Here’s a guide on how to play Mirage – the resident tragic jokester in Apex Legends. A fan of many Apex fanatics, Mirage has always been the ultimate underdog. Considered a “trash” legend since his utility is mostly “niche”, the life of a Mirage main was tough. This was true until now – thanks to the massive overhaul in Season 16, Mirage is now buffed beyond belief.

Many pros are still having doubts about his usability in high-end play. However, stick with us and this guide, and you may yet consider him as a fun and hard-pick alternative.

Basis of the Bamboozle master

Mirage is one of the original rosters of Apex Legends since its official launch in 2019. He’s received one major buff and consecutive nerfs that have foiled has usability. Still, thanks to the new buffs, one may even think of mining him in Ranked and even Comp.

Let’s see how the modern, S16 MIrage stacks up as part of the new “Skirmisher” class in Apex:

• Passive ability – reviving while cloaked. With the new buff, MIrage and the downed teammate now remain 3 seconds invisible after the animation has played out. Mirage and his teammate must holster their weapons and not fire. Doing either of these things will reveal them to the enemy team.
• His Q or Psyche Out creates a copy of Mirage. If you press the action button, you can make it copy your every move. The copy moves up and can even take damage. With the new buff, enemies who shoot at the copy, are now revealed on the map for Mirage’s team to see. The copy’s movement and tracking are also improved.
• Mirage’s Ultimate or Life of the Party creates 6 copies (including the original MIrage) that mimic his every move. They act as the copy (Q) and will now reveal who’s shooting him and where on the map. Thanks to the new buffs, the Ultimate is now even more powerful thanks to better positioning and the overall movement of the copies. It is that much harder to know which Mirage is the actual one before he shoots you in the face.

As you may imagine, Mirage is all about misdirecting and fooling your opponents. Getting into an unwanted gunfight can quickly be turned on its head since MIrage can escape most situations and remain on top of his opponents. Literally.

Overall, a Mirage’s role as a Skirmisher is to both open and close fights (pun unintended). He’s now amazing at keeping his teammates alive and can provide cover and info for his teammates’ thanks to his Q.

The Decoy conundrum

How do you play Mirage is actually a minigame of sorts. You always want to be one step ahead of your opponent by utilizing the power of your Q and Ultimate.

As a Mirage main, you would want to have your Q up as much as possible, with your Ultimate always recharged and ready. These are used both as cover and scouting. Nothing beats the satisfaction of having your clone reveal a camping team, so you can jump on their heads.

Ideally, your clone should always mimic your movement. You must learn to play with your clone out, ideally in front of you so he’s the one taking the first salvos. At the beginning of the fight, every MIrage should be in the thick of things. Getting the enemy’s flak so you can reposition quickly. Once the fight’s started, you should use your Q and Ultimate to create as much confusion so your teammates can mop up the stragglers.

Now, more than ever, you want to remain alive throughout the fight. This is because, with your passive, you can sneakily revive teammates. Thanks to the 3-second invisibility, you are guaranteed at least 1 small med to ensure the survivability of your teammate.

Since the copy’s footsteps are the same as the OG Mirage, use them to confuse the hell out of enemies. Always use the copy around corners and open areas. Do try to use the secondary action so it doesn’t look too obvious it’s a copy. This way you will know enemy positioning and potential movement.

Mirage META in S16

As Skirmishers, Mirage mains can now easily snatch valuable stuff from Care Packages. This is one point in their favor when trying to create a team for Ranked or Comp in season 16. The ideal teammates for a MIrage would be either Fuse/Maggie for extra firepower and Valk/Ash/Wraith for repositioning. Mirage covers team displacement and scouting, not to mention the ability to act as a combat medic.

Now, on to the meat of things. Advanced Ultimate use. Most MIrage players pop their ult the moment someone starts shooting at them. This is, of course, a very bad practice. You’d want to use your Ultimate for maximum effect. Don’t just pop it the moment someone is trying to snipe you from across the canyon. Try to save that for close-quarters fights or when you are trying to 1v2. Instead of just running away, try running within your own clones. This means when you are using your Ult, go backward instead of forwards. This will make all your copies cross within each other, making it impossible to know who’s who.

Another hack is, when you open up against a full 3 man, to use your ult early so they can start shooting at random. Use the action button to control the copies in such a pattern than showcases you using a bat or med. The idea is that you’ve been hit so they go on the offensive. Once sprung, simply shoot them from up close.

There are many things and many more situations that we can mention that make MIrage mains shine. While it may seem to be as easy as “pop your Q’ and expect the enemy to shoot him instead of you, it is never that simple. The fact of the matter is, Mirage is all about creating chaos. From misdirection to thinking ahead, you should try to find a sweet spot in your positioning and movement.

Hopefully, S16 is the perfect playground for all the old and new MIrage mains to learn some brand new tricks.