “Look Sensitivity,” set the slider to 8 (the highest value).
   

The highest sensitivity isn’t actually much different than the lower one (7), with the only notable difference being that it completely removes aim assist. If you want to re-enable aim assist later, turn the setting to anything other than 8.

Playing on a console without aim assist initially might cause you to miss some shots that were previously possible. With a combination of weaker hardware than PC and aim assist as a genre staple to ensure competitive gameplay, players without aim assist are usually considered disadvantaged. However, if you’re dedicated to learning the game and have excellent coordination and controller settings, you should be able to bridge the gap.

Additional FAQ

How Strong Is the Aim Assist in Apex Legends?

Since aim assist is primarily used to bridge the gap between mouse + keyboard and console players, some people consider using a controller on the PC to be the best of both worlds. PCs most often have better hardware than consoles, allowing them to display sharper graphics and more detail that make aiming easier. This means that using a controller with its built-in aim assist should give you more of a competitive edge since it corrects for smaller aim discrepancies.

Unfortunately, not everything is built equally, and aim assist is no exception. Actually, the aim assist is a scale that goes from 0 to 1 in game files (with 1 being strongest), although we haven’t quite figured out how much “1” does. For the PC version, the aim assist is set to 0.4, while the console versions use 0.6 settings. This discrepancy is presumably to counteract the consoles’ lower graphics settings.

Should You Turn Off Aim Assist?

Aim assist is a hotly debated topic among not only Apex players, but FPS enthusiasts in general. It’s not available for the mouse and keyboard, giving a slight advantage to console players. PC players might think it’s unfair for a subset of players to get a better aim. However, the mouse + keyboard combination still has vastly superior recoil and movement controls to more than make up for it.

If you’re wondering whether to turn off aim assist, we highly recommend following our instructions and at least trying out the Firing Range without aim assist. You should see a notable difference in how your character responds to input and how many shots you can hit.

How Do I Turn On Aim Assist on Apex Legends?

If you’re using a controller to play the game and haven’t tinkered with any of the settings, aim assist is automatically turned on.

When you’re playing with a mouse and keyboard, there’s no way to turn on aim assist.

How Do I Turn My Aim Assist Back On?

If you have changed your controller settings, you can turn aim assist back on again with the same settings. For “Advanced Look Controls,” turn on the “Targeting Assistance” setting. If you’ve set the “Look Sensitivity” to max value (8), simply turn the setting back down to anything lower.

Can You Play Apex Legends With a Controller?

When playing the game on the consoles (PlayStation, Xbox, or Switch), your only option is to plug in a controller. However, if you’re a PC player, you can play either with a mouse + keyboard combo or with a controller of your choice.

When you plug in a controller in a PC, the game will turn on aim assist as long as you only play with the controller. There’s no way to trick the game into using aim assist alongside a mouse and keyboard. Any changes that allow you to auto-lock to targets this way is cheating.

What Controller Should I Use on Apex Legends for PC?

If you already have a console controller, then we recommend using whatever you currently own. Most PS4, PS5, and Xbox controllers are compatible with PCs and have dedicated Windows control settings to smoothly switch from console to PC gameplay.

Once you’ve set up the controller, you can customize your button layout in the “Settings” menu, and turn off aim assist if you really don’t like the feature. Overall, we highly recommend playing on the PC with a mouse and keyboard and leaving the controller to consoles. Since aim assist is stronger on consoles, they get a slight edge over PC controller players.

Aim Down Some Destruction in Apex

Aim assist is an FPS genre staple, appearing in many games to balance between PC and console gameplay. If you think you can outcompete opponents using a mouse and keyboard on a controller without the automated aim assist, feel free to try it out and report your findings.

Do you like aim assist in Apex Legends? Is the feature fair to both PC and console players? Let us know in the comments section below.