Apex Legends - Mirage Guide: Lore, Abilities & Best Gun Loadouts

mirage is the trickster that you will either love or hate, he has a charming but rather eccentric personality that keeps things lighthearted for his squad.

His Psyche Out ability allows him to create a decoy that confuses enemies while his Passive, Now You See Me… works more as an escape technique for the difficulties he or his teammates might face, and lastly his ultimate Life of the Party creates multiple clones and is the most confusing ability for any opponent he encounters, allowing him to engage them in any location or fall back in a safe place.

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Mirage Lore

Mirage, Holographic Trickster, Apex Legends

Gender: Male
Heirloom: Too Much Witt
Voice Actor: Roger Craig Smith (@RogerCraigSmith)

Mirage is the kind of guy who likes to stand out. The youngest of four brothers, he perfected the art of fooling around to get attention.

The one thing he took seriously was Holo-Pilot technology: introduced to the illusion-creating tech by his famed engineer mother Evelyn Witt, he pored over the mechanisms and learned all he could about them.

Even when his brothers went missing during the Frontier War, Mirage and his mother continued to develop holo devices, and the work brought them closer.

While working as a bartender on the Paradise Lounge in Solace City to make some extra money, Mirage heard amazing stories from his patrons about the Apex Games and the wealth and glory that came with victory.

As good as both of those sounded, he knew he couldn’t risk leaving his mother childless – until she gave him a set of customized holo devices and told him to follow his dream.

Mirage is now the life of the Apex Games, outwitting opponents and charming audiences across the Outlands.

Mirage Abilities Guide

Tactical Ability – Psyche Out

Psyche Out		Tactical
	Cooldown	15 seconds
	Description	Send out a holographic decoy to confuse the enemy.
Information
When used, a hologram duplicate of Mirage is sent in a straight line to wherever the real Mirage targeted. When spawned, the decoy will replicate whether Mirage was walking, running, or crouching, and if used in midair will have the same momentum as Mirage. It cannot climb walls or ride zip lines. Upon reaching the targeted location, the decoy stands still and performs the ‘inspect weapon’ animation unless the player takes control of it. The decoy has 45 HP, and an icon will appear indicating where the enemy that damaged it is. This icon appears for Mirage’s whole squad, and also indicates distance. When a decoy vanishes from taking damage, it will output a “you got bamboozled” voice line from the decoy. The decoy will also automatically vanish after 60 seconds or manually by deploying another decoy. This ability may be activated twice while skydiving from the dropship or jump towers, and if you are with your squad in flight it will send out a full decoy squad. The decoy can be controlled by pressing the utility action button. Mirage decoys create footstep sounds.
Interaction
The decoy will not only vanish with gunshots, but also grenades and other indirect forms of damage, including Nox Gas Traps, Perimeter Security, Rolling Thunder, and Defensive Bombardment, all of which can be used to find the enemy’s location. Decoys cannot go through Dimensional Rifts, and will not walk through Domes of Protection. Decoys do not leave any tracks for Bloodhound, although they are highlighted by Eye of the Allfather and Beast of the Hunt.
Advanced
Have decoys stand in front of death boxes or front of windows with a sniper rifle since these are the most natural places for a player to stand completely still. If you’re off on your own and suddenly start getting shot from a distance, put a decoy in front of you to instantly show your teammates where to shoot. Direct your decoys into Perimeter Security or Nox Gas to figure out where the Wattson or Caustic is. The best way to fool smarter players is to act like you’re the decoy. Direct a decoy in one direction and then run in a straight line in a different direction or start controlling it. That way, enemies won’t know which is which. If your enemy is smart enough not to shoot decoys, act as a decoy to get behind them. Your decoys don’t block doors, but in a situation when you see them blocking a door try to use this to your advantage and send your decoy to it to make them think it’s you that’s gonna kick it down and get a sneak up on them from another entrance if possible. If you look up into the air without any barriers (trees, roofs, etc.) then your decoy will run in a straight line with no end until they reach cover.

How to Use Psyche Out

This ability is one of the hardest to master in the game because if you send the decoy and you aren’t aligned with it when you control it, it will be hard to move it around and most of the time it will get stuck on a wall or some rocks, so one of the best ways to use it is to activate the skill, wait two seconds and then take control of it, that way it will be far enough so it won’t block your vision and will still confuse to enemy.

Sometimes when an enemy is around the corner you can use the decoy to peek out and bait them by shooting at it and waste their ammo, after that you have to be really fast and push them so they won’t have enough time to reload and try to finish them as fast as you can so you can preserve your health and healing items.

There are a couple more tricks you can do like sending your decoy near a death box or a supply bin making it look like you are looting, or you can use a sniper and act like you’re camping, however most of the time when an enemy sees your decoy they will shoot it unless they are very experienced players, then you need to be careful and try to use your decoy as best as you can with all of the tricks mentioned above.

Psyche Out has a small cooldown which means you can spam your ability all the time.

