Rerolling in Gacha Games: Striving for Optimal Starts
Unraveling the Reroll Phenomenon in Gacha Community
So Reverse: 1999 just came out about a month ago, at that time, as usual, some of my gacha community friends started playing Reverse. At that time, the discord server (some kind of forum) was wild with people sharing their pulls. However, some people share their pulls repeatedly even if they don’t spend anything on the game yet. It turns out that they do what the gacha community called “reroll”.
So… what is reroll?
Same as retry which means trying something again, reroll is rolling the gacha but with a different account repeatedly until they get what they want (high-tier character/weapon), satisfied, or just tired from it. People do reroll because gacha games like to give new accounts abundant amounts of in-game currency to motivate players to continue playing the game and make them easier to progress in the early game.
Why do people reroll?
There are several reasons people rerolling in gacha games:
- In-game advantage
people to gain advantages by getting the strongest character that can carry them throughout the game. For example, in Reverse: 1999 most people reroll until they can get Centurion which is the strongest offensive character currently available. - They like the characters
Some people reroll until they get the characters that they like, people who do this usually do not care about the character’s power, they just like the character's design or personality. They want to be together with the character that they like. - It’s free dopamine
Gacha is based on probability, it is the same as gambling. Players have the chance to win something good, and winning them feels good. It releases dopamine that makes us satisfied, happy, and motivated. Imagine this, you going to a casino that has a newcomer promotion. The casino gives chips with a total of 100$ to every person who registers for the first time. But they don’t do identity checks so people could change their hairstyle and the casino won’t notice. With the free 100$, there is a chance of losing all of that, but what if you come again, again, and again with a different hairstyle, a fake mustache? you could get 100$ chips every time you come with a new identity and you might hit the jackpot on your 138th attempt. It is the same as rerolling in gacha games, people get dopamine every time they got the rare character from one of their reroll attempts. - Money
Gacha game accounts can be sold, even though trading accounts is illegal in most of games, but the developer doesn’t have the time to ban account traders. Gacha game accounts can make a fortune, especially a new gacha game where everyone starts from the beginning. People who get the strongest character early can sell the account for a high price. For example, an account that has Centurion can be sold for 20$-40$ on the first day of the Reverse: 1999 release. The price can be higher if the account has the best support and the best DPS. On the first day of Nikke, Liter + Scarlet (the best support and DPS) account can be sold at 100$. So people could make easy money with rerolling.
So… is it okay to reroll?
Reroll certainly gives advantages, it could make your gacha game journey easier. In my opinion, it is okay to reroll in moderation. 1–5 times is okay, but more than 20 (I know someone who rerolls 25 times) and can disturb your life is not okay. Even if you do not get the best character early, you still have the chance to get that character later in the game. Eventually, you might get the character or even there will be a power creep and a new character with a better skillset will come.
If you are interested in gacha game, you can read my other article about power creep here.
The fall of the King: Power Creep in Gacha Game
