Gacha Games - Discussions, Pulls, Updates, etc.

[esserpain]

Hi, TPU. Decided to make a thread for gacha games in general, since I've seen disseminated discussion on gachas here and those types of games are unfortunately one of my biggest interests. I'll start off the thread by sharing my own updates in my gacha-gaming career, and you guys can take it from there.

Zenless Zone Zero

Won the 50/50 on Yuzuha and was miraculously able to get her weapon in a single yolo 10-pull. Of course, I had to snag her outfit too, and it was absolutely worth it.

Just gotta say that I'm continuously surprised at what miHoYo is able to get away with in terms of fanservice in Zenless as compared to literally all of their other games. They'd never even try to show panties/leotards in any of their other games at this point, especially when they've been burned for it so many times in the past. And yet, here we are, with Yuzuha wearing an actually normal swimsuit for once, instead of the safe summer outfits we get in games like Genshin.

I also desperately need to complete the summer event and get Belle's outfit - because again, it's not only an actual summer outfit instead of something safe and PG, but because I also love the design. Totally don't have a crush on her, I swear.

Umamusume: Pretty Derby (GLB)

Over 80 pity into the Kitasan Black banner and no luck. I can't even describe how salty I am that I got the other banner card and not Kitasan. Dunno how meta said other card is, so I'd appreciate some clarification on whether or not it's any good as a consolation prize.

In other news, I'm starting to see why the Western Uma playerbase has taken to the game so well. I'll admit, I fully expected the global release to flop since it's so far behind JP, but I guess the gameplay is so addicting that it's succeeded in spite of the circumstances. And I too am beginning to get addicted. I already have over 10 hours in-game clocked on Steam, and that's with me skipping all the story content (sacrilege, I know, but I play a lot of games, so... ). I'm currently trying to get Rice Shower to a decent point in URA Finale, to little success. This is my best Rice so far.

Honkai: Star Rail

Not much new on the HSR end, other than me choosing to spend my pity on Tribbie instead of Phainon, to bolster my Anaxa-centric account. (Dunno if that pleases you to hear at all, Dr. Dro ) Haven't been able to gauge how much better or worse she is as compared to Robin for my Anaxa team, but even if she's not ideal for him, she can always go to the 2nd team in endgame modes like MoC.

Here's my Tribbie, BTW. She's running the slow set + Bone Collector, and is E0S0.

I'd also like to show off my pride and joy - my Anaxa. I have Scholar + Rutilant on him, and he's E2S1 - the highest Eidolon level out of any of my limited 5 star characters.

Hopefully, he reruns soon so I can get more copies. No, IDGAF about pulling new meta characters, if skipping them means my Naxy will get more powerful.

Finally, here's an in-game pic I took of him that I especially like. Real ones who've read the Amphoreus story know.

 

[Dr. Dro]

If you had pulled Tribbie light cone, the oopie goopies would have blessed you too

See?

 

[Sithaer]

Personally I despise this 50/50 system in my gachas or in any game really, I'm usually a rather unlucky person when it comes to RNG so most of the time its not on my side.

I've been playing Wuthering Waves since day 1 and I've lost most of my 50/50's so far like I think I've only won 3 maybe 4.
Most recenty I've lost both Ciaccona and Cartethyia to the damn budget Sephiroth of the game..
I did get both of them eventually but that took all of my saved up gems and pulls and I'm still trying to recover from it so the next 1-2 characters I will skip most likely.

Other gacha I've been playing since day 1 is Nikke but luckily Nikke has a different gacha system so no traditional 50/50 and the pull rates are somewhat better than in most gachas and we do get a lot of free pulls.
On top of that the game has something called Golden Mileage Tickets, basically you get 1 ticket for each pull you do on a character banner and those you can save up for later since they never expire and the game allows you to use it on the brand new banners and it cost 200 tickets.
We just got the new fresh 1% pull rate banner 'lowest type in the game' so I've simply logged into the game after the update and popped 200 of my almost 800 saved up tickets to avoid praying to the RNG gods.

Till this day I'm yet to miss out on any unit that I've wanted in Nikke thanks to that system and cause the game is quite generous with the pulls anyway. 'I'm only missing 6 units in the entire game but those I've skiped on purpose like some niche collab units that did not interest me at all'

No pics for now cause I'm kind of in a hurry atm.

 

[Onasi]

@Sithaer
You young bloods actually have no idea how “generous” modern gachas are. It’s still a shitshow, but I have witnessed early Fate:GO. Now that was an experience to scar one for life. I immediately decided that this shit is not for me.

 

[Kafka]

OP has a crazy UID, 3607 is wild. Also Anaxa is indeed based.
I see a lot of bitching about the FATE collab though it's aight overall and the combat event is fun and the

Spoiler

callback to the bad ending at the start of HSS is neat

, shame about the NPC models though, I liked the ending as it fit the idea of Penaconian legends. I think I am more accepting of it than some as I see FATE as slop anime anyway.

