Why I don't use default keys in FPS games and how to improve your config | Apex Legends Tips

I get a lot of questions about my Apex Legends config. It's different, yeah. I came up with it after years of playing Quake. I would've switched to default by now if not for some glaring issues with the default config ... like not being able to switch between forward and back instantly (it uses the same finger) and how are you meant to have full dodging range while using your "Q" when your A and W are set to Strafe Left and Forward?
My config gives me almost perfect freedom so that no vital commands overlap each other. This video is not meant to say "use this config", it's meant to give some tips on how I structured my config to give me more freedom in game, so hopefully you can adapt your own to give yourself more freedom too.
And I use a mouse that has the top button set to Page Down. Here's a link to my mouse (it's mine as in I use it and I designed the shell for Xtrfy): xtrfy.com/mice...
And here's that Rocket Dodging Trick video I showed in this: • Quake Live - Close Ran...
My website links:
Top Mice - www.rocketjump...
Mouse Search - www.rocketjump...
MWAVE Australian affiliate link: bit.ly/rocketju...
You can buy using my Amazon Affiliate links at these locations:
Amazon USA amzn.to/29OLzNY
Amazon UK amzn.to/29GNbI9
Amazon Germany amzn.to/29vek0X
Amazon Canada amzn.to/2aRgdTd
Amazon Italy amzn.to/2R6AprN
If you're buying anything from eBay US, you can use my affiliate link:
eBay.com: rover.ebay.com...
_____________________________________
Patreon: / rocketjumpninja
Twitch Streaming: / rocketjumpninja
Website: www.rocketjumpn...

[@RocketJumpNinja]

So as asked at around 2:26 ... can you hold down your ability key while maintaining full movement?

[@AisicsOK]

You can bind q to a mouse side button

[@RocketJumpNinja]

Yeah that will work too, although I generally recommend you don't hold in mouse side buttons, unless you learn to grip them slightly off middle, because if you press them directly in too hard, they can break.

[@puroresuraa]

Can you alternate crouch while strafing comfortably in your config?

[@RocketJumpNinja]

Yeah the fingers I use for strafe don't affect any of the other movement keys, it was only Jump and Crouch that were on the same finger, but with jump on the mouse wheel, I have a way to get around that

[@kommandokodiak6025]

Lmao the triggering youre gonna initiate with this video will be hilarioud to watch i expect a few reddit posts. "Rjn is dog whistling!"

[@NotSoCommonSense]

The right alt part is why I have been saying gaming keyboards need to start adopting different space bars. Split or even separated into many keys would be way better than a giant spacebar

[@Pe721]

dude all i need is a mousewheel under my spacebar so i can just focus on aim with my mouse

[@Mayhemz.95]

@@Pe721 get a razer Tartarus v2

[@Pe721]

@@Mayhemz.95 I have a keychron k3 and i will never switch again.

[@chonkusdonkus]

I built my own and have 6 separate keys that I can bind to whatever I want instead of a long spacebar

[@Mayhemz.95]

@@chonkusdonkus oh cool, that must be super useful

[@chrisbull7769]

i just cant imagine how long this process would take for each game you have to learn. Which is probably the reason I stay with the default config for most games, with minor, game specific, differences.

[@RocketJumpNinja]

It translates pretty well across most games I'd play, you just sub stuff in and out while keeping the core. It doesn't take that long to change keys once you know them, plus I rarely change games. It was Quake for 23 years, now it's Apex!

[@chrisbull7769]

@@RocketJumpNinja I love the gaming history! I'm sure what you've got here could turn into a new default config for most, I've often wondered if the 'WASD' approach was optimal. I guess trial and error (and practice) is key. Nice vid.

[@Pastill-]

I used to use YGHJ for movement to use right alt but some games that I play I need to use the shift key + I don't want to mess around in the config menu every time I play a casual game with my friends so I returned to WASD

[@ralphthejedimaster]

it's mildly annoying changing keybinds when you don't really have a feel for what those binds do yet, you'll be pausing a lot early on in singleplayer games to rebind for example. but it's worth it imo

[@mungojerrie86]

About two weeks to feel like you've always played like that. Never looked back. Although I'm using my own scheme - EDVB.

[@RubyRoks]

The "Move your ASDF to the middle of the keyboard" blew my mind. My keycaps have both homing bumps and deeper dishes in F and J, so putting my pinky on F and index on J feels SUPER comfy. I'm gonna have to do some tinkering

[@sanjisanpu]

More keys and freedom is the reason I switched to a 50% ortholinear keyboard like the OLKB Preonic and ESDF. The keys are basically just a 12x5 freely programmable grid. No huge space bar, large modifiers or caps lock. There are just so much more easily reachable keys everywhere. It's also half the size of a full size keyboard so takes even less space than a TKL or 65%.

[@RocketJumpNinja]

I've wondered how those would go, easy enough to navigate with your thumb in game or was it pretty hard to get used to?

[@sanjisanpu]

@@RocketJumpNinja Haven't really gone all the way with the thumb possibilities yet since I'm using the MIT layout (2u space bar and a layer key) for typing reasons. But I'm comfortably using two keys right now and see no reason why it wouldn't be easy to use 3 or even 4 keys (using a 1u space bar). Might do another build especially just for gaming. I just wish it wasn't so niche. I love what Wooting is doing with the 60HE and analog inputs, etc. and wish I could get such features with an ortho PCB, but that probably won't happen for a while or ever. Xtrfy please! I need wireless, 1000 Hz and analog optical switches!

[@janmagtoast]

@@sanjisanpu there're ppl building their own wooting keypads already. might not be long till wooting style pcbs hit the custom keyboard market for ergo and ortho boards. Right now you would probably have to know some stuff about pcb software, soldering and some other stuff to make it work in a slightly hacky way. I might do that in the future

[@madmccarter]

The single best aimer I've ever seen in any game would be Toxjq in Q3/Q4/Ql He had mouse1/mouse2 as forward/back, z/x as left/right, and c as fire He also used an icemat/really low frictuon glass pad - he would loosen the pressure on the mouse when he was aiming Best hitscan/tracking I've ever seen, and he would consistently hit really difficult shots as well

[@RocketJumpNinja]

Tox is a monster and a really good example of how an unconventional config can be used to great effect.

