Apex Movement Guide: Slides, Tap-Strafes and Wallbounces

Movement in Apex is not cosmetic. Better movement makes you harder to hit and gets you to the ring faster, and legends like Axle (see the Axle guide) are built entirely on it. Learn in tiers.

Basics everyone should use

• Slide (crouch while sprinting): lowers your hitbox and keeps momentum.
• Slide-hop: jump the instant a slide starts to preserve speed instead of slowing down. This alone beats standing still.
• Strafing: move left-right while aiming down sights. A still target is a free headshot; a strafing one is not.
• Slide-jump around cover: peek, slide back, repeat — you show less of yourself than peeking standing.

Mid-tier tech

• Wallbounce: slide at an angle into a wall to bounce off it, keeping speed through tight spaces.
• Tap-strafe: in the air, quickly air-strafe and jump to snap your direction 90° without losing much speed. The signature “change direction mid-chase” move.
• Superglide: a timed slide + jump that grants a small speed burst — the entry drug to advanced movement.

Advanced (drill before you rely on it)

• Zipline launching and mantle cancels for fast vertical exits.
• Combining tap-strafes with slides to juke a sniper’s tracking.

These are frame-timed. If you can’t hit them consistently, they’ll get you killed mid-fight — keep them for rotations, not engagements.

Controller vs mouse-and-keyboard

Aim assist makes controller strong for gunfights, but tap-strafing is harder on a stick. MNK executes direction changes more cleanly. Either way, your sensitivity sets the ceiling on how fast you can strafe and pull recoil (see the recoil guide).

The decision

Learn slide-hop and strafing this week — they pay off in every fight. Add superglide next. Save tap-strafes for escaping third parties and rotating, not for showing off in a 1-v-1 you should have disengaged from. New players should start with the beginner guide before layering tech.

Related: recoil patterns · settings guide