Originally Posted by FriendlyFacez

Well, I envy your financial responsibility.

However, if you're not going to spend real money in the game, I'd strongly recommend you continue to do 11-pulls, at least until you get more solid 5*s. You'll have bad luck with some of them, even most of them, but you have no other way to even have a chance of getting new quality 5* or even 6* girls on your squad.

I've probably went through about a dozen premium 11-rolls with the awful 5* and 6* odds (a few of them I purchased, most of them just through collecting FGs) since I joined and I have gotten two 6*s and at least ten 5*s that way. It's tempting to get down on the 11-rolls when you get unlucky, but it's worth noting that the odds are objectively over 50% with every 11-roll that you'll get at least one 5*. In other words, based simply on the numbers an 11-roll will more likely than not (not always, but probably) give you at least one 5* character that will probably be considerably better than the 'free' 5*s you'll earn through events.

And I'd say that's worth more than stamina rejuvenation if that's the only way you can potentially collect more quality 5* and 6* girls.

As much as I prefer saving my FGs for stamina, I can't argue the points you've made (but I'll try!); if you don't want to pay any money at all into the game then without the FG gachas, you will hit a brick wall with just event 5*s...but not as soon as one might think.

A good number of event 5* have decent stats and abilities, and since they are pretty easy to get to 5/5 will definitely outperform most, if not all, non-event 5* who are sitting at 1/1. I'm not sure that a group of 5/5 fully ampied event girls could take on later whaleship missions, but they will definitely get you through all other current content.

But, until you build up a good stable of event girls (don't forget the reissues!), I would probably still argue that FGs are better for stam to allow you to run reissue maps alongside current events. It definitely isn't exciting, but I think would get you the most bang for your FG. Right now, there are 20 permanent-reissued girls to get, one reissued girl and of course, the current event girl. That's more than enough to get you a team of full 5* units with enough variety of abilities and attack types (at least 5 of each attack type).

It does seem that boosting the event jewelry instead of normal stuff(with the silver /gold) plus the second tier of affection(even minus the second h scenes) will get one rather far into whale maps if one does a dedicated 'whale squad', even with 5 rankers

FG Gatcha is like this... would you like to feel what real gambling is like without losing actual money? If so roll gatcha. I tend to do it for fun since I just don;t have the time to burn all the stam I could refill with them instead. I'd go for Character Slots and Equip Slots before stam refills 90% of the time.

Originally Posted by Taon

As much as I prefer saving my FGs for stamina, I can't argue the points you've made (but I'll try!); if you don't want to pay any money at all into the game then without the FG gachas, you will hit a brick wall with just event 5*s...but not as soon as one might think.

Well, I suspect both you and I have spent real money on FKG, and once you take that route, I absolutely agree; if you're investing in occasional one-use gachas (just never that godawful expensive Black Baccara 6* one) and occasional tickets with daily deals, you should always use your FGs on anything that isn't 11-rolls as you'll A: gradually get the characters you want through tickets anyway and B: most the one-use gachas tend to involve premium rolls (often with better odds) as part of the package deal.

Where I disagree with you is on the event 5* girls. Not that they're not useful -- they're definitely useful in battle. But until recently with new standouts like Eucharis, Trailing Abutilon and Skimmia, the art direction for previous 5* event girls just stunk. I know it's subjective to a large extent and I'm not here to denigrate anyone else's favorite character but it really felt like the FKG team consistently put less effort into the design of many of those characters. I'm not just talking H-scenes, but also battle animations and abilities...it just feels like the 'real' 5* girls have so much more personality and are so much more interesting, and that's even before you consider their better stats.

Add onto that the more than 50% odds you'll actually get at least one new 5* with every 11-roll, and I'd still definitely recommend the FTP crowd roll the premium gacha until they get at least a decent base of solid characters. At the very least, you want an 'A team' (Team 1) of 5* and 6* Waifus with designs and personalities you really like.

I mean, sure, there are 20 permanent-reissue girls to get. But if you're as picky as I am, the vast majority of them won't be nearly as worthwhile as the vast majority of regular 5*s you can roll for. But I guess it depends on your goals with the game -- if you just want to max out your team's stats and have a good enough team to take on any challenge then sure, the event girls will do. My perspective is, FKG is basically a Waifu simulator, so you want to make sure you maximize your chances of getting your Waifus, and that's more important than having enough stamina to churn through every map or fight every battle. I'd rather make significantly less progress in the game with a team of girls I cared about -- heck, as of now I've only done one reissued or permanent reissued event period, and only because I cared enough about Russelia's design (a rare outlier for the event 5*s) to invest to get her.

That's all just my two cents, your mileage may vary depending on why you're playing FKG and what you're looking to get out of the experience.

