Apex Legends Colors Explained

Apex Legends loves color-coding. But it goes beyond just using colors to denote tiers of your gear and skins. Actually, colors have some real important meanings in the gameplay, too!

Damage Number Colors

You will have noticed that damage numbers in Apex Legends (seen after hitting the enemy) are in different colors. They give your information about the enemy’s defense state, mostly:

Red: target is not armored
White: target has level one armor
Blue: target has level two armor
Purple: target has level three armor
Yellow: headshot – the only one that doesn’t say anything about the enemy

By observing the damage numbers you can tell how to react at the foe: purple means that you have some way to go before you hit their health while red means that the enemy is super vulnerable. Thus you have to think about going in for the kill or hanging back to heal yourself.

Loot Colors

Armour, weapons, attachments, loot boxes, etc.: the color indicates the level of the item. Higher is always better, so you can always exchange your white helmet for blue and so on. As for enemy loot boxes, the color tells you about the level of the highest item inside. Here are the level colors:

Level 1: White
Level 2: Blue
Level 3: Purple
Level 4: Gold

Gold/level 4 stuff is rare, but it can be found. They have the same stats as level 3 purples, but with added bonuses:

Gold helmet: faster cooldowns for tactical and ultimate powers
Gold armor: refills shields after a Finisher
Gold backpack: faster health and consumable use
Gold Knockdown shield: one-time self-revive

Ammo Colors

Ammo is the only thing that’s not color-coded according to levels, because different levels of ammo would be an insanity to manage. Ammo has color according to type:

Brown: Light rounds
Green: Heavy rounds
Yellow: Energy ammo
Red: Shotgun shells
The ammo counter on the bottom right corner of HUD shows what kind of ammo that gun uses.