Gacha buyer beware

When it comes to Gacha games, I am no newbie. I have been exposed to variations of this system for multiple games over the years and understand that risk is always inherent in how you get the characters you want. Over that time I've had a lot of successes and equal of failures trying to secure the character or weapon I was after. I am definitely not new - not remotely close - to how these systems work. Hell, I worked for a company developing video slot machines for actual casinos and helped test their RNG. All that to say that I have some experience with how these rolls function.

But in the case of Endfield's Gacha system, it is broken. Broken, or the devs have done the equivalent of turning the difficulty up to EXTREME so you keep pumping in the quarters - just like those slot machines, and just like old arcade cabinets. There also appears to be additional behind the scenes weighting for "earned" rubies versus "purchased". but that's neither here nor there. The drop rates they provide are misleading at best and intentionally wrong at worst. If I was able to look under the hood, I am firmly convinced the results would be telling.

So the odds for the banner pulls - a base rate of .8000% (low as hell, but whatever) for a 6-star character. You can still pull a different six star than what you aimed at, but such is life, right? But since it's a banner, there is supposed to be a 50% chance of getting the banner character when you land on a 6-star. After a dozen 10-pulls - a mix of purchased gems and earned from what little I could scrape together after quests dried up - yielded exactly two 6-star characters. Both - despite the insane probability of it - were the same character - Last Rite. The probability of this happening, with the added 50/50 chance and getting the same character is 0.0039%. So unlikely that it is almost ridiculous. And it didn't help it was a garbage 6-star, either.

For those following at home, excluding in-game tickets or the paltry oroberyl you get from events granted to you via the checkin or through currency exchange, the total ruby cost of 12 pulls is 60000 oroberyl. That is, excluding the rare free items I mentioned, roughly equivalent to 800 origeometry (the base currency). That, in turn, is roughly equivalent in cost (excluding one-time bonus currency) is around $280 USDs. And still not getting the thing you tried for. Results may vary but this was like walking into a casino and immediately losing it on a slot machine. It makes one feel foolish in retrospect.

All this complaint to say - be very wary about sinking any real money into this game. The odds aren't just against you as they normally would be - they are wildly skewed in favor of getting more cash out of you. It is the stingiest, broken system I have ever encountered - and I have encountered some doozies. But the lesson learned here is that while the game may be fun and the mechanics cool, the microtransaction system it's built on sucks the life out of it. Even purchasing things with in-game currency is insanely offbalance.