The Free2Play game Apex Legends was surprisingly announced yesterday and even launched. But how does the battle royale game actually get funded?
Free2Play with microtransactions
Here’s how to buy items: In Apex Legends there are three currencies:
- Apex Coins – You buy these with real money to acquire Apex Packs
- Legend Tokens – You earn this currency in-game with level-ups and it is used to purchase colors for legendary weapons and skins, or unlock new characters
- Crafting Metals – You earn these in Apex Legends to craft skins and items
What do the Apex Packs offer? There are different packs that contain various items depending on their cost. For example:
Apex Legends Starter Pack for 4.99 Euro
- 600 Apex Coins
- Exclusive animated weapon skin Fresh Meat RE45
- Exclusive Feed Frenzy badge
Founder Pack for 30 Dollars
- 2,000 Apex Coins
- Exclusive legendary Hemlok Demon weapon skin
- 3 exclusive Roughneck character skins (1 each for Wraith, Bloodhound, and Gibraltar)
- 3 exclusive badge frames (1 each for Wraith, Bloodhound, and Gibraltar)
- 1 exclusive founder badge
Additionally, you can also purchase coins separately. 1,000 coins cost about 9.99 Euro.
Apex Packs can also be obtained in-game as a type of loot box when your hero levels up. You can unlock a total of 45 Apex Packs this way. The loot boxes never contain items that you already own. Furthermore, one of every 30 packs is guaranteed to contain a legendary item.
Purchase of cosmetic items and heroes also possible
What cosmetic items are available? There are different things that you can unlock or purchase. These include:
- Skins for your characters
- Quips
- Banners
- Finishing Moves
- Weapon skins
Can characters be purchased with Apex Coins? Yes, it is currently possible to purchase two of the eight characters for 750 Apex Coins each. However, you can also unlock heroes with earned Legend Tokens. You need to provide 12,000 Legend Tokens per character for that.
Why are players expressing concerns? The fact that characters can also be purchased is currently causing some skepticism. Although it is (for now) only two of the eight heroes available, it still leaves a somewhat bad aftertaste. This is because the characters (known as Legends in the game) have unique abilities, including an ultimate. How exactly this will affect the game remains to be seen.
The developers want to create a fair system, which is why drop rates for the loot boxes are to be disclosed. They also point out that characters can always be unlocked in-game Apex Legends and do not have to be purchased.
What do you think of the system?
