This Apex Legends axe costs £112 in loot boxes

The games industry’s insistence on profiting from gambling mechanics continues today, as Apex Legends’ highly-anticipated Iron Crown Collection Event has arrived – absolutely riddled with loot boxes.

In contrast to Apex Legends’ previous event Legendary Hunt, in which all new cosmetics could be earned or purchased directly from the store, most of the Iron Crown Collection cosmetics are locked behind expensive loot boxes. Worst of all, Bloodhound’s heirloom set – containing an axe, a kill quip and a banner pose – can only be unlocked after opening around £130’s worth of the packs. And then paying another £28 on top of that. Yes, really.

Time for a detailed maths breakdown – and I hope you’re ready, as this is a little complicated. Skip to the bits in bold if you don’t want your brain to melt.

First up, what do you get for free in the Iron Crown Collection Event? There are a number of challenges players can complete to earn “Crowns” – a special event currency that can be used to purchase items in the Iron Crown Collection Event store. So far you can earn 30 Crowns through the challenges (15 per challenge), which is enough to buy you either a mediocre Longbow skin or a mediocre banner.

You can also earn two Iron Crown Collection Event Packs (AKA loot boxes) through completing challenges. Each loot box contains either one rare or legendary item, along with 30 Crowns (bringing the free Crowns total to 90).

As there are 24 rare and legendary items (with no duplicates), and you get two free loot boxes, that means you have to buy 22 loot boxes to collect all the event items in this section of the store. Each loot box costs 700 Apex Coins, which converts to roughly £5.59 each if you purchase the smallest coin pack, or £4.86 each using the largest pack exchange rate.