[@ambidex0med]

Tox still uses this.

[@CGremby]

@@RocketJumpNinja Doesnt he also use 1-3-1 grip? What's your take on this since you prefer 1-2-2? I use both and can't really make up my mind. Both has pros and cons.

[@RocketJumpNinja]

131 makes a lot of sense, I just like that extra stability with the ring finger on the side too ... but then maybe I just have to get used to 131 more. If Tox is aiming like that with 131, then clearly it's fine

[@urugulu1656]

and still around in qc and still amazing

[@TheL0rd0fSpace]

This is one of those things I find utterly cool and fascinating, but will never implement myself because it'd take a lot of effort to break almost a decade of habit. Worth noting that I have used this advice, in smaller bits. I've rebound keys to my mouse buttons where possible, especially for abilities in hero shooters and the like, so I can push them without losing the ability to move. Still, great vid! Love your mouse reviews, too!

[@WARnTEA]

Your config really improves a lot of things. I especially like how your config opens up more of the pinky keys. In a standard WASD setup, the pinky’s homekey is capslock and is only used to press 3 keys. I also learned how flawed the standard gaming config was when I was using the Minivan 40% keyboard. This keyboard has a split spacebar allowing the thumb to easily press 3 keys on the bottom row. Its really insane that “Gaming” keyboards haven’t done anything to remedy this issue other than Dygma who launched a split keyboard that has thumb clusters. I mainly play Immortal level Valorant and an interesting difference from Quake or Apex is that a Voicechat button is super important. A lot of players struggle to make comms because their chat button is on V or something like that which interrupts their movement fingers. I’ve found Spacebar to be the best voicechat button because I can effortlessly talk to my team mates while I am shooting people in the face. The problem with this in Valorant is that you need to move jump somewhere else, pretty much everyone in Tac shooters use scrollwheel to jump but in Valorant you need a way to jump using the keyboard because the character Jett requires holding a jump key in order to float in the air. So I used the split spacebar for jump and voice chat.

[@RocketJumpNinja]

Smart, yeah split space bar will help. As I was saying in another comment, I hope we get more keyboards that have extra buttons below the space bar like those old Roccat keyboards (but hopefully with nice buttons, not those junk ones). Also I just leave my mic on open these days with the Arctis Pro headset, it has really good voice isolation software or something because it barely picks up on anything except me talking.

[@ariathyf144]

In CS1.6 I binded VoiceChat in MOUSE RIGHT CLICK, dropping zoom to side button bc I dont play snipers. Doing calls for asking back up, holding position or indicating flashes makes a big difference.

[@ShortenMonteCristo]

I like this. Never heard of a split spacebar but I will look into it. Also a Valorant player here-I've grown used to V for voice chat (used to use L ctrl) and I don't find it to impede my movement fingers since I press V with my thumb. That said, I don't think it's the best. I'm seriously considering getting a foot pedal as a dedicated voice chat button.

[@Sprblue7]

Do you use m2 forward in valorant? I like these keybinds he has but I feel like it’s hard in Tac shooters for me.

[@WARnTEA]

@@Sprblue7 no I use the normal keybinds for the mouse except my scrollwheel down is jump and my scrollwheel up is zoom in on snipers.

[@ruwaid5660]

Ever looked into using a Ergo layout keyboard (Lily58, Sofle, etc)? They have multiple keys that are easy to reach for your thumb, the spacebar also being a smaller keycap size make it much more responsive than normal keyboards due to the weight. The keys also being staggered by the column rather than row make it much harder to miss tap as you only have to move your fingers vertically rather than doing a mixture of vertical + horizontal movements

[@z0nx]

And then the next step could be to design and create your own keyboard with ergogen. Look up Ben Vallack on youtube to get an impression on how to design and solder your own custom layout, absolutely insane. Even a dumb dumb like me managed to create one. This is the rabbit hole I've been down recently, and basically been optimizing my keyboard layout like in this vid, but for typing/programming in general. The tools for extra keybinds like layers, combo's etc give you a lot of options too.

[@HappyBeezerStudios]

At that point it might we worth just getting one of these gaming keypads.

[@tacticaltimz9106]

Everyone plays differently and I respect whatever keybind a person use to gain advantage. o7

[@MrMaxim]

I've tried different keyboard configs, including extreme ones like z left x right, m1 forward and m2 backward during Quake days, but WASD is for sure S tier to me and the most adaptable for any game. WASD means your pinky is already anchoring over shift and ctrl so you can easily switch between those two, it is also separated from your other fingers, and your hand is resting on the far left of the keyboard. Easy to memorize, and intuitive finger placement for what's around including easy access to numbered keys from 1-4 at least. While ESDF allows 10 finger typing, it also means your pinky gets bundled up with your other fingers if you're meant to get used to Q, A, Z instead of shift/ctrl (especially ctrl being further away) and it's just not getting enough space to maneuver properly as an anchor. Also now you're struggling to hit number 1 key. Two other side notes is that you can use mouse4 and mouse5 for additional commands to solve the available keys issue. In CS:GO when I hold down mouse4 my Q, E, and R become secondary actions, allowing me to switch between different nades instead. The second thing is in most competitive shooters you rarely move backwards which is why 3 fingers is arguably more than okay and allows your mouse2 to be something that you can associate with your aim which I feel makes way more sense than associating it with movement. This is why I just don't get the idea of moving your directional keys in the first place for a shooter, even Apex. Finally I would love if space was split into 2 or even 3 different keys you could remap. That would be the absolute endgame key config. Your thumb gets more than just ALT and space to work with.

[@ralphthejedimaster]

i can't speak for other games but in tf2 moving backwards is something you should be doing very often as scout, and having quicker access to that can definitely make a difference, scout is all about moving as unpredictably as possible in order to stay alive so having access to any direction instantly is always an advantage, and seeing as quake is also a movement shooter i imagine it translates over completely. something like CS:GO it probably doesn't matter much

[@HappyBeezerStudios]

The easiest step from WASD that allows you do keep the basics in the same place, but gives you more keys in range and at the same time keeps the and on 10-finger-typing position would be the simple move over to ESDF. Yes, issue hitting 1 is there, but I don't see any problem with ctrl, in fact, it's actually less cramping from that position.

