Muzzle Flash is the annoying dust of smoke that appears in your line of sight when you shoot your weapon in Apex Legends.
It’s not too bad for some guns, but for others, it’s positively blinding. The higher the rate of fire is for your weapon, the worse it gets. Luckily, there’s a way to reduce it and even remove it from the game altogether.
Muzzle Flash obscures your vision and prevents you from freely holding down your left click. Removing it gives you a distinct advantage. You could argue that tampering with the game is cheating, but configs are there to be edited. If Respawn Entertainment was against this, surely it wouldn’t be allowed. But that’s not the case. As a player, you’re free to edit the game’s configuration as you please.
In game’s like Counter-Strike, or Call of Duty, it’s standard practice to change your mouse and field of view settings in the config. It’s all perfectly legal. But it’s up to you to determine the moral implications of removing Muzzle Flash.
How to turn it off
C:\Users\Your Username Here\Saved Games\Respawn\Apex\local\settings.cfg.
Once you’ve opened the settings.cfg file, all you have to do is edit it accordingly. Here’s what the default settings look like, in case you ever want to revert to the original.
Default
r_shadows 0
mat_screen_blur_enabled 0
alias “+shoot” “+attack; r_particle_timescale 1” //muzzle flash
alias “-shoot” “-attack; r_particle_timescale 1” //muzzle flash
bind_US_standard “mouse1” “+shoot” //muzzle flash
mat_compressedtextures 1
cl_ragdoll_collide 0
r_dxgi_max_frame_latency 0
hud_setting_pingAlpha “0.100000”
cl_cull_weapon_fx “0”
cl_ejectbrass “0”
Now there are two possible options. You can reduce Muzzle Flash, or remove it from from the game entirely.
Reduced Muzzle Flash
r_shadows 0
mat_screen_blur_enabled 0
alias “+shoot” “+attack; r_particle_timescale 10” //muzzle flash
alias “-shoot” “-attack; r_particle_timescale 1” //muzzle flash
bind_US_standard “mouse1” “+shoot” //muzzle flash
mat_compressedtextures 1
cl_ragdoll_collide 0
r_dxgi_max_frame_latency 0
hud_setting_pingAlpha “0.100000”
cl_cull_weapon_fx “0”
cl_ejectbrass “0”
Removed Muzzle Flash
r_shadows 0
mat_screen_blur_enabled 0
alias “+shoot” “+attack; r_particle_timescale 300” //muzzle flash
alias “-shoot” “-attack; r_particle_timescale 1” //muzzle flash
bind_US_standard “mouse1” “+shoot” //muzzle flash
mat_compressedtextures 1
cl_ragdoll_collide 0
r_dxgi_max_frame_latency 0
hud_setting_pingAlpha “0.100000”
cl_cull_weapon_fx “0”
cl_ejectbrass “0”
This exploit has now been patched. Players can no longer reduce or remove Muzzle Flash.