Also I need Hysilens to save DoT society.

About to do 2.1's story on ZZZ today, heard it's really good. Lowkey want to push E6 Miyabi even if it's dumb (I have E3).

I think playing two Gachas is fine but no mo. Maybe Reverse 1999 on top of these two but no mo.

 

[Dr. Dro]

@Sithaer
You young bloods actually have no idea how “generous” modern gachas are. It’s still a shitshow, but I have witnessed early Fate:GO. Now that was an experience to scar one for life. I immediately decided that this shit is not for me.

I just about tolerate the monetization model because the games themselves are thoughtful and extremely high quality, but I have been relatively lucky thus far. Almost all of my planned (read: $$$) pull sessions went smoothly and with relatively few rate up losses. It happened twice, once on Genshin and once on ZZZ, that I put some cash on and walked out with nothing of real value to me. The last of which was... today.

If you can spend rationally without succumbing to FOMO, it's not more expensive than the traditional model of buying games every now and then. My cost per game has been $25 a calm month (premium tier battle pass plus daily currency subscription) to $150 on a busy month (such as this one). Combining Genshin, Star Rail and ZZZ, I think I put down $225 USD this month. It's a lot, but it's not much further beyond what I used to spend on a Steam summer sale. If you have a will of iron and pull very selectively on the important characters that clear meta modes, you can have a good time completely for free. I find it less wasteful than all those games I will never play rotting on my Steam library anyway.

There is one great evil that must be warned about in the gacha video game industry though, and that is the dreaded "End of Service". Unless they are games from miHoYo (Hoyoverse/Cognosphere), expect the games to have a shelf life ranging from 18 months to 3 years. There are a few exceptions (FGO, Blue Archive, Azur Lane, etc.), but anything else should be considered unsafe, spend anything at your sole discretion and don't expect your game account to last. For example, the first game of this kind that I played, NieR Re[in]carnation, shut down at the 3 year mark. With that move, Square Enix made sure I would never spend anything on a "free-to-play" game of theirs ever again.

 

[Kafka]

There is one great evil that must be warned about in the gacha video game industry though, and that is the dreaded "End of Service". Unless they are games from miHoYo (Hoyoverse/Cognosphere), expect the games to have a shelf life ranging from 18 months to 3 years. There are a few exceptions (FGO, Blue Archive, Azur Lane, etc.), but anything else should be considered unsafe, spend anything at your sole discretion and don't expect your game account to last. For example, the first game of this kind that I played, NieR Re[in]carnation, shut down at the 3 year mark. With that move, Square Enix made sure I would never spend anything on a "free-to-play" game of theirs ever again.

Honestly as a long time, KMMORPG playe... I mean sucker. This is why I avoid anything that isn't miHoYo I haven't been burnt personally but been there done that seen it all. I think it's a great shame Blue Archive is ran by Nexon which is unilaterally the worst gaming company to ever exist.

The younger generation will witness this first handedly sooner than later. Also yeah honestly in the end it's cheaper than many games paradoxically enough.

 

[Onasi]

@Dr. Dro
What is this “spending money” and “playing new games” you are talking about? I will have you know I have been playing HoMM3 and Morrowind for 25 years and I see no reason to change that habit.

But those things aside - I am not a habitual spender and making me open my wallet is an incredibly hard proposition, I just don’t vibe with the idea of paying for fleeting in-game stuff. So I could play gachas just fine, it’s just that none appeal to me, they are too “weeb shit” if you would pardon the language. And I am fine with anime games generally, it just gets a bit too much. Arknights looked mildly interesting story-wise, but I haven’t yet looked into it seriously.

 

[Kafka]

@Dr. Dro
What is this “spending money” and “playing new games” you are talking about? I will have you know I have been playing HoMM3 and Morrowind for 25 years and I see no reason to change that habit.

But those things aside - I am not a habitual spender and making me open my wallet is an incredibly hard proposition, I just don’t vibe with the idea of paying for fleeting in-game stuff. So I could play gachas just fine, it’s just that none appeal to me, they are too “weeb shit” if you would pardon the language. And I am fine with anime games generally, it just gets a bit too much. Arknights looked mildly interesting story-wise, but I haven’t yet looked into it seriously.

You should look into Reverse 1999 it's a bit more tame and the fleeting in-game stuff is by far less than in other Gachas. Arknights is good too.

 

[kurosagi01]

The only gacha game that I casually login to collect daily currency is Dragonball Dokkan battle.
I've been playing since 2014-2015 I think?
Spent maybe 4 digits worth of my own money.
Most recent pull the new strength type LR Goku Black.
I've got maybe 95% of all the top tier units in the game.
There are a few challenges that I could do to get more currency but I can't be bothered anymore, if I didn't spend so much money I would have probably quit by now. At this point I'm just going to continue logging in and do the daily missions, new story+ normal events and do pulls for any new unit that interest me until the game shuts down.