Passive Ability – Now You See Me…

Now You See Me…		Passive
	Cooldown	N/A
	Description	Automatically cloak when using Respawn Beacons and reviving teammates and spawn a decoy and cloak when knocked.
Information
When downed, turn invisible for 5 seconds to crawl away. When reviving a teammate, Mirage and the teammate will become invisible. When using a respawn beacon, Mirage will become invisible. Leaves a decoy that falls to its knees and dramatically pretends to be dying.
Interaction
Mirage will be visible when reviving and respawning teammates if hit by Revenant’s Silence The Holo emitters will become visible while being healed by Lifeline’s D.O.C. Heal Drone.
Advanced
Once you are downed and this activates, if you are near a ledge or fall-off, try to go down. It’ll cover a greater distance and hopefully throw the enemy off of your trail long enough for it to activate again. Do not use your knockdown shield unless you are being shot at intentionally, since using it will give you away. Movement on dirt also causes dust particles when crawling, and can give you away while cloaked.

How to use Now You See Me…

Mirage is one of the few characters in the game that can revive a teammate mid fight and can take advantage of the Level 4Knockdown Shield because he becomes invisible for a short period of time, allowing him to hide in a safe spot and revive himself.

While knocked try not to use the knockdown shield because you will show your position and the enemy will start shooting at you.

Mirage can also take advantage of the Level 4Backpack since he can become invisible when reviving someone.

Ultimate Ability – Life of the Party

Life of the Party		Ultimate
	Charge Time	60 seconds
	Description	Mirage deploys a team of controllable decoys to distract enemies.
Information
When activated, Mirage summons 5 decoys around him that mimic his movements. Turns invisible for 1 second before deploying decoys. Decoys have 45 HP.
Advanced
Unlike Mirage’s previous ultimate ability, Mirage will not turn invisible for long and is still able to attack while using this ability and are more likely to fool enemies as they move in tandem with the player. Try combining this ability with your passive ability when attempting to revive a downed teammate. The clones will appear with your teammate in the holograms. It will throw off the enemy’s direction, and confuse them enough to fire at the clones as you revive. It’s a good idea to use the second of invisibility you get while casting this ability to change directions unexpectedly to make it more difficult to distinguish you from your decoys.

How to Use Life of the Party

You can use this ability to initiate attacks, escape, or help your team by reviving them giving them a chance to fight or run away.

In order to initiate the enemies must not see you activate it and the reason is that it gives you away at the beginning of the activation, so it’s better to just activate it behind cover before starting to fight.

Life of the Party provides a significant advantage in small buildings because the decoys will be over crowding the place.

Remember always wait a second or two after activating the ultimate because the enemy will find you immediately if you shoot right away.

In order to use Life of the Party as an escape tool you should first try and create some distance from your enemies, after that try and activate it when behind cover and then run as fast as you can to a safe place to restore your shields and health.

You can also use Life of the Party to help your teammate, for example if one of your team members is knocked down you can activate your ultimate and go for the revive, it will buy more time by confusing the enemies, or you can use it as a means to draw fire on the decoys if you see that one of your members is losing health fast.

Best Weapon Loadouts For Mirage

R-99, Apex Legends

EVA-8 Auto/Mastiff Shotgun& R-99/ Volt SMG/ Prowler SMG

The close and personal load out every offensive legend must have, this one is gold in the hands of Mirage, the EVA shotgun can take a “Double Tap” Hop up and in combination with a Shotgun Bolt can become extremely deadly.

The Mastiff on the other hand performs very poorly from long range, that means Mirage has to go very close to his opponents and shoot them in the face for that maximum headshot damage.

The R-99 and the Prowler are one of the fastest shooting weapons in the game,
the Prowler can take the “Select fire” Hop up and becomes extremely deadly with a higher level Extended Heavy Magazine, which might give you the chance to knock two enemies without reloading, if your aim is good enough.

The R-99 though can be focused only on one enemy at a time since its rate of fire and DPS is smaller than the Prowler’s you absolutely need an Extended Light Magazine, beware though as you have to reload many times with it so you need a lot of light ammo and be very mobile.

R-99,the Prowler and both shotguns can take a 1x Digital Threat  1x HCOG Classic or a  1x Holo, but it’s best to prioritize the Digital Threat on the SMGs

To perfectly utilize this combo first you have to initiate with your SMGs and then go near for the kill with the shotguns.

Since the Prowler SMG has gone into the Care Package rotation as of Season 6, the R-99 has returned but because it’s also an SMG everything mentioned above works for this one as well.

NOTE: The “Double Tap” Hop Up has been removed from the loot pool for Season 8.

NOTE: ThePeacekeeper is back for Season 9 and is a good alternative to the Mastiff or EVA-8.

Wingman& R-301 Carbine/ Hemlok Burst AR

It doesn’t really matter if you are using two weapons with the same ammo type, in the end it depends on what weapons suit you the best, needless to say this recommended loadout is for long and mid range mostly, but can prove as much as deadly in closer distances.

If you decide to go with the Wingman and the R-301 then you should first initiate with the Wingman so you can chop off a big portion of the enemy’s health and afterwards switch to the R-301 to finish them if you can.

