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Apex Legends Ring (Season 2) - Circle sizes, Ring damage stats for Ranked and Standard modes

How long can an Apex Legends match last?

Apex Legends innovated and rethought several aspects of the battle royale genre, but one thing they decided to keep pretty much as-is, and that's what Respawn have called the Ring, which slowly contracts to smaller and smaller circles over the course of a match and damages those caught outside. With Season 2, many of the Ring's damage and timing stats have changed, so we thought we'd revisit our Apex Legends Ring guide and walk you through exactly what's going on with this mechanic.

 

While you're here, you may find it useful or interesting to check out our main Apex Legends tips, which we've packed with tonnes of info on pretty much every aspect of this excellent new battle royale, from how to play the different Apex Legends characters to using the various Apex Legends guns & weapons, and much more.

Apex Legends Ring guide and stats

There's a surprising amount to learn about the movement and behaviour of the Ring over the course of an Apex Legends match. Fortunately you're in exactly the right place to find out everything you need to know. Click on any of the links in the contents section below to be brought instantly to the knowledge you so desire.

Guide Contents

Apex Legends Rounds per match
Apex Legends Ring stats and stages (Circle sizes, damage stats)
How long can an Apex Legends Match go on for?


Apex Legends Rounds per match

A match in Apex Legends is broken into smaller sections called Rounds. You can easily keep track of which round of a match you are currently in, either by listening out for the announcer who tells you when a new round begins, or by checking just below your minimap in the top-left of your screen for the circled number, which always indicates your current round.

There are a maximum of 8 rounds in total in a match, and each of these Rounds can be broken up further into a Wait period, and a Closing period. During a Wait period, you are able to see on the map where the Ring will shrink to next, giving you a chance to make your way there before it can reach you. Once the Wait period is over, the Closing period begins, during which the Ring will contract until it reaches its projected destination.

If you are caught outside the Ring at any time, you will begin to suffer Health damage every "tick", or 1.5 seconds. This damage ignores whatever Shields you may have, and deals only Health damage to you, which makes it very important that you either stay within the Ring or bring enough Apex Legends healing items to keep yourself alive during your forays through this damage zone.

It's also important to note that the Ring deals percentage damage to you rather than flat damage, which means it'll damage you the same whether you're the "Fortified" Gibraltar or the "Low Profile" Wraith.

The above is a composite I created of the size and positions of every Ring in an Apex Legends match. Click the image to view it at highest resolution.

Apex Legends Ring stats and stages (Circle sizes, damage stats)

At the beginning of a match, there is a 10-second countdown before players may begin to drop from the Transport Ship; after which there is a period of around 75 seconds before the first round begins and the presence of the Ring makes itself known upon King's Canyon.

In the below table we've catalogued everything we know about the Ring at each Round of a match, broken as previously mentioned into Wait periods and Closing periods.

RoundWait PeriodClosing PeriodDamage Per TickRing Diameter% Area of Previous Ring
13m2m2%1015m21% (of map area)
22m 30s2m5%680m45%
32m 15s2m10%410m36%
42m2m20%105m6.6%
51m 30s1m 40s20%80m58%
61m 30s1m 40s25%40m25%
72m1m 20s25%4m1%
820s1m 20s25%0m0%


Apex Legends game length - how long can a match last?

Taking all this into account, we can actually work out with a fair amount of accuracy how long an Apex Legends match can go on for. Adding up all the Wait and Closing period durations gives us a figure of 29m 5s; add to this the 10 seconds before dropping from the Transport Ship at the beginning of the match, and then the 75 seconds before Round 1 begins... AND the 3-or-so-second delays between each Wait and Closing period...

All in all, the time between the very beginning of a match and the point where the Ring shrinks to nothing is 31 minutes and 6 seconds.

Of course, players can continue to heal themselves after this point... but I'll leave someone else to figure out exactly how long they could survive. I presume it involves some combination of Lifeline's passive and tactical abilities, an enemy that for some reason has no interest in killing you, and a Gold Backpack filled with Med Kits or Syringes. You could probably extend your life by a good 10 minutes if you really wanted to; but that's not really playing the game anymore, is it?

Anyway, that's everything we've got on the Ring and how it behaves and deals damage over the course of an Apex Legends match. Hopefully you've emerged from this stat-heavy guide a little more enlightened as to the strange quirks and undeniable power of the ever-shrinking Ring.

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