 

[Onasi]

Oh, damn, I remembered that I actually did try another gacha - Wizardry Variants Daphne. Not because it was a gacha, but because it was a Wizardry game. It was not terrible as a dungeon crawler, but it’s stupidly “play this on a phone” focused. At least they didn’t force the vertical aspect ratio and on PC it’s normal. Again, it’s aight as a dungeon crawler, but little reason to play it over Labyrinth, Five Ordeals or just replaying 8 for the umpteenth time. Though the idea was interesting and I was amused at people seething at the perma-death aspect.

 

[Sithaer]

@Sithaer
You young bloods actually have no idea how “generous” modern gachas are. It’s still a shitshow, but I have witnessed early Fate:GO. Now that was an experience to scar one for life. I immediately decided that this shit is not for me.

I've picked up gachas in 2019 I think but before that I've used to play free2play Korean MMOs for a very long time so I've had my scars for life in those with the insanely bad drop/enhance/enchant rates in most of those games so ye I defo don't like that part of the gacha games either..

I just about tolerate the monetization model because the games themselves are thoughtful and extremely high quality, but I have been relatively lucky thus far. Almost all of my planned (read: $$$) pull sessions went smoothly and with relatively few rate up losses. It happened twice, once on Genshin and once on ZZZ, that I put some cash on and walked out with nothing of real value to me. The last of which was... today.

If you can spend rationally without succumbing to FOMO, it's not more expensive than the traditional model of buying games every now and then. My cost per game has been $25 a calm month (premium tier battle pass plus daily currency subscription) to $150 on a busy month (such as this one). Combining Genshin, Star Rail and ZZZ, I think I put down $225 USD this month. It's a lot, but it's not much further beyond what I used to spend on a Steam summer sale. If you have a will of iron and pull very selectively on the important characters that clear meta modes, you can have a good time completely for free. I find it less wasteful than all those games I will never play rotting on my Steam library anyway.

There is one great evil that must be warned about in the gacha video game industry though, and that is the dreaded "End of Service". Unless they are games from miHoYo (Hoyoverse/Cognosphere), expect the games to have a shelf life ranging from 18 months to 3 years. There are a few exceptions (FGO, Blue Archive, Azur Lane, etc.), but anything else should be considered unsafe, spend anything at your sole discretion and don't expect your game account to last. For example, the first game of this kind that I played, NieR Re[in]carnation, shut down at the 3 year mark. With that move, Square Enix made sure I would never spend anything on a "free-to-play" game of theirs ever again.

I'm playing these games with a mostly F2P mindset like in 2.5+ years of Nikke I've bought 1 skin/year cause those are expensive there but I've never charged any currency for pulls and I'm still in the top 2-3% on the Global server in the Solo Raids which is the end game content where you can really push your teams.
In Wuwa I've started to pay for the monthly sub that is like 5$ so thats affordable even for me with a lower than average income.
That much of support I don't mind since the game's production quality is very high and its only getting better with each update like I'm getting more fun out of this game than from most fully priced AAA games nowadays.
Luckily both of those games are quite successful so I don't see them closing down anytime soon, as a matter of fact Shift Up did say in a developer interview that they have plans to support the game for ~20 years. 'ofc that could be a joke but still'

Honestly as a long time, KMMORPG playe... I mean sucker. This is why I avoid anything that isn't miHoYo I haven't been burnt personally but been there done that seen it all. I think it's a great shame Blue Archive is ran by Nexon which is unilaterally the worst gaming company to ever exist.

The younger generation will witness this first handedly sooner than later. Also yeah honestly in the end it's cheaper than many games paradoxically enough.

Nexon yea.. I've played Vindictus from them for 7+ years actively as a free2play player like I've only bought some cosmetics here and there but never charged money for gear or whatever else progression and to stay up to date with the required stats for the new Raids as in not to be a deadweight I've had to play that game like it was a secondary job and I've had tons of alt chars too.. 'limited daily Raids and atrocious droprate on the rare materials for the new gear'
That game is surprisingly still alive as in the servers are still on but the playerbase is very minimal compared to the old days and I've quited it a good few years ago along with all of my friends from there.

 

[Veseleil]

Genshin Impact player from the first week of the release.



I've been playing it regularly if not daily that year, but then took a break for more than 3 years. I exclusively play it on PC, every attempt at playing it on a smartphone resulted in a fail and frustration, so I gave up on that in the first year.

IMHO, the game went good and bad throughout all these years, and the worst scummy and predatory practices were fully unleashed with the introduction of Natlan, and with all game versions since then.

