A Bangalore Guide: Strengths, Weaknesses, and Tips for Optimal Play.
Alright, it’s time to break open the gates and release a guide for the strongest character in Apex Legends: Bangarang…er….Bangalore. Sure, that’s my opinion. In reality, Bangalore is neck-and-neck with Wraith and Lifeline for most usage across all Apex matches as well as kills per match (kpm)(at the time this article is written). Wraith barely takes the top spot statistically (19.4% usage and 3.5 kpm) while Bangalore comes in at 2nd (19.1% usage and 3.2 kpm) and Lifeline in 3rd (18.6% usage and 3.1 kpm). With how close these stats are and many top streamers like Dizzy maining Wraith, I’m going to chalk up that slight difference to influence.
Wraith, Lifeline, and Bangalore are very strong in this game as they all provide great options for buying time to recover (or recover quickly) and get back into fights. With Apex, sometimes a fight is won by whichever player recovered first and attacked the enemy still trying to finish that Phoenix Kit. I already made a guide for Wraith and I’ll be covering Lifeline in the near future. For now, we’ll dive into Bangalore by first covering her abilities.
Tactical: Smoke Launcher
Two charges can be held at a time for smoke grenades that create rather tall, long, and wide white walls. Being able to summon a white wall at will is an incredibly useful defensive tool for hiding and covering an escape. If she’s healing, shielding, reviving, or looting, drop a smoke to make it difficult to find and land a shot on you. The smoke can shield her escape route or hide her approach when closing the gap. The grenade can also do about 10 damage on impact, but this doesn’t often prove useful.
This ability is universal in both match time and location. Early-game close quarters against gun-wielding enemies while empty-handed? Drop a smoke to run away. Caught mid-game while roaming in an open area like the desert? Drop a smoke for cover while finding a more solid defensive position. Chunked in a late-game fight? Drop a smoke and put the juking shoes to good use so you can heal while your team can rotate to cover you. The enemy is far away across an open field and you don’t have long-range weaponry? Drop a smoke to close the distance. No matter where and when she is in the game, she can always drop a smoke.
Passive: Double Time
This ability might be Bangalore’s strongest (and her other two are a couple of the strongest abilities in the game). If someone shoots, throws a grenade, or does anything offensive towards Bangalore, she suddenly runs at about double her normal movement speed. No damage even needs to be taken, just a nearby projectile threat.
Being able to move twice as fast as anyone else (except Bloodhound or Wraith, who have to commit their ultimate abilities to keep up [one of which can’t do anything but move during this time]) is insanely powerful. This is both offensive and defensive with punishing players trying to escape to recover or easily getting out of a tough position. The movement speed makes Bangalore incredibly difficult to shoot after the opening shot.
Ultimate: Rolling Thunder
This is perhaps her worst ability, which is odd considering it’s her ultimate ability. She throws a flare and a blanket of missiles covers a wide area starting from where the flare was dropped and progresses in the direction the flare was thrown towards. Each missile does moderate damage (about one Wingman shot worth) and disorients players caught in it (even Bangalore and her teammates).
This ability isn’t so much for damage, but more for crowd control. Causing slow movement, screen shake, and slow turn speed is incredibly powerful and leaves enemy players as if they’re slow moving targets at the firing range. The damage needs to be respected though and also is useful for letting you know where the enemy is located if they were hiding behind some rocks or other objects. This is also a fantastic zoning ability to keep an enemy away while your team recovers some hp and/or shields or full on retreats.
Strengths:
Bangalore is never irrelevant. She always has an answer for every fight in every situation. Some characters like Caustic or Pathfinder need specific environments to optimally use their abilities. But, Bangalore can fight whenever and wherever she wants at optimal effectiveness. If you’re fighting people in choke points and anyone on your team has a digital threat, drop a smoke for an easy win. If you find a team roaming near a shed, throw your ult at them to force them to find cover in a shed and spam throwables for easy kills.
Digital Threat:
I’m squeezing this section in between the “Strengths” and “Weaknesses” sections because it applies to both due to her smokescreen ability. While your team wields this sight, you get free shots on enemy players stuck wandering around in your smoke trying to find a way out or sitting still to recover or revive. While the enemy has this scope (you’ll never really know), your smoke can work against you or at least become a non-factor.
Weaknesses:
We already covered her one of three weaknesses with the legendary sight. The second of her weaknesses is in the form of Bloodhound’s ult, which allows him to see as if his entire vision is a digital threat lens, but that is an ultimate ability used to counter a tactical.
The third is the one we can actually explore. Rolling Thunder can damage Bangalore herself and disorient her and her teammates. When an enemy Bangalore drops her ult to zone your team, you can comfortably assume the enemy will either be waiting it out themselves or be moving off to the side for a flanking position. While strong, it’s fairly predictable. Additionally, you can know the direction the missiles will fall based on the flare thrown (or later, the missiles falling into the ground before detonating).
If your team has a health/shield advantage and is feeling confident in a close-range battle, you can just run past the starting line of the blanket. Just make sure you’re on the same page with this movement as your team, or you’ll find yourself completely isolated in a 1v3 while your teammates are retreating for cover. This advice is coming from a painful experience.
Works Well With:
The most obvious combo would be with Bloodhound. Dropping smoke for an ally Bloodhound using ult gives that ally a major advantage in a fight. Using smoke to buy time while a Wraith is setting a rift to get out of a bad spot works well. Smoke to cover a Caustic trying to escape with his low mobility or buying him time to set up traps unknowingly to the enemy is a fun tactic. Bangalore, Gibraltar, and Caustic ult stacking would be a wombo combo of the century. It would be a miracle for a team to make it out alive after getting caught in that.
Summary:
Bangalore is the “Jack of all Trades” of Apex Legends. There isn’t a single fight you’ll come out of feeling like you couldn’t do anything thanks to the zoning ult, smokescreen cover, and sonic-fast movement speed. She is especially powerful at roaming for fights, but she still has usefulness for players who prefer a slower pace. There is a reason you see pretty much every top team in tournaments having a Bangalore on their team.
