To preface this, I am a 24 year old college graduate with a bachelors degree from a 4 year university. I have a full-time job, a long term girlfriend, and have my life together for the most part. This is merely to show that this can happen to anyone, not just young kids and those not educated on the predatory nature of loot boxes in games.

I’ve played video games my whole life, I’ve seen all the micro transaction tactics before, including loot boxes. I’ve put hours into Overwatch and Rocket League, two games notorious for their loot box system.

However, these games didn’t tempt me into ludicrous spending. In my many hours in both games I probably spent less than $30 total. I’ve never had much luck when it comes to loot boxes and despite wanting the items inside, I knew the math behind it and wasn’t going to throw my money around chasing the carrot on a stick.

Along with this, I’ve never bought scratch offs, lottery tickets, etc. I knew the odds and thought my money was better spent elsewhere.

So why was this time different? The answer was the elusive Wraith heirlooms.

Yesterday I began my journey into the rabbit hole that is chasing after the heirloom items, something that has a <1% chance of dropping.

Why did I do this after everything I just wrote, knowing the math behind these loot boxes?

What got me with Apex Crates was the guaranteed “pity timer”. If you open 500 crates you are guaranteed a heirloom bundle. To top it off, the only heirlooms in the game right now are for Wraith (my main) and I wanted to secure them before new ones dropped, lowering my chance to ever luck out and receive them.

At least 3 of my friends have gotten the Wraith heirlooms in only a few crates, all the streamers have them, surely it wouldn’t take me the whole 500 crates right?

Wrong. I bought bundle of coins after bundle. Each time thinking to myself, “The heirlooms will come this set of packs”. I knew from the very first crate that I would be entering into a serious sunk cost fallacy but I still couldn’t stop. I opened up crates until I reached #500, the guaranteed Wraith heirlooms.

I can tell you it wasn’t worth it. I now own every single blue rarity item in the game, along with countless legendaries for almost every gun and legend in the game, none of which I really care for or wanted. All in the hunt for a set of items that has a less than 1 percent chance of dropping.

Feel free to roast me, I deserve it. I’ve already roasted myself plenty. I just hope this story will resonate with some people and maybe help prevent someone from doing the same thing I did. I can provide proof of my purchases if necessary.

TL;DR: I spent $500 opening 500 Apex Crates In search of the Wraith heirlooms. I got them on my 500th crate. Don’t be like me.