Mercenaries so far the most F2P gacha!

most of my legendaries are at 150/ 200 coins

progression seems to be going fine for me i have several epics at 200+ coins and i havent been grinding so much as other players

I recommend you do all the bounties first clear all the Valeera missions the final one gets you 5 packs.

After that you can farm tasks or do some pvp to lvl up mercs and get the sweet pvp rewards until 6k, use a strong base 3 mercs+3 lvl 1 merc to lvl up(you will always face bots that way so its free wins).

For the life of me, I do not understand why people are calling Mercenaries a Gacha game. There are, IMO, 2 required elements for something to be a Gacha game.

  1. the pulling system. Both Mercenary packs AND Hearthstone packs would qualify for this.

  2. a stamina system that puts a serious cap on how much progress you can actually make per day. Ironically, the disparity between battle pass points gained per HS match and the daily quest reward makes HS, not mercenaries, closer to having this system. Though I still wouldn’t consider HS to count as having a stamina system.

So somebody explain to me why Mercenaries would qualify as a Gacha game but traditional Hearthstone does not?

I’ve been saying for years that CCGs are the original gacha model.

Obviously that’s not true. The original gacha model is actually called Gashapon. But it’s the same principle, really.

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" A gacha game is a genre of video games that implement the gacha (toy vending machine) mechanic . Similar to loot boxes (prize crate) in video games, gacha games induce players to spend in-game currency to receive a random virtual item."

Nothing to do with stamina in fact i have played other gachas before with no stamina system.

I wanted to give this game mode a solid try so I have. I have 24 of 31 Mercs max level with decent skills upgraded. It’s repetitive and boring. PvP is just more of that. I envision plans are for the level cap to increase and more skills added down the road but the grind is terrible. This game mode will be botted for sure.

Since standard and wild regular play is a slot machine of luck with lack of skill deciding games I prefer BGs to kill time.

This mode will burn anyone out.

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Fair enough then. Do you consider traditional Hearthstone to be a Gacha game?

Honestly gacha vs Skinner box, you could argue that if you made a f2p account and grind the mercs off tasks, even as a critic it seems you can indeed level up rare mercs easily with grinding, skinning boxes amounts of times other people can skip with money most definitely.

However when it comes to rares or the semi hidden / unmentioned until found +1/5 reward for maxing a merc, and the incredibly repeatative nature of spamming bounties, yet the potentially incredibly day or week long slog of just grinding the 500 coins to unlock a legendary vs the extra 1.5k-2.5k coins to max em for +1/5. it’s hard to argue that f2p will often be pidgeonholed into the Xyrella Blademaster combo, due to being like the only meta starting combo that works pretty well in pvp while millhouse tyrandes/blinkfox is your f2p #2 and not really that great or Millhouse Arcane explosion (Speed 4, played first, to activate samuro as some jank while aoeing)+ rokara + samuro kinda work.

It’s just that i feel like attackers beside samuro/xyrella combos don’t feel good since attackers take often just as much damage as they deal when they attack another, that xyrella is a bandage fix to pve. Yet if you nerf it, f2p naturally have nothing else, and kripp brings up a interesting issue of how if a merc gets nerfed, a mode already on life support might just get abandoned and yet f2p or players in general don’t really have the option to switch builds if there were any nerfs.

Not to mention many gacha like systems often just ‘balance’ the mode by just power creeping the mode traditionally.

Which is already a problem in a deck with 30 different cards in standard, since you only use 3-6 main mercs, any power creep will likely replace a team and need to be regrinded over and over again.

As a f2p player, i understand blizzard likely isn’t making this mode with the primary intent of making it more enjoyable to spend 0$ on the mode if it hurts $. After all, they heard our complaints about legendary coins being hard to collect bar tasks, and their response was just to add 750 legendary coins for $ to the cash shop.

As a f2p player, i guess, i feel like i had a fair time just grinding the levels when i didn’t think about it too much. But when i did, it just felt like a repeatative skinner box. The skinner box was a experiment where rat in a caged box was given nothing else to do but a level. At random intervals of lever presses, the rat would randomly get a treat. They played with giving it every press. (The rat would press until it was full, and then stop), and then random. (The rat would become addicted to smashing the lever, like a gambling addict, and smash the lever addictively even after it had gotten more than it needed to eat, in fear of it running out.)

