Alright, so I’ve been meaning to talk about this little project of mine, tracking my Apex Legends packs. It sounds a bit much, I know, but hear me out. It all started because, like many of you, I was chasing that elusive heirloom. You open pack after pack, and you just wonder, “Am I even close? Is this thing even real?”
Getting Started – The Why
So, the first thing was just pure curiosity, mixed with a bit of frustration. I’d see folks online getting their heirlooms, and I’d be sitting there with, well, a lot of P2020 skins. I thought, there’s gotta be a way to at least estimate where I stand with that 500-pack pity timer. And also for the legendary items, you know, the one guaranteed every 30 packs or so if you’re unlucky.
First Attempts – Pure Chaos
Initially, I tried to just… remember. Yeah, that didn’t last long. After a few gaming sessions, especially if I bought a bunch of packs or earned a few through the battle pass, it all became a blur. “Did I open five packs last night, or was it seven?” Useless.
Then I thought, okay, a simple note on my phone. I’d jot down “5 packs opened – 1 epic.” But that got messy too. No structure, hard to count totals, just a jumble of notes. It was better than nothing, but not by much. I needed something a bit more organized.
The Spreadsheet Era
This is where I landed, like probably many others who’ve tried this: a spreadsheet. Google Sheets, Excel, whatever you fancy. It’s not rocket science, but it gets the job done if you stick with it.
So, I set up some basic columns:
- Date Opened: Pretty self-explanatory. Helps to see patterns or remember when big pack-opening sprees happened.
- Pack Source: Was it a free level-up pack? Battle Pass? Event? Did I buy it? Good to know.
- Pack Count (Cumulative): This is the big one. Just a running total. 1, 2, 3… up to however many.
- Legendary Dropped? (Y/N): Simple yes or no.
- Heirloom Shards Dropped? (Y/N): The dream column!
- Notes: Anything special, like if the legendary was a duplicate, or if it was an event-specific item.
I also added a little counter for “Packs Since Last Legendary.” Every time I marked ‘Y’ for Legendary Dropped, I’d reset that smaller counter back to zero. It helped me see if that 30-pack pity for legendaries was working as expected. Spoiler: it generally does, but sometimes you get lucky sooner.
The Grind of Logging
Now, here’s the kicker. Having the spreadsheet is one thing. Actually remembering to update it every single time you open a pack? That’s the real challenge. There were times I’d open a daily treasure pack, get distracted, and then an hour later go, “Oh crap, I forgot to log that one!”
I tried to make it a habit. Open packs, immediately tab out (or grab my phone if I was using a cloud sheet) and log it. It’s a bit of a pain, especially when you just want to jump into the next game, but if you want the data, you gotta do the work.
What made it tricky is that Apex doesn’t give you an official pack history. You can’t just look up how many you’ve opened. So if you decide to start tracking late, like I did initially, you have to make a rough guess for your past packs, or just accept you’re starting your count from a certain point onwards. I sort of estimated based on my account level and past battle pass completions, but it’s not perfect.
What I’ve Found Out (For Myself, Anyway)
After doing this for a good while now, I have a much better, albeit still estimated, idea of where I am. I can see my total pack count slowly inching towards that 500 mark for the heirloom. It’s still a long way off, mind you! But it’s not just a blind hope anymore.
It also confirms that, yeah, you do get a legendary roughly every 30 packs if your luck is bad. Sometimes you get two in ten packs. Sometimes you hit 29 and then finally get one. It’s all RNG, but the pity timers are there.
One thing this whole process has taught me is patience. And that I probably spend a bit too much on event packs, haha. But seeing the numbers makes it more… tangible.
Is It Worth It?
For me? Yeah, I think so. I’m a bit of a data nerd, and I like knowing these things. It hasn’t magically gotten me an heirloom faster, obviously, but it has given me a sense of progress.
If you’re super casual and don’t care about this stuff, then no, it’s probably not worth the effort of meticulously logging every single pack. But if you’re like me, constantly wondering about those pity timers and wanting some semblance of control or understanding, then setting up a simple tracker can be quite satisfying.
It’s not a perfect system because the game doesn’t offer the raw data, but it’s the best I’ve come up with for myself. Just a simple, manual tracking effort that, over time, paints a decent picture. And hey, when I finally DO get those heirloom shards, you can bet that “Y” in the heirloom column is going to feel amazing to type in!
