What is tap strafing in Apex Legends?

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Knowing what tap-strafing is — and how to do it — in Apex Legends can be a great tool in your arsenal. The mechanic has become a staple and strong technique among Apex Legends players, but it was originally meant to be removed back during Season 10.

Apex Legends is praised by its community for having some of the best movement mechanics in the battle royale genre. Whether you’re sliding down a hill, bunny-hopping, or even just sprinting to your location, Respawn has created an incredibly smooth and satisfying set of animations.

However, as with a lot of competitive titles, players will always take the mechanics of the game one step further and use unintended techniques to their advantage.

Well, that’s exactly what happened with tap-strafing, a movement mechanic that can be extremely effective when pulled off. Read our guide below if you want to know what tap-strafing is and how to do it in Apex Legends.

Tap-strafing can be a highly effective mechanic in Apex Legends.

What is tap-strafing in Apex Legends?

The tap-strafe technique in Apex Legends allows you to make sharper movements and harder turns than normal side jumps. It uses a combination of air-strafing and bunny hopping.

The premise behind the technique is simple: Each time the move forward key is pressed and released, it slightly changes the direction of your momentum. Doing it multiple times in quick succession results in a full 180-degree turn, which is incredibly useful in fights.

Tap-strafing can be very effective in-game once used correctly. So, let’s take a look at how to successfully pull it off.

Tap-strafing is still possible as of the Season 13 update.

How to tap-strafe in Apex Legends

As of the recently released Season 13 update, tap-strafing is still possible in Apex Legends.

So, if you’re wondering how to tap-strafe in Apex, check out these simple steps below:

Perform a slide jump by pressing shift, control, and space at the right time while holding one of your strafe keys depending on which direction you want to go. A will go left, and D will go right.

At the peak of the jump, flick the mouse wheel scroll up or down while holding the strafe key without moving the mouse. If you do it right, you’ll notice a diagonal pull in the direction you’re facing.

Once you’ve got that part down pat, move the mouse in the direction of the pull while spamming the mouse scroll and holding the strafe button, and you’ll have successfully performed the tap-strafe.

Apex Legends has some of the smoothest move mechanics in the Battle Royale genre.

Is Apex Legends tap-strafing being removed?

When Respawn initially announced the impending removal of tap-strafing in Apex Legends, there were varying concerns. However, after some consideration, Respawn decided to simply tune this movement mechanic.

In September 2021, Respawn stated that they discovered some “unexpected side effects of the planned changes to tap-strafing.”

They went on to say: “Movement is sacred in Apex. We weigh every change to these systems carefully and value feedback.”

Movement is sacred in Apex. We weigh every change to these systems carefully and value feedback.

After further testing, we've concluded we need to take more time to get this right to make sure related movement mechanics aren't caught in the cross-fire.

— Respawn (@Respawn) September 13, 2021

That means players can still take advantage of the technique for the time being in its nerfed state.

There is no telling if Respawn plans to further change the way the feature works, but for the time being, tap-strafing is still available in-game.

So, there you have it, that’s what tap-strafing is in Apex Legends and exactly how to do it!

Make sure you check out our Apex guides below and don’t forget to follow @alphaINTEL for all the latest Apex news, and top stories.

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