Today, Electronic Arts unveiled the official drop rates for the Apex Legends lootboxes to get Heirloom Shards. Why now after five and a half years? Well, the reason is simple: South Korea recently passed a law that requires publishers to disclose loot box drop rates, so EA decided to share a global communication. Here’s what they had to say about Heirloom Shards:
Heirloom Shards are rare, reflecting the very special nature of these items in our game. While we have shared in the past that Heirloom Shard drop rates were less than 1%, we can share the more detailed percentage of 0.045%. However, we built in a guaranteed Heirloom Shards drop for those who did not receive any after opening 500 Apex Packs† to balance this. This ensures that every player will receive this currency to unlock a Mythic item of their choice along their Apex journey.
EA stressed that these are the lowest possible rates based on the inventory of a player who hasn’t earned any of the Apex Legends cosmetics from the relevant Apex Pack pool. Since Apex Packs feature duplicate protection, players cannot receive the same cosmetic item twice; as users unlock more of a cosmetic item type, their odds of getting a specific item inevitably increase. As a result, every account has different odds of acquiring each cosmetic item type based on what they have previously unlocked. The post also reminds fans that items in the Apex Pack pool may also be obtained through other means, like using Crafting Metals to craft the item.
Apex Legends players already knew the drop rates to be ‘less than 1%’, although the reality is much worse, as many had already suspected. By the way, rather than complying with the new South Korean law, Take-Two has recently decided to outright remove NBA 2K25’s own lootboxes (the VC Packs) from the Korean version.