[@colbyboucher6391]

I... getting _less keys_ for your pinky is a _good_ thing? Huh? And what do you mean "anchor"? Do you rest your whole hand on your pinky? Goddamn that must hurt after a while

[@radiantansel202]

WASD is absolutely no S tier in any regard other than being "a standard" we got used to, and a logical one if you are just "I'm ok with this", but in movement heavy games like Apex, TF2, Quake and such, having immediate movement is important, CS:GO is probably the highest played FPS game out there, sure, that doesn't mean everyone is out there playing it to be your only example/option I already had to change a lot of keys back when I was on WASD, because most of these default configs make no sense, throwing Grenades to G immediately getting your movement off? Why are abilities Q? R automatically means Reload? It's just a mess. Also, damn your stuff starts making less and less sense the more I read through all of that.

[@HaloDaycare]

I've been saying WASD sucks for a while now. I took WASD and moved it over to UHJK and also use my right Alt button too. This is crazy. Good crazy.

[@ralphthejedimaster]

this video has pushed me to finally give this kind of config a shot, i play scout in tf2 and movement is incredibly important if you want to stay alive for long, just like quake (tf2 has its origins in quake after all). i've started using WER for strafing and forward, my pinky on A for moving back, and crouch on a mouse button, and within 2 days i'm already top scoring with it despite it still feeling clunky. i can't wait to see how well i do with it when i get fully used to it!

[@baconberries8097]

Hey could you elaborate a little more on this? I've actually been looking into changing configs for TF2 as well. Is your alt fire still on mouse 2? one problem I've run into is trying to find a good way to jump, crouch, and press alt fire at the same time in a way that's intuitive, like when sticky jumping.

[@ralphthejedimaster]

@@baconberries8097 i use a side button on my mouse for crouching, alt fire is unchanged. honestly my muscle memory still fails there fairly often but it feels reliable enough when i do actually hit the right key, so far as i can tell it's the best option if you don't want to move a finger off of movement to crouch

[@cryptiik9311]

I use UIKL to move, G to ads,H to sprint and right alt to shoot, that button next to RALT is my interact. Crouch is spacebar which i press with palm so it acts like a 6th finger. This gives me the freedom to pretty much do everything without any major drawbacks. Especially because my shoot and ads is on keyboard and not mouse which i didnt want it to affect my aim since i use fingertip. My tactical is LMB, Holster is RMB, heal menu is side button(wont impact aim),Inventory(to quickly exit deathbox) is full stop, reload is comma which i can easily press from RALT(shoot), switch weapons is that key next to L(:;) and finally F is melee. So to summarise Pinky = F(melee)G(ADS)H(Sprint), UIKL=movement, Thumb=RALT(Shoot), COMMA(reload), Interact=next to RALT. LMB=Tactical and RMB=Holster. About your point with pressing backwards and forwards with 2 different fingers i dont think it matters? like you're mid finger can quickly switch between forward and backward key very fast when circle strafing and making it so that 2 fingers alternate frward and back dont rlly "save time" the way i see it. Like i went into firing range and circle strafed with ur config and then w default config and there doesnt seem to be a difference with the effectiveness of the circle strafe as in it doesnt seem more sluggish or slow since by the time u stop moving back, ur finger has pressed the forward button and now u move move forward. I know i worded it confusingly but i hope it makes sense.

[@marlonwilliams3349]

RJN, this is the most insightful take I've watched yet. Tried it on Apex, and I feel more free with my movement.

[@nolan6733]

I trained myself to move backwards with RALT probably 1.5 years ago. It was difficult to get used to, but definitely worth it. I've got a lot more flexibility, and I've gotten a lot of forwards/backwards counter strafe kills, along with goofy dodging to mess crosshair placement. Definitely worth the time put in.

[@serovlade0]

This is why I like keyboards with programmable layers. I create a gaming layer wherein ESDF is bound to WSAD, basically shifting keys one key to the right. And then I bring faraway keys from the right of the keyboard into the empty space. This way, I don't have to rebind too much keys per game. It's kind of like rebinding keys but at a hardware level, and is mostly portable across different games.

[@afabulousguy4754]

I am never going to be able to unlearb that much muscle memory.

[@ChronicalV]

You might think so at first. I tried swapping my left and right mouse buttons for movement purposes, it took me less than a day to stop pressing shoot instead of ads. Then a few more days for the other click functions (cancelling actions on left, zoom in dropship on right etc). Recently switched from tactical on Q to alt (my survival is on X), then swapped with X because alt tabbing will waste ur ability. Also took a day. It is surprisingly not too hard if you play a few hour session and focus as you should normally.

[@BlueLightningSky]

Most people use default controls simply because it was passed on to them without ever thinking about it. I would love to what a push for evolution could bring to control schemes, not just bindings but keyboard layouts too. Mice have seen so much improvement the past few years but keyboards still haven't evolved, they're like the controllers consoles use, still the same layout with inefficiencies from over two decades ago that haven't attempted to be fixed.

[@therealshug]

Hard agree, it's time to move away from WASD when it makes sense, and move away from "let's bind the thing to the letter it starts with" in RTS games.

[@armin3419]

I might try this out at some point. Also it's funny how many games have useless functions on potentially really useful keys, like using the scroll wheel for looping through all of your equipment by default. For many games I like binding rocket launcher-likes to "scroll wheel down", railgun-likes to "scroll wheel up" and grenade or grenade launcher to MMB. This was very useful and fun in Doom 2016 because It allowed for easy quick swapping / quick switching between rockets and rail. It would be nice if games shipped with an optimized "mainstream" config (that e.g. actually makes use of the scroll wheel and maybe left Alt but idk how comfortable that key is for big hands) and multiple empty profile slots for your own configs.

