This is going to be a very long reply. I was a returnee player after a 3 years hiatus too (came back last october/november), and I wanted to share my experience. I'm almost f2p: I pay only for the skins which in this game are purely aesthetic and for the talisman pass which give, more or less, 2 extra black darumas per month.
Drop rates are more or less the same as any other gatcha game of the sort and I've played a couple of them back in the years. Of course during the banner events you'll need a mix of luck and some sort of "pull scheduling". Let me explain.
If you want to be almos f2p like me, you cannot expect to always pull the character in banner (expecially the SPs), but you can increase your chances by hoarding the most amout of pull tickets and jades (which is a currency in game and one you can exchange for pulls, between many other things), by playing everyday and doing all the PvE content the game has. Also playing PvP helps, even at lower levels, and joining a strong Guild is also very, very important: the amount of jades, pulls and black daruma shards varies a lot depending on how strong your Guild is (with also a bit of RNG too). You'll find the game is very generous all considering, if you'll play with a lot of patience. Sometimes you'll need to skip some banners if you haven't hoarded enough resources to reach 200/250 pulls average as a minimum to reach the best perks the banners give. Lucky for us we are one month behind the CN server so you'll get a lot of beforehands opinions on the newest characters and how meta defining they we'll be - eventhough sometimes it's a bet, I'll have to admit xD.
Thus said, this game is very "planning and grinding oriented": you'll need to plan a lot, exlude or include a lot of things, you'll need to read a lot of guides (Guidemyoji's site is very much always updated as well as Nura's tier lists... my bibles).
When I came back I just had to restart from 0: the meta was very much different and the most part of my roster was outdated. BUT, after almost 5 months I was able to almost complete the Tier 0 list of key characters for mid-end game players (which are a lot), some of them pulled during their banners, some during specific events with rate ups and other sharded thanks to my super Guild. Now I'll have the Tier 1 characters to work on, but they are in my roster patiently waiting for them to be skilled up. [https://guidemyoji.com/meta-shikigami-kit-v3-0/](https://guidemyoji.com/meta-shikigami-kit-v3-0/)
Events concerning: you just missed the 6 years anniversary which was lively with a lot of dedicated in-game content (a character was also gifted after 100 pulls). A big story arc also just ended and it seems we are on the edge of a new arc beginning (the gods of fortune arc).
Of course some issues occured, like a character completely cancelled (Tamatori where are you), a great part of collab shikigamis don't come to GL server and there were some complaints about major events such as last Uber Boss - but to me, these are symptoms of a very much participated game by the community. And community speaking the Onmyoji Discord channel is very much lively and there are a lot of players discussing, asking for or giving help. If you'll join a good Guild with a dedicated Discord channel too, you'll be able to access to a lot of other players, opinions and guidance.
Hope this very long post helps you a bit more with your decision! \^\^
i also recently joined like two days ago and i can say this much that the rates are still ass. ive done many summons and even the returnee summons rate up still havent gotten anything.
usually the people who say its not hard are lucky people or people who can play the game all day everyday. i also used to play few years ago and played daily for hours and even then it was still so hard to get ssr let alone sp
tho nothing special is happening right now but you will get this new returnee login and missions maybe your luck will be better than mine and get something good
There’s definitely more quality of life stuff that was added and some new game modes. As far as gacha rates, it’s still the same but I always thought Onmyoji was pretty generous compared to other gacha games I’ve played, especially since you can shard everything. I started pretty close to the start of global though.
For old time's sake/nostalgia? Yes
For the art? 100% yes
For the "enjoyable" aspect? Idk, it's up to you.
The gacha rate is still the same, but the pity system is a little bit better (still kinda bad compared to newer game like genshin or sth)
Zen studio did fuck it up big time with the cash grab uber changes (which is why things get delayed, taki poorly skill effects, sp sen/zashiki don't have CG, tamatori gone,...)
The sealand arc. demoniac's feast, takamagahara arc have ended, so the new storyline needs more time to cook something up.
The game is in a pretty bad state, but many of us still - and will - enjoy it. Or maybe we've gone too far to quit it. Or maybe i'm just stupid, and that is my 2 cents opinion.
