Does Destiny Rising Favor Pay-to-Win Players?

Destiny: Rising is a gacha-style game in which players can acquire limited-time five-star characters and develop them for various activities. Gacha games are often criticized for their monetization strategies, as purchasing character draws with real money gives paying players a significant advantage.

If you’re concerned that Destiny: Rising restricts access to its most powerful characters behind a paywall, here’s a breakdown of its monetization model and what free-to-play players can expect.

Everything Available for Free in Destiny Rising

An impressive starting character in the game.

Destiny: Rising is more accommodating than many other gacha games on the market, including titles like Genshin Impact, Honkai: Star Rail, and Wuthering Waves. Players familiar with those games know the frustration of failing to obtain a desired character, but Destiny: Rising eliminates that issue.

The positive aspects of Destiny: Rising’s gacha system include:

No 50/50 chance on event banners
Guaranteed character in 60 pulls
A significant number of free pulls
The character Wolf is a solid starting option

In Destiny: Rising, players are guaranteed to receive characters from limited-time banners within 60 pulls. There’s no 50/50 gamble involved, which means your focus will be on how soon you can obtain a character. Banners are active for around 30 days, allowing ample opportunity to gather Lumina Leaves.

The game provides more than 200 free pulls through gameplay, including «Bon Voyage» Charms for the standard banners, which should be sufficient to acquire an event character along with a few standard five-stars.

If you prefer to save your pulls for a favorite character, Wolf is a strong choice to use in the meantime. Typically, the main characters in gacha games perform at a mediocre level, but so far, Wolf has proven capable of clearing all content as long as you align weapon elements with the challenges.

The key question remains: how many free pulls will each update provide? Many gacha games engage players with various limited-time events to obtain pulls, and as Destiny: Rising is still in its early phase, the structure of future events is still unknown.

Everything Available for Purchase in Destiny Rising

The gacha experience still involves spending money.

While there are plenty of free elements, Destiny: Rising remains a gacha game, offering ample opportunities for players to spend money. The primary transactions involve acquiring more pulls, but players can also obtain additional rewards and materials based on their purchases.

Here’s a rundown of what you can buy in Destiny: Rising with real currency:

Lumina Leaves: Currency used for additional pulls.
Cosmetics: Character skins, vehicle skins, ghost shells, and more.
Battle pass: Premium tier includes «Bon Voyage» Charms, materials for upgrades, cosmetics, and early access to seasonal Exotic weapons.
Peacemaker’s Gifts: A seven-day subscription yielding cosmetic rewards for Attal and «Bon Voyage» Charms.
Founder Bundle: A package containing the battle pass, Tree of Light’s Blessing, 10 «Bon Voyage» Charms, and other rewards.
Tree of Light’s Blessing: A 30-day subscription providing daily Lumina Leaves and Black Market Coins.
Hero’s Vault: Extra rewards for achieving Team Level milestones.
Journey Bundles: Discounted bundles with Lumina Leaves and «Bon Voyage» Charms.

Most of these purchases yield Lumina Leaves or additional character pulls, facilitating the acquisition of limited-time characters and their upgrades. Talents (comparable to Constellations in Genshin Impact) provide enhancements that can only be accessed through obtaining duplicate characters.

To fully upgrade a five-star character like Gwynn, for example, you would need to obtain her seven times, equating to about 420 pulls. Some of these Talents are powerful, yet it’s important to note that you don’t necessarily need them to succeed in various activities.

Currently, using Wolf allows players to clear all content efficiently. Whether this balance will shift in the future is uncertain, but in most gacha games, players can engage in core activities without making purchases. The sole exception may be PvP, as certain modes have implemented Fair Play mechanics to level the playing field regarding abilities.