Best legends for Winter Express in Apex

It’s winter once again, which usually can only mean one thing in Apex Legends: the Winter Express is back.

The holiday-bedecked train that briskly runs through World’s Edge is a staple of the Apex winter season and is usually one of the game’s more popular limited-time modes. Instead of battling across the entire map as the ring shrinks smaller and smaller, the Winter Express LTM charges teams to take control of the train by being on it and eliminating opponents who are trying to take it over for themselves.

Teams respawn after each round and the team that won the last point gets to stay on the train, while the losers have to make their way to the train from the drop ship. Winter Express is full of fast-paced, close-quarters action, and picking the right character for the job is important. Winter Express is also the rare mode in Apex where characters with movement-based abilities are actually underpowered since there’s not a ton of space for them to use those abilities in the objective.

Instead, defensive characters and bunker-busters reign supreme in Winter Express. Here are the legends you should be using to dominate the winter LTM.

The best Apex Legends characters to use in Winter Express 2022

Caustic

Did someone say fighting close-quarters? Caustic is fantastic in Winter Express for all the reasons you think he would be: his gas traps effectively block off entrances to the train, and while enemies struggle to see through his gas, he gets helpful outlines of everyone trapped in a car that’s loaded up with gas.

Caustic is also great because his gas can be used offensively, which places him a cut above most other defensive legends. Throwing his ultimate onto the middle car during an overtime period when teams mostly remain in the middle to win a point can easily secure a round, and chucking gas canisters into a train car is an easy way to push into the train safely if you didn’t win the last round.

Rampart

Rampart performs the double trick of creating easy places for her team to defend, and flushing out teams that have bunkered down in one of the Winter Express’ cars. Amped Cover is a great way to fortify the partially-open train cars and discourage enemies from trying to enter into one of the tight choke points on the ends of the train, while simultaneously giving your team a damage boost to fire into the completely open middle car.

But it’s Sheila’s flexibility that really makes Rampart shine. You’re going to encounter plenty of Caustics, Wattsons, and other Ramparts in this mode. Shred them all to pieces with Sheila. The minigame makes holding cars extremely difficult, and the sheer amount of damage it can lay out in the train makes it an intimidating weapon to push as well.

Fuse

Winter Express isn’t all about defending. You’re going to need characters on your squad that can push into the train that’s full of defensive characters and their abilities. And that’s where your old pal Fusie comes into play.

Fuse blows stuff up, and that’s great for Winter Express. Use his Knuckle Clusters early and often to punish teams whose entire strategy is bunkering in a train car and waiting for a team to try to push them. With the number of explosives you have at your disposal, you should be able to deal some serious damage to an opposing team and create an opening for your squad.

In a pinch, you can also use the Knuckle Clusters and The Motherlode defensively, trying to prevent other teams from accessing the middle car or a doorway with your damage output. In a game where there are few places to hide, Fuse’s abilities shine.

Mad Maggie

Similar to her Salvo frenemy, Mad Maggie is a great infiltrator in Winter Express, and her entire ability kit might be best served for this mode. Her Riot Drill can deal damage to teams that are trying to bunker and hide behind walls. Her Wrecking Ball ultimate is almost guaranteed to hit opposing players if you throw it into a train car. She has several ways of damaging and stunning opponents, and she can punish bunkers just like Fuse.

An underrated part of Mad Maggie’s kit here, however, is her passive. The fast movement she has with shotguns is great for close-up one-vs-one fights that you often find yourself taking in and around the train, and there’s always going to be a shotgun class to choose from in the loadout section. Make sure that if you’re running Maggie, you’ve also got a shotgun to use.

Wraith

Wraith might not seem like the best character for this mode since her ultimate ability doesn’t seem to do much for Winter Express. It’s an option usually used for safe rotations and escapes in a mode that has no rotations and encourages you to just go in and fight.

What Wraith excels at more than most characters, however, is staying alive. And staying alive is extremely important in Winter Express.

Since there are no revives in Winter Express and once you die, your character won’t respawn until the next point, Wraith and her Into the Void ability are just good for this mode. You can run in, secure a kill or at least a bunch of damage, then hit Q and get out of there to heal up for the next fight. Combined with her small character model, her survivability makes Wraith a good bet for Winter Express.

Wattson

Wattson’s here for one reason and one reason only: her fences. While her ultimate is very easy to shoot out in this mode and her passives are made useless by the armor regeneration system and the complete lack of ultimate accelerants in this LTM, her fences are still so good at defending spaces that she’s a top-tier pick for the Winter Express.

No other character can defend multiple train cars at the same time like she can, forcing enemy teams to find a way to shoot out her fences before they can even get on the train. If you can win a round with Wattson and afford yourself the time to fence up multiple areas of the Winter Express before the next round, you’ll find yourself catching some easy victories in this LTM.

Catalyst

Catalyst is an interesting one because her defensive options don’t seem as strong as some of the legends on this list. But she’s a great defensive legend to take on the offense, and she can muddy up fights sufficiently enough to give your team an upper hand.

Outside of her Piercing Spikes, which she can hurl into bunkering teams in train cars, the Dark Veil ultimate is the centerpiece here. Use it on the middle car when you have it and whenever an overtime period initiates. You and your team can freely move in and out of the Veil, while enemies will be forced to either go all the way around it or just stay on one side. It’s great for playing mind games on enemy squads, and Catalyst will make for a useful addition to any Winter Express team.