How to get Heirloom Shards during Apex Legends’ Anniversary Event

Heirloom sets are the rarest items in Apex Legends, and the battle royale’s Anniversary Event provides fans with a unique opportunity to earn them.

Players are guaranteed one Heirloom set after 500 loot boxes, which makes their drop rates abysmally low. The Anniversary Collection Event offers a way to get the elusive Heirloom Shards and two free Apex Packs just by clearing the rewards track.

Players would usually get specific Heirlooms when buying all the items in a collection. But this time, things are a little bit different, although the method behind it is still the same.

How to get Heirloom Shards during the Anniversary Collection Event

Getting the prized 150 Heirloom Shards during the event requires purchasing the entire collection of 24 cosmetics. It’s a burdensome effort, but it’s better than paying your way through 500 Apex Packs.

Luckily for players, however, Respawn is adding a special discount on crafted collection items. They’ll cost 50 percent fewer Crafting Metals if you decide to craft them, as opposed to buying them with Apex Coins (AC). This opens up a series of possible avenues for players to get a set of their choice—or at least obtain their favorite cosmetics.

In addition to the sale, players can get two free event packs (as well as 10 regular ones) from the event prize track, provided they rack up enough points in two weeks.

Crafting is key

Getting Heirloom Shards in the Anniversary Event is a matter of acquiring 12 epic and 12 legendary cosmetics. As a general rule of thumb, the best way to complete the collection is to craft as many Epics as possible before opening any packs to take them out of the equation and have a better loot pool, since event packs don’t yield duplicates.

The Anniversary event follows that rule, but with an extra help to get the entire collection: a 50 percent discount on crafted items. Epic items in the Anniversary Event go for 400 metals a piece, while legendaries go for triple that amount. If you’re looking to complete the collection instead of getting isolated cosmetics, it’s best to put a dent in the Epics before opening any packs to ensure the loot boxes only yield legendary drops.

After the epics are taken care of, it’s a matter of buying bundles and individual packs to get enough rolls to complete the rest of the items and collect the Heirloom Shards. Of course, that mileage may vary based on how many Crafting Metals players have lying around.

Those are general principles on what to do when chasing an Heirloom during the event, but we’ve done more detailed math on the best scenarios below.

The numbers, Mason

Crafting is essential to get the most bang for your buck, but not everyone has thousands of resources lying around. We’ve crunched the numbers to estimate how much it would cost in a couple of different scenarios.

With enough metals, players can get their hands on several epic-rarity cosmetics to take them out of the loot box equation for good. Since epic items cost 400 Crafting Metals a piece (thanks to the discount), players can snag half of the collection for 4,800 metals without the need to open their wallets.

From then on, it’s a matter of getting 12 Apex Packs or skins. The Pure Fire seven-pack bundle (5,000 Coins) offers you essentially eight cosmetics for the price of seven, since it gives you a Lifeline skin and seven Apex Packs. The event offers two free Apex Packs, which brings that total to 10. From then on, players can purchase two individual Apex Packs for 700 Coins a pop, for a total of 6,400 Coins ($59.99).

Players who aren’t sure they’ll get the free event packs may consider also snagging the Blood Moon three-pack bundle, which sells for 2,500 Coins. Buying both the Blood Moon and the Pure Fire bundles costs 7,500 Apex Coins ($59.99 plus $9.99) and yields 12 cosmetics right off the bat. Taking that route doesn’t require the two event packs, but players who do end up getting them throughout the event will have their value refunded in Apex Coins and will come out of the event with an extra 300 Coins compared to the other method.

Of course, getting the Heirloom Shards becomes increasingly more expensive if players don’t have too many Crafting Metals lying around. Luckily for players, Apex is offering 10 free Apex Packs during the event, and they may contain an extra supply of metals to help craft the cosmetics.

Players who have approximately 2,400 Crafting Metals can snag half of the epics in the collection. This means they’ll still need 16 event packs. Buying the two bundles (7,500 AC) takes care of 12 of them. Counting the two free event packs, players can grab two individual loot boxes for another 1,400 AC—a total of 8,900 Coins, or $80 when buying the best value options.

Players who don’t have any Crafting Materials lying around will have to shell out a lot of Apex Coins to get their prized heirloom shards. With 24 cosmetics in the collection, it would take both bundles (7,500 Coins), plus another 10 Apex Packs (7,000) and the two free event packs, to a grand total of 14,500 AC or $140.

Of course, the numbers in this analysis will vary depending on how many epic-rarity items are in the loot pool—and, consequently, on how many Crafting Materials players can spend. It’s vital to keep an eye out for the best value bundles for your situation, but with a focus on crafting as many epics as possible if you’re after the Heirloom Shards.