[@MentalCrusader]

I'm personally using an Azeron Cyborg keypad. For movement I use my thumb (joystick). I feel like it's fast enough since several top players are also using joysticks(controllers) for movement

[@entsfps]

azeron is the logical conclusion of this thinking

[@Artax2040]

The joystick doesn't allow you to press simultaneously left AND right... I want to say so fast ! If he holds both button and release one, he strafe so fast !!! It s impossible for a joystick to be on left and right at the same time.

[@deadfishsushi6543]

I was watching the beginning of the video like "wtf are these wonky controls" but after some time, your thumb doesn't really do much. I've played fps and moba games and learned to hit keys with my thumb but they do require major hand movement, which is fine for me. I just haven't seen a player rebind such a standardized format and come out with a optimal key config without running into major issues. I was surprised how ideal and usuable (possibly better) this config could be. I am truly impressed by the creativity behind this. When I come back to NA, I will definetly try this config or some amalgamation of the config I use and this config.

[@yomikade1]

A little late to the show, but one thing I didnt' really notice I'm different about up until 2 years ago is that I press W with my ring finger and a lot of people when noticed kept asking me pretty much what why how and to be fair it wasn't intentional, but I do get to have much longer reach then most other people. While other people can reach up to 5, 6 if they have long fingers, I can easily reach up to 7 Y H N with my relatively small hands (18x9cm) with ease, if a stretch a little I can get to 8 U J M with my index or thumb as well, so I have much more freedom with my keybinds, sort of.

[@viddicake]

I remember a lot of CS players (before 1.6) did this in tournaments, thought it was cool but never tried it. Thanks for the flashback!

[@Becke963]

Interesting idea. I always wondered why we don't use esdf for gaming. Not only would you give you more key options but also your hand would be in the right position for 10finger typing. One flaw with this config is that you can't ADS and hold your tactical at the same time.

[@antxiety]

i remembered years ago you showed us your keyboard config in a video. ngl i adored your creativity on it a lot... might try it out later

[@WARnTEA]

Interesting fact. Quake was so early in FPS multiplayer games that the WASD traditional control scheme wasn’t invented yet. So most of the quake pros from that time have drastically different keybinds. People were still experimenting and trying to figureout what is best.

[@RocketJumpNinja]

^ Yeah that's kinda what I was pointing out ... when I started, there was no default, I had to create my own cfg, so yeah it's different, but there's also a lot of thought and testing put into it, so hopefully others can benefit from the experience

[@Klar]

I feel like this is kind of reaching, no point in sacrificing comfort for the most minimal of gains.

[@RocketJumpNinja]

What makes you think this sacrifices comfort at all? It's super comfortable. Unless you mean the awkwardness of switching to a new config? Then yeah you put in the hard work for a month to get the gains later, same as working out. You'll adjust.

[@Klar]

@@RocketJumpNinja Holding down right click while shooting just won't ever feel good to be honest, same reason why using hold as your scope button isn't a great idea for aiming.

[@FastbreaKHere]

I have been using UHJK and right alt as my movement keys in every FPS i played the last 3 yrs. I use alt Just to run in Apex...slide on spacebar ,UHJK to move and scrollwheel down to jump. I also use UHJK in quake as i Jump with right alt ...aaand. used Jump on right alt in Doom eternal. Everything began feeling the Need of using single tap Dodge with my thumb in Unreal tournament, an arena FPS game I enjoyed a lot playing the last yrs. Nice to see you found something similar for your setup

[@RocketJumpNinja]

It's actually cool seeing how many others have put thought into configs too and didn't just go with default. I guess most of us come from the old school before a "default" cfg was even established.

[@MicDubTV]

I freaking love ya, Zy. Hope you’re doing well, man! I never fail to enjoy your informative content 💜👍🏾 Greetings from the States!

[@RocketJumpNinja]

Ey appreciate it, love ya back!

[@NonEmployee]

There's one thing I'm curious of when it comes to your config. How would you treat games that have hard-coded binds? ie In a game like Destiny 2, you can move between the menus using WASD, but that can NOT be bound anywhere else. Sure, that's just menus, but I know some games must be worse off where basic functions can't be rebound, or at least not well. (I know when Halo MCC came to PC originally, I couldn't use this type of config because some keys where movement would be were hard-coded to be voice and text chat) I also have trouble with this config in games that have a hold to sprint key. I know in Apex you use auto-sprint, but was still curious about how you'd do that if you needed to.

[@ouwle6618]

My favorite binds in Apex are Crouch - CTRL + Mouse Button 5, Ping - V, Melee - C, and finally the most obscure maybe, Tactical Ability - Middle Mouse Button. I play Fuse and i love being able to knuckle grenade while moving, and changing crouch to a mouse button changed the game for me.

[@Luminon87]

Default effect / status quo bias affects everyone. In Starcraft 2 I used this insane right side of the keyboard layered keybinding that honestly felt like cheating it was so much better than the defaults. But yeah if you switch games a lot the lack of carryover means you pay the price again and again.

[@nijbu]

I feel validated, years ago i moved my hand over in DOTA for more keys with thumb, instead of qwer i use tyui

[@soyooo_]

That's actually very interesting, I might try that. Thank you for sharing this!

[@AlexaRex]

It was in Quake 2 I too went away from arrow keys for movement. I went to ASDF at first but soon realized I didn't need back and forward to different fingers and went with ESDF (since I already had my fingers on ASDF and it gave me more keys to use on the left side compared to SADW). But I kept not being able to stop walking with E as forward, so I kept walking over ledges and fall down stuff. So I have E as back and D as forward. With Q3 I had to move jump from Space to mouse2 as I wasn't able to time the jumps properly for bridge to rail and going across the top of T2. These days I have about the same still. I have thought about moving my keys more to the right and hold my fingers on FHGJ (and then YGHJ as movement keys) as it's easy to find as F and J has a notch on the on the keyboards I've used. Getting into Fortnite was really annoying for finding build buttons I could use without using the movement fingers, or shoot and jump fingers. I don't play that anymore, but I kinda got it to work.