If you choose to go with the Hemlok then it’s best to keep it on single fire and initiate your fights with this one, because it does more damage per shot than the R-301 and even though it has less DPS it’s a lot more stable from long/mid range distances, next you can push the enemy by switching to burst fire mode and fight your enemies like that and then finish them off with the Wingman if need be.

It is recommended to use either a 2x HCOG Bruiser, a 1x-2x Variable Holo for the R-301 and Hemlok and while the Wingman can take a 1x Digital Threat but most players prefer a 1x_HCOG_Classic.

When you go with Wingman and Hemlok you should prioritize the Extended Heavy Magazine for the Wingman.

NOTE: For Season 9 the “Skullpiercer Rifling” Hop up has been removed from the loot pool.

NOTE: After Season 7 a new hop up for the Wingman has been introduced, it is called “Quickdraw Holster” Hop Up which increases the speed of your ADS, Weapon Swap, and reduces Hip Fire spread.

Note: The “Anvil Receiver” Hop Up has returned to the loot pool for Season 8.

NOTE: The “Quickdraw Holster” Hop Up has been vaulted for Season 10 and is replaced by the “Boosted Loader” Hop Up which can be equipped by Wingman and Hemlok, this new hop up features a reload function that adds more ammo in the weapon if the player chooses to reload it before near the end of the magazine but not at 0.

Havoc/ L-Star& Triple Take/

Sentinel

This loadout is mostly for long ranges and suits Mirage because he can utilize his Decoys.

The Havoc is a fast shooting rifle that can also be changed to single fire with the “Select fire” Hop up, but lets talk about it’s automatic mode before we continue.

The recoil is very easy to control but it takes a second to charge up and start firing and has a small recoil bump at the beginning, this is where you make use of your Decoys and use that advantage to fire on the enemies when they get bamboozled.

The single fire mode takes a second to shoot as well but deals massive damage and is better for long ranges.

It might be hard to get used to it at first but after you get the hang of it, we recommend to aim for the head.

The L-Star is more of a close ranged weapon and good for suppressive fire better used inside buildings and to help your teammates push or retreat, the good thing with this weapon is that it doesn’t need reloading, but beware though it will overheat if you keep firing for too long.

The Triple Take is a solid sniper choice but also a very good close range weapon and one of the best ones to have in the late game, it can use the “Precision Choke” Hop up which makes it very useful for long range but can also be used as a shotgun for close ranged combat.

The Sentinel is a bit harder to play around but it is really worth it if you land a shot after you charged it with 2Shield Cells that can deal increased damage 70 -> 88.

You can use your Decoys and act like you are standing still with the sniper in places where people think that you are about to shoot them, that way you can draw them out and find their positions.

All the weapons can take a  2x HCOG Bruiser 1x-2x Variable Holo  3x HCOG Ranger but the Ranger is not recommended for the L-Star, instead it could use a 1x HCOG Classic or a 1x Holo, the snipers can of course equip sniper optics that includes the 6x Sniper the 4x-8x Variable Sniper and the 4x-10x Digital Sniper Threat.

NOTE: The Triple Take has been entered in the Care Package Rotation a good weapon to replace it is the newly added Bocek Compound Bow (Which can take two Hop Ups, “Shatter Caps” allowing your weapon to work like a shotgun and “Deadeye’s Tempo” that increases the rate of fire of your weapon when you firing at the perfect moment.

NOTE: “Deadeye’s Tempo” can also be equipped by Sentinel.

How to play Mirage

Mirage, St Patrick’s day Skin, Apex Legends

Mirage is probably the character that needs the most patience from the offensive types of Legends and the reason is his Decoys, you need to get used to on how they react to the world and how you can use them to your advantage.

First of all the Decoys are good for bamboozling but they become really hard to control if you aren’t synced with them so to start you can send them off a little bit further in front of you and see how they copy your movements, after you get used to it, you can try and bait enemies by letting your Decoy go further away and take control of it again.

You can also use it to bait enemies from corners by making them waste their ammo and then push them which leaves them with two choices, either reload or switch weapons which both of them are beneficial to you and give you a greater advantage.

When you are on the offensive you must always be ready to shoot at your enemies the moment they start firing at your Decoy because the less ammo they have in their gun the more of a chance you have to win the fight.

As for his passive it can be used to revive or respawn teammates safer than other legends, you become invisible when you do either of those but when you are reviving the enemies can still hear you around.

Don’t let this dissuade you though from reviving them in the middle of the fight though, if the enemy hasn’t noticed you there’s a chance you might get away.

When you get knocked down you become completely invisible so use this time to go somewhere safe and refrain from using the knockdown shield unless the enemy is shooting directly at you.

His ultimate is good to use the moment before you initiate or mid fight but make sure the enemy doesn’t see you when you use it because they will know who is the real you, after you have activated your ultimate, if your tactical is available use it as well and send it towards the enemy for maximum bamboozlement then just try to aim for their heads.