Mercs to me, f2p grindaholic or whale packs or not, kinda feels relevant to the skinner box example. Pulling a lever isn’t inherantly exciting, but the reward of food at random or coins is. You grind mercs, to get better at mercs, even though the gameplay might be currently okayish. It gives hearthstone rewards.

It does turn to give out, about like 300 xp a hour for pve wins i think, for lengths of up to like 30 minutes (150 xp) at a time i hear, so that’s decent. )

Bgs i think average 300 xp a hr and ranked 400 xp a hr between 50% win/loss ratios. So i’ll be honest.

I think the gameplay is alright, but i’d probably rate it as a 3/5 star game on google play or just play it if it wasn’t for hearthstone rewards. If i can just sit in it and play a pve match and just afk at random and just complete a mission every 30 minute and :00 minute mark, it could be a okay side xp mode for the afk of bgs i guess.

It’s not intended behavior probably but we’re hearthstone f2ps, if we played by what was intentional we’d all be poor and supposed to be hot wiring our bank account to Bobby kotick probably instead of grinding f2p coins or afking modes for exp. What do you expect? Recrafting decks after nerfs can get expensive.

I can get 2 competitive level decks a expac sustainably f2p, that’s about it. I can’t get more.

Yes i do, for me its a gacha on a card game format while Mercenaries is just a hero collector gacha.

https://imgurupload.org/files/gashapon-gacha-empty-capsule-b-1620910227-f3eca84d-progressive.jpg
https://imgurupload.org/files/Alpha-booster.jpg

Which will still take next to no time unless they nerf the methods of farming that exist. It’s flat out easy to farm coins between just doing tasks or using the consolation coin method.

If you get like 1000 coins (for a specific merc) from task and it takes like 2000-2.5k coins to whalelord max the +1/5, it’s likely that you can get like a couple meta abilities and some equipment up easily to like lvl 5s, and get most of the core kit. But for whale moding, the last 1000 coins are gonna run out for any merc without a easily farmable thing without deliberately abandoning or leaving the last task open to farm coins, 15 at a time from consolation.

Imagine going from say, a 3 minute run for like 100 coins through air elmental, to like a 10-30 minute run through like a heroic winterspring to see like 5-15 thrall coins if you’re lucky.

I could see the new character grind getting tedious very quickly if it’s not a easily farmable in lvl 8 barrens. Lets be honest, the intended method is really too slow and tedious to build a comp in a day, and probably hours and hours of play even comp coin farming.

Meanwhile buying a pack for like, 5x 35-50 coin rewards is like a instant 200 coins per dollar on random mercs. Horrible for targeting, but that is kinda technically like 1000 coins every 5 packs, to max all the missing heroes.

actually 100% stranger spawn rate on day 1.
hehehehe ~

i regret didn’t rush it and they add blue portal and stuff later.

did you just describe hearthstone ? they bring out new card every 4 months which are stronger than previous card and process starts again.

I’m just pointing out that this is not the end, you’ll have to level up all the characters again next set. If you fall behind, then eventually when they start nerfing and buffing things the upkeep will be insane.

1 day gameplay to max out character.
hard for you, not hard for me.

max out character also can be a disadvantage because of matchmaking system.
you think max out character is always an advantage ?

i am just curious how they will handle useless coin on max character.

Doing a 2000 coin grind for +1/5s just sounds like madness, the 1000 from tasks /2000-2500 coin grind to max is enough to get you like 2-3x core lvl 5 abilities, but the +1/5 for legendaries is probably pure whale mode.

Even for f2p if you open up legendaries i took a look and got finally lucky with my samuro packs to open up a alexstraza. Unfortunately through all my packs and bounties, i will only have 25 of the 2500 coins to level her with, and no brightwing to activate synergies.