[@tsunika26]

At first I thought that Zy had the jankiest key binds ever but after he explained it, it all makes a lot of sense. I have played at an extremely high level and my key binds look extremely weird aswell because of my preferences but nothing as crazy has m2 being move forward 😂

[@gyro_rella]

I look forward to Zy's apex career. Zy being goated in Quake, imagine Zy pulling off movement techs like Super-gliding and tap strafing. I'm surprised Zy isn't a sweat wraith main lol.

[@RocketJumpNinja]

Despite her pick rate, they need to buff Wraith. Even just give her an instant out rather than the current delay. I can already do the tap strafing stuff, need to train to utilize it in game more, but haven't figured out super gliding yet. Thanks!

[@defcondraco]

As an old quaker.. dgrf movment and weapons around them and jumping on right mouse .. and invert mouse! :)

[@codanh1]

When I first started playing Apex back in 2019, I found default keybinds do not work efficiently for me, so I tried out different settings and I can share my current keybinds here: 1. I don't use Hold 4 as healing wheel, I set V to cells, B to syringes, 5 to bats, 6 to medkits, 7 to phoenix kits. This helps me cut so much time. 2. Mouse5 as Ult, so I can access Ult without affecting my movement or strafing. It prevents me from lifting 1 finger off movement keys to press Z. (works well while tap strafing) 3. Q as Tactical, Z as mic, X as ping, C toggle crouch. 4. ~ as Map instead of M. 5. N to toggle firemode. 6. Ctrl to crouch hold. 7. MWheelUp as W, MWheelDown as Jump (for tapstrafing). 8. H as Heatshield. 9. Tab as Inventory. Keybinds settings depends on your playstyle, choose what you feel most comfortable and most efficient.

[@NoahRichard]

Seeing you learn your way through Apex and optimizing it for your own efficiency is borderline scary, lmao. I wouldn't want to come face-to-face with you in pubs. Thanks for the vid, I might have to try some of this out. Always down for more videos on Apex, too!

[@iPhonix07]

One thing that really bothered me when I started playing apex was how much I had to hold crouch, and C didn’t feel comfy at all! So I decided to use the spacebar for it, so I feel I’m using my thumb for real given how much that is important! I also like having things I should access frequently and fast on my mouse so I binded my Q and holster weapon on the side buttons and the battery on the dpi button that I changed to f11

[@therealshug]

I did the same thing in warframe, similar to apex there's a crouch slide. I normally play very close to default WASD, and there's just too much for your left pinky and thumb to do when you have to sprint, crouch, and jump. I switched to space for crouch and jump on mousewheel and it feels much better. Reload on mouse4 was a big change for me too, i've always used R, which made it so I could never strafe right and hit reload at the same time.

[@HappyBeezerStudios]

The natural step would be to move hold crouch onto ctrl and repurpose C for toggle crouch. I never understood why C would have any reason to be a couch key in the first place

[@cedricrey3371]

Exceptional video as always Zy... You make me rethink norms I've always had

[@MaDrung]

I use "V" for extra key. Learnd it from Guild Wars 2 and it came in handy.

[@cFeor]

The best keyboard I've used in the past was the razer nostromo for wow because the thumb had like 6 binds which were easy to access. Now i use a mechanical brown switch board using esdf for movement freeing up my pinkie and changing caps lock to lcontrol.

[@FHGryphonIRL]

Personally I’m keeping my left hand on the left side of my keyboard because my pinky and ring finger are weak asf and I’m really used to shift, tab and control but I love the ideas this video put in my head and I will be incorporating these ideas into my games. Very cool

[@masterninjahh]

sounds like you would love one of those custom keyboards with 2-3 spacebars

[@dirtyhillbilly5430]

Rofl my mapping a= strafe left s= strafe right, f= back space = forward d= jump/crouch depending on game (right mouse for jump if I need both) upside with my mouse I can always move and shoot (with my g600 mouse, 6 right thumb buttons for use of all speed thing) came about because I started gaming when i started being able to type

[@radiantansel202]

I tried different settings in keyboard, but I was genuinely unable to... so I'm doing something a bit controversial, which is using an old Hori TAC G1 I was given as a gift when I moved to Japan It's basically half a controller with one analog, one dpad, and 5 triggers, 4 are the same and one is bigger. I made almost all my movement/ping options on that one, and all of my "attack" options in the mouse, this is genuinely the best I've ever played Apex, and unconventional setups take practice, it took me like, 6 different settings to finally get my muscle reaction comfy, but I made it, I got to use the controller movement I was so used to, while having the always superior mouse aiming. Don't follow norms, most of these default settings are genuinely terrible

[@88Opportunist]

Certainly an interesting take on things. I usually run default keys but since many games are console ports what actually is a default layout can vary and some games take a lot longer to get used to than others. Might be better to go all custom instead and personally standardize the layout that way.

[@White1nsane]

This is my quake layout from 2000's. And I adjust all FPS games and ARPG, Hack&Slash to suite my hand position. Movement: esdf, a crouch, mouse2 jump. shift-walk, Weapons: q-gauntlet, w-shotgun, r-gl, t-RL, g-RG, c-MG, v-BFG, scroll up-PG, scroll down-LG. 1-6numbers usually teamsay or say binds and abilities for most moba-hack and slash (also default skills usually moved to 2-3-4-5 not usual 1-2-3-4) tab-score/map space-zoom mouse 4 - use ability (quake champions) mouse 5 - drop flag ctrl - use item Also nobody understands my config, but I think also that small finger is also underutilized as a thumb, and its a "setup" for typing and when you learn this layout you never need to look at the keyboard for typing since you already learned the keyboard just by playing the game. At least that's how I learned it :)

[@RocketJumpNinja]

I miss being able to just type quickly like that, not that I need to look at the keyboard, but still have to move both hands ... that's why I'd love to move back to ASDF and have extra thumb buttons below space bar. Also I had Q as gauntlet too, that's why R is now holster weapons, still above jump using little finger, it's basically fists/gauntlet hah then in my Quake config I had rocket, lg and rail all in a row next to it, now it's just weapon 1, 2 and reload.

