Apex Legends’ Heirloom Shards Are A Blessing And A Curse

thegamer.com:

I’ve hit the jackpot. You can keep your 5* Genshin characters or your best pull in Raid: Shadow Legends (I’m sure someone plays that, right?), I’ve just bested you all. I’ve finally got my hands on Apex Legends’ heirloom shards. This beats any Icon I’ve pulled in FIFA – yes, even Cafú – and the rainbow rare Reshiram and Charizard GX I got in my first Sun & Moon Unbroken Bonds Elite Trainer Box. For the most part, that’s because I like Apex Legends more than FIFA or the Pokemon TCG. But also, heirloom shards might be rarer than an Icon and a rainbow rare put together.

I pulled two Icons in Ultimate Team last year. First came Cafú, then Fernando Torres shortly after. I’m not counting SBCs here – Icon packs or challenges for specific players – but this was still impressive. Having never packed an Icon before, I got two in FIFA 22! It was also the FIFA game I grinded hardest – there’s a reason I quit ahead of FIFA 23. I’ll admit my Pokemon pull was pure luck, though.

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Similarly to FIFA, I’ve played Apex for hundreds of hours across multiple launchers (remember when Apex wasn’t on Steam?), and never so much as sniffed an heirloom. Until now. I’m not rich enough to pay the ~£200 to complete a Collection Challenge that comes with a guaranteed free heirloom, but I always feel like that would be cheating anyway? Like the kid whose dad is manager of the football team and gets made captain despite seven players being better than them. And it’s five-a-side. There’s no glory in buying your heirloom, you should earn it like the rest of us. Like me.

“What are the odds of packing an heirloom?” I hear you ask. Nobody knows. EA helpfully says the odds are less than 0.1 percent for