Princess Connect Re: Dive, full of adorable characters and silly moments, is a great game. However, if one is not familiar with gacha games and their mechanics or how CyGames products tend to work in general, they might find themselves overwhelmed.
The North American version of the game has only been out for a few weeks. As such, what's to come in-game is still truly up in the air. For now, here are some of the best tips to keep in mind for what you should do as a new Princess Connect player. These are inspired by the experiences in other similar games.
10 Follow The Plot
Strongly consider not skipping the whole story in the game. By spamming that skip button, there's a ton of game context missed out on. Without the story, all players are left with is hollow, boring battles.
Writers genuinely take time to develop these plotlines and give them to players for what is essentially free. Engaging with that story can only improve one's experience. Passing over one or two occasionally is fine, but it's advised not to skip enough to at least get a little bit of background for what's going on.
9 Get Familiar With The Characters
Every character that players get comes with unlockable side stories called interludes. These little vignettes reflect the personality of the character and allow people to interact with them in an undivided setting to get to know who they are a little bit better.
The ones after the first are all unlocked by raising the bond level with characters. They're not necessary at all, but players do get a little bit of currency for viewing them. People might even find a few favorites in the process. There are also "group" interludes for the canon guilds in the story so that players can see their chemistry together.
8 Resist The Urge To Keep Rolling
This game, as with most Cygames products, isn't too skimpy with the gacha currency it gives out. However, this can make it extremely tempting to keep tossing and tossing pulls at the banner. When starting out, the best option is to start with a few rolls just for accumulating characters you need. Continuously rolling isn't great because players can actually end up with too many characters that they'll probably never use.
Having a surplus of currency is important for when limited time banners and events drop because there's no guarantee when they'll come back ( if at all). Typically, there will only be a few weeks or days' notices for this. However, in a game like Princess Connect where there's already been a "released" version somewhere in the world, players have the freedom to look ahead at that version's past events and guesstimate what will be released if or when.
7 Pick Your Team
"Good" rolling rates and constantly free currency are a double-edged sword. In gacha games with "bad" rates, players generally have no choice but to start with the characters they get first along with the free units. The games like Princess Connect with "good" rates can easily overwhelm players with characters.
Therefore, it's important here to zero in on about five to eight characters who seem worth investing in the most. After all, everything in gacha games costs a currency - from skills to leveling to ascending, so choose wisely. Try to pick units that have universal skills that will carry the team throughout most of the early chapters of the game. Niche characters, or units with a very specific power, are best saved to train for when one no longer needs to cover the basics.
6 Login Every Day
Some people really hate the idea of daily logins in games, but doing so truly has its perks believe it or not. Sometimes they might drop a rare item or even reward players with something good for logging in for a certain number of days -- particularly with new players.
Any MMORPG player will extol the virtues of dailies and how it can be simple to maximize their benefits. Even if someone has no intention of playing that day, it's good to take 3 seconds for a daily check-in in order to have something for more lengthy logins.
5 Utilize The Free Characters
Ignoring free units -- specifically ones literally given to you at the beginning of the game -- is a textbook rookie gacha gamer error. They're not there to be intrusive; they are there to help players get their feet off the ground. Most of them are actually quite good once leveled, too.
Maxing out every single one isn't required, but a good idea is to look at which characters from the banner are in the roster. Discern what is missing as far as abilities go and use the starter characters to fill in the team's gaps.
4 Join A Guild
This is another feature popular among MMORPGs that appears in many gacha games. Guilds/Clans are necessary if new players would like to participate in raids. However, there's another perk to them that will particularly be beneficial to new players.
Let's say one needs a specific item but can't seem to get it or find it no matter what they do. When part of a guild, players can request that specific material to see if a member has one they can spare.
3 Make That Guildhouse Homey
Early on in the game, players will be set up with a Guildhouse for their characters. Here, they can pick their favorite characters to set up walking around and place the furniture for them to interact with. Think of it as a mini The Sims without the frequent house fires and goopy carbonara.
However, this mechanic is not just for fun; there is furniture in the home that does daily respawns of things players will regularly need such as potions, mana, stamina, and skip tickets. The higher the player level gets, the more upgrades they can do to the house.
2 Get Comfortable With Making Comps
Play around with some team compositions. Instead of players doing the fighting in the game, the characters do it themselves automatically. While this context can make the gameplay sound a little hands-off, it's quite the opposite because the compositions can really determine whether a fight goes well or poorly. Each character has a designated place based on their abilities that she'll automatically go in - frontline, midline, or backline.
It's very possible to accidentally pick too many units that don't have enough defense or one that doesn't buff allies. So be pre-set with some fighting unit algorithms before jumping deep into the story. Remember that if even one ally falls in battle, players don't get the jewel reward. Players will still be able to clear the node, but there will just be less treasure and they'll have to do it again in order to reap the full rewards.
1 Find a Support Unit And Never Let Them Go
Healer units are absolutely crucial for this type of gameplay set. So it's highly advised to pick out one or two from a team right away and start leveling them up -- even before focusing on battles.
See, there's a possibility of getting other fighter units down the road who might replace previous ones. But healers, like a solid black t-shirt, will always be a universal go-to.