Apex Legends Heirlooms Explained: Heirloom Shards, the Mythic Store & Collection Events

Heirlooms are the rarest cosmetics in Apex Legends, and the system behind them confuses a lot of players who are staring at a Mythic Store screen for the first time wondering why an item costs "150 Heirloom Shards" they don't have. Here is exactly how Heirloom Shards, the Mythic Store, Collection Events and Apex Artifacts fit together, straight from Respawn and EA's own support documentation.

This is a mechanics explainer, not a list of which Legend has which Heirloom today — that list changes every time a new Collection Event ships, so the safest place to check it is in-game, in the Mythic Store itself. What follows is the system underneath it: how you actually get one, what it costs, and why some players unlock Heirlooms for free during events while others grind Apex Packs for months.

1. What Counts as an Heirloom in Apex Legends?

According to EA's official customization guide, Heirlooms are Mythic-tier items that reskin a Legend's melee weapon — a sword, scythe, music box, or similar object that replaces your knife for that character. Mythic is the highest rarity tier in the game's color system (White for Common, Blue for Rare, Purple for Epic, Gold for Legendary, Red for Mythic, and Turquoise for the separate Iconic tier), and Heirlooms sit at the top of that list alongside Prestige skins.

Heirlooms are purely cosmetic. Equipping one doesn't change your melee damage, swing speed, or hitbox — it changes the model, the finisher animation when you execute a downed enemy with it, and in most cases a unique intro quip. Not every Legend has one yet; Respawn adds new Heirlooms gradually, tied to specific characters, usually timed around a Collection Event for that Legend's lore.

2. Heirloom Shards: The Currency That Unlocks Them

Per EA's Apex Legends currency guide, there are five currencies in the game — Apex Coins, Crafting Metals, Legend Tokens, Heirloom Shards, and Exotic Shards — and Heirloom Shards are the only one of the five that can buy an Heirloom. The guide is explicit: "Heirloom Shards are used to craft Heirloom items from the Store. You can only get Heirloom Shards through Apex Packs." You cannot buy them directly with real money, earn them from matches, or receive them as a gift from another player.

That single sourcing path is what makes Heirlooms feel rare. Crafting Metals and Legend Tokens have multiple ways in; Heirloom Shards have exactly one, and it's gated behind opening Packs.

3. The Odds: How Rare Are They From Apex Packs?

EA's support page gives a precise floor on the drop rate: "When you open an Apex Pack, there's a less-than-one percent probability you'll get Heirloom Shards. You're guaranteed to get Heirloom Shards at least once if you open 500 Apex Packs" — provided you don't already own every Base Mythic item in the Mythic Store and don't already hold enough shards to buy one outright. Collection Event Packs don't count toward that 500-pack pity timer, so stacking up event packs during something like the current Blood Pact event won't move you any closer to a guaranteed drop.

In practice, that means most free-to-play progress toward an Heirloom is slow and largely luck-based unless a Collection Event hands you a free one (more on that below).

4. How To Spend Heirloom Shards in the Mythic Store

Once you have Heirloom Shards, EA's guide lays out the purchase flow in the Mythic Store directly:

• Select the Store tab.
• Select the Mythics tab.
• Choose the Heirloom you want to buy.
• Select Purchase.

Separately, Crafting Metals — the currency you also get from Apex Packs — cannot be used on Heirlooms at all. Crafting Metals only unlock Common through Legendary cosmetics (costing 30, 60, 400 and 1,200 Metals respectively, per EA's crafting guide); Mythic and Iconic items, Heirlooms included, are locked out of that system entirely and require Heirloom Shards or Exotic Shards instead. If you're newer to the game and still working out the wider currency list, our Apex Legends beginner's guide to classes and currencies covers how Crafting Metals, Legend Tokens and Apex Coins differ from Heirloom Shards in more depth.

5. Collection Events: The Other Way To Unlock an Heirloom

Buying with Shards is the slow route. The fast route is a Collection Event. EA's own customization guide states that "you can often earn Heirlooms through Collection Events," and that pattern has held for years: a Collection Event brings a rotating set of limited-time cosmetics tied to a theme, with a bonus Heirloom historically unlocked for players who collect every item in that set during the event window. Once the event ends, any Heirloom that was tied to it typically moves into the permanent Mythic Store for 150 Heirloom Shards, where it stays available going forward.

The Blood Pact Event, running October 13 through November 3, 2026, is the current live example of this structure on Apex Legends' official news page. It centers on a Beasts-vs-Demons Wildcard mode, with a Sparrow werewolf skin and an Alter demon skin as its headline Legend cosmetics, plus an R-99 weapon skin and additional retheme bundles sold through the Blood Pact Store. For the full breakdown of that event's challenges and mode mechanics, see our Blood Pact event explainer.

What past Collection Events have looked like

To see the shape of this system across seasons, look at how differently themed each event's key art and cosmetics are, even though the underlying mechanic — collect the set, get a bonus item — stays consistent. Ascended Hunt, for example, paired a golden beast-mask aesthetic with a Conduit skin, while Raise Hell leaned into an ice-and-fire duo of Legend retheme bundles.

6. Apex Artifacts: Customizing an Heirloom Further

Apex Artifacts are a separate but related system EA documents alongside Heirlooms. Artifacts are universal Mythic melee items usable by any Legend, rather than being tied to one character. You unlock the base Artifact using Heirloom Shards (or through an event), and from there you customize it with Exotic Shards — the fifth currency — in a fixed order: theme/color first, then a power source that adds a special effect, then an activation emote, then a matching deathbox skin. The power source and activation emote have to share the same theme before you can buy them, so you can't mix and match freely.

Exotic Shards themselves come from the Battle Pass or can be bought directly with real money, which makes Artifacts a more predictable (if still not cheap) way to get a customized Mythic melee weapon compared to the gacha-style Heirloom Shard drop rate.

7. Quick Tips for New and Returning Players

• Don't break down duplicate Legendary items hoping for Heirloom progress — Crafting Metals and Heirloom Shards are entirely separate currencies, and Crafting Metals can never buy a Mythic item.
• Track Collection Events closely if you want a specific Heirloom for free. Missing the window usually means waiting for that Heirloom to land in the Mythic Store later, priced at Heirloom Shards.
• Collection Event Packs don't count toward your 500-Pack Heirloom Shard pity timer, so don't assume buying event packs is speeding up an unrelated Shard grind.
• Check your Legend roster in the Mythic Store before crafting — if you already own every Base Mythic item, EA's guaranteed-drop condition at 500 Packs no longer applies the same way.
• Sensitivity and HUD settings won't affect any of this, but if you're setting up a fresh account alongside chasing cosmetics, our guide to sensitivity, FOV and HUD settings is a good place to tune your setup at the same time.

The short version: Heirloom Shards are the only direct currency for Heirlooms, the odds from Packs are under 1% with a 500-Pack guarantee, Crafting Metals can't touch Mythic items, and Collection Events like the current Blood Pact event (part of the wider Season 30: Marked content calendar) remain the fastest route to a specific one without relying on luck.

Official Resources

• EA Help: Apex Legends currency guide (Heirloom Shards, Crafting Metals, Exotic Shards)
• EA Help: How to customize Legends and weapons (item rarities, Heirlooms, Artifacts)
• EA: Blood Pact Event official news post
• Apex Legends official site

Browse more current guides in our full Apex Legends and game walkthrough archive.