Wuthering Waves is Kuro Games’ attempt to make a splash in the Gacha market and is looking pretty promising. If you’re interested, you may want to know if it’s free-to-play.
Yes, Wuthering Waves is free-to-play. Technically.
That is to say, by many definitions, Wuthering Waves is free. You don’t have to pay to download it, log in, and play. You can play it forever without spending a dime if you’re really determined or overall apathetic. However, it is a gacha game.
If you’re unfamiliar with gacha games, they center around a mechanic known as “pulls” or “rolls.” Most of your characters and weapons come from these pulls, which are entirely random. While these pulls can usually be obtained by playing the game normally, but the process is a lot slower.
The typical formula for gacha games is to give you plenty of rewards to start off, making it seem like you’re going to get pulls frequently. This will gradually slow to the point where you’ll want to spend real money to give yourself a push. Even then, the odds are carefully controlled to ensure that you won’t always get what you want and will then consider again spending real money.
So, yes, you can play Wuthering Waves without spending a dime, and there are technically no parts of it that are walled off by a fee. Chances are good that any additional content will also be released without initial cost. However, this sort of game is designed to get you to spend money. Even if you go into it with the intention of never spending a dime, free-to-play games are created to wear down that resistance until you finally pony up.
But I’m not your mom, and I’m not trying to dissuade you. I just want you to be aware so you can make the right choices.
