Gacha games have been a thing in the gaming industry for the longest time, but they don’t have the best reputation even after being completely free to play. This is mainly due to the predatory practices to make you spend money, butGenshin Impactmade a big difference in this image of gachas by being very F2P-friendly.
A bunch of other games followed in its footsteps, making a great environment for you to enjoy without having to whip out your credit card. Not only can you beat everything in these games without spending a dime, but you also have a ton of fun while doing it.
While this is the only game on this list released before Genshin Impact, it’s also one of thebest gacha games out there for people who enjoy Tower Defense gameplay. Soon after you start playing Arknights, you’ll get a bunch of tutorials on how to defend different lanes and prevent the enemies from reaching your base.
Apart from the combat and a huge roster of characters, this game also has a massive story for people interested in lore. Moreover, a lot of the new characters get added to the Standard banner, allowing you to get them at any point. It can be a little daunting to get into Arknights because of how much content there is, but that also meansmore currency for you to keep pulling.
Persona has been one of the most popular gaming franchises ever since its beginning, and rightfully so, with its fantastic turn-based combat gameplay and pleasant music. While most games from this franchise revolve around the story and barely have any gameplay past that, there’s finally a live-service version thatyou can play as much as you want.
While playing Persona 5: The Phantom X, you’ll find a ton of littleEaster Eggs to remind you of your love for the franchise. However, the main thing making this game F2P-friendly is the sheer amount of free characters they give at the start and the slow updates, which lets you save more than enough currency for a character every patch.
Honkai: Star Rail can be a bit of an odd one, which is the main reason for its low position on this list. The game itself has a fantastic story with detailed turn-based combat using variousspecial mechanics like Weakness Break, follow-up attacks, and even summons. However, the F2P nature of the game changes with time.
On launch, it was one of the best games to play for F2P players, but that slowly changed withconstant five-star releases and no four-star counterparts to make up for them. However, the game is slowly becoming a lot more F2P-friendly with aton of free characters like Archerfrom the Fate series.
Set in a medieval English era, Reverse: 1999 hassome of the coolest scenery and character designs, which was the main reason it got picked up at launch. It also has a turn-based combat system with a bit of RNG since you have to get the right cards if you want to deal high damage to the enemies.
The game also has a fantastic story for you to play through, and hours upon hours of content. With various events and endgame modes, you may get enough pulls to get a pity in nearly every update, allowing you to easily get your favorite characters. However, theendgame modes don’t require you to pull them.
When you first look at anything regarding Wuthering Waves, youwon’t be able to believe that this is a Mobile game. It has some of the best graphics and the most detailed character designs in the genre, which is themain highlight since you’d want to pull for nearly every characterjust because of how cool they look.
With a bit of luck, it is actuallypossible to get nearly every single character in this gamewithout spending any money. Most updates only have one limited character and give you enough currency to get them. However, if you want to regularly beat endgame, it’s recommended to skip a few characters and pull the weapons for your favorite characters instead.
The place where it all started. Genshin Impact not only paved the way for way more F2P-friendly gacha games, but it also brought the genre to mainstream gaming. The game has one of the best stories you’ll play through with a vibrant open world, and you never truly run out of content here, especially if you start playing now.
There are a whopping six main regions to explore, with the seventh one arriving soon, and a bunch of side regions as well.The endgame modes are largely very easyand if you have good builds, you can even beat them with four-star characters.
Zenless Zone Zero is one of the most unique takes on a gacha game because of its art style and animations. Even though it’s theleast open-world in all the mainstream games from HoYoverse, the actual gameplay makes you feel otherwise. Moreover, thecharacter animations and the general combatare the main attraction here.
All the endgame modes are solely based on skill, and if you can time your dodges and parries, you can even beat them with four-star units that aren’t in the meta. The developers have alsostarted giving buffs to characters after only a year of service, which is fantastic news for F2P players.
Finally, Umamusume: Pretty Derby easily takes the cake for the most F2P-friendly gameplay simply because of the way this game is designed. It’s a roguelike game where youtrain your horse girls multiple times to get good rankings, and then use these trained characters in PvP modes like Team Trials and Room Matches.
You need a total of 15 characters at the highest levels of Team Trials, which is easy to achieve with just a few pulls. As long as you have these characters,you essentially have unlimited gameplay. Furthermore, every character and support card gets added in the standard pool, giving you a chance to pull them anytime.
