Heirloom information - common fake news and misconceptions
There is a lot of talk about Heirlooms this week. And with it came a lot of disinformation, both on this forum, Reddit, Twitter and YouTube.
Let's clear some things up.
Q: WHAT IS THE CHANCE TO GET AN HEIRLOOM?
<1%. Source.
There has never been any other communication about this. We simply don't know. It can be 0.0001%, or 0.9%.
Q: ISN'T THE CHANCE TO GET AN HEIRLOOM 0.2%?
This number circulates because they calculated the chance to get an heirloom using the 500 pack guarantee. They do 1 heirloom per 500 packs, so the chance is 0.002 (thus 0.2%). This is false, the guarantee shouldn't be calculated with at all.
Q: CAN YOU GET MORE THAN 150 SHARDS IN YOUR INVENTORY?
Yes. It will show up as 300 / 150 for example. Remember that you cannot get anymore shards than that there are currently heirlooms available. Once you have unlocked all heirlooms, you will not get shards anymore. See the graph above.
Q: MY CHANCE TO GET AN HEIRLOOM INCREASES WITH EVERY PACK RIGHT?
No, that is not how this works. Every pack has an equal, very low, chance of giving you Heirloom shards. That chance is never increased. If you are unlucky and didn't get Heirloom shards after opening 499 packs, Apex will give you one when you open the 500th. Doesn't change any of the chances.
Q: WHAT PACKS ARE COUNTED TOWARDS THE 500 PACK?
Every packs, except for event packs. So normal bought packs (rare), as well as epic and legendary packs count towards the 500 guarantee.
Q: IF I BUY AN HEIRLOOM FROM AN EVENT, DOES THE 500 COUNTER RESET?
No. Events don't do anything with the counter. They don't count towards the 500, don't give heirlooms on their own, and don't reset the counter.
Q: HOW DO I CHECK HOW MANY APEX PACKS I HAVE OPENED?
Currently no in-game method. You can for example use an external website like this one.
Also nice to know, a comment by EA_Kent on this matter:
A pack counter is something we've been seeing feedback on for quite a while, and I agree that it would be a really nice addition to the game. Hopefully it's something we might see in the future. Until then, I'm afraid we don't have a reliable way to track the number of packs that have been opened, so it can be frustrating when it feels like you should have hit the right amount. The third party calculators and trackers are handy to get a general idea, but the numbers can be off. I'd say use these as a sort of general guideline of how close you might be, but try to keep in mind that the number isn't precise.
Q: I BELIEVE I'VE OPENED MORE THAN 500 PACKS AND I STILL DON'T HAVE A HEIRLOOM ?!?!?
Excellent answer by EA_Kent.
This is a topic we see come up every so often. We've sent some reports like this up for investigation several times in the past, and in each case it was found that there just weren't enough eligible packs opened on the account to trigger the bad luck protection.
As far as I know there are no bugs, and the bad luck protection is working as designed. If you haven't yet received any heirloom shards I'm afraid it means you haven't opened enough packs to trigger it. Keep in mind, there are some packs that aren't eligible, such as event packs.
I'm not working for EA. Just a Horizon main gathering some info.
If you bought the heirloom from the event and your 500 pack counter did reset, you will get compensated.
