There are two sides to gacha in Genshin Affect. One is the usually infuriating and wallet-draining character gacha. Its extra sinister brother is the weapons gacha, which is extensively thought-about by the neighborhood to be a large rip-off, particularly for gamers who aren’t fabricated from gold bricks (Fortunately, they’re additionally totally pointless—the extra frequent weapons are completely usable). Given its infamous repute, I’ve gone over two years with out spending a dime on the weapons gacha. Nonetheless, that every one simply modified. A couple of hours in the past, I sank $150 price of forex into the weapon banner for Genshin’s latest playable character Alhaitham, the unassuming scribe who, it seems, is positively extra than simply some dude.
Right here’s why followers have a hate-hate relationship with the premium weapons gacha. Genshin is primarily a character-collecting sport, however you don’t get a reduction for rolling on weapons as an alternative. Every RNG try at scoring a premium weapon prices as a lot as you’d spend for a roll in direction of a completely voiced and animated character. And when you consider how the gacha works, it’s really statistically costlier to get the precise weapon that you really want.
If you roll for Genshin characters, the sport retains rely of how a lot you’ve spent. When you cross a sure threshold, the sport will increase your chance of getting the featured five-star character till it hits 100%. It takes a most of 180 gacha rolls to get the character that you just’re aiming for. Hitting the identical situation for weapons, nonetheless, takes a whopping 240 rolls. For those who fail to hit that many rolls for characters inside a season, your rely rolls over to the following. Not so for weapons. Proudly owning a number of premium weapons is commonly a signifier of wealth and/or stupidity.
Most seasoned gamers know that the weapons banner is a uncooked deal. The aggressive gamers spend cash on it anyway as a result of they genuinely present higher stats in comparison with the weapons obtainable within the common gacha. The catch is that these weapons aren’t easy injury boosters. They supply stats which might be helpful to particular characters. So in case your character doesn’t scale their injury primarily based on well being factors, then you definately in all probability can’t use Employees of Homa (which boosts HP) to its full effectiveness. Different gamers need a weapon that matches the design and colour scheme of their favourite character, and that is the motive that I associated to probably the most. It completely broke my coronary heart after I needed to give a red-and-black sword to the ice princess Ayaka, clad in regalia of black, purple, and lightweight blue. It helped her deal a lot injury, however I’m undecided that justified how badly her sword clashed together with her outfit.
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However what, it’s possible you’ll be questioning, compelled me to lastly leap into the weapons gacha? Properly, full disclosure: I’m extraordinarily weak for characters who kick their weapons throughout their assault animation. Once I noticed Alhaitham thrillingly use the “Gentle of Foliar Incision” sword as a projectile in his demo video, I had a tough choice to make. Do I give him the less-optimized Skyward Blade that I already lucked into throughout one in every of my character pulls, or ought to I sink the funds I’d saved for the following character (Hu Tao) into scoring his signature weapon?
I’m the kind of participant who by no means spends premium forex for dupes (which enhance a personality’s expertise) or weapons. As somebody who writes about Genshin for a dwelling, it’s in my finest curiosity to play a big array of characters as a way to higher perceive the meta. This was doable within the first yr of Genshin. However because the builders added extra areas to the sport, it grew to become more and more tough to truly construct all of my new characters with the time-gated assets that I might acquire each week.
However is the weapons gacha actually worse than the character one? I used to assume so after I first began my account. Now I’d max a personality’s stage, throw some subpar artifacts at them, and lift only some talent ranges. After which I’d by no means use them, as a result of I knew that I wasn’t getting the “optimum” expertise but. On any given week, I in all probability solely rotate by way of 8-12 totally different characters out of the 54 I’ve collected. Once more, that is as somebody who performs the sport for work. Most individuals don’t care that a lot for the characters outdoors of their favorites. So if somebody wished to spend three months’ price of free premium forex on a particular character, was that actually a “waste”? Is it worse to gamble for weapons than characters that I’ll by no means get an opportunity to correctly use?
Perhaps the true worth of the weapons banner depends upon what number of characters you’ve already obtained in your account. If you first begin enjoying the sport, you need a balanced roster of various elemental characters. You don’t want premium weapons as urgently as a result of the weapons you get from the character gacha (in addition to from limited-time occasions) are completely usable, so that you want extra various characters greater than you want weapons. However there’s a degree when extra characters doesn’t equate to extra assorted gameplay. For instance, I hate utilizing characters with a well being administration gimmick. These characters will merely by no means see as a lot use on my account. I get pleasure from far-ranged sniping, however many gamers don’t. In the meantime, one buddy of mine is a freak who enjoys parrying mechanics—extra energy to him, even when he’s improper.
Gacha video games are probably the most enjoyable while you play them primarily based on which characters you want probably the most. They’re not merely in regards to the fight, however about loving an anime man or lady and sharing that love with thousands and thousands of different followers all over the world. Some individuals assume it’s a waste of cash to spend a whole lot of {dollars} to see their favourite pop star. I was a kind of individuals. Then I took have a look at the map within the newest replace, and I noticed I wished to discover it with Alhaitham at his finest. And his best-in-slot is a sword that reinforces his important injury and scales off the Elemental Mastery stat.
Now that I’ve spent three months of gems on Alhaitham’s sword, I’ve lastly reconciled that it’s not shameful to spend time and/or cash on one thing that you just love. It is shameful for HoYoverse to offer us uncooked offers like resetting our assured rely.
Sorry, Hu Tao. Perhaps I’ll roll my primos for you subsequent yr.
Correction: 1/20/2023 at 10:00 A.M. E.T.: Corrected the roll rely on the weapon pity.