With all the new gacha games coming out this year like Honkai Star Rail, and Date A Live alongside older favourites like Genshin Impact it is important to take a step back and assess how much or if it is worth spending money on gacha gaming in 2022.
It’s amazing how far gacha games have come from a non-mainstream enjoyment for players that do not have much time or enjoy collector games to a very much mainstream game with the advent of Genshin Impact and other favourites coming into the spotlight like Honkai Impact 3rd and Arknights.
One of the main criticisms against the gacha game model has always been how it is a predatory way to make money from gamers. However, many of these games can indeed be played for free, although competitive content will usually be dominated by “whales” in the game it is still possible to derive enjoyment from playing and collecting characters in the game that you like. The main draw for gacha games for people who have been playing for a long time has always been the art, animations and voice.
Some of the graphics in these gacha games like the one below of Himeko from Honkai Star Rail are truly astounding and show how much time and money was invested into the game to create an experience for players.
This does not detract from the fact that many gacha games do indeed have a predatory method of in-game purchases and loot boxes in order to make players spend. Below we’ll show some methods that can be applied to all gacha games to make sure you are not spending too much on these games.
How much should I spend on a gacha game?
The ideal answer is of course nothing however we can understand if players would like to spend some money on a game to support the developers or to enjoy the game more. Before spending any money on a gacha game first players need to assess if they need to make the purchase and what sort of enjoyment they will get from it. Will they get just resources or something visual like a skin? Is it a resource that is mathematically valuable in comparison to how much you can get as a free player and how does it compare against premium currency packs in the gacha game?
The questions would answer if you should spend. To answer how much you should spend on a gacha game, we recommend spending no more than $5 USD a month on the very common 30 day packs that give a set amount of rolls or premium currency each month and $10-15 USD on the Battle Passes within these gacha games. This adds up to around $20 – $25 USD as how much you should limit yourself in spending for these games.
With how often the games update, every 2-4 weeks for many gachas it is not too bad of an investment considering the amount of time the player is playing the game. It definitely is not worth as much as a game you could buy for $60 like Elden Ring however these games do have constant content for enjoyment throughout the entire year, also these payments are not mandatory to play the game and can be stopped at any time, much like a subscription to Spotify or Netflix.
How do you earn more premium currency, gems and rolls in gacha games?
Earning more premium currency in the gacha game is always hard, no matter the game. Some games are more generous than others with the rolls they give out however it’s evened out from either a gacha with no pity counter or a low player count gacha with no real future.
The long-lived gacha games usually have decently fair rates and methods to obtain currency however it requires playing the game everyday and logging into the game at minimum. The main way to earn gacha currency for new players and veteran players is to ALWAYS DO DAILIES. Dailies are an essential part of gacha gaming and will become a habit at some point, the good thing about this however is that they will usually limit you at some point on how much you can farm or how worthwhile it is to farm through various methods and limits.
These might be annoying for hardcore gamers as with the resin system in Genshin that annoyed many however it is a good thing in the long run to stop players spending too much time farming or grinding in the game as they can be quite addictive and many players cannot afford the time to play 24/7!
Should I bother with the META in Gacha Games?
Everyone wants to be the best in a gacha game and get the META (Most Efficient Team Available) with all the characters. However, players do not need all the META characters in the game. The META in the gacha games constantly changes more out of a need to make the heavy spenders in the game spend money on more rolls however F2P and low spending players do not need to get baited into this. Make sure the character is indeed one you will use for a long time and is not just a useful character for PVP battles which are temporary and will likely still not help you climb to a higher rank.
The META is something that players should not be chasing as it is part of the system designed to make people spend money. Instead, go after characters that you find fun, interesting or with art that you love. Make sure that the character you are rolling for is truly worth the rolls you are spending even without the META aspect.
Participate in all Gacha Game events!
Gacha game events are what make the players the most currency and give the most benefits. Make sure to participate in every single event that there is in your favourite gacha game. Keep up to date with the latest patch notes to make sure there are events running and make sure to complete them as they will yield rewards that can even be useful many months of even years down the road. Some of these events never come back and it becomes even more important to make sure not to miss them and take full advantage of being an older player of the game.
Why play Gacha Games in 2022? Are Gacha Games ethical?
With so many things tricking players or subtly hinting at spending money in these games it can be a turn-off to many players used to other methods of purchasing full games or from games that only have skins available for purchase. This is a normal reaction to the predatory monetisation however in the end it really is the player’s own responsibility to make sure they are not spending beyond their means.
Many of these games can still be enjoyed without spending and indeed a majority of the players for gacha games come from poorer regions and countries where incomes are not even as high as in western countries. With the Gacha Games, these players can get access to high-quality art, visuals and gameplay without spending a dime with the promise of constant updates as long as the game servers exist.
Many western game companies have looked into the loot box model and seen how much revenue it can generate by trying to clone the model into their own games but are stifled by regulation or player backlash. Gacha games are still in a unique grey area where the players of the game do enjoy it however less than 5% or even only 1% of players will actually spend money on the game.
Despite this, however, players can still earn premium currency in a variety of ways and enjoy the game once they stop being more competitive, remember that these are only games and will not influence your life.