Oct 13

Oct 13 Getting Into Gacha Without Getting Got

There are few things in the video game industry that can universally raise ire upon their mere mention - Bubsy, company restructuring, Jack Thompson, the prototype DualShock 3 boomerang, etc. None are as fairly disdained as the phrase “Gacha game,” whose reputation for exploitative business practices and potential for destroying financial livelihoods fuels many a rumour or piece of gossip. Gacha mechanics are equated to gambling for good reason - money is put in only for a small chance to randomly reward the player. The only difference between pulling the banner versus pulling the bandit’s arm is the reward. The methods for alluring people to take the risks in the first place are very similar - offer small little bonuses for just being there, have tons of pretty lights and sounds, all for the simple promise of perhaps just maybe possibly having a likely-ish chance for something good coming from the player investing their currency, weather permitting. And just like gambling, expect devs to use the most imposing psychological tactics possible; minimising your exposure to the worst is key (with the full assumption that you have the capacity to resist). Unlike gambling, there is so much more to enjoy in Gacha games than a simple jolt from hitting the jackpot. For those looking to dip their toe in Zenless Zone Zero or any other Gacha game, there are plenty of tips and tricks to help get the most out of them without going bust.

Since 2016, HoYoVerse (formerly MiHoYo) has been blasting through the ranks of the video game marketplace with expansive, popular, free-to-play Gacha games playable on both phones and consoles. On the backs of their string of popular Gacha titles (Honkai Impact 3rd, Genshin Impact, and Honkai Star Rail), their fourth game in this vein - the fast-paced character action Zenless Zone Zero - was released in early July. In addition to the consistent pedigree and new genre, word of mouth makes ZZZ an appealing entry point for players unfamiliar with the HYV franchises, if not with Gacha-based games as a whole. Players opening themselves to a potentially volatile situation - like any monetary system with unlimited pay potential - is a scary proposition for anyone unprepared to handle it. The exploitative traits of the Gacha games can, fortunately, be circumvented with knowledge, personal attitudes, and developer mitigation, allowing ample opportunities to enjoy what valuable content is worth enjoying in these games.

In general, any free-to-play market model is a “voluntary market” that’s indirectly built to benefit from exploiting a select few to fund for everyone, whether they be fans, rich, susceptible to addiction, or easily manipulatable. These models can be very dangerous to players who are not aware of the need to resist temptation, and still very intimidating to approach when details aren’t understood. Once negative patterns are recognized and attitudes are properly adjusted, Gacha games can be as fulfilling and satisfying as paid-up-front games. This will always come with experience, and hopefully, the tricks and techniques here can speed the progress along to help anybody safely enjoy most (if not any) Gacha game quicker. Conveniently, HoYoVerse tends to keep away from completely indulging in the common dark patterns that other developers engage in their Gacha games, so ZZZ is in as good a place as HoYoVerse’s other Gacha games to introduce players to the general Gacha system.

Note that much of this advice will not wholly apply to similar non-traditional finance structures, like loot boxes that focus on cosmetics and don’t always have stores accessible with real-world money. Even less applicable models are full-price games with additional Gacha systems (such as Overwatch 1 or EA Sports FC’s Ultimate Team store), games that use battle passes to finance production (a la Halo Infinite multiplayer and Multiversus), or the upfront-plus-paid battle pass market (like Middle Earth Shadow of War, formerly). Battle passes are an alternative to gacha systems that are more upfront about demanding your time and less financially volatile. Conversely, combining traditional up-front payment with any voluntary market is purely exploitative; the most worth avoiding! There may be some overlap in strategies when used to analyse these other store models, but that is a side benefit rather than the goal of this article.

Paid virtual currency (used by every online store to obfuscate value and allow flexibility in pricing per region) is almost universally expensive as hell, for good reason. The price to players is incredibly inflated compared to their actual value. The amount of VC doled out to players by mission rewards and log-in bonuses is intentionally small to prevent them from fully exploiting the Gacha pull system to its fullest without a bit of money. Effectively, virtual currency is expensive trash. Consider applying the monetary value of even the most valuable of purchasable VC bundles to the meagre portions rewarded for whatever menial tasks the devs deem worthy; would it sound like good business for a dev if every player was “earning” €2 worth of currency for a single set of daily quests? Hardly. The actual “value” of virtual currency for a dev is minuscule compared to the things that VC will pay for, and engaging with a Gacha game on those same terms helps resist the need to spend constantly.

