The game has reached a point where there are many legends to be unlocked, which I think does more bad than good to the game.Why locked legends are bad for the game (from a new player's perspective):You have no way of trying them to see which one fits your style best before you decide which to unlock.You need to spend roughly 20-25 hours of play to gain the tokens required for unlocking a single legend.The joy of getting rewards quickly goes away when you get cosmetics for legends that are still locked.To get the premium enjoyment of a battlepass or limited event, you need to do additional purchases, either packs of apex coins or the champions edition. This feels very much like a pay to play, to be honest.Grinding a battlepass is slowed to a point where it becomes uninteresting, as a lot of challenges require locked legends, while rerolling the dailies is extremely greedy with those valuable legend tokens.Why locked legends are good for the game:Champions Edition is probably a good seller.Content burnout is a little bit slowed.Deter smurfing a tiny bit.I think most people that buy the champions edition would be happier spending those money on battlepasses, other special editions, limited time bundles, collection event items, loot packs, etc.. But there are ways to keep the champions edition a viable purchase option, too. For example, locked legends could become free to use for a match or for 24 hours, either randomly, by rotation or by spending a small amount of legend tokens. Also, all legends should be free to use inside the firing range (maybe they are, I haven't checked).

@DoYaSeeMe I think you can unlock a legend in like 15 hours? Doesnt seem like much really for a new person. There are lots of legends to test out before you need a new one too right?I'm fine either way with this. I bought the champions edition just for the skins.It would be cool if all legends were available in the training area. This would be a way for people to test them before they buy them.

@KarvaRausku Overwatch didn't have to make them free. Other retail games lock heroes. But Overwatch has a balance they've crafted between the heroes. Locking heroes throws that off.On the subject of money, Apex doesn't have any real room to brag with their high priced skins, collection events, battle passes, and everything else they've monetized.Overwatch gives away a lot more loot boxes too, one per rank plus free boxes in the arcade and at least one per day in the queues. This includes when events are active.Overwatch has added custom game lobbies, arcade modes, PvE co-op, and a variety of new and different ways to play. Overwatch 2 will greatly expand the PvE aspects with a campaign, more co-op, and hero skill trees.Apex is not doing anything to expand the game beyond more ways to spend money on cosmetics.

@jokool_aid I think they were planning to remove legend tokens, that's why they got hidden from view. Anyway, if they keep them, there are ways to make them useful. For example: reroll weekly challenges, buy additional premium battlepass challenges, reroll shop offers, reroll lootpack outcome, buy xp boosters, get weekly raffle tickets (which could be a new feature), get UI customizations, get leave tickets or pay for penalties, etc..

@Lord_Scorpion34 I like the idea of tokens for holo sprays, definitely would be better than dropping 400-1200 crafting materials for them....definitely not worth that much... Same goes for things like weapon charms since, as someone else mentioned in a topic similar to this, you're literally the only person who can see those charms, so why would you want to spend 400-1200 on one of those?But back on the main subject, as others have mentioned, it's a free to play game, so having legends locked away entices people to buy them faster with actual money, but....this game honestly has enough ways to break bank accounts ($300+ Heirlooms anyone?).

@DoYaSeeMe I agree in general. I don't think it's as drastic an issue as say Star Wars Battlefront 2 locking heroes. That's tapping into decades of Star Wars fandom. Fans just want to play their favorites, not really get sweaty about it.Still, Overwatch does not lock their characters. I dont think Apex should either. There's really a lot of lessons this game could learn from Overwatch imo.

Make All Legends Free | EA Forums

38 Replies

hayhor
Hero
4 years ago
@DoYaSeeMe I think you can unlock a legend in like 15 hours? Doesnt seem like much really for a new person. There are lots of legends to test out before you need a new one too right?

I'm fine either way with this. I bought the champions edition just for the skins.

It would be cool if all legends were available in the training area. This would be a way for people to test them before they buy them.
ArchAngeL-PCX
4 years ago
@DoYaSeeMe I agree in general. I don't think it's as drastic an issue as say Star Wars Battlefront 2 locking heroes. That's tapping into decades of Star Wars fandom. Fans just want to play their favorites, not really get sweaty about it.

Still, Overwatch does not lock their characters. I dont think Apex should either. There's really a lot of lessons this game could learn from Overwatch imo.
DoYaSeeMe
4 years ago
@hayhor I have 43 hours on my secondary account and still have only one legend unlocked with tokens, while not even at 18000xp between levels (it's 15535 or something currently, can't check right now). Considering that I have over 2000 hours on my main account, I don't see how a new player will only need 15 hours.

Some basic math: 12000 tokens means 24 levels. A level worth of XP is at least 1 hour of play: a win gives you around 5000xp but takes 20 minutes on average, while the typical match rewards around 1500-2000xp at an average duration of 10 minutes. I believe I was being generous when I said 20-25 hours 🙂
KarvaRausku
Seasoned Adventurer
4 years ago
@ArchAngeL-PCX Overwatch costed what? 50€ when It launched. If it had locked roster seeing how unbalanced the game was back then no way it could have survived to this day... Tbh I don't even know how it still is "alive".
Apex is F2P like lol, does lol have locked roster? Yes, but they rotate their characters every now and then to give people some time to try out new champs.
Apex could try out something similar. At least they could do something about the freaking legend tokens since having 500'000 Legend tokens that you have no way to use is stupid as *****.
Also 1 of the reason why the characters aren't free is so that players have some sort of goal, and that goal is to grind for those champions.
DoYaSeeMe
4 years ago
@KarvaRausku That's not a great goal, because locked legends aren't more powerful, higher tier or in any other way above the free ones. Besides, players will need to spend a lot of hours learning mastering them after unlocking anyway. It's much better to try and learn new legends in the beginner lobbies, instead of doing this while facing or having to keep up with skilled players.
asukojo
4 years ago
My 2nd account is level 220, I still have 1 more legend to unlock. I've reserved 12K token for S9 legend.
The grind is real, but I'm ok with that because it take time to "get used to" new unlock legend, probably 20 levels so it works out for me.
Unlock legend is possible revenue for Respawn so I don't think they willing to let that go.
I agree we should allow to use any legend in training ground so they can try out the next legend to unlock.
Cheese9Man
4 years ago
I wanted wattson so bad when I was starting that I payed real money to unlock her. I didn't know that unlocking characters would be that easy.
DoYaSeeMe
4 years ago
@asukojo Care to share how many hours you have on that account?

As for the revenue, people would most certainly redirect that investment in other things. I think that, if someone new is reluctant to buy a 10$ battle pass, he would definitely be turned off by having to spend another 40$ just to be able to benefit from the daily and weekly challenges that require locked legends. Also, legend specific editions have much more appealing skins than the champion edition, I think a lot of people would prefer to buy those.
MandatoryIDtag
4 years ago
Said this a few times over the past few years, however they could just make ALL legends playable in the firing range.
Basically acts as a free trial and doesn't impact their current system at all.
asukojo
4 years ago
@DoYaSeeMe How to check that in PS4 ?