Is Apex Legends pay to win? Here's how the microtransactions work.

Is Apex Legends pay-to-win?

While there are several tiers of microtransactions in Apex Legends none of them offer anything that will help you win. All the content available to purchase with real money is cosmetic only and available in multiple ways.

The only possible exception is the two playable characters that are available to purchase with cash monies. Since these additional characters are just as powerful as the free ones, they don't qualify as "pay-to-win," but they do offer their own special powers which you may find more enjoyable than the standard heroes.

There is a lot of choice for cosmetic microtransactions

In a recent interview with VG247 design director Mackey McCandlish explained that you could purchase Coins on the Microsoft Store to then grab Apex Packs, their version of loot boxes, that will give you a random choice of cosmetics with at least a "blue or rare quality item" as well as the chance to get exotic goodies.

You can also purchase player characters for real life money though they don't appear in the Microsoft Store for Xbox or Origin Store for PC, you have to purchase coins and then buy them in game. You can also purchase legendary cosmetics for the "low low" price of $18. I kid, that is not cheap at all, it's pretty crazy really.

It seems that you purchase coins on the Microsoft Store or Origin PC store and then use those to purchase things in-game. You also earn in-game currency called Legend tokens when you level up as well as receiving Crafting Metals from Apex Packs that you can use to forge cosmetics as well. Confused yet? Yeah, so are we.

You can also get 45 Apex Packs for free from playing the game, though it's unclear if that means per month, per season, or for all time. It does give you the chance to get some of these paid cosmetics for free which is great, though some of the cosmetics are quite pricey.

It's still early days for Apex Legends, and right now it seems to be pretty good fun. We will see if the microtransactions break the enjoyment as we go on, but as of right now they don't seem to affect your gameplay at all.