How to Open a Stronghold in Apex Legends Season 31: Capture Rules, Loot and Tips

Apex Legends Season 31: Cipher went live on November 3, and the change you'll notice most in a regular match isn't the Crypto rework or the Akimbo Wingman. It's the Stronghold: a locked, armored loot bunker that falls out of the sky in the middle of every Battle Royale game and turns the area around it into a fight.

The loot is worth it. But you can't just walk up and open a Stronghold. First your squad has to win the area around it. This guide covers when Strongholds drop, how the capture rules work, what's inside, and how to win the fight around one.

Stronghold basics at a glance

When and where Strongholds drop

Season 31 reshuffled the airdrop schedule. According to Respawn's patch notes, two Care Packages now land as Round 1 closes. When Round 2 closes, one more Care Package arrives along with the match's single Stronghold.

Where it lands isn't fixed. Respawn says the landing spot depends on the local terrain and where the ring is when the drop happens. So you can't memorize spawn points the way you could with a static vault. Watch for it around the end of Round 2 instead, and plan your rotation once you see where it's coming down.

Two things happen when it lands:

• It crushes anything underneath it. Like a Care Package, a Stronghold kills players and destroys objects it lands on. Don't stand under the drop marker hoping to be first in.
• It deploys cover. If there's room, the Stronghold puts out up to four indestructible barriers and two Hardlight frames around itself. Expect a fight between fortified positions, not open ground.

How to open a Stronghold, step by step

A Stronghold stays sealed until a squad captures it. Until then, nobody can get in. The patch notes specifically say Loba can't steal from it with her Black Market and Alter can't breach it with her portal until it's captured.

1. Spot the drop. As Round 2 closes, look for the Stronghold coming down and decide right away whether your squad can reach it before the ring forces you elsewhere.
2. Clear the area before committing. The capture only progresses while one team is alive in the zone. If another squad is already nearby, deal with them first or wait for them to start the capture so you can punish it.
3. Get your whole squad into the zone. Capture is faster with more teammates inside, so a full squad on the point beats one player holding it while the other two loot.
4. Hold the zone until it hits 100%. If a second team enters, the capture is Contested and stops progressing until only one team is left in the zone.
5. Be in the zone at 100%. The Stronghold goes to whichever team is in the zone when progress reaches 100%, not to the team that did most of the work.
6. Loot it. On capture, the doors and roof hatch open and every living member of your squad gets a Level Up. Go through the doors or drop in through the roof and split the loot.

What's inside a Stronghold

Respawn's patch notes list the full contents:

• 1 Care Package weapon
• 3 Gold Guns
• 3 Amps
• 2 Corrupted Attachments

That's enough for a full squad to come out with upgraded weapons, plus the free Level Up from the capture. It's the biggest single loot boost a squad can get in the mid game this season, which is exactly why the whole lobby will be thinking about it.

Capture rules you need to understand

The capture system has a few quirks that decide most Stronghold fights:

• Progress is shared and never decays. Capture progress is global, not per team, and it doesn't drain when a team leaves. If one squad pushes the bar to 80% and gets wiped, the next squad alone in the zone continues from 80%.
• Contested means frozen. With more than one team in the zone, nobody makes progress.
• Only the final moment counts. Ownership goes to whoever is in the zone when the bar fills.

Together, those rules make Strongholds a magnet for third parties. A team that spends a full minute capturing and gets cleaned up at 90% has done most of the work for whoever kills them.

Tips for winning Stronghold fights

• Be the third party when you can. Because progress never resets, there's little reason to rush in first while other squads are close. Let two teams fight over the zone, then push the winner while they're weak and the bar is already high.
• Use the deployed cover. Those four indestructible barriers are the best positions near the Stronghold. Take them early and you hold the zone from behind cover instead of standing in the open.
• Check where the ring is going. The drop spot depends on ring position, but the next ring can still pull away from it. Make sure you'll have time to capture, loot and rotate.
• Don't count on Loba or Alter shortcuts. Neither can reach the loot before the capture is done. After that, the Stronghold works like any other open loot spot.
• Remember the Level Up only goes to living players. Revive or respawn your teammates before the bar fills if you can, so the whole squad gets it.

Common mistakes

• Standing under the landing spot. It's an instant death, not a head start.
• Leaving the zone to loot early. The Stronghold can't be looted until it's captured, and if you leave and an enemy is alone in the zone when the bar fills, the loot is theirs.
• Treating a contested bar as safe. A frozen bar means an enemy squad is in the zone with you. Find them.
• Ignoring the Round 2 Care Package. The Stronghold gets all the attention, but a Care Package lands at the same time. If another squad is going for the Stronghold, the Care Package can be the easier prize.

Is it worth going for?

Usually, yes, as long as your squad is healthy and the ring cooperates. One Care Package weapon, three Gold Guns, three Amps, two Corrupted Attachments and a squad-wide Level Up is a lot from one objective. Just treat the capture zone as a fight that goes to whoever is still standing at the end, not to whoever arrived first.