That’s not to say that it’s worthless to pay money for virtual currency. Developers still depend on the money that comes from VC to support their efforts. Depending on the game and your level of enjoyment playing, it’s fair to consider it worth a certain amount compared to similar titles that use traditional buy-first-play-later models. Treat payment like a meal - since there’s no upfront cost like most games, there’s always the ability to pay what a player feels is true value afterwards. Comparing Gacha games to similar-style games that are paid upfront is not unfair. Sometimes, a dev can offer a sort of low-priced ”Monthly sub” that has better monetary value than pure VC (such as the “Blessing Of The Welkin Moon” option in Genshin Impact). These can typically be a good option for pacing spending, though expect to pay a bit of time to get the full value.

Recognizing that time is an equally valuable form of “currency” to virtual currency - no matter the game - is a big part of video games as a hobby. Games mean nothing if they aren’t played, and play means nothing if the player isn’t enjoying it. For as universal as this concept is, it applies significantly more to games that use time as a means of maintaining interest from players than the actual fun of play they offer. Chores suck, twice as much in video games than in real life. Harvesting materials, farming drops, earning currency - no matter the goal, the tediousness can easily outweigh the benefits, especially after performing the same menial tasks. Though not one of the main factors to the dangers of Gacha systems, offering ways to reduce the time spent by paying money instead is one of the tricks that developers can use to encourage paying up.

When starting a new Gacha game, virtual currency rewards do tend to be a bit more generous. This, along with a mission that forces the player to engage with the Gacha pull system at least once for free to continue with the story, is a tactic designed to acclimate players to using the pull system and encourage frequent use in the future. However, since VC acquisition overall will be throttled without investing a ton of money, it’s best for players to be ok with never having “all the toys”. The level of quality and uniqueness of abilities to whatever it is on the pull system (items, characters, equipment, traits, etc) is always designed to be tied to the level of rarity, akin to a collectable card game. The higher the rarity, the more difficulty in getting, the bigger the reward once won (or “received” if you’re a dev looking to avoid words with potentially negative connotations) should be. Thus, it shouldn’t be expected that every SSR/5 star/Ultra/etc will be consistently achievable.

At worst, treat rare pulls as €100 toys, minimum. Even at lower rarities filled with worthwhile things to chase after, the most frequently acquired pulls are still rare enough to not be guaranteed. On a given average, every banner unit or super special rare weapon would cost hundreds of euros to get every single one. In time, there will be so many releases that the minor differences between The Best and The Pretty Darn Great become minuscule and not worth chasing. And that's ok. Lower-rarity things still have their value. The newer the game, the more likely they'll still be good for the main game, especially when invested in. Smarter developers will ensure that duplicates fill a purpose enough to still be valuable, whether by granting additional abilities or stats, using them as materials to buff other items, giving alternate in-game currencies, or whatever else. Most fully optimised Epic purple characters can be as equally powerful as any decently built Legendary orange one for a fraction of the price.

It takes a lot of stars to fill the night sky, and four is enough

Learn to love what you have, and how to build your ensemble. That’s not to say that tier lists and optimal builds are required. Quite the opposite: Tiering and rarity don't and shouldn’t matter when players prioritise enjoying the story. Any Gacha game worth its salt should be built so that a majority of content can be completed with any team and equipment. So-called “DPS checks” - where a particular point in a game rapidly scales to an unreasonably high difficulty- are an absolute bane to healthy enjoyment of any game, especially so for Gacha games, where the base of any player’s collection starts with randomness. It is miserable to feel like you’ve hit a wall that’s only penetrable with the best characters and weeks of investment to improve them (as Final Fantasy Brave Exvius tended to impress on its players). Occasionally this can be mitigated when a dev decides to add options like an adjustable difficulty scale or means of borrowing friend units for certain portions, but those are not always accessible nor would it be reasonable to expect them to be so. If anything is worth researching before starting a Gacha game, this would be the most valuable thing. Optional side content and special events are what the strongest, most expensive units should be expected to be necessary, to keep those players who are heavily invested in the mechanics engaged. For everyone else, the story should be treated as the hook.

