Apex Legends Loba abilities, tips and tricks

Want to learn how to master Loba and her abilities in Apex Legends? Loba the Translocating Thief is one of the post-launch additions to the Apex Legends characters roster. A world-class thief with a knack for getting out of dangerous spots, her abilities can be used to great effect as long as you think through each use carefully. Our Apex Legends Loba guide will equip you with various practical tips and tricks for each of her abilities.

On this page:

• Apex Legends Loba abilities
• Loba tips and tricks
• Passive tips: Eye For Quality
• Tactical tips: Burglar's Best Friend
• Ultimate tips: Black Market Boutique
• Apex Legends Loba Backstory

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Apex Legends abilities

Loba has access to three abilities: Eye for Quality (Passive), Burglar's Best Friend (Tactical), and Black Market Boutique (Ultimate). Loba's kit is all about optimising loot searching. No one will ever be upset about having a Loba along for the ride as she provides great utility for finding the exact loadout you are looking for. Loba is classed as a Support Legend alongside Lifeline.

Each of Loba's abilities will be explained below in greater detail, but Loba's kit is all about the loot. If you work on the assumption that those with the best loot win, then Loba will carry you to victory. She allows you to almost handpick the items you want, while also having a bit of escapability for herself. If you are not sure what you are looking for, why not check out our best loadout in Apex Legends guide?

Loba tips and tricks

Loba is all about putting her team in a position to win by virtue of having better loot. Let's take a look at the strengths and weaknesses her toolkit brings, including some tips and advice to take into the Apex Games with you:

• Always look for the tactical advantage. Loba's teleport should not be used as a panic button. It's far better served as a carefully considered initiation tool. Look for the high ground or the unexpected flank attack. The same is true with the Black Market. Look for moments where you can ensure your safety while grabbing valuable loot. Don't use your abilities without thinking.
• Communicate your findings to your team. The ability to peer into Supply Bins or buildings from afar and see the high-level loot that's inside is an enormous benefit, and one that you should share with your allies. If you see a high concentration of purple and gold loot at a particular location, let your teammate(s) know. Don't keep that information to yourself.
• Keep your team in mind when using your abilities. Similar to the last point, Loba is all about lifting the entire team, not just her. Tell your team when you intend to use the Black Market or jump out using Burglar's Best Friend. You don't want your team halfway across the map unable to use your shop or for you to jump out of a location just as a teammate was planning an ambush.
• Focus on movement and gunplay during fights, rather than your abilities. Loba's skillset is not geared towards use in the middle of a firefight like certain other characters' skillsets. Her abilities are meant to be used during moments of downtime, or relative safety during a fight. If you're in the middle of a highly dangerous and intense encounter, forget about your abilities for the moment. They won't help you. Just focus on the gunplay.
• Loba is a good option if you are starting out or need to build a little confidence. Look, Apex Legends can be rough. When it seems like everyone is running rings around you, it can feel like you have so much to learn. If you aren't feeling on your A-game or are still learning your way into the Apex Games, Loba is a great option. She will put your teammates in a better position to succeed by giving them better loadouts. You don't have to be amazing at shooting to win in Apex. Your teammates just have to be. Loba sets them up to succeed.

Loba Passive ability: Eye for Quality

Eye For Quality, Loba's Passive ability, gives you a rather pleasant glimpse of the loot all around you, highlighting all purple and gold items through walls in a very large radius around you. This includes viewing loot through Supply Bin lids.

Loba Passive tips:

• Make use of the extra knowledge by prioritising your loot at the start of a match. If you see a purple Evo Shield nearby, be sure to head straight there rather than working your way slowly towards it.
• To put it in numbers, you can see items up to 112.5 meters away. If you don't know how far that is, don't worry. Often it means you'll see the item before you can even make out what it is from its outline.
• Loba's Passive also acts as a recon ability of sorts, because by keeping an eye on the loot around you, you'll also be notified when it has been taken. If a piece of loot you saw nearby earlier is no longer there, it means someone is nearby.

Loba Tactical ability: Burglar's Best Friend

Burglar's Best Friend is a powerful teleportation ability held back by two things: its sluggishness and its overtness. With the flick of a wrist, you can toss your bracelet a surprising distance in an arc through the air. Once it lands, it will teleport Loba to its location, incurring a slight post-teleport delay where you are unable to shoot or otherwise act.