[@White1nsane]

@@RocketJumpNinja yap, ASDF is for me more superior, but with thumb buttons on mouse, I dont miss extra buttons on left hand for it. Even razer tartarus has less space for me than the classic ASDF hand position, sheer to the easier reach for buttons with the left hand.

[@antongranzow5033]

I think you should really look into gaming keypads and split keyboards for gaming. They give you more thumb keys and overall more predictable key positions.

[@bslay4r]

When I started playing Q3 around 2000 I used the IJKL keys to move and mouse2 for jumping because in Q3 we needed to jump a lot (bunny hopping). I still have those Q3 cfgs. Looking back jumping with M2 seems very strange now. :) WASD came much later probably with TF2.

[@DanielReckea]

Always cool to see someone’s config that is 100% personalised to them cause it makes you think about what you can change for the better. But I will admit gaming post Thresh era is very simple cause everything is defaulted to wasd and I just find it so much effort to switch off the default cause some games are terrible when it comes to binds and reset constantly. Kinda annoying when you have 100 different things to rebind. Only game I’ve done it for is fortnite when I swap it to wasv movement. I kinda agree with the forward back movement but in most games the ground acceleration isn’t fast enough to where that delay of moving your finger up and down is detrimental. Also with new keyboard tech like the wooting rapid trigger this is minimised even further

[@flightlessplanet]

movement actually feels smoother in apex with the right click as move forward

[@moyopochtenie]

The idea of ​​using the middle fingers to move forward and backward really makes sense. I think it's worth a try.

[@bam-ke4px]

This video has changed my entire gaming career

[@ChronicalV]

In apex there is less reason to have independent forward/backward because of the slower accel and also slower strafe speed. The change in velocity moving right vs forward+right can throw off mnk players but against controllers it's worse because of 0ms RAA adjusting to your speed and giving them more leeway. Altho I am happy to be proven wrong. Besides the tactical, there arent any other buttons you need to have super independent since most of them are not held buttons but press. I would like you to try default binds and see what things you find cause problems besides movement, tactical and heals.

[@noob4head]

It makes sense but I'll just stick to WASD. I would never get used to something like this, especially not since I play a whole plethora of shooter games

[@victorreteikerutgersson3644]

Have you tried putting the fire/attack button on the keyboard? It helps alot with aim & especially recoil control since you're no longer jostling the mouse ever so slightly when you push the fire button.

[@jonnolags]

what controls do you use?

[@RocketJumpNinja]

Like Tox? Nah, haven't tried that yet, have thought about it though. I was worried my mouse2 forward might cause issues, but it doesn't seem to ... and then I thought about how it lowers the button height a bit and allows you to grip the mouse more, especially when you use mice with deep comfort grooves like the MZ1. So there's a chance it might actually help. Besides, if you use forward and back on the mouse buttons instead, that's still pressing them while you're dodging, so would still jitter it, if that was an issue.

[@woolaboola7381]

I started my online FPS gaming with Q2 back in 99 and also found the default keys to be horrid. I went with YGHJ due to the logic of having more keys accessible by my pinky and also right alt being available to my thumb. Having your index finger rest on J also made use of the bump and aided finding my home position swiftly after chatting etc.

[@theturtlezsz1338]

You didn’t mention the sprint button, and to me that’s one of the most important buttons as shotguns are delayed when having auto sprint on.

[@RocketJumpNinja]

Wait, are they? How do I test that?

[@theturtlezsz1338]

@@RocketJumpNinja Yes, it happens because sprinting puts the character in an animation of swaying their gun to the side, and then facing it forward to shoot. While walking, though, your character is always facing their gun forward, so it essentially eliminates the added animation of going from sprinting to getting ready to shoot. You can test this yourself by going into the firing range and experimenting with it on and off, but there’s also a few videos that demonstrate the difference. Also, it’s only like 0.2 seconds of difference, but that can be all the difference needed when peaking in and out of a gibby bubble.

[@vanox_incognito]

my brain would explode using those configs xD

[@CrossVs]

I want to show you my config, I think you'd have fun seeing it or trying it out I also do not use standard config in any of my games but I came from a MOBA background where bad keybinds is also completely overlooked. Watching these videos is really fun since I get to listen about your thought processes on these problems with keybinds that I also had to solve in my own way. I'm very surprised I haven't seen your videos sooner. I would love to hear your thoughts on my solutions for FPS keybinds.

[@RootkitsBacktracer13]

Bro this config is really crazy love it. U never try a hand keyboard?

[@SuperRioMa01]

This is absolute madness

[@thetableflip]

Back in Unreal Tournament times there was a guy who had mouse buttons for forward and back, w for jump, s for crouch, a and d strafe, space for primary fire and left alt for secondary. This was so bizzare to me, but he claimed he got more accurate because you can't have perfectly fluid mouse motion while clicking to shoot, at least on the office mice we had back then. I personally sticked to the defaults except in Quake 3 I had my jump on mouse2 for bhopping. Spacebar on my old membrane keyboard used to sometimes stick on not register at all.

[@RocketJumpNinja]

Oh true, yeah Tox (Quake player) does the same, wonder how many people use that style of cfg...

[@i_would_but_i_wont]

Good stuff. I never really thought about changing basic config. I like the idea of putting forward on mouse.

[@sEaNoYeAh]

Definitely not a fan of M2 for any movement. Reminds me of how in Overwatch Tracer's blink is bound to both M2 and shift by default, and quickly nearly every pro and top player adjusted to only using shift, because clicking affected their aim. Eventually as far as I recall the only top player still using M2 for blink was Saebyeolbe, and when you slowed down his replays you'd always see a slight wobble in his aim whenever he blinked. Similarly I'm aware some players prefer toggle aim down sights over hold, because usually this is set to M2, and again players noticed their aim was negatively impacted when having to apply sustained pressure to the mouse. In Overwatch despite it being such a fast game former pro Surefour was one example, and the player Mistakes changed his ADS input to C to take it off the mouse entirely. Of course real optimisation is on a game by game basis, but I think the basic premise of having to right click frequently, or to left and right click at the same time throwing off one's aim is likely to be pretty universal in practice. Especially in intense games where clicking might be faster or more vigorous than normal. For aim it might even be theoretically optimal to have Fire not bound to the mouse at all.

