How to spend crystals and choose your gachas
Short Glossary
- Banner: The stuff where you spend your gems on in order to pull the characters
- Gacha: Same thing as banner
- Featured Character: The "cover" character of the banner, usually corresponds to the one that has just been released. Usually these characters have a slightly higher chance of dropping than all the other cards of the same rarity (keyword here "of the same rarity")
- RNG: Random Number Generator. In short, randomness. All Gachas are pure randomness, and even if a certain event is unlikely to happen (i.e. not pulling a single 4 stars in 20 multis) that doesn't mean it never will.
- Sekai Viewer: A site with all kinds of informations regarding Project Sekai. You can find it at https://sekai.best
Pity Timer
So, there is a character you REALLY want. For example, I'm an absolute sucker for Hatsune Miku and the VOCALOID group in general. I care more of her cards than any other character in the game.
Gachas can be rough, it's a game of chance - Even if I manage to save up a lots of crystals, due to it being all RNG, nothing guarantees me I'll get the character I want. I could spend 9 Millions Crystals and still not getting a single 4 Star - It's unlikely, but it's not IMPOSSIBLE, and if RNG decides to screw me over, it WILL screw me over. However, luckly for us, this game has a Pity Timer since day one. Pity Timer allows you get the banner characters after spending a certain amount of gems on that same banner.
Sadly, Pity Timer requires such an amount of gems that you'd have to be REALLY unlucky to reach it. You'd have to spend around 90.000 crystals in Global version of Project Sekai, all in a single banner. In the JPN version this number decreased thanks to tickets all the way to 60.000 and sometime in the future it will be like that as well in the Global version.
If you're playing English version, you have a GREAT tool at your disposal, that is knowing what will be featured in future banners using the Sekai Viewer. Use it to know how much time you have to cumulate the crystals needed for the Pity Timer.
Be aware of what "Increased Rate" really means
So, right now in Global version we have a 3% rate of getting ANY 4 star. You can see that by checking the Gacha Details button that you can find on banners.
We already had the first "Increased drop rate" banner gachas, but some people seem to misunderstand what the "Increased drop rate" actually is referring to.
Even in these types of banners, the 4 star chance is STILL 3%. Yup, it's exactly the same odds.
What it's actually increased is the fact that "inside" that 3% chance, you're more likely to get certain characters (the one with the increased chances) more than the others. That's all it does.
Always, ALWAYS check the gacha details before deciding to go all out on a certain banner.
ColorFes
If you want the best chance of getting any 4 stars, no matter the character, than the ColorFes gachas are pretty much the banner you want to rely on. So far in Global we never had one, but it's just a matter of time before we get the first one.
In ColorFes Gachas, the actual rate of 4 stars is doubled, going from 3% to 6%. Also, ColorFes characters only re-appear in ColorFes Gachas, they do not drop in subsequent "normal" banners... But at least they do re-appear in subsequent ColorFests.
If you want to maximize the variety of your box, which is crucial for scoring a good amount of points during events (due to each of them requiring a different character - attribute combination) than you should save your crytstals for these banners.
Limited Gachas
This is why if you're playing the EN version you should be planning in advance - The Limited Gachas feature characters that will no longer reappear in the game. Once they're gone, they're gone for good, no other way to get them outside of the first banner they appear in.
Countrary to ColorFes, these banners do NOT have an increased 4 stars rate, instead having the regular 3%.
These banners are relying on your FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) making you spend gems on characters that otherwise wouldn't be obtainable, despite the banners being worse than any colorfes (chances speaking).
If there is a character you really, REALLY want in one of these limited gachas, especially if you're playing the EN version, plain in advance and possibly aim for pity timer. But be aware that this will drain your crystals and while the game is very generous during the first months, you will eventually run out of content that drop gems, and you'll have to rely on login bonuses and events.