Official Boho Gacha Games Tier List

Mobile games have been criticized by many of the general gaming community as "stale, boring, and fucking shit" due to the crappy controls, crappy ads, and questionable business practices many mobile games have shown in recent years. Despite these generalizations, a specific subsection of mobile games known as "gacha games" has been steadily rising in popularity over the years.

Gacha games, for those who are unaware of the term, refers to the digital implementation of the "gachapon" system from Japan, where one would insert money into a machine for a random prize, with some prizes being rarer than others. The Gachas in question would have "Banners" which feature specific units at a higher drop rate, also known colloquially as "Rate up is a fucking lie". Gacha games are designed to be played in short bursts casually, and may exhibit all the qualities of a stereotypical mobile game, but with different quirks, such as cute anime girls, or "waifus" as they are colloquially known. One may hear about people starting these games due to the good hentai, then tales of men sinking massive amounts of money into a game just to obtain their favorite PNG of their favorite waifu, such as the tale of Daigo, who spent $70,000 on Fate: Grand Order, along with stories of people wasting massive amounts of time on a game due to their sudden addiction to farming materials in said game. While the addiction thing is 100% true, most people don't spend money to obtain an anime girl, they spend their money for the CHANCE of an anime girl, which is clearly the most reasonable financial choice.

                                Mans gonna be pulling for that 6 star

For most people, the above paragraphs would make it seem as if gacha games aren't exactly the most fun to play, or legal, if the lawsuit over lootboxes in gaming is any precedent to go off of. If anything, despite all of my criticisms for the industry, I have a legitimately enjoyable experience playing gacha games. Its quite difficult to describe what makes these games enjoyable without a person actually experiencing them for themselves, but, for whatever reason, taking up a part-time job only to be paid in anime waifus is something I continue to do, most likely due to the dopamine rush from receiving my favorite anime waifu from a banner (more on that later). With that being said, I'm here to rate some gacha games on a completely arbitrary tier list based on partly objective, mostly subjective conjectures.


Gamer after not getting the rarest unit on the weekly banner

A mini review detailing the reasoning for every game's placement on the list will be found below.

S Tier

1. Honkai Impact 3rd
2. Arknights
3. Fate: Grand Order
   

A Tier

1. Princess Connect Re:Dive
2. Azur Lane
3. Girls Frontline 
4. SINoALICE
   

B Tier

1. Danmachi: Memoria Freese
2. Date a Live: Spirit Pledge
   
3. Guardian Tales
4. Konosuba: Fantastic Days
   

C Tier

1. Fire Emblem: Heroes
2. Epic Seven
   

D Tier

1. Grand Summoners
2. Unison League
3. Yu-Gi-Oh Duel Links
   

Raid Shadow Legends (F Tier)

1. Raid Shadow Legends

 

Typical Raid units

Raid Shadow Legends deserves its placement for a multitude of reasons:

•  Boring as hell. I downloaded all 3.2 GB of it, played it for 30 minutes, and got too bored and deleted it. Probably the lack of anime characters
• Constant ads for premium currency in-game, and constant ads for the game irl
  
• They didn't sponsor this article

Only real reason to play this game

 

Yu-Gi-Oh Duel Links: Despite my childhood love for the card game, the digital version is crap

• Pros
• Its Yu-Gi-Oh. Game is supposed to make you feel like a big brain
• Less binder space taken by digital cards, which take no space
• Cons
• PVP is the main focus, gotta have the best meta
• Sadly, the meta is locked behind the gacha
• And the gacha is locked behind a paywall due to the lack of premium currency
• Community is a bunch of redpilled incels
  
• Even with the meta decks, you still have to farm for hours
• Why the fuck does Yu-Gi-Oh have autoplay?
  

Endless collabs, endless fun

 

Unison League: well known for its constant collabs with famous anime. Here's its flaws

• Pros
• Doesn't force you to constantly play the game, very casual until the welfare period is over
• No real pressure to pull gacha, only for waifus and weapons
  
• Cons
• Massive progress wall that forces one to stop playing casually and grind
• Constant ads in game to pay for premium currency
• Drop rates are abysmal
• Gameplay gets really boring thanks to autoplay

 

Engaging pixel fights?
 