[@Reverae]

The last part is why toxjq doesn't bind his fire button in his mouse

[@BeardedWonder]

I'm pretty sure in Battlefield, the spotting key is defaulted to Q but I use alt so I don't have to take my fingers off the movement keys.

[@quakeplusplus]

400 IQ play is to move thumb to the lowest letter row (ZXCV..) so you rest it on N or whatever and then you have B, M, SPACE and ALT all in the range. The back and forward dodge problem is a lot less pronounced on low profile keys keyboards, but there still though. Having functions that you constantly hold down on mouse can affect aim from my exp. Probably could keep it on keyboard if it was easier to slide finger between the keys (W and S in case of WASD).

[@ignismortis6394]

For me default works quite well as I use my thumb a lot for the lower part of the keyboard so I have no trouble with that. But moving the movement keys to a straight line is quite smart

[@ChronicalV]

There is a player who actually does use index for left and right (as in A and D) and they do just fine, I've always wondered how much the theoretical advantage from optimal binds actually translates to performance advantage in practice. There's a lot of unoptimal bindings by default, but I find bindings are almost never the cause of game-deciding play (besides the case of not using bindings for heals and instead using the wheel, since the game auto switches your heal slot item based on your health).

[@nikczemnydev]

smart binding can make such a big difference, my fortnite binds resemble no1 else's binds, and my friends constantly roast me about them when I let them play on my computer, but man... you can pull off some stuff that's just seems undoable for regular players. and yeah good movement allowes me to dodge a lot more shots, to the extent that I feel like I am at an unfair advantage in no builds mode as well. so... like our friend jerian says, play around with your binds, don't copycat anything, find what works for you and doesn't hinder anything you'd like to be able to do in-game. ; )

[@Solairekt]

Makes quite the sense tbh

[@averylonelyduck]

I use very similar movement keys for rust except i use G for back and H J for left and right but this video helped me alot in making my keybinds more fluent and just overall better i love your videos they have made me so much better tysm

[@CodeVenomSnakes]

Being good is having a great button layout that work for you.

[@vjollila96]

q at alt right? you are brave in this day and age :P

[@chickenoodle3397]

I was going to do this same exact thing like 3 years ago, but it was so intimidating

[@isocuda]

Probably a reason for you to design your version of an Orb Weaver or that Logitech thing that had a movement thumbstick and ergonomic keys for the left hand.

[@TheLEGITstuff]

When a Quake player plays Apex 😂 it was you who taught me to use space bar as ADS when i first got into PC gaming looking at your Quake vids. Made some recent changes but not 100% comfortable with my apex config yet. as always, love the vids, no matter the topic. I myself have been playing a ton of Apex recently too. A little late, but love the game. If you could make a tips series like you did for QC that would be amazing. More vids would always be nice 😊 hope things are well zy

[@1whospeaks]

Thing is, I don't like moving my fingers at all during pressure, so on WASD, every finger has a purpose, and extra keys ONLY for the fingers that can handle multitasking (my pinky just can't). Although after seeing this, might change the dpi button from the all important turbo jump, to melee or some kind of heal, thanks!

[@tonys5672]

I've also been thinking about this topic recently. To have my hand in a more comfortable/natural position and maybe to get a slight competitive advantage(e.g. better forward/back counter strafing)

[@RestTarRr]

Hi, been a fan of your videos for a long time, and mz1 is the mice I am most interested in owning, saldy I can't afford it. Don't take this the wrong way but I just don't understand how that layout is helping you in 99% of the situations especially when we are talking about keeping movement as free as possible so I'm just looking for further explanation if possible. At the end of the video you say that it's better because if you use only 1 finger for forward and back, you are vulnerable from the side. The 2 keys have the opposite effect so aren't you only ever going to be using 1 of them at a time? It's not like you are going to be holding right mouse button(forward) and s(backwards) at the same time. You should be able to do the same diagonal dodging with WASD movement because all you are doing in those scenarios is walking forward and to one side and then backwards and to a side. Why would that movement not be possible or easy with WASD? The alt thing also seems moot because you can do the same with left alt. And last but not least I don't see how being able to HOLD your ability key while maintaining full movement helps you. Most abilities aren't channeling abilities and you can always bind it to a key above space and you'd be able to maintain full movement while being able to hold your ability key. I would gladly do the work required to switch to it(and have done so for multiple keybinds) but I just don't see any gain that you can't achieve with WASD and a new keybind for pings, abilities, etc. What I do see as potential improvement is you technically have access to more keys to your left because your pinky and ring finger usually only have access to ctrl, shift, caps, tab and tilde however the 8 keys you get access to are far smaller and the pinky is usually not a finger we practice much so just like you say for the the thumb you might not be accurate with it. Maybe with enough practice you can get used to it, but trying it just now it feels uncomfortable. The only 3 that feel comfortable are E, D and C because they are closest but W, S, X are a little far and require bending of the whole arm(which makes pressing H and J harder). I know you were primarily talking abotu apex and quake but I want to quickly point out how this layout is impossible in game where there's leaning or lots of keybinds that need to be used. Lean on mouse side buttons wouldn't work because it fucks up your aim and your thumb loses access to many keys. PUBG and probably games like arma that have lots of binds for which you utilize the thumb. In PUBG my thumb uses: Z,X,C,V,B,N, "," on a regular basis and I should probably bind left alt and M to some lesser needed keybinds. If I ever feel like my keybinds are keeping me behind or if a new game comes out that requires even more binds then moving the WASD layout one key to the right seems far more optimal as you still have access to left alt with your thumb, you still have access to the big buttons on the left that are easy to click, you get an extra row for pinky and ring finger and it keeps the insane access your thumb can get versus FGHJ because you just don't have many keys to the right and your hand physically can't go a lot to the left. What am I missing that you see? For me it looks pretty obvious that you can do the same movement with wasd(or better yet ESDF) without any constrictions so I have to have missed something big. P.S. I usually just consume the content and not write any comments so thanks for the videos over the years. Keep up the great content.

[@Reverae]

Thanks for the great write up!

