Okay, let me tell you how I figured out this tap-strafing thing in Apex.
Saw a bunch of really slippery players pulling off these crazy direction changes mid-air. Looked cool, looked useful. Figured I’d give it a shot myself. Didn’t really know where to start, just knew it involved jumping and moving somehow.
Getting Started – Firing Range Grind
First thing, I went straight into the Firing Range. Can’t be trying new movement stuff when people are shooting at you, right? Picked Octane ’cause, you know, speed helps sometimes. Or maybe Pathfinder for the grapple practice later.
Heard somewhere you gotta mess with your keybinds. The big thing seemed to be binding ‘Move Forward’ to the mouse wheel. Up or down, doesn’t matter, some folks say both. I just put it on mouse wheel down first. Felt weird. Really weird. Using the wheel to move forward? Took some getting used to.
My First Attempts Were… Bad
- Jumped. Held A or D. Turned mouse. Nothing really happened. Just a normal air strafe.
- Tried jumping, then scrolling the wheel. Still just kinda floated forward.
- Mashed everything together. Jumped, spammed the wheel, held a direction key, whipped the mouse around. Mostly just looked stupid and lost momentum.
Breaking It Down – What Actually Worked (for me)
Okay, so after flailing around like an idiot for a bit, I slowed down. Watched some videos again, but like, really watched what their fingers were doing, not just the fancy end result.
Here’s what I pieced together I needed to do, step-by-step:
- Slide Jump: Get some speed, slide, then jump. This gives you the initial momentum. Gotta start with a good jump.
- Let Go of W: This was important. After jumping, I had to consciously take my finger off the ‘W’ key. You don’t hold forward in the air.
- Air Strafe Input: Start turning your mouse in the direction you want to go. At the same time, press the strafe key for that direction (A to turn left, D to turn right). This is like a basic air strafe.
- The Magic Scroll Wheel: Here’s the tricky part. While doing the mouse turn and holding the A or D key, you start spamming the mouse wheel (the one bound to Move Forward). Not just one click, but like, multiple inputs really fast. Brrrrp.
It felt super uncoordinated at first. My brain wasn’t wired to use the scroll wheel like that while also managing the jump, the turn, and the strafe key.
Practice, Practice, and More Fumbling
So, back to the Firing Range. I spent ages just running, sliding, jumping, and trying to hit that A/D + mouse turn + scroll wheel combo. Lots of failures. Sometimes I’d scroll too early, sometimes too late. Sometimes I’d forget to let go of W. Sometimes I’d turn the mouse but not hit A or D.
I started practicing around the pillars and boxes. Trying to slide jump and then whip around a corner sharper than a normal air strafe would allow. That’s where I started seeing the point of it. When I messed it up, I just bumped into the wall or lost all speed. But when I got it right, even slightly, I felt that sharp turn happen mid-air.
Little Breakthroughs
- Figured out the timing is key. The scroll wheel spam needs to happen during the sharpest part of your mouse turn.
- Realized you don’t need to scroll like a madman for a huge distance. Just a few quick flicks on the wheel during the turn gives you that sharp change.
- Got better at consistently doing the slide jump first. A weak jump means a weak tap-strafe.
Starting to Feel It
After a good while, maybe an hour or two just messing around purely on this, it started clicking more often. I could slide jump towards a box, then tap-strafe left or right around it pretty consistently. It wasn’t super smooth or fast like the pros yet, but the basic mechanic was there. I could feel the momentum shift.
It really just came down to drilling that specific sequence: Slide Jump -> Let go of W -> Turn Mouse + Hold A/D -> Spam Scroll Wheel Down. Over and over. Trying different speeds, different angles.
Still mess it up sometimes in actual games when the pressure is on, not gonna lie. Muscle memory is still building. But going through that whole process of figuring it out piece by piece and just grinding it in the Firing Range was how I got the basics down. It takes time, feels awkward as hell initially, but stick with it and you’ll get the hang of it eventually.
