EAIf you needed any more evidence that loot boxes can be super exploitative and not at all good, one Apex Legends player has just spent $500 in an attempt to get one of the battle royale’s rarest items.
Heirlooms are the rarest and highest tier of loot you can currently get your mitts on in Apex Legends. Grab one, and you’ll get yourself a new voice line, a banner pose, and a melee weapon skin.
EAHeirlooms are unique in that they’re the only things that are exclusive to the Apex Packs (loot boxes), and are not obtainable through normal gameplay. All purely cosmetic of course, but clearly something the more dedicated Apex gamers covet.
Reddit user BAE339 shared their tale of woe over on the Apex Legends subreddit (via VG247) and explained what drove them to sink so much cash on a single set of cosmetic items.
BAE starts by making it clear that they’ve never spent so much money on loot boxes in a game before, despite putting hours into the likes of Overwatch and Rocket League. They also establish that they have their life “pretty much together.”
In addition, they’ve never picked up a lottery ticket or really gambled by any definition. BAE is telling us this, they explain, because they want us to understand anyone can fall foul of the “predatory nature of loot boxes in games.
EASo what was different about Apex Legends? BAE puts it down to the game’s “pity timer” which basically means if you open 500 Apex Packs and don’t get an Heirloom, the game takes pity on you and awards one automatically in the next pack.
BAE mused:
At least three of my friends have gotten the Wraith heirlooms in only a few crates, all the streamers have them, surely it wouldn’t take me the whole 500 crates right?
Unfortunately, BAE tore through 500 packs, unable to stop. They were convinced after every pack that the next one would contain the Heirloom, but they’d been played like a damn fiddle.
EAAs BAE summarises; “I spent $500 opening 500 Apex Crates In search of the Wraith heirlooms. I got them on my 500th crate. Don’t be like me.”
Don’t be like BAE.
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Ewan Moore is a journalist at UNILAD Gaming who still quite hasn’t gotten out of his mid 00’s emo phase. After graduating from the University of Portsmouth in 2015 with a BA in Journalism & Media Studies (thanks for asking), he went on to do some freelance words for various places, including Kotaku, Den of Geek, and TheSixthAxis, before landing a full time gig at UNILAD in 2016.