[@NotTheGaslighter]

What an excellent summary, you touched up on many of the same thoughts I had while watching! Maybe one rebuttal I can see for using 4 fingers for movement is that it would be VERY SLIGHTLY faster to press Back, allowing slightly faster strafing in games with more insane movement speed.... like Quake. Yeah, the benefits are pretty minimal, and moving fingers in between both of the likely grooves along F and J could feel slightly more comfortable to some, but there are still obviously downsides to any configuration under the sun no matter what, you have to sacrifice some element of movement or response time or aim in order to find something right, so I would only say, at this point, to find more options in better hardware beyond normal mice and keyboards... maybe, instead of endlessly fiddling with new configurations, we ask for mice with more buttons, maybe two left clicks and right clicks, maybe even more straight-up MMO-style mice if binding becomes such a space issue. There is a keyboard I've found out existed called the Wooting 60HE with ANALOG keys, which are simply faster by design due to being allowed to send inputs again by only pressing down, even while a key has not fully returned and had not been fully unpressed, and this same analog quirk allows you to set multiple binds on ONE key depending on how far its been sent downwards... if this keyboard was ever used by a pro e-sports player during a tournament, it would spread like a plague! One area in which I'm slowly starting to see a technical shift in is the adoption of gyro aiming in some console games, which in games it's present in, has shown consistently to be a major advantage in games like Fortnite or shooters on Switch; there are other examples too, look up Quake or TF2 gameplay with gyro aim against PC PLAYERS! Our keyboards are only coincidentally used to game, so any better innovations in hardware would be THE huge factor of improvement I believe, if the mindset of finding, supporting, and inventing better tools or machines persists everywhere else they are needed on a day-to-day basis, then surely there are easier and more efficient ways to game too!

[@maxzett]

As someone who frequently uses SPACE, V, C with my thumb and somewhat less frequent B, ALT and X I Don't think my thumb is unused

[@holycrusader7829]

Speaking of space bar, if you were to make a keyboard yourself, would you keep it the same size or split it into different buttons if you could?

[@RocketJumpNinja]

I'd love a keyboard that just has a few really nice buttons underneath the space bar ... Roccat did it, but their extras buttons were really plasticky and hard to press. If done right though, it could be amazing.

[@holycrusader7829]

@@RocketJumpNinja Like another row under spacebar? That'd be interesting

[@RocketJumpNinja]

Yeah search for the Roccat Ryos

[@Defron95]

there's also keyboards such as Planck and Preonic (and various split keyboards) which are kinda like you described, with a smaller spacebar and extra keys. They have custom software through which you can map any key to whatever you want, and you can map keys to become additional modifiers (e.g. you can make it so that while you hold the key on the left of the spacebar, q,w,e,r become f1,f2, f3, f4). They were meant to be ergonomic keyboards to reduce hand movement, but turns out they're pretty nifty also for games

[@StaySic4Ever]

No issues for me, I don't change everything, just tweak default a bit. Also have ability on two buttons Q and mouse side button too. I can fully move and hold ability too. Easily do any movement. Same for gauntlet in Quake be it 1 and mouse as alternative. Really no issues setting binds that limit me for fps games. In WoW I have dozens of binds and macros haha so yeah.

[@Tr7gger]

Imagine the possibilites with the Wooting 60HE keyboard.

[@krew5181]

This is exactly why I used the razer orbweaver for so long, my thumb had so many more keys to utilize.

[@kahahabahaha]

one thing ive always done in quake and other quakelikes is have symmetrical bindings around my movement keys, at least for weapons. mwheel up/down for rail/rocket, e/q for lg, 1/4 for nades, 2/3 for mg, and x-b for anything else. I could probably gain more accessible buttons while having "symmetrical" keybinds i f I moved to using esdf, so that might be soemthing I do

[@joemurray]

Which do you prefer tenz final mouse or g pro x super light thanks? Are you going to review tenz mouse thanks

[@heris997]

Are you gonna review the new Razer Deathadder V3 PRO ?

[@jkvasn]

I want to watch more RJN Apex gameplay

[@VD-cc4hx]

thank you for making this video

[@GalacticYuna]

I may have to try this lmao, I've recently tried funky things like jump on lmb and shifting my movement keys along... Esdf stuck nicely but I find some stuff harder to used to, and I think theoretical ideals rarely are the limiting factor in someone's gameplay

[@reinierwasscher9469]

I have personally always used a 'normal' config but with LAlt as crouch, so I have jump and dogde both with my thumb

[@pienter593]

Meanwhile I'm looking forward to RJN reviewing the Deathadder v3 pro. I'm very curious about what you think of the modified shape. The v3 pro is a bit expensive for me, but I think that if they were to release a regular V3 I'd be willing to buy.

[@hehdork2732]

Interesting video although I haven't play Apex before. It made me thinking of my own Left 4 Dead 2 config. Perhaps I will go with asdf like your old quake movements and tinker around to see for my own preference though! Great video.

[@techyescity]

Ugh I came into one problem trying this config, my Microsoft ergo :P

[@RocketJumpNinja]

Just get an axe and chop out the middle part, ez

[@shadowprice8100]

Excellent video, This really has opened up my mind... this makes me think back to when i played unreal tournament 3 and I would always just dash left or right because double tapping w or s to dash forwards of backwards was hard to do consistently... if i had simply remapped it i could have done it better let alone using a main mouse button for movement?! I would have never thought to do that!

[@fraklin6]

I feel like with this config, when wallbouncing with a weapon out, you might accidentally aim down sight. It can put you in a disadvantage if you're wallbouncing to outplay an opponent, and then you unintentionally ADS

[@RocketJumpNinja]

ADS is on space bar, no where near the movement keys ... how would it ever get accidentally pressed when wallbouncing? The mouse3 thing just toggles the zoom distance, so from 1x to 2x, or 2x to 4x, or 4x to 8x, it doesn't actually ADS. Sorry if I didn't make that clear!

[@fraklin6]

@@RocketJumpNinja oh my bad. Nevermind then. Your config is killer!

[@RocketJumpNinja]

Thanks!