Eh, stamina refills can have questionable value themselves. Between my level being sufficiently high (yay being in the needing near 20 hours to refill stamina club) and my normal schedule, stamina refills have zero value to me most of the time. I just need to keep a reserve in case of trips.
Raid boss events can be manic though.

11-rolls themselves are a gamble (and I've had horrendous luck with them). But there's really little else to even spend flower gems on for some free players. What's there to get/do with them? Push your storage slots from X00 to X50? Great, that's 10 gems. AKA 1 week worth of gems (8 from a half of the main event, 1 from a half of a reprint, and 1 from every 5th day). One weak later? Push your storage slots from X50 to the next multiple of 100? Eventually you either hit 'enough' or 'current maximum the game allows'.
And it's been long enough since there were stuff to buy with gems (like the rainbow dressblooms for 50 gems each) or did the 'do a 50 gem 11-pull and get a 5* gacha ticket' offer that it's safe to assume they'll never come back. What else is there to even do with gems? It's basically why this week I shrugged and threw 100 out of my ~220 gems to try (and fail) getting the Lycoris variant.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

What else is there to even do with gems? It's basically why this week I shrugged and threw 100 out of my ~220 gems to try (and fail) getting the Lycoris variant.

If it makes you feel better, I spent $40 for the one-use gacha under the erroneous assumption that I'd be able to get Shrine Maiden Lycoris with it!

It sort of worked out for me anyway due to some dumb luck with the gacha rolls, and I probably would've done it anyway even if I knew the Lycoris form I wanted was off the table (her new design is so much better than her old one!), but I miscalculated on that one.

Stamina boosting was of great use to me in the last event, if only because I can't imagine flipping all those cards for the stuff I wanted without it. Then again, I'm only LV 58 right now.

^Art direction.

I agree with this certainly. 2-3 girls are pretty much the same models with swapped hair, although there have been some redos with girls like Di Yu. The whole Waifu things is why I like having different girls in a squad instead of multiple versions of say Peach due to my sad obsession with roleplaying *sob sob*

Originally Posted by FriendlyFacez

Well, I suspect both you and I have spent real money on FKG, and once you take that route, I absolutely agree; if you're investing in occasional one-use gachas (just never that godawful expensive Black Baccara 6* one) and occasional tickets with daily deals, you should always use your FGs on anything that isn't 11-rolls as you'll A: gradually get the characters you want through tickets anyway and B: most the one-use gachas tend to involve premium rolls (often with better odds) as part of the package deal.

Where I disagree with you is on the event 5* girls. Not that they're not useful -- they're definitely useful in battle. But until recently with new standouts like Eucharis, Trailing Abutilon and Skimmia, the art direction for previous 5* event girls just stunk. I know it's subjective to a large extent and I'm not here to denigrate anyone else's favorite character but it really felt like the FKG team consistently put less effort into the design of many of those characters. I'm not just talking H-scenes, but also battle animations and abilities...it just feels like the 'real' 5* girls have so much more personality and are so much more interesting, and that's even before you consider their better stats.

Add onto that the more than 50% odds you'll actually get at least one new 5* with every 11-roll, and I'd still definitely recommend the FTP crowd roll the premium gacha until they get at least a decent base of solid characters. At the very least, you want an 'A team' (Team 1) of 5* and 6* Waifus with designs and personalities you really like.

I mean, sure, there are 20 permanent-reissue girls to get. But if you're as picky as I am, the vast majority of them won't be nearly as worthwhile as the vast majority of regular 5*s you can roll for. But I guess it depends on your goals with the game -- if you just want to max out your team's stats and have a good enough team to take on any challenge then sure, the event girls will do. My perspective is, FKG is basically a Waifu simulator, so you want to make sure you maximize your chances of getting your Waifus, and that's more important than having enough stamina to churn through every map or fight every battle. I'd rather make significantly less progress in the game with a team of girls I cared about -- heck, as of now I've only done one reissued or permanent reissued event period, and only because I cared enough about Russelia's design (a rare outlier for the event 5*s) to invest to get her.

That's all just my two cents, your mileage may vary depending on why you're playing FKG and what you're looking to get out of the experience.

Oh, you don't have to suspect; I freely admit to having spent quite a bit of money on this game (mostly on good premium gachas and daily deals).

No argument on the artwork; the only difference is that I don't usually factor subjective things such as artwork along with objective things such as stats and abilities. For a choose-your-waifu(s) viewpoint, yes, plenty of the event 5* are...lacking (but considering that Muppet-girl is a premium 5*, I don't hold the offending event 5* artwork against them). Objectively though, the event 5* are decent enough.

I do want to clarify though, I am not saying that you need -never- to spend FGs on gacha rolls; only that you don't -have to- for a good long while when you're starting out as strictly F2P. Eventually the squads of event 5* aren't going to cut it for doing late whaleship and, if we ever get them, challenge maps. With -very- rare exception, it isn't possible to get non-event 5* and 6* without spending either FGs or money on the gachas, but F2P players starting out shouldn't feel compelled to do either; especially when you consider the odds of getting a particular waifu in the gacha.