Loba Tactical tips:

• While waiting for the bracelet to land (and shortly after teleporting), Loba is locked out of shooting, which makes this ability far less effective for use while under fire.
• You can cut the teleport short by pressing the ability button again. Doing this will teleport you to the ground directly below the bracelet's current position.
• Be aware that the bracelet leaves a trail through the air similar to Wraith's Tactical, and it's very easy for enemies to spot. If at all possible, try to use the teleport away from enemy lines of sight, so that your movements are kept secret.
• Along with that visibility, the ability is also exceptionally loud. You don't want to initiate straight into a fight with it, as your enemies will know you are coming. Instead, place it out of sight and then pop out when ready.
• Wattson's Interception Pylon will snatch your bracelet out of the air and return it to you. But Horizon's Black Hole and Gravity Lift abilities will simply redirect the bracelet to a very hard-to-predict position. So be careful using Burglar's Best Friend around such abilities.
• As of Season 9, Loba retains her full movement abilities during and after using the bracelet. Make the most of this! If you're under fire then slide-jump, tap-strafe, and bunny-hop around until you teleport away, to reduce the risk of taking damage.
• Just a general thing to keep in mind - the ability isn't entirely reliable. While it's better than it used to be, sometimes the bracelet will find itself somewhere it can't go. Loba will shake her finger and it will be returned to you. Obviously, you don't want this when trying to escape so always try to throw the bracelet somewhere somewhat open.

Loba Ultimate ability: Black Market Boutique

Black Market Boutique is a game-changer in some situations. Using this ability allows you to place a black market device in front of you, which allows any player to reach in and teleport up to two items out of all loot in a large radius around its location. This includes floor loot, death box loot, and anything else that isn't already in another player's inventory.

Loba Ultimate tips:

• You can take as much ammo as you can carry using the Black Market. Ammo does not count towards the two-item limit. This is one of Loba's strongest tools: refilling your entire squad's ammo supply over the course of a match. If you want to know what guns to supply, check out our best guns in Apex Legends guide.
• Black Market excels in the early-game and the late-game, particularly in the final few squads. You can safely stock up from behind cover, drawing from pretty much all remaining loot in the circle - and in such late-game scenarios, enemies are unlikely to give up their positioning in order to push you.
• The Black Market is a useful tool for armour-swapping - the practice of having full armour nearby which you can quickly switch to during a fight instead of stopping to heal.
• Be aware that it's hard to use Black Market covertly. Not only is there a large flash when the device is set up, but while in use all loot in the vicinity will hover and shake slightly. Also, anytime you take an item, a brief white line can be seen from the item's initial location to the shop, so enemies will know exactly where you are.
• Black Market Boutique takes time to activate after placing the device. You won't be able to start retrieving loot until around 4 seconds after placing it.
• You can use the alternate interact button to retrieve the Black Market after you and your allies have finished using it. This will prevent enemies from benefitting from your ability.
• Black Market Boutique has the same range as your Eye For Quality Passive, which means placing a black market device down at your feet will enable you to access any of the purple or gold loot you can see through walls nearby.

Apex Legends Season 5 – Fortune's Favor Launch Trailer

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Apex Legends Loba backstory

Loba's backstory is intrinsically linked to Revenant. In a lot of ways, the murderous robot is at the core of who Loba is, driving her to revenge.

At the age of 9, Loba's parents were murdered by the robotic assassin in front of her. Since then, Loba has vowed revenge against the hitman, a difficult task considering when one of his bodies is destroyed, there is an endless supply of backups ready to take its place.

Outside of her quest for revenge, Loba has become renowned for her status as a master thief. Money, items, high tech items, it's all fair game. Loba even found her Jump Drive bracelet on one of her jobs, forever improving her thriving abilities by giving her an instant escape in sticky situations.

She had almost put her past behind her, but it all came rushing back when Revenant joined the Apex Games. This inspired Loba to join to get her hands on the ultimate prize: the head of Revenant - the only real way to kill him. She actually located it in a facility, but the head was teleported before she could destroy it. This caused a massive rift in King's Canyon bringing Skull Town into the sea. However, she continues to look for clues on how to once and for all kill the murderous assassin.

And that's all we've got for now on the Translocating Thief that is Loba in Apex Legends. For full details and opinions on all of the characters together, take a look at our Apex Legends characters guide for everything you need.