How to Get Heirloom Shards in Apex Legends: Drop Rate, 500-Pack Guarantee and Events

An heirloom is the ultimate flex in Apex Legends – a unique melee weapon with its own animations, and the cosmetic that tells everyone in the lobby you've been around. The usual way to get one is with Heirloom Shards, one of the rarest currencies in the game. You can't buy them, and they almost never drop by luck alone.

The good news is that the system has a safety net. This guide explains how shards actually drop, how the 500-pack guarantee works, and which other routes are worth watching for. It applies to the current game, Season 31 (Cipher), which started on November 3, 2026.

Quick answer

In practice, one shard drop equals one heirloom of your choice.

How Heirloom Shards work

Heirloom Shards drop from regular Apex Packs as a bundle of 150. EA's published minimum drop rate is 0.045% per pack, which works out to roughly one in a couple of thousand packs – so for almost everyone, the real route is the guarantee.

You spend the shards in the Mythic tab of the in-game Store. An heirloom set costs 150 shards, and you can pick any set that's available there, regardless of which Legend you play. The same tab also sells some Prestige skins for 150 shards, so think about which one you actually want before you click.

The 500-pack guarantee

If you open 500 eligible Apex Packs without seeing shards, the game hands them to you automatically. Each time shards drop – lucky or guaranteed – the count starts over from zero.

There are a few conditions:

• You must still have something to buy. The guarantee only applies if you don't already own every base Mythic item in the Mythic Store.
• You can't already have enough shards. If you're sitting on enough shards for an item you don't own, the guarantee won't trigger.
• Collection Event Packs don't count. Packs from limited-time collection events only count toward that event's own rewards, not toward the 500.

There's no counter in the game showing how far along you are, so it pays to keep a rough tally yourself.

Step by step: earning your first heirloom

1. Level your account. You get one Apex Pack per level from 2 to 20, one every two levels up to 300, and one every five levels up to 500. That's 199 packs on the way to level 500 – a solid start, but less than half of the guarantee.
2. Claim Battle Pass packs. The Battle Pass hands out Apex Packs every season, and they add up over time.
3. Grab free event packs. Many events hand out regular Apex Packs through challenges or reward tracks. Check whether a pack is a standard Apex Pack or a Collection Event Pack, since only the first kind counts.
4. Buy packs only if you've accepted the cost. A single pack costs 100 Apex Coins, and a bundle of 10 costs 1,000. Covering the full 500 with coins is a very expensive way to get an heirloom.
5. Open the Mythic tab when the shards land. Pick the heirloom you want and confirm the purchase.

Other ways to get shards or heirlooms

• Anniversary events. Respawn has given out Heirloom Shards as rewards before. The 5th anniversary in February 2024 included 150 shards, and the 6th anniversary event in February 2025 included a set of shards for unlocking its full collection. These aren't guaranteed to return every year.
• Collection Events. Heirlooms have often debuted in Collection Events, where unlocking every item in the event awards the new Mythic item without shards. It's expensive, and recent events have more often offered recolors or universal Mythic melees than new Legend heirlooms, so check the event's reward before spending.
• The Mythic Store afterward. Once an event ends, its heirloom usually moves to the Mythic tab, where 150 shards buy it like any other set.

What doesn't work

• Exotic Shards are not Heirloom Shards. Exotic Shards are a separate currency you can buy, used for things like evolving Mythic weapon skins, but they won't unlock an heirloom.
• Crafting Metals can't craft Mythic items. Base heirlooms come only from shards or events.

Tips and common mistakes

• Don't count Collection Event Packs. This is the most common reason players think their guarantee is broken.
• Don't hoard shards you'll never spend. Holding enough shards for an unowned item can stop the guarantee from kicking in.
• Don't chase "free heirloom" tricks. No menu trick or pack-opening ritual changes the odds. The drop rate and the 500-pack guarantee are the only rules that matter.
• Be patient. For most players, the realistic path is leveling, the Battle Pass and event packs over many seasons, with the 500-pack guarantee as the finish line.