Grand Summoners: Fun for a week or two. Not so much after

• Pros
• Nice pixel sprites, and really hot character art
• Longer welfare period than most gachas, and has a ice and helpful community
  
• Cons
• Gameplay is boring, and autoplay makes it worse
• Gacha drop rates are lies. Rate up is also a massive lie
• Massive paywall after the free premium currency is used up

I guess we can play animations now :)

 

Epic Seven: "PLAY THE EPIC ADVENTURE"

• Pros
• Cool collabs with Kizuna Ai and Guilty Gear
• Hentai is quite numerous and decent
  
• Cons 
•  Very few characters
• Characters have boring character designs
• Basic gameplay with no depth, and aptoplay for more immersive boredom
  

This doesn't seem fair :(

 

Fire Emblem: Heroes: Marth best girl, change my mind

• Pros
• Pretty solid tactics based gameplay for a gacha game
•  Cool and recognizable characters (Obviously recognized from smash, who cares about fire emblem lmao)
• Easy to obtain in-game currency
• There's probably good hentai for a series as beloved as Fire Emblem. Haven't checked, can someone reading this check?
  
• Cons
• Gameplay is quite restricted due to being a mobile game
• Actual competitive meta, gotta pay to win

Konosuba Fantastic Days!: "HASHIRIDAZEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE"

• Pros
• Game offers hot waifus, with Live2D animation, and the voice cast from the anime to add a nice touch
•  Longer welfare period than most gachas
• One of the more casual gachas on the list. Nice to play if you have nothing better to do
• Instead of autoplay, they offer skip tickets for casual farming 
• Constant intake of new content due to dedicated support team
  
• Cons
• Drop rates are shit and rate up is a fucking lie
• Progress wall presented for those wishing to continue. Even with farming, you still need better units
• Paywall for premium currency after welfare period
• Gameplay become stale quickly
• Need a VPN to play (teaches weebs to set up a customized free VPN, so a plus, I guess? btw check out openvpn its the best) 

 

Goin' on dat big adventure

 

Guardian Tales

• Pros
• Holy crap its an actual RPG. A main objective, a bunch of sidequests, and some fun puzzles for user enjoyment.
• Gacha rates are decent
• No real need to pull on the gacha to progress
• Nice pixel sprites, and decent character art
• Premium currency for gacha is easy to come by
  
• Charming humor, cheeky references, and other things that can elicit a casual chuckle
  
• Cons
• Still have to farm for EXP
• Logging in for the first time every day makes tons of ads for premium stuff pop up

 

 

Wanna feel the simp experience?

Date a Live: Spirit Pledge: Gonna live a date, I guess

• Pros 
• Game offers hot waifus, with Live2D animation, and the voice cast from the anime to add a nice touch
•  Exclusive story content for fans of Date a Live 
• Hentai is good, but lacking in quantity
•  Gameplay actually requires the user to play, and is more engaging than most gacha gameplay
  
• Cons 
• Massive paywall for everything people play the game for 
• Game is reduced to farming quickly
• Game doesn't have autoplay, but spamming the attack button for main story content feels like autoplay
• Not that many characters
  
• Rate up is a goddamn lie, I never got my goddamn Kurumi

My personal reason for playing this game. Asfi best girl

 

Danmachi: Memoria Freese: "FAIYABOLTOOOO"

• Pros
  
• Waifus are hot
• No paywall for any content
• Drop rates are nice, and the step up system, combined with the abundance of premium currency, allows one to satiate their gacha addiction whenever
• Hentai is good, but lacking in quantity
• Exclusive story content for fans of the series, with the voice cast from the anime reprising their roles
• Gameplay is more engaging when it's not being autoplayed for farming
  
• Cons
• PVP is the main focus of this game, meaning one has to have the best units, with the best weapons, and maxed out stats
• One can easily get trapped in an endless cycle of pulling for the best units, then maxing them out for PVP, and trying to reach the top 100 PVP placements for the most premium currency, not realizing how boring the PVP actually is

I wanna sandwich my face between 2B's thighs

 

SINoALICE:

• Pros
• Waifus are hot, and they had a NieR Automata collab
• All waifus are free!
• Gacha is only for weapons and alternate classes for waifus
  
• Somewhat interesting story 
• Casual if one isn't hooked to the PVP
• PVP is actually good in this game
  
• Cons
• The gameplay, aside from the actually engaging PVP, can feel boring, and can be autoplayed for less of a fun time
• Not that many characters
  
• The community will fucking bite your throat out

Guns holding guns

 

Girls Frontline: Ever want to fuck a gun?

• Pros
• Hot waifus, nice voice cast, and good animation
• There is so much hentai, and its all good
• Gacha is pay to waifu, game can easily be played without paying to win
• Gameplay is tactics based, and thus, more engaging
  
• Cons
• Premium currency is harder to obtain
• Drop rates are crap
• Farming is lessened a bit through some of the in-game features, but still exists

God I wish I was a boat

 

Azur Lane: Ever want to fuck a boat, and maybe a submarine?

