A Bloodhound Guide: Strengths, Weaknesses, and Tips for Optimal Play.
This guide will be covering the second of two “standard play” characters in Apex Legends. I covered the first, Lifeline, in yesterday’s guide. Bloodhound is essentially the “Steve Rogers” (Captain America) of Apex (just…not American and excels in hunting/killing people). Ok, so maybe not really like the Cap, but I was going for a relation of the power curve. The early game strength is easily the weakest of all of the legends. But, once your team starts roaming in the mid to late game and you have access to the ultimate, you’re suddenly a force to be reckoned with.
Tactical: Eye of the Allfather
Using this ability sends a pulse around you to reveal enemy players and player-made objects around you (even through walls and other objects). This leaves a short-lived, orange after-image of the targets’ locations.
Passive: Tracker
Bloodhound can see the actions of enemy players in certain locations for up to a minute. So, as long as you’re within a minute behind the enemy, you’ll be able to hunt them down to get a surprise attack from their flank.
Ultimate: Beast of the Hunt
Bloodhound’s biggest strength. Gain a movement speed bonus and turn your entire vision into grayscale with exception to enemy footsteps and character outlines, which are a bright red. This ability lasts for 35 seconds. When activated, you literally feel like an unstoppable action hero.
Strengths:
This character is amazing for players without audio. During the first day of Apex, I had an audio issue where I could only hear things within melee range. I tried numerous other characters but stuck on Bloodhound because all three abilities enable you to visually find enemies more easily. Most players rely on audio cues to know if an enemy is in a nearby building or determine where they traveled to. But, Bloodhound amplifies visuals enough to not really need audio (though, it still helps).
The tactical can be good for scanning just before storming a building to know if there are Caustic traps or get an idea of how many enemies are waiting inside. The passive is fantastic for tracking down an enemy team to naturally ambush them from a flanking position. When there is an experienced bloodhound on the team, I typically let them lead the way for the team. The passive is also great during a fight to figure out where that third player of the enemy team ran off to when likely trying to recover health and shields.
The ultimate is insanely good in a fight. Movement speed increase alone is powerful and why I think Bangalore is the best character in the game (she gets it as a passive for every fight). The ability to have instant tracking for footsteps (instead of the passive’s delayed interval tracking) and seeing enemies highlighted in a bright red contrasted over greyscale makes target acquisition a walk in the park. It even works through smoke and gas to counter or synergize with Bangalore and Caustic.
Weaknesses:
I’ve felt advantaged from an enemy bloodhound using their tactical more often than I’ve felt disadvantaged from it. The pulse stretches in a circular area with a center point being the Bloodhound activating it. The pulse is orange, which is a pretty easily noticeable color (which is why things like traffic cones are orange). I’ve seen Bloodhounds essentially tell me they’re hunting me by popping this ability nearby. I tend to keep my head on a swivel while playing BRs, so I can spot stuff like that often.
If you have good hearing/audio quality, you’re better off training yourself to listen for audio cues to know where an enemy is hiding in a building. The orange outlines of characters hinder your ability to acquire a target as well. Characters already blend into the environment fairly easily, so having a giant, orange object in your face is basically the same as a Mirage using their decoy ability.
Bloodhound’s ult lasts long enough that you can’t really wait it out in a fight. However, Bloodhound’s tactical and passive abilities aren’t much use in combat. Bloodhound needs the ultimate to not be less useful than literally every other character once the engagement begins. This excludes the factor of potentially getting a surprise attack to start the fight thanks to the passive, but that itself is excluded from usefulness if your team is the one getting ambushed. The ult also has a pretty loud audio effect, so it’s fairly easy to know if an enemy Bloodhound activated their ult.
Additionally, many fights tend to take some time in Apex. Your team would have a huge advantage from a fight thanks to your ult usage, sure. And, you’ll probably win that fight. But, now you don’t have an ult while trying to fend off the third partying team that rotated to you while hearing the gunshots from a distance. And because of this, your passive and tactical are natively useless since you definitely know where the enemies shooting at you are located. You’re left with no worthwhile abilities to fend off an ambushing team who also have useful abilities.
Tips for Playing:
Instead of using your tactical when you know you’re near an enemy, use it when you don’t think anyone is near you. When you’re about to enter a building or turning a corner in a place like Bunker, use your tactical to make extra sure no enemies are waiting to ambush you. This is especially useful when you’re weak and really want to avoid a fight. The only real tool for Bloodhound early game is to make sure nobody is hiding out in a corner while you’re trying to quickly find armor, a weapon, or ammo (or a combination of those). The tactical seems to be better for avoiding a fight than engaging in one.
Ping tracks for your team and let them know you’re hunting down players. Getting on the same page with your allies for a full-forced ambush is a huge advantage and should guarantee an easy win unless you all choke (it happens).
Bloodhound is one of my favorite people to funnel ultimate accelerants to. Bloodhound with an ult in a fight vs Bloodhound without an ult in a fight is like night and day. Send the accelerants Bloodhound’s way and your team will have a bright future ahead. And, this means you should use your ult regularly for a fight.
If your team starts the fight with a knock and/or you’re confident you can win without using the ult, then try to greedily hold onto it. But, the moment a fight goes south, call upon those Old Norse Gods and go ballistic. No worse feeling than losing a game as Bloodhound without using that fully charged ult.
Note: The ult also has a bit of activation time. You can use the vaulting mechanic to actually cancel the activation animation of the ult for instant activation. This is something that is pretty locationally situational and might eventually get patched. No word on that at the time this article is written and it doesn’t seem game-breaking, so I doubt it’ll be removed.
Tips for Playing Against:
Keep your eyes peeled for those tactical pulses and check your flank regularly. It’s already easy enough to get third/fourth/etc partied in Apex due to the long distance gunshot sounds and how long fights can last for. It’s even more likely with a character like Bloodhound accessible to enemy teams.
If you discover you’re against a Bloodhound, don’t trust smoke and gas to be much use. Stick to natural cover and try to reposition the fight away from the smoke/gas to try to bring the fight to an even playing field. You’ll want to be able to see as much as the Bloodhound. And, don’t expect to be able to pull off any sneaky corner jukes to buy time to heal. Bloodhounds can easily find where you went, so you’re better off working with your team to provide cover fire and team shot the Bloodhound down quickly. With the fast movement speed, many Bloodhounds end up separated enough from their team in a fight.
If you discover the Bloodhound isn’t in ult, you can confidently know you have the advantage in the fight w/ roughly equivalent guns and armor. You have abilities that can aid you in the fight while they practically don’t. They’re essentially left with raw gun aim and basic character movements.
Works Well With:
The obvious two picks are Bangalore and Caustic. Being able to see through the smoke and gas as if they don’t exist during your ult is a huge advantage. The only problem with Caustic is that he specializes in not roaming while Bloodhound specializes in roaming. So, it may be a better call to pair with Pathfinder or Wraith instead of Caustic to make roaming faster.
Works Well Without:
I’d say Lifeline is the only character you’d consider not playing with as both are prime targets for any found ultimate accelerants. You’ll want them all as a character so reliant on the ult in a fight. If I have both characters on my team, I actually tend to give any accelerants I find to the Bloodhound (especially late game) unless the team is desperate for gear.
Summary:
If you’re confident in your natural ability to win fights, enjoy trying to find fights often, and want a steroid for clutching a fight when needed, then Bloodhound is a fantastic choice. The tracking ability makes Bloodhound a natural fit for players looking to roam regularly. While Beast of the Hunt is activated, Bloodhound may be the strongest active character in a fight, which is perfect for clutch players.