I still enjoy the game for its phenomenal optimization, beautiful open world with seamless biome and map transition, great view distance with minimal object pop-ups.
It's a prime example how great and optimized the Unity engine can be when properly invested in. It looks gorgeous in 2160p 120FPS with FPS and FOV mods.
I've completely gave up on story after Natlan, but thankfully the game mechanics, especially combat and its awesome elemental reactions and various distinctive character kits, are things that still hold my interest.

Game is very fun and enjoyable with friends, either by clearing domains or just simply roaming the vast open world. It's not hard to make friends in this game, and this game without friends is hard, more so if you play too casually. Accept those world join requests, you never know what kind of a person you're missing out to meet!

IMO, character design reached its peak in Inazuma, as well as environment and buildings details, while Sumeru and Fontaine were still good enough, Natlan is a complete tasteless garbage in that regard. It went full toddler lvl of gameplay mechanics and design. I hope the next regions will be at least a bit better, but I seriously doubt that.

I've never spent a single $, and although I don't blame people that do, I certainly wouldn't encourage anyone to do that.
Being a pure F2P user, I've missed out on a lot of things all this time, like having constellations on 5* chars and their signature weapons for example. Not being able to pull on a single limited weapon banner all this time, because choices had to be made and it's either that or a new 5* from time to time, it sometimes makes me feel like a 2nd, or 3rd class citizen.
Already being that IRL can and will make me a bit depressed from time to time, mostly when facing engame content that shills for new shiny chars and all of that nice ($) vertical investment in them, but it isn't too much of a burden if you know how to control your apetites.

Just like everything else in life, knowing your limits, building and maintaining a strong character (yours, not ingame lol), strong will and having some lvl of control over your vices, can make you invincible even to the strongest gacha demons out there.

 

[Calmmo]

Umamusume: Pretty Derby (GLB)

Over 80 pity into the Kitasan Black banner and no luck. I can't even describe how salty I am that I got the other banner card and not Kitasan. Dunno how meta said other card is, so I'd appreciate some clarification on whether or not it's any good as a consolation prize.

In other news, I'm starting to see why the Western Uma playerbase has taken to the game so well. I'll admit, I fully expected the global release to flop since it's so far behind JP, but I guess the gameplay is so addicting that it's succeeded in spite of the circumstances. And I too am beginning to get addicted. I already have over 10 hours in-game clocked on Steam, and that's with me skipping all the story content (sacrilege, I know, but I play a lot of games, so... ). I'm currently trying to get Rice Shower to a decent point in URA Finale, to little success. This is my best Rice so far.

View attachment 408379

Not a very early game friendly one to train due to poor stat bonuses (guts +20% is a bit yikes)

Spoiler

This one's mine, can't say i've had much luck with sparks at all tho. Got 1 +33speed and 1 +33 stam legacy and that's about it. Can't do much relying on the 3 daily rentals alone.


Got lotsa cards now but no sp to upgrade anything , wasted the early freebies on upgrading quite a few R and some meh SR's since i didn't really know what i should be upgrading. For now im just gonna slowly up KB to 50 and from there i can start renting other build relevant maxed cards which should improve the odds of hitting stat targets. SP's the real grind

 

[Sithaer]

So basically this is what I have in Nikke since day 1 as a mainly F2P:

I'm only missing those in the entire game currently and 1 of them are relasing in a week shes just in the database early. 'I'm gonna get her anyway'

Out of those 28 costumes I've only bought 3 and the rest were free like event rewards and whatnot. '2 gacha skins and 1 season pass'
So ye this game is very well playable as a F2P as long as you are patient and manage your resources.
Also in this game 1 copies are actually enough cause nothing is locked behind extra copies like in some other gachas, no extra skills or anything so a single copy works the same as a maxed out one you just have less raw stats. '+2% each copy and you also get a lobby wallpaper once you have 4 copies aka called max limit break'

In Wuwa I have these up to the current max level and the ones I use to build my teams with:

At least in this game the story main character 'Rover' is not useless even in the late game content as long as you build it.
I have her in 2 of my end game teams with 2 different element. 'Havoc and the most recent Aero'
To be fair this game's story could be finished with just the free characters alone and everything else is only for the end game content and events, I have 5 preset teams built at the moment and I play them depending on my mood and the content I'm playing.
Pretty much all of them are single copies since thats all I can afford with my luck and being mostly F2P but luckily as long as they are built decently they can do the late game content just fine until I bump into personal skill issues anyway.

 

[Onasi]

Can’t escape gacha in real life either nowadays, seemingly. A cafe I went to today has a cross-promotion with ZZZ (really). Got some keychains with my lunch and coffee and also, apparently, some codes for in-game items/bonuses (each have 10 activations per account giving… some cash and upgrade materials I assume?). Have no idea what they are since I don’t play or care, but I got three and can throw those someone’s way if interested, they are Global from what I understand. Any takers?