5 Must Play Gacha Games of 2020

I spoke about some gacha games not too long ago and how I 100% believe they have the secret weapons they pull out around summer time or just to bring players back. While we’re on the topic of gacha games, we may as well mention some of the games I personally really enjoy and why I think they’re good. I’ll be including things like gameplay, how good they are with regards to being free-to-play, waifu-factor and stuff along those lines. 

BLEACH: Brave Souls

This is definitely the game I have put the most hours into, so it only seems right to start here. Based on the popular series of the same name, Brave Souls is a 3D game in which you assemble a party of 3 characters and progress through the story of BLEACH. Each new level beaten awards you with 3 orbs and there are tons of levels to play through as a new player. There are also numerous side-story levels which are regularly added and updated to the game, along with the events that are added every week or so. When playing co-op with other players, you will gain 3 more orbs for each new player you meet.

A banner role of 10 characters costs 250 orbs, so gaining 3 per level is a pleasant surprise. Just from the main story alone you will be able to gain literally thousands of orbs. This is then doubled as you can play through once again on the hard difficulty. Another boost to your orbs farming comes with maxing out a characters level with the reward being varying depending on the rarity of the unit. A commonly found 4-star unit will net you 35 orbs for maxing it’s level and a 5-star will get you 50 orbs. 5-star units can then “Release” and become 6-star units which will then reward you with 75 orbs for once again maxing it out.

All things considered, Brave Souls is a really good game when it comes to the free-to-play players out there. Other positives are that the game is very easy to auto-battle. Once you have a maxed out 6-star unit, you will be able to get through almost any single player level.

King’s Raid

Another 3D game with a slightly different spin on the usual gacha formula. Instead of the characters being what you spend your orbs on and roll for, you can buy the characters with Rubies and you will instead roll armour and weapons that can then be equipped to those characters. This is already a very enjoyable change in itself, as you can construct whatever team composition you wish without the worry of blowing all your resources on an RNG character roll.

The story mode is long and offers a ton of interactions between the characters that make up your party, along with the others you will meet along the journey. You receive numerous rewards upon completing a level, rubies being one of the rewards with the quantity depending on the type of level and the difficulty. 

When you eventually reach the point that you need to grind some XP or items for a while, the “Repeat Play” and “Continuous Play” features are amazingly convenient. Another fantastic thing about King’s Raid is the amount of log-in bonuses you will receive. Amongst these bonuses are XP and money scrolls which can be used whenever you want and will double the amount XP or money gained while their effects last. This makes  some of the grindy parts of the game much faster and more enjoyable.

There is a great cast of unique characters all specialising in different areas and working better with certain other units. Some great waifu’s to choose from, my favourite being Erze Should you find yourself really getting into the game, there is a ton of fun in finding which team composition works best for certain scenarios or specific damage types and enemies. In addition to this, if you don’t like the auto-play feature, King’s Raid is quite a fun game to play with every character having abilities similar to a MOBA, which you can optimise and synergize should you prefer that style of play.

Azur Lane

Oh Azur Lane… Without a doubt the champion when it comes to the waifu category and an extremely popular candidate when it comes to gacha games. For those who don’t know, Azur Lane is a game where you create a team of six units consisting of numerous different ship types. Heavy cruisers, light cruisers, battleships, destroyers, all of these will make up your team and each one has it’s specialities. 

The campaign mode is long and filled with numerous levels that rewards you with money, oil and cubes. Money and cubes being the main two that you will be needing in order to roll on a gacha. There are numerous daily login rewards alongside really high quality events and side stories, so you won’t be having any difficulty when it comes to farming what you need. 

Honestly Azur Lane has quite a generous gacha system when it comes to your chances of pulling an SR or SSR unit. The dangers are the temptations that follow. Let’s say you get Atago as an example, a unit you’ve been dying top pull. You level her up and get her equipped with some strong gear, then you notice the skins tab and you make the biggest mistake by pressing on it. Suddenly you are overrun by a sea of incredible skins for your newly acquired Atago that increase her waifu-powerlevel by absurd amounts. The only way to get these skins is by paying with gems, and these aren’t easy to come by. You will get them every now and then as rewards or event rewards but they are mainly acquired through microtransactions. 

Long story short, if you can resist the temptation of the skins, you will enjoy Azur Lane.

Ark Knights

I don’t think Ark Knights needs much of an introduction as it has quickly become one of the most popular gacha games as of late. At its core Ark Knights is a tower defence game, with a number of operators which the player deploys in different locations on the map in order to stop the incoming enemy forces. With a wide range of operators with varying roles such as, Vanguards, Medics, snipers and casters you will need to form a team and formation best suited for the numerous different map layouts.

You shouldn’t have too much difficulty progressing through the levels of the game, even with a team of lower ranked operators. Of course having high ranking operators will make life much easier for you, but those come at a price. In order to obtain some of the higher ranking units, you will need to either: Roll them on the gacha, or through the recruitment feature. Orundum, the resource required to pull on the gacha banners, can be obtained through completing levels, daily and weekly mission reward and it will cost you 6000 orundum in order to pull on a 10x banner. The saving grace being that each banner guarantees a 5-star or higher operator within the first 10 pulls on each new banner.

When it comes to the waifu rankings, Ark Knights is definitely a top contender with characters like Siege blowing people away with her design. There are also some really cool looking male characters as well! The game definitely isn’t one you can auto-play though, as it is a tower defence game requiring specific operator placements. That’s fine though, as the game is genuinely a lot of fun.

Dragalia Lost

Nintendo’s own gacha game based in a fantasy world connecting people and dragons, Dragalia Lost is a RPG-style mobile game that makes use of gacha mechanics. Those of you who have played Granblue Fantasy may have a familiar feeling with Dragalia Lost, as it’s another Cygames gacha. The game requires you to create a team of four characters and equip them with dragons, weapons and wyrm prints (skill enhancers) and then take on the story missions!

The gameplay is that of a 3D top-down RPG game where you will move your characters around and actively attack with your primary character. You will also have access to their special abilities and also the power to transform your character into the previously equipped dragon. Being that the game is made by the devs behind Granblue, you can imagine the game is loaded with tons of dragons, weapons and adventurers to acquire and level up.

Wyrmrite, the currency used for pulling on the gacha banners, can be obtained in numerous ways: 

• Login bonus
• Gifts
• Main story quests and event quests
• Co-op
• Raids

There are a few more methods to obtain wyrmrite, but I think that all you need to know is that Dragalia Lost is certainly generous to it’s free players. The characters in the game are awesome and it has some great waifus with characters like Mym and Celliera leading the charge. The game has some great co-op elements and a great depth of gameplay that caters to both players wanting to auto-play and take control.

That wraps it up for some of the gacha games that I really enjoy! There are certainly some honourable mentions:

• Destiny Child
• One Piece World Cruise
• Epic Seven
• DragonBall Dokkan Battle
• KOF Allstars
• Anything but FGO

Thanks for reading and stay safe!

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