There can be a bit of a contradiction to putting emphasis on enjoying the story, depending on the themes and/or series that a Gacha can employ. Most fans of Mega Man would be happy to load up Mega Man X-Dive to get some more of that familiar pew-pew jumpy-shootie in their life. Therein lies an issue that can become a cumbersome detractor. An emphasis on a known property, with long-standing characters and a familiar setting, can lead to priority being put on those aspects becoming the main focus for the Gacha pull system. That in turn risks players resorting to “playing for the pull”, i.e. focusing on maximising their collection through whatever means they may deem necessary. Playing for the pull is a very harmful goal for these kinds of games, one that can be much more easily preyed upon by unscrupulous developers. Gacha games based on established properties require extreme caution, no matter how well-written the story may be, the combat designed, or the Gacha system accommodating. Granted, even gacha games with unique IPs can drift into focusing on pulls rather than content outside of that - ask any player deep into Honkai Impact 3rd who their favourite “Bronya” is (and if they answer “the Harmony Wind one from Belobog” you have permission to flick them on the nose). However, an IP that’s new whole cloth cannot coast on recognition alone and would be at risk of failure by letting significant parts of its content dwindle by comparison.

Putting focus on story naturally does mean that it’s worth de-emphasizing other parts of the game to a degree, or at least finding ways of mitigating the desire to hit the slot machine for the new cheesecake every week. For example, sometimes a player may want to try out a new weapon or look at a fresh character they haven’t been exposed much to. Hopefully, that player’s game of choice will have small side missions to play with rare characters for a few minutes, either in the main quest line or as part of a seasonal event. Other games may have a character gallery hiding in the menu, offering ways to adore a husbando or two without having to whale for them (in this case I prefer 3D statues compared to 2D paintings, but I’m not here to judge; you do you). To help minimise the allure of the slot machine, skip the pull animations every time if possible; there are much cheaper and more satisfying ways to get fun colours and noise (may I recommend a bit of Vampire Survivors?). Cosmetics can be fun, but be wary of any game that tends to offer variant characters at high rarities, with the same personality and history but a different set of abilities (thank Fire Emblem Heroes for driving that gimmick into the dirt five times over). If there’s an in-game currency that refills based on time, it better be used exclusively for grinding materials or other side content; if it’s required to play the main part of the game, throw it in the recycle bin and find a better use of your time.

For whenever the Fire Emblem roster in *SSBU* refuses to fulfil your smashing needs.

Eventually, players will either become a True Freak for their Gacha game(s) of choice and grind their dailies to optimise everything or will decide to come and go as they casually enjoy it, and both are valid levels of investment. For as much as the “games as service” nature that Gacha games try to push to stay relevant, ignoring the Fear Of Missing Out comes easily when the focus is on the stuff that’s permanent and won’t require an unwavering routine. Don’t expect, nor force yourself, into thinking Gachas must be treated as a primary game. Ultimately, they’re not really designed to be. The lifespan of a successful Gacha game is intentionally stretched to keep it alive for as long as possible; whenever you’re not there enjoying it, there will be others keeping the momentum up until the game’s ready to end and most players will move on. For those Gacha games that die too soon, well… there’s not much that players can do to help counteract that. Poor dev management, exploitative markets, bad luck, it’s all too easy to fall into and I can only hope that it doesn’t happen to whatever game you’re enjoying. If you’ve come to enjoy a game and really want to invest yourself into it, hopefully, you’ll do it before you’ve played too much to be worth doing a re-roll, or after you’ve accepted that re-rolling is too much time and effort for anybody to waste on a Gacha game. As long as the Gacha journey starts with a goal to widen the collection for a little bit to get a feel of the breadth of options, then start building tall with whatever’s jiving, then it’s a good bet that a safer, more enjoyable journey is to be had.