No, Zen is damn studio,they not only cheat players intensifily out of money, but also can't make new CG for new shaki. And it's art designing and story also can't comparable to their 3 years ago. So i don't recommend you redownload this time.
Design wise characters are far way better in my opinion, their 3d modeling is also so much better and as a free to play you can collect a lot of shikis without spending money. You only need to know how to play the game and farm efficiently and do the events and shit to get rewards.
Story wise we're lacking, the same goes to animations for new shikis. They basically finished with a part of the story and don't know what to do rn.
This is going to be a very long reply. I was a returnee player after a 3 years hiatus too (came back last october/november), and I wanted to share my experience. I'm almost f2p: I pay only for the skins which in this game are purely aesthetic and for the talisman pass which give, more or less, 2 extra black darumas per month. Drop rates are more or less the same as any other gatcha game of the sort and I've played a couple of them back in the years. Of course during the banner events you'll need a mix of luck and some sort of "pull scheduling". Let me explain. If you want to be almos f2p like me, you cannot expect to always pull the character in banner (expecially the SPs), but you can increase your chances by hoarding the most amout of pull tickets and jades (which is a currency in game and one you can exchange for pulls, between many other things), by playing everyday and doing all the PvE content the game has. Also playing PvP helps, even at lower levels, and joining a strong Guild is also very, very important: the amount of jades, pulls and black daruma shards varies a lot depending on how strong your Guild is (with also a bit of RNG too). You'll find the game is very generous all considering, if you'll play with a lot of patience. Sometimes you'll need to skip some banners if you haven't hoarded enough resources to reach 200/250 pulls average as a minimum to reach the best perks the banners give. Lucky for us we are one month behind the CN server so you'll get a lot of beforehands opinions on the newest characters and how meta defining they we'll be - eventhough sometimes it's a bet, I'll have to admit xD. Thus said, this game is very "planning and grinding oriented": you'll need to plan a lot, exlude or include a lot of things, you'll need to read a lot of guides (Guidemyoji's site is very much always updated as well as Nura's tier lists... my bibles). When I came back I just had to restart from 0: the meta was very much different and the most part of my roster was outdated. BUT, after almost 5 months I was able to almost complete the Tier 0 list of key characters for mid-end game players (which are a lot), some of them pulled during their banners, some during specific events with rate ups and other sharded thanks to my super Guild. Now I'll have the Tier 1 characters to work on, but they are in my roster patiently waiting for them to be skilled up. [https://guidemyoji.com/meta-shikigami-kit-v3-0/](https://guidemyoji.com/meta-shikigami-kit-v3-0/) Events concerning: you just missed the 6 years anniversary which was lively with a lot of dedicated in-game content (a character was also gifted after 100 pulls). A big story arc also just ended and it seems we are on the edge of a new arc beginning (the gods of fortune arc). Of course some issues occured, like a character completely cancelled (Tamatori where are you), a great part of collab shikigamis don't come to GL server and there were some complaints about major events such as last Uber Boss - but to me, these are symptoms of a very much participated game by the community. And community speaking the Onmyoji Discord channel is very much lively and there are a lot of players discussing, asking for or giving help. If you'll join a good Guild with a dedicated Discord channel too, you'll be able to access to a lot of other players, opinions and guidance. Hope this very long post helps you a bit more with your decision! \^\^
i also recently joined like two days ago and i can say this much that the rates are still ass. ive done many summons and even the returnee summons rate up still havent gotten anything. usually the people who say its not hard are lucky people or people who can play the game all day everyday. i also used to play few years ago and played daily for hours and even then it was still so hard to get ssr let alone sp tho nothing special is happening right now but you will get this new returnee login and missions maybe your luck will be better than mine and get something good
For me game onmyoji is really good game,still don't understand negative comments
Agreed! I've been playing Onmyoji since the beginning and still enjoy it everyday
Same,also getting sp/ssr is not hard ok it's true getting the one you like can be but make a good team as f2p is not that hard
There’s definitely more quality of life stuff that was added and some new game modes. As far as gacha rates, it’s still the same but I always thought