Why fight your enemy in the open when you can get them to chase an illusion? Our Apex Legends Mirage guide will tell you everything you need to know to be the best trickster out there! Mirage is a character that’s all about deception, so read on and find out how to pull the wool over your opponent’s eyes!
Apex Legends Mirage guide | Tips and Tricks
First and foremost, you need to understand that Mirage is a high-risk, high-reward character. All of his abilities are based on deception, and someone who is familiar with the game will be immediately suspicious of a Mirage running around. A cautious player will not likely let their guard down easily.
Take a note from magicians: use a distraction or concealment before you pull off your trick so it’s harder to understand how it works. If you have a Bangalore on your team, run into the smoke and then send out a holographic decoy—the enemy won’t know what to hit! Basically, try to use your abilities from a concealed position so it’s more difficult to tell if that’s actually you or if it’s someone else.
If someone does see you use one of your abilities, your chances aren’t very good at all. You might be able to escape using your Vanishing Act Ultimate Ability out in the open, but using Psyche Out will probably just result in failure. Always try to get behind a wall, a rock, anything before you pop off an ability.
Finally, bear in mind the metagame aspect of using Mirage. People expect Mirage to use holographic Decoys. If you pay attention to how Decoys move and emulate their behavior, you may be able to get enemies to think that you’re the decoy. Essentially, it’s a 50/50 chance to figure out if that actually is Mirage running around or one of his decoys. Use this to your advantage however you can.
Apex Legends Mirage guide | Mirage abilities
Psyche Out (Tactical Ability)
Psyche Out is, on its surface, a relatively straightforward ability. Simply look in a direction, activate it, and you’ll have a holographic decoy of yourself running along in that direction. There are a bunch of different ways you can make good use of this ability:
- Luring an enemy into an killzone
- Getting the enemy to chase it away from you so you can shoot them in the back
- Getting the enemy to chase it so you can escape
- Leading one squad towards another squad
Really, the only limit is your imagination! If there’s anything you take away from our Apex Legends Mirage guide, let it be this: your creativity with these abilities can make them much more useful than they might seem at their surface.
There is one more critical tip to bear in mind: you can use Psyche Out while you’re deploying from the dropship! One or two well-timed uses of this ability could lead enemies to drop into an area that works out well for you. It’ll be recharged by the time you hit the ground, so why not use it anyway and see if you can cause some chaos?
Encore! (Passive Ability)
Encore! is a fantastic ability for surviving a near-death situation. If Mirage has the misfortune of being knocked down, he’ll automatically deploy a holographic decoy and cloak for five seconds. The decoy will run off in some other direction, making enemies think that he’s still alive.
Since Encore! is a passive ability, this will all happen automatically. This makes it an excellent defensive ability, but it’s not perfect. Players who know what they’re doing will understand what Mirage is capable of and they might just continue to spray the area with bullets to be certain that he’s dead. Don’t expect Encore! to save you at close range—your opponent would have to be really stupid to let that one slip by. But if you’re just at the right angles, you might be able to pull it off.
If you do manage to successfully use Encore!, make sure to alert your team right away. The bad guys are only going to chase a Decoy for so long, and those precious few seconds might be just enough to get you back on your feet.
Vanishing Act (Ultimate Ability)
Vanishing Act cranks the deception up to 11. Mirage does his best Naruto impression and deploys a whole team of holographic Decoys while he himself cloaks. You’ll then have a precious few moments to run away while the bad guys are busy shooting at the holograms.
Just like his other abilities, Vanishing Act isn’t foolproof. An enemy familiar with Mirage will know that you’re cloaked and that they can safely ignore the decoys. That does give you an option to turn the tables, however—you can instead stay in the mix of decoys and fire from within! It’s risky, but it will certainly surprise your opponents who thought you ran away into the shadows.
Apex Legends Mirage guide | Best team comp for Mirage
Mirage is a high-risk, high-reward character with an emphasis on deception. As such, there’s really only two sane ways to slot him into a team composition. The first is to include him as a flanker/DPS character with strong supportive characters backing him up. Having, say, Gibraltar and Lifeline on his team would give him a steady “base” to compete in a stand-up fight while he runs around on the flanks.
The alternative option for team compositions is to go full-tilt with the craziness. Mix in a Wraith and make it really difficult for enemies to know just what the heck they’re shooting at. You can toss in a Bangalore for the third to add more confusion with her smoke grenades or bring in a Bloodhound to create an even deadlier flanking and tracking squad. You won’t win in a stand-up fight, but you will have an unparalleled ability to ambush enemy squads.
