Apex Legends has four main currencies that incentivize players to spend a bit more time (or money) in the game. Crafting Metals are invaluable since they’re the only way to get the exact cosmetic piece you want rather than opening Apex Packs and effectively rolling the dice.
Luckily, Crafting Metals aren’t particularly rare, although their influx wanes significantly once you reach Level 500.
This article will explain everything you need to know about getting and using Crafting Metals in Apex Legends.
Apex Legends How to Get Crafting Metals
As a currency, Crafting Metals can only be used to craft cosmetic items. There are several cosmetic item categories to choose from to customize how your Legend or weapons appear in a match.
Crafting Metals can be earned in three ways:
- Opening Apex Packs
- Progressing through the seasonal Battle Pass
- Finding Treasure Packs in the match
The final two are somewhat related since bonuses from the Battle Pass and Treasure Packs reset each season. This reset effectively allows the player to get more Crafting Metals the longer they play the game.
Opening Apex Packs
Crafting Metals from Apex Packs may seem random, but they really aren’t. In essence, if an Apex Pack would give you a duplicate item, it rewards you with Crafting Metals instead. The amount of Metals you receive is half of the original item’s crafting cost:
- Common give 15 Metals
- Rare items give 30 Metals
- Epic items give 200 Metals
- Legendary give 600 Metals
The more cosmetic items you already own, the more likely it is for you to receive a duplicate and have it replaced with an appropriate Crafting Metal packet. This way, even copies are helpful, maybe even more so than random drops since two duplicate drops of one rarity convert into another item of that rarity.
The system is somewhat rigged against rare Crafting Metals since the Packs prioritize giving new Rare items instead of copies of owned ones. No such fallback exists for Common, Epic, or Legendary items. Since every 30th Pack is a guaranteed Legendary, they can also be duplicates.
The progression system is the most common source of Apex Packs for new players. They can get 199 free packs on their way to Level 500:
- Every level from Level 2 to Level 20
- Every two levels from 22 to 300
- Every five levels afterward (the final free Pack is given at Level 500)
Apart from the free Packs via progression, you can always purchase more Apex Packs by spending money in the store and using your earned Apex Coins. The event-specific Apex Packs are somewhat different and don’t award duplicate items and therefore Crafting Metals (since they have a limited item pool). Still, most people won’t obtain all items anyway without a significant investment.
Apex Packs are also a reward from the seasonal Battle Pass, making the Battle Pass uniquely potent as a way to gather more cosmetic items throughout the game’s lifetime.
Seasonal Battle Pass
The seasonal Battle Pass (with each season lasting roughly three months) provides bonuses for players when they finish daily or weekly quests, earn experience points (EXP) from playing games or participate in promotions.
The Battle Pass awards have been known to vary between seasons.
Season 10 (Emergence) allows players to get as many as 1,200 Crafting Metals if they get the Battle Pass close to finishing (the final few rewards are Legendary items). Unfortunately, 90% of the Crafting Metals available as Battle Pass rewards are reserved for the paid section, meaning you’d need to purchase the Battle Pass with Apex Coins if you want more of them.
However, the Battle Pass also awards a generous amount of Apex Coins, even more than it costs. This return allows players to purchase the next season’s Battle Pass with the rewards from the previous one and even have some Coins leftover for extras. It can become a worthwhile investment if you have enough time to devote to the game and the skill to finish quests quickly.
Additionally, the Battle Pass awards seven Apex Packs in the free section and an additional seven in the Premium section, upping your odds of finding more Crafting Metals. The actual number of Packs received per Pass may change in the future, though.
Collecting Treasure Packs
Treasure Packs are the only way to get Crafting Metals by playing matches directly. Each supply bin you open has a chance of spawning a Treasure Pack. You can pick up a Treasure Pack once per day, and your rewards will vary based on how many you collect within a season.
Typically, every four to five Treasure Packs collected grant you 15 Crafting Metals for your troubles. This amount might not seem like much, but it can quickly surpass the 120 Metals from the free Battle Pass and is much more common than getting duplicates from Apex Packs while you’re still a beginner.
Overall, the best advice we can give to someone starting to play Apex Legends is just to keep playing the game. Also, keep the quests you’re given every day and week in mind when selecting your legends and weapons. Crafting Metals and other currencies will naturally follow as you complete matches and earn rewards.
Apex Legends How to Use Crafting Metals
While the methods for getting more Metals might seem convoluted, using your hard-earned currency is pretty simple. You can purchase cosmetic items directly on their preview pages. Here’s what you need to do when crafting Legend-specific cosmetics:
- Select the “Legend” tab on the top.
- Choose a Legend to buy its corresponding cosmetic.
- Select between the four cosmetic categories on the top bar. If you chose “Banner,” you’ll need to select between two banner pieces on the left: frame and pose. Then choose the cosmetic you want to purchase in the category selected.
- Select the “Lock icon” on the item you want to unlock.
- Choose Crafting Metals as your preferred currency.
- Complete the purchase.
If you want to craft a weapon skin, the process is very similar. Follow these steps:
- Choose the “Loadout” tab on the top.
- Select the weapon category to bring up specific weapons.
- Choose the weapon you want a skin for from the top bar.
- Select a skin on the left-hand scroll menu.
- Use the “Unlock” button on the bottom right, then complete the purchase with Crafting Metals.
Cosmetic item costs vary depending on their rarity rather than category. This means that a Legendary Legend skin will set you back the same as a Legendary weapon skin. Here are their costs:
- Common cosmetics cost 30 Crafting Metals
- Rare cosmetics cost 60 Crafting Metals
- Epic cosmetics cost 400 Crafting Metals
- Legendary cosmetics cost 1,200 Crafting Metals
With a Legendary skin costing a single Battle Pass’ worth of Crafting Metals, it’s safe to say you’ll get just enough for your favorite Legend, but it’s always a challenge to save up for newly released skins. Make sure that each skin purchase is made deliberately since you can’t get a refund on cosmetic crafting.
How to Get Unlimited Crafting Metals in Apex Legends
Since Crafting Metals are technically farmable currency, it stands to reason that some people will try to get an obscene amount of them. However, this is easier said than done.
The seasonal Battle Pass only does so much to provide a steady stream of Crafting Metals. With 1,200 Metals (if you purchase and complete the Pass) every three months, you get roughly 4,800 Metals per year. This total does not count that you get some Apex Packs while going through the Battle Pass.
Considering Apex Packs give out duplicates somewhat randomly, they really can’t be counted as a steady supply of Crafting Metals unless you have an obscene number of cosmetics already in your collection.
Unfortunately, there are a lot of cosmetics that each new Legend and weapon comes with, making the prospect of buying all of them quite expensive. There are so many Legendary items alone that it would take hundreds of dollars in Apex Coins to go through all of them. And there are even more lower-rarity items beyond that.
As such, there’s no tried-and-true way of getting a truly unlimited amount of Crafting Metals in Apex Legends. The closest you can feasibly get to that is by purchasing so many Apex Packs that it’s not worth it. Additionally, you won’t have much to spend the Metals on after that point.
It’s better just to play the game normally, maybe splurge on a select few items, and complete the Battle Pass regularly for maximum benefits.
Get More in Apex Legends
Although they are called Crafting Metals, you don’t need to be crafty to get more of them. Simply playing the game and paying attention to quests and promotions will give you enough to purchase a legendary skin every so often.
What is your best method of getting Crafting Metals? Let us know in the comment section below.
