Heirloom odds in Apex packs revealed

The true odds of getting an heirloom in an Apex pack has been revealed and it’s much lower than previously speculated.

Heirlooms are Mythic-tier cosmetic items tied to a specific legend that change the appearance of melee weapons. They are most commonly acquired by gathering enough heirloom shards to unlock one. heirloom shards are guaranteed after opening 500 Apex packs. There’s also a chance to get an heirloom shard inside an Apex pack at random. But how likely really is that?

Here’s what is known about the heirloom odds in Apex Legends.

Heirloom odds in Apex Legends packs revealed

The exact odds of getting an heirloom in an Apex pack is 0.045%. 

Respawn Entertainment previously shared a much more vague number when discussing cosmetic pulls in Apex Legends. Before, it was described as “less than 1%.” Beyond that, it wasn’t clear how much less it truly was. Now, gamers are learning it’s much, much lower than they thought.

Apex Legends’ X account announced on October 8 that new regulations in South Korea required that drop rates must be shared in detail. Respawn wrote that this pushed them to share drop rates in an attempt to be “transparent” have have “consistent communications” with players so they can make “informed” in-game purchase decisions.

Devs explained that the published drop rates are the “lowest possible rates,” with the rates increasing as players open Apex packs due to the game’s duplicate protection. This means players won’t receive cosmetic items they already have, creating a higher chance of pulling other cosmetics they don’t own already as they open and pull more.

Apex Legends players pointed out some questionable wording in the announcement, including Respawn saying that it can “now share” more details. This makes it sound as if it couldn’t share it before. Instead, Apex players called out devs for purposefully holding back on the low percentage to not deter them from buying Apex  packs. Some also speculated that devs keep adding more legends to create even more cosmetics, making heirlooms even rarer to come across. Gamers are asking for Respawn to increase the drop rate “to be nice” to players.

The 0.45% odds translates to nine out of every 20,000 Apex packs having an heirloom. This makes pulling heirloom Shards at random very, very, very rare. This explains why players buy a ton of Apex packs to get to 500 or just opt to purchase the heirloom straight out.