Apex Legends: What Are Heirloom Items?

This guide breaks down what an heirloom item is and how to get them in Apex Legends.

If you thought 2019 was the year battle royale games were going to stop coming out and taking up your precious video game, you were as mistaken as I was. Apex Legends continues to enthrall me as I play it any chance I get, and I’ve been okay with that. Despite knowing the general formula of the game and having played it continuous for the better part of two years, Apex Legends continues to feel great.

Though, you have to wonder. What’s the catch with this free to play the game? Fortnite makes its money by selling battle passes and having an excellent lineup of appearance items you procure through loot boxes. The first battle pass for Apex Legends releases sometime next month in March. But, I wanted to dig a little deeper to find out what some of the better, more exclusive items were.

In wanting to learn more, I discovered heirloom items. I took a brief look at them, and my initial thoughts had me worried about Apex Legends’ future. However, if they remain the same as they are now, there shouldn’t be any issues.

What Is An Heirloom Item?

When opening on an Apex Pack, Apex Legends’ loot box, you draw three items and those items have a set rarity level. There are four levels of rarity: grey for common, blue for rare, purple for epic, and yellow for legendary.

Heirloom items are the fifth level, above legendary. These items are exclusive to only a single character, and when you loot an heirloom item, you get the whole set. How rare is this set? Respawn detailed the chance of acquiring one from an Apex Pack on their website, which you can see below. Here’s a link to the page for those unable to see the screenshot.

Respawn are extremely forward with how their loot system works in Apex. They acknowledge a player should not more than 30 Apex Packs without having obtained at least one legendary item. However, as it says in Respawn’s FAQ page, players have a less than one percent chance of looting an heirloom item from a pack and a player should not open more than 500 boxes before they receive one.

If you do not choose to purchase of Apex Legends’ premium currency, you can receive Apex packs through leveling up. This method could take you a while!

As of this writing, there’s only one set available right now, and it’s for Wraith, the Interdimensional Skirmisher. We made a guide on her. Her collection includes a banner pose, an introduction quip, and a kunai knife.

Why The Worry?

The items for Wraith in this set appear incredibly tame. Though, the kunai knife was what troubled me. When Wraith equips the kunai knife, she’s now holding it as soon as she lands. The blade also replaces her original melee animation with one where she stabs the knife into her opponent.

While it may seem harmless, the initial thought was this item was going to enhance Wraith in some fashion. By equipping the kunai, Wraith’s melee attack was going to alter in points, speed, or even make it easier for her to down people.

If this were true, the heirloom items would become a game changer for players. It could make Wraith a great character at the beginning where she would have the opportunity to down her opponents far more effectively without needing to find a gun first. What’s more, if this was the first heirloom item, what were the others going to be like and how powerful would they be?

Thankfully, this was not the case.

There Are No Gameplay Changes

Upon looting Wraith’s heirloom item, I can happily report it did not change the damage she inflicting on other players when she hit them. Also, her animation speed remained the same as her standard attack. The kunai knife only made her melee attacks smoother and fun to do.

If these items were handled by a smaller company or one far more interested in receiving a straight profit from players, these items could have turned out far worse.

For now, they’re a fun thing to try and acquire as you’re busily playing the hottest new battle royale game on the market.

Hopefully, Respawn continues this trend of keeping them purely cosmetic.