How to play Lifeline in Apex Legends

Lifeline is one of only two support legends in Apex Legends. This rare category describes legends whose abilities primarily heal or provide utility to their teammates. Lifeline fits this bill perfectly; she’s excellent at reviving, healing, and kitting teammates while holding her own in even the trickiest of gun fights.

Apex’s combat medic is one of the easiest characters to play and is great for players just starting out in the Apex Games. While many have been calling for a buff to her abilities for a few seasons now, the truth is she still serves an important and necessary niche in Apex’s ever-expanding roster of fighters. There’s no one else who can do quite what she does.

Abilities

Passive: Combat Medic

Lifeline’s passive, Combat Medic, allows Lifeline to revive her teammates without disengaging from combat. Instead of kneeling down to help a downed teammate, Lifeline deploys her friendly D.O.C. drone to do the job, allowing her to immediately jump back into the battle. This detached method means Lifeline can revive two teammates at once. In previous seasons, D.O.C. also had a shield that guarded enemies during a revive, but this has since been removed.

In addition to Combat Medic’s revive potential, Lifeline can also open an additional compartment on the bottom of blue supply bins, revealing two additional supplies per bin. This also applies in Arenas matches, where the bottom compartment will always contain four shield cells.

Combat Medic makes it easier to defend teammates while they’re reviving and healing. A common tactic is to throw down her tactical just before reviving a nearby teammate, which allows them to receive D.O.C.’s healing as soon as they’re on their feet. Lifeline players still need to be careful about enemies approaching them or their reviving teammates, though. Teammates are vulnerable during the duration of the revive, and Lifeline and company can still be ambushed while healing.

Tactical: D.O.C. Heal Drone

One of Lifeline’s biggest strengths comes from her tactical, D.O.C. Heal Drone. After a quick deployment period, D.O.C. will heal everyone around it at a rate of eight health per second up to a maximum of 150 health. It lasts for 20 seconds and cannot be destroyed by enemy bullets or grenades, though the ring and a handful of enemy ultimates can destroy it. D.O.C. is generally a good replacement for syringes and med kids, though allies should still keep a few in their inventory to heal if they become separated from Lifeline.

Don’t expect D.O.C. to keep you alive in a wide-open gun fight with no cover. Its healing is too slow for that. It’s best used during extended fights behind cover where it can be placed to heal any poke damage that Lifeline and her teammates take. While D.O.C. can’t be moved or pushed to a new location, it will heal enemies if they get close enough, so watch out for other teams trying to steal your healing.

Ultimate: Care Package

Lifeline’s ultimate ability calls down a care package from the sky that brings your team—or whoever gets to it first—an assortment of high-tier defensive loot to boost your loadout. While they don’t include supply drop weapons (or any weapons at all), just about anything else can appear in the package, including EVO shields, gun attachments, scopes, heat shields and mobile respawn beacons, and healing items.

Care Package takes longer to charge than many other legends’ ultimates, so Lifeline should always use any Ultimate Accelerants that she comes across. Players should also be mindful about where and how they deploy it. Like regular care packages, Lifeline’s supply drops leave a bright trail in the sky and can be seen from a long ways away, potentially prompting an ambush. Try deploying it next to a high cliff or wall that you can put your back to and open it quickly to remove the trail.

Synergies and counters

Lifeline works well with just about everyone on the roster. As one of only two support legends (the other being Loba), her skills are unique and beneficial to all. Her passive revive, D.O.C. healing, and care package gear are useful to everyone.

If you’re looking to make up for what Lifeline lacks, try adding a legend who specializes in damage or mobility. Octane, Pathfinder, and Valkyrie all work well with Lifeline by granting her additional movement potential, which is one area where she falls short.

Related: The best Lifeline skins in Apex Legends

Lifeline also works well with defensive legends like Wattson, Caustic, and Rampart, all of whom can barricade an area to protect a downed or damaged ally Lifeline is helping. Caustic and Rampart in particular provide more damage potential to a team that wants to stay put during a match, while Wattson can negate incoming poke damage and projectiles with her ultimate.

Lifeline struggles against recon heroes, particularly those who have “wallhack” abilities. Legends like Seer, Bloodhound, and Crypto can find where Lifeline is reviving teammates and hiding behind cover to heal, enabling an enemy squad to rush her before she has a chance to recover from any damage taken.

The same high-mobility heroes that help Lifeline as allies can also be troublesome as enemies. Lifeline isn’t particularly mobile or fast, particularly with the removal of Low Profile several seasons ago. It’s easy for faster legends to quickly sneak up on her and ambush her, leaving her no way to escape if her teammates can’t get her out.

Lifeline is a tricky legend to play solo; she does much better in coordinated settings. Her abilities rely on her teammates staying close to her and communicating when they need assistance and healing, which doesn’t always happen when playing solo. She’s also likely to be taken out first by enemies, since her ability to quickly and passively revive allies makes her a priority target, so communication is paramount.

Lifeline is one of Apex’s earliest and most unique legends. She fills a niche that no one else on the roster does, and she does it with style. Hopefully she’ll receive a buff in the not-so-distant future, but until then, she’s still a fun, important part of a good squad.