What Is an Apex Heirloom? 

An Apex Heirloom is a very rare cosmetic item in Apex Legends. These items change the look of a legend’s melee weapon and usually include a themed banner pose and special quip. They do not affect gameplay — they’re purely for style and personal flair. Players can choose from different heirloom sets once they collect enough heirloom shards.

How the Heirloom System Works (2025 Mechanics)

In earlier seasons, some heirlooms dropped directly. Today, Respawn uses heirloom shards:

  • Each Apex Pack has a tiny chance to drop 150 shards.

  • 150 shards is the exact amount needed to unlock any heirloom of your choice.

The chance of getting shards from one pack is about 0.045%, meaning it’s extremely rare — less than one in two thousand packs.

The 500-Pack Guarantee Explained.

To make sure players aren’t stuck forever without getting shards, Apex Legends has a built-in “pity timer.”
If you open 500 Apex Packs without receiving any shards, the 500th pack is guaranteed to contain Heirloom Shards. 
This resets once you get those shards, meaning the next set of 500 packs becomes a new chance at another set.

Important note: Every pack’s chance stays the same until that guarantee triggers — opening more packs doesn’t change the probability until the pity timer kicks in.

How Many Packs Are Realistic? 

While odd stats can be confusing, here’s a helpful table showing possible outcomes:

Pack Range Likelihood / Expectation
1–100 packs Very low chance (tiny probability each pack)
100–250 packs Still rare; some players get lucky early
250–499 packs Increasing frustration, still tiny chance
500 packs Guaranteed shards if you haven’t got them yet

This shows why heirlooms are often described as lottery-like in Apex Legends — you could get unlucky for a long time before the guarantee triggers.

Sources of Packs 

You earn Apex Packs through:

Leveling up — every few levels gives free packs.
Battle Pass rewards — both free and paid tiers give packs.
Season events and challenges may give packs.
Buying packs with Apex Coins (premium currency).
These all count toward your 500-pack pity timer if they’re normal Apex Packs.

Heirloom Shards vs Collection Events

In some seasons, Respawn releases Collection Events where a specific new heirloom can be unlocked by completing the entire event cosmetic set. Once the event is over, that heirloom usually enters the regular heirloom store, where you can buy it with shards.

This gives players another path to get an heirloom, but it typically involves playing or earning specific cosmetics rather than random pack drops.

Common Misconceptions

Many players think:

  • “I’m due for a drop because I opened many packs.” — Not true; each pack’s chance stays the same until the pity timer triggers.

  • “You need to open 500 packs every time.” — You only hit the guarantee once per cycle — it resets after getting shards.

Clarifying these helps with understanding how the system really works.

Disclosure

The information in this article reflects known details about heirloom shard drops, odds, and mechanics as of December 2025 and is not intended as advice.