One of the new attachments you can slap on your weapons in Apex Legends Season 8 is the Gold (or Legendary) magazine. The mag will increase the ammo capacity of your gun the same amount as the Purple (or Epic) mag. However, the Gold mag also adds an interesting perk. It will automatically reload your stowed weapon after 5.5 seconds. Let’s consider which weapons in Apex Legends will best benefit from the Gold mag.
When I first read about the Legendary mag in the Season 8 patch notes, I imagined myself sliding into fights with the R-99 and R-301 and unloading an endless rain of light ammo at my enemies. That, unfortunately, is not what really happens with the introduction of the new magazine. I think the automatic reload is a solid concept for a mag of this rarity. However, the current reload delay is far too long to be truly impactful.
The perk only works if the reload speed is the same time or shorter than it takes you to shoot all the bullets out of your secondary weapon. Otherwise, you’re going to need to reload one of them the regular way to continue fighting.
Having said that, the Apex Legends Gold mag isn’t pointless. There are some weapons it works well on. There are also some situations where it can help you out a little. For instance, it can be particularly useful just after you’ve wiped an enemy squad and are trying to catch your breath. If you have a Gold mag, you can prioritize healing over reloading before you get third-partied by another one or five teams. It’ll save you a few seconds, but that could be the difference between life and death in the Apex Games.
Weapons that work with the Gold magazine
First off, you will need to find one of these incredibly rare attachments. Plus, there’s one for each weapon type. You’ll need to adjust your build to suit the mag you find. It seems that the Gold magazine works best with the new 30-30 Repeater rifle. It feels like it was designed for the gun.
You need to reload it one bullet at a time. So, it’s always faster to pull out another weapon and let the Gold mag automatically reload the Repeater after a few seconds. While this works, it’s not going to have a massive impact on your game. The Repeater is a medium to long-range gun. So, you’ll never struggle to find a few seconds to reload.
Weapons with long reload times will always benefit from the Legendary magazine. There are a few meme builds doing the rounds at the moment where you use two LMGS – the Spitfire or the Devotion. If you get a Gold magazine on both, you can fire endlessly. Amusing, but not particularly effective. Having one LMG with a Gold magazine is actually decent though. Overall, LMGs are probably the best weapons in Apex Legends to pair with the Gold magazine.
If you like using the Wingman as your secondary weapon, having a Legendary mag on your primary SMG or rifle is also an effective weapon combination. It takes a fairly long time to shoot all the bullets out of your Wingman. That gives the Gold magazine the time it needs to reload your primary weapon. If you haven’t taken down your opponents yet, and you’re not dead, you can pull out your primary weapon without needing to reload it.
The best way to use the Gold magazine
Apex Legends is a battle royale that requires players to constantly be on the move. Standing still or trying to fight from one spot will likely get you steamrolled by aggressive players. So, you need to get moving. An aggressive hit-and-run playstyle works great with the Gold magazine. You can even put both your weapons away to run faster and let the Legendary mag reload your guns for you.
The way you dive into fights isn’t quite the endless rain of bullets I envisioned, but it will put out a lot of damage while keeping you mobile. Ideally, you should equip the Legendary mag to your primary weapon – the Volt, R-99, or R-301. Your secondary weapon can be a hard-hitting Mastiff or Wingman, but another SMG will also work well. I like to run the Volt and R-301.
The tactic is simple: unload your primary weapon’s entire magazine, fire a shot or two from your hard hitter, then reposition. By the time you relocate into a good spot, your primary will be reloaded. You can then repeat the process.
Legends with movement enhancing abilities are particularly good at playing like this, which makes the Gold magazine better on their weapons. Wraith is by far the best Legend to wield a Gold magazine. Her Tactical Ability allows her to become invulnerable for the amount of time required to passively reload her weapons with the Gold magazine. You can dump two full magazines of bullets into enemies, use Into the Void, and come out of the ability with fully reloaded weapons. Now that’s something!
I hope Apex Legends shortens the reload time on the Gold mag. It needs to be more effective on more weapons to impact the game as much as the other Legendary-tier items. Respawn Entertainment has shown it isn’t afraid to tinker. Hopefully the mag gets a rework soon.
