Apex Legends is the exciting new Battle Royale game by Respawn Entertainment and EA that has everyone talking, playing, running, gunning, and generally having fun. It's free-to-play, but there are some microtransactions present.
It's always worth knowing what you're getting yourself into before parting ways with your money, so we're here to tell you about all the different currencies available to you in Apex Legends and what you can buy with them.
Related: 9 must-know Apex Legends tips and tricks
Battle Royale the way it should be played
Set in the world of Titanfall, Apex Legends is a Battle Royale game built with squads in mind from the ground up. Three Legend teams face off on a map full of ziplines, bunkers and, awesomeness.
Apex Coins
These are your premium currency in Apex Legends, normally only attainable by spending actual money. Here's how much of them you can buy at once and how much you'll be paying for them:
- 1,000 ($10).
- 2,150 ($20).
- 4,350 ($40).
- 6,700 ($60).
- 11,500 ($100).
The pricing structure awards you more Apex Coins the more money you choose to spend at one time, so if you think or know you're going to want lots of Apex Packs or skins over time then you should consider purchasing them in bulk.
Apex coins are used for a number of things. For starters, it's one of two currencies used to unlock two of the game's premium characters — Caustic and Mirage. You'll pay 750 coins each to have them. There are other ways to unlock them, but this is the route you go if you don't want to wait.
Apex coins are also used to buy Apex Packs. At 100 coins per box, Apex Packs grant you three randomized pieces of cosmetic loot in rarities from common through legendary, and even special "Heirloom" items that are extremely rare.
Respawn regularly rotates weapon and character skins in and out of the in-game store to buy directly. These items can be found in loot boxes, but the direct purchase route is nice for those who aren't interested in the thrill of the gamble.
There aren't any other ways to spend Apex Coins right now, but we do know that Respawn is working on a Battle Pass. We're sure there will be an incentive for folks to spend money there, such as to get items faster.
Legend Tokens
Legend Tokens are the red currency. You earn 600 Legend Tokens per level up to level 25, after which you're slowed to earning them every couple of levels or so.
Legend Tokens have one big use right now: They're the free-to-play alternative currency for buying Caustic and Mirage. They cost 12,000 points each, which means you'll need to get to level 20 before you can unlock your first one.
Beyond that, the in-game store often has a couple of specials for skins that can be bought with Legend Tokens. These skins tend to be more basic than the ones you can buy with Apex Coins, but if you find yourself sitting on a mound of Legend Tokens, this is one way you can splurge.
Crafting Metals
Apex Legends has all sorts of cool accolades you can deck your profile out with, including badges showing off your skillful accomplishments and tracking banners that highlight your offensive prowess or teamwork. Character and weapon skins show off your style.
There are also finishing moves you can use in-game, as well as alternative voice lines, banner poses, and banner backgrounds that are shown in the loading screen and — if you're winning games — throughout the in-game banners.
You can earn all of these items through Apex Packs, but if you're running out of luck, you should see if you have enough crafting metals to simply create the item yourself.
Crafting metals are regularly found in Apex packs in varying quantities, and these items increase heavily in cost the more rare they are. You'll have tough decisions to make about what you want to spend your crafting metals on, as they don't come easy.
Is Apex Legends pay-to-win?
Not really, no. Mostly everything you can get in Apex Legends is cosmetic in nature. The only thing close to pay-to-win in this game is being able to unlock Mirage and Caustic a little sooner than paying customers can. You still have a guaranteed route to the characters so long as you keep playing the game.
And as far as skins are concerned? They're nice and fun but nothing anyone should feel compelled to spend money on. The game is fun and fair all the same, so don't be pressured to open your wallet every time some new content drops.
While there's always a chance this could change in the future, we highly doubt Respawn will do anything to negatively affect the momentum it lucked into with Apex Legends. Expect the company to proceed very carefully about how to evolve this exciting game, and we're betting the farm that they'll make sure it always stays an even playing field no matter how much money players spend.
More: Here's how the microtransactions work in Apex Legends
Apex Legends is free-to-play and you don't have to spend money to compete unless you want to look good doing it. If you haven't already tried it, why not? You can play it on Xbox One or Windows 10 via EA Origin.
Battle Royale the way it should be played
Set in the world of Titanfall, Apex Legends is a Battle Royale game built with squads in mind from the ground up. Three Legend teams face off on a map full of ziplines, bunkers and, awesomeness.
