A small detail in Apex Legends lets you reload your weapons faster by avoiding the full reload animation.
There are plenty of reasons in a gunfight you might find yourself running out of ammo. Whether the enemy has a lot of shields to burn through, you haven’t got an extended mag, or simply don’t have perfect aim, there’s a good chance you might not finish your enemy off in one go.
In that case, you may want to switch to a secondary weapon, but if you haven’t found one yet or your secondary isn’t particularly suitable for the situation at hand, you may be forced to spend precious seconds reloading.
There is a way, however, of speeding up the time it takes to reload, gaining you a slight edge that could be the difference between survival and elimination.
If at least one bullet is left in the magazine when you reload, then instead of the full reload animation you will get a slightly shorter one, with the final movement – that which would load a bullet into the chamber – not being necessary.
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Keeping track of when to hit reload mid-fight may be tricky, but if you can train yourself to do so it could well save your life.
It may only make a small difference, but the extra time might let you get in the last shots you need to finish an opponent, as on most of the weapons the rate of fire across a full new magazine will make better use of the extra time than the damage dealt by the final shot in the original.
This trick applies to the vast majority of the weapons in the game, with the only exceptions being the Wingman and the newly-added Havoc assault rifle.
Right now, it’s also possible to switch weapons much faster than the default animation, making that the optimal first choice when you run out of ammo. Respawn have already stated that this is unintentional and will be patched out, however, so it’s worth keeping the faster reload in mind going forward.