Apex Legends had recently launched the Iron Crown event. The event brought a hotly anticipated “solo” mode, allowing players to try to strike things out on their own. Along with this limited mode, a whole bunch of new cosmetics were revealed, locked behind boxes for the duration of the event. However, whatever hype people had with new mode was thrown to the wayside because of these boxes.

If you’re just playing Apex Legends for free, you can get a shot at opening a free lootbox every few level ups or so. With the improved Season 2 battle pass, players can earn a whole bunch of cosmetics by doing challenges and leveling up, so there’s that goal oriented system to earn things. However, the cosmetics of the Iron Crown event do not work like in the same way, as its’ cosmetics are locked behind exclusive boxes. There are currently two free Iron Crown packs that you can get from challenges, along with “crown” currency to buy some other cosmetics. How else are you supposed to get the rest of the stuff?

The only way to get the rest of the Iron Crown stuff is by buying its exclusive packs. It sounds bad, but hey, 100 Apex Coins is just a dollar, right? Oh no. The Iron Crown packs are different from the normal ones in that they cost 700 Apex Coins, or $7. As there are 24 unique items, removing the 2 that you’d get from the free boxes, getting everything there is to offer costs 15400 Apex Coins – or a grand total of $154. While you can earn Apex Coins through level ups and battle pass levels, you earn them in such low amounts that you’d probably only shave a few dollars off.

The cherry on top of all this outrage is that after getting all the Iron Crown items, players have the “privilege” of buying an Heirloom cosmetic for Bloodhound. This cosmetic is 3500 coins, so add $35 on top of all the rest of this stuff.

“Well,” you may say, “I don’t want all the items, I just want this one specific one.” See, the problem is, you have to remember that pack items are chosen out of a pool of 24. If you only want one specific item from the free boxes, those are a 1 in 24 and 1 in 23 roll, so unless you’re lucky, you’re going to have to spend some money.

I’m not personally engaging in this stuff; though as a Bloodhound main, I’m miffed about their Heirloom. However, this is easily the worst loot box stuff that I’ve seen in a video game. I regularly play gacha games, for crying out loud, so that should tell you something. For the most part, the Apex Legends community has been in an uproar. In fact, all the current top posts on the official subreddit, like this, are critical of the event’s pricing model. It’s real frustrating to see this in an otherwise stellar game and hopefully there will be an official response that changes things.

Phenixx Gaming is everywhere you are. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.