Personal anecdote: I spent about 150 FGs trying for Poppy during her event. My first time getting her was when I broke down and bought her with a 5* ticket...since then she's popped up in various gacha rolls 3 times. I spent over $100 worth of FGs chasing a particular unit, during her gacha (boosted rate), only to eventually pay $20 for her. That pretty much soured me on spending FGs chasing particular units in the gacha.

TL;DR: I'll see your two cents and call.

Originally Posted by Taon

Oh, you don't have to suspect; I freely admit to having spent quite a bit of money on this game (mostly on good premium gachas and daily deals).

Minor disagreements aside I think we're on 'close to' the same page.

For me personally it really boils down to this: If you're spending enough time playing FKG that you're in a position where you're refilling stamina and churning through tons of maps to try to enhance your team, you might as well just invest in some quality daily deals or one-use gachas so you're spending all that time with a team of your choosing that you really like.

Time is money and all, so there's really no sense in investing that heavily into FKG without taking it one step further so you're actually using something close to your ideal team.

Spending a tremendous amount of time playing FKG and praying and hoping for good premium gacha 11-rolls to give you the exact team you want is a terrible idea. But if you're a more casual F2P player who just wants to enjoy some of the weekly events and have some fun with the base functionality of the game, then you might as well spend FGs on premium rolls because you shouldn't be so invested as to need the FGs for stamina or anything else. Either you're casual and gambling FGs to roll a waifu is more useful than the alternative, or you're hardcore and you'll pay to customize.

There's really no sense in being a hardcore F2P FKG player, in my opinion. The required investment of day-to-day time to get anywhere even remotely close to 100% completion of events and whatnot is really only worth it if you're obscenely invested in customizing your personal squad of favorite waifus and that's only possible with tickets.

I'm not saying you have to be the kind of whale who buys everything -- many of Nutaku's deals are complete wastes of money and there's too much fluctuation with cost. Discernment is still a virtue. But I paid something like a measly $5 for my #1 waifu Madonna, and I can't imagine investing 20% of the amount of time I've given FKG without her and a few of my other favorites.

TLDR version: If you're spending dozens upon dozens of hours playing FKG, at one point or another investing real money into the game is actually less expensive then the time you're already investing just for the chance of rolling the girl you want.

Originally Posted by FriendlyFacez

TLDR version: If you're spending dozens upon dozens of hours playing FKG, at one point or another investing real money into the game is actually less expensive then the time you're already investing just for the chance of rolling the girl you want.

Exactly I saw this the first time i bought a ticket deal and i got Victoria. Even if you invest only once in the game, with real money, the experience changes.

In a positive way because when you do that, let's say, buy a ticket, you customize your game experience in what way you want. You want a nice team which benefits from a girl with drain skill? Ok, pick one. You want a nice team which can have a powerful 6* bloom? Ok, pick one. You want a nice team with the main leader of the squad a nice waifu that just looks hot in your opinion? Ok, pick one.

It's not about being a whale and buying every deal or everything. It isn't worth it. It's about making your gaming experience comfortable and enjoyable. Not dependable on luck or RNG , like 90% of the game which doesn't matter so much, except for gacha, but dependable on how you want it to be.

And that choice from my personal opinion, saves a lot of time, a lot of stress and makes the game enjoyable.

I got till now like 7 rainbows, and i really got them because i like the game not because i need them very badly to get over a stage. I mean not even whale. Back to when i had just 3, i already could make the 2nd stage at whale and farm sun medals over and over, using like 80 FG. I eventually got 2 necklaces and even some bloom birds and dragons.

But my overall team is weak ) I have in 2nd and 3rd squad, 2* evolved characters. So i bet that even with just one rainbow you can get over 1st stage at whale or maybe even 2nd if you manage your team evenly.

But the main advantage of paying is pleasure.
You play your game with what characters you want, make your squad how you want it and the rest just comes. Doing events and reissues is just enough to get all the good items for evolutions/blooms/equipment and that's all

I myself am a med student so don't think i have a ton of cash. No sir. But i learned myself the following:

If you love to have something in life, you must invest a lot of resources to get that. Emotions, money, time , you call it. But always remember. Time is the precious one because that you can never get back.

Even if you invest 1000$ in FKG which i dunno can give you i guess over 50 rainbow girls, even if you don't need it. Even if you do that, that 1000$ is never a huge loss. I bet that in 1-2 years you can get the money back, by working or saving money. Or even less time.

But farming and doing everything in the game, just to get all the chances you can , for a better experience in the game, takes a lot of time. And that time, isn't free and won't be returned to anyone.

So, basically. Just do what you can to make your life easier and pleasurable. After all, Gods awaits us all and like Eminem said it.

You only have one chance