However i’ll be able to turn her into a 1 move spammer with 1000 task coins and probably let her just spam her first ability. But it’s kinda funky how with f2p, you’re also worrying about being able to only use one move of three, practically turning mercs from a ‘strategic 3 move pokemon’, into a 1-2 move pokemon f2p since it’s all you can afford to invest.

The coin system seems neat for leveling but it really just pidgeonholes you into builds and makes the game more repeatative. Probably by design to sell more tbf to make p2p feel more exciting with unlocks.

But only having one viable ability, with synergies mising, in a game that only has one other dragon (and yet grull, a dragon counter in a meta alexstraza couldn’t even be afforded even as a meta) is funky.

Some support heros really feel like they were rushed before the archetype was truly alive. But i guess mercenaries is kinda a early beta DayZ style preorder state. Maybe it’ll turn into another battlegrounds, but right now it’s just a preorder i guess… whatever the spirit of cashgrab for minimal investment is with some f2p friendliness.

You’re not whalelording anything but the f2p rares like cariel and xyrella and samuro probably though. A fair set, but you’re never gonna whalelord legendaries without a ridicolous grind. So it is like, 50% f2p, 50% whale mode for a +10% advantage in pvp. Kinda funny, but also 50% gacha and 50% self grinding skinner box.

I guess it could be decent and there’s enough to be playable, but i’d be honest, i wouldn’t be playing it if there were no hearthstone rewards. I don’t think i’d ever bother making a seperate download for a mobile. IDK what it is with mobile game devs but my 3 GB ram tablet that has the budget specs of like a 200-300$ laptop lags hard asf on hearthstone’s text and the screen is always lagging, or disconnecting.

Meanwhile Pokemon Unite got like a full on lagless MOBA running with actual pokemon and i want Zeraora cuz they’re cute.

I really feel like blizzard 2021 is just a company that milks it’s ip, normally you wouldn’t compare hobbyist or modders or first time coders to a Triple AAA company.

But this message [RECONNECTING], and [TEMPORARY TEXT]… Well, it’s kind of hard to say that blizzard, a multi million dollar company… has about the development quality than someone with 20$ and a rpgmaker XD. But… IDK… some mods or china companies seem to make higher quality games, even as spinoffs, it’s sad.

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oh please, i know for sure that’s not true.
you see all that AFK player ?
the server can’t handle cross region connection well.

i got 10 minute time out for 1 round every 7 game i play because i got queued into someone far away.

just check all haters on play store 1 star review.
even the server have problem handling wifi connection.

did i mention all error on adroid ?
they even made actual update to fix it.

it’s understand able for lag to happen, but 10 minute time out lag ?
to be honest, i can watch youtube and my in game ping still green.

what is the chance for 10 minute lag spike when i can watch youtube at the same time ?

edit : i also love pokemon, i play snorlax because he looks cute and talonflame at that moba game.

I’m just saying, i love hearthstone, but it’s a game that makes merc looks like it could have been made in the 2000s with flash while even the spinoffs like Runescape chronicles (scrapped) and nameless, dime a dozen mobile games actually have higher quality and developing standards or at least leasing.

Blizzard used to be good quality, but now you’re pretty much paying to expect mediocre quality at full whale prices. A price we pay, since lets be honest, if we moved we’d be somewhere else already.

But blizzard is a financial profit extracting company that just happens to make games now. not a game making company as their prime directive. Profit is probably the stockholder’s main goal.

But eh. Can’t complain blizzard isn’t running a charity, just people shouldn’t be surprised the mode was more f2p than thought but still has whale bait, nets and hooks built right into it after the meat wears out.

i thought we are going off topic a little bit and discuss pokemon.

i have love and hate relationship with that game. [pokemon unite]

you’re aware that you also need coins for the spells and items? we’re talking about thousands of hours of grinding

you don’t need thousand hour for that,
once you unlocked a mercenaries, you can farm their coin for 10 coin / 3 minute

100 coin for 30 minute
1000 coin for 300 minute (5 hour)
2000 coin for 600 minute (10 hour average time for 1 max out mercenaries)
(this is average time for robotic style non stop gameplay)

and also you don’t really need to max them out for pvp :
read my post below,

disagree with what i said ?
feel free to tell me your perspective.