Apex Legends Intros ‘Exotic Shards’ to Let You Customize Apex Artifacts

Apex Legends introduced all-new universal heirlooms called Apex Artifacts with the Shadow Society collection event in Season 20. The Apex Artifacts live alongside Legend heirlooms, which are mythic melee items unique to certain legends.

Cobalt Katar arrived as the first Apex Artifact with this event, allowing players to use the heirloom with any legend they like. Now, with Apex Legends Season 21, Respawn Entertainment is adding the long-anticipated option to customize the heirloom. Yes, you will be able to make your heirloom look unique with a ton of customization options, but there’s a catch.

You Need Exotic Shards to Customize Apex Artifacts

The customization options are not unlocked by default and are not free. Apex Legends is bringing a new currency called Exotic Shards into the fold. You will be able to purchase Exotic Shards from the in-game store or earn some of it from the Premium Battle Pass. You can then use the Exotic Shards to unlock the customization options you like.

What parts of the Apex Artifact are customizable? Good question!

Each Apex Artifact comprises a base (the blade), a theme (affects the design of the artifact), and a power source (the glowing orb-like thing in the middle). Each power source has a special emote to go with it, and you can toggle it on/off via the emote menu in the game.

Thanks to Respawn Entertainment for giving Beebom an early look at the new features in-game, we know what the customization menu for the Colabt Katar Artifact looks like. Here you go:

With Season 21 Upheaval, the game is adding five new customization options for the Apex Artifact players bought earlier this year. The Colabt Katar base bundle is joined by the following customization sets – Electrum, Gladius, Rhodium, Molten, and Nitride.

Each of these sets has a different base, a unique color and stylized theme, a distinct power source, and even a death box design to go with it. Yep, you can also choose what death box your enemy is turned into when you kill them with this customization mechanic. Respawn told me that there are over 200 possible combinations that players can make by unlocking new customizations with Exotic Shards.

With this update, Exotic Shards will join existing in-game currencies, including Apex Coins, Crafting Metals, Heirloom Shards, and Legend Tokens. So, will you be spending real-world money on Exotic Shards to customize your katar? Let us know in the comments below.