• Pros
• Waifus are hot, and the Live2D animation has boob physics. Top tier
• Drop rates are actually good
• Gacha currency is farmable, and is separate from the premium currency
• Endless amount of high-quality hentai
• Community is nice, with the Yostar support team actively engaging with the playerbase 
• Since waifus are so easy to obtain, this game can only be played casually
• Cons 
• Gameplay is a bad bullet hell. It seems fun, but its surprisingly and disappointingly boring
• Paywall for costumes, including the swimsuits. Big sad

 

Kokkoro's pretty good, but Tamaki best girl

Princess Connect Re:Dive: 

• Pros
• The most casual game on this list
• Drop rates are decent for good units, but rate up is a fucking lie
• Waifus are hot, come with Live2D animation with boob physics, and has an awesome voice cast
• Good hentai, but lacking in quantity
• Huge welfare period that last for forever
• Not a pay to win game, its pay to waifu
• Every character has a costume, usually a swimsuit. Obvious pro
• One of very few gachas with a skip ticket system, and skip tickets are very abundant, along with the stamina needed for missions
  
• Premium currency for the gachas is very abundant
  
• Cons
• Gameplay is kinda boring for the main story content. Real fun stuff is the PVP, PVE, and Dungeon Crawler modes 
• No English release (good thing I can kinda read Jappo lol)
  

Well, I liked having Saint Quartz while it lasted...

 

Fate: Grand Order: The OG, the Big Daddy, the Wallet Killer, etc.

• Pros
  
• Every waifu is hot. Including the husbandos. I don't know why.
• Exclusive content for fans of the original Fate visual novels 
• A surprisingly engaging story comparable to the visual novels
• As is Fate tradition, historical figures' actual genders are ignored, and mostly everyone becomes a female. Pro for obvious reasons
• There is a lot of hentai for this game. Like half of the 350,000 doujinshis are Fate Grand Order doujinshis. It's all good too
• You don't pay to win, you pay to waifu
• Cons
• Gacha currency, while easy to farm, feels insignificant compared to the gacha prices. Meaning Wallet-kun will need a surgery for your favorite waifus
  
• The drop rates are the worst of all the games in this list. Rate up feels like Watergate. Just a massive fucking lie
• There's a lot of farming. It turns from casual time sink to a fucking part time job
• The gameplay is very dated, and can feel stale after awhile

Notice how this is only done with the rarest units? Wonder why...

 

Arknights: Already did a review on this one, but whatever

• Pros
  
• Waifus are fucking top tier
• Drop rates are pretty high, and the system allows one to pull the highest rarity units easier.
• Gameplay is nice, and makes the player feel like they have a massive brain for every completed stage
• An actually good story, if you care
• Gacha currency is separate from premium currency, and is easily obtained
  
• The voice cast has amazing anime voice actors, from Rie Takahashi (Takagi-san, Konosuba, Re:Zero, Fate: Grand Order) to Konishi Katsuyuki (JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Golden Wind, Bleach, Fairy Tail, Demon Slayer) how the company can afford this, who knows
  
• Cons
• There's a lot of farming, more than most games on this list
• The nhentai stuff is really weird guro shit. Only good stuff is on Pixiv
• Community is fucking shit. Bunch of egotistical small brains. Game is PVE, but irl its more PVP
• Yostar didn't do a good job at translating this game, and it is well known for quite a few game-breaking translation errors
• One can gain an even stronger addiction to this game from that extra dopamine boost from passing a stage like a big brain

Sword goes schwing schwing

 

Honkai Impact 3rd: The phone killer, but thankfully not the wallet killer

• Pros
• The gameplay is the best of any gacha game seen so far. Its a hack and slash that can somehow run decent on mobile
• Waifus are fucking godly
• Hentai is good, but lacking in quantity
• Good story, if you care
• Gacha is pay to waifu, not pay to win
  
• Cons 
• Farming isn't really a thing in this game, but for later game content, it is a necessity
• Really expensive microtransactions, and the premium currency is rare
• Not able to run on weak beta-male phones (only really bad for the betas, can't relate)

The 0.0001% chance drop. Totally worth the $400

With all of this being said, I would recommend that those with a really addictive personality shouldn't play games like these. If you are someone who would feel the urge to collect everything, maybe its healthier not to play these games due to the financial costs that may come with said addiction. But, overall, gacha games aren't as bad as most people may make them out to be. Most members of the community, despite being so self-deprecating while playing these games, know what its like to have fun with these games due to some mix of dopamine and mobile game semi-gambling.

 

Gamers over the questionable morality of gacha games

Thanks to Morsh for helping me out with this tier list, have a good night.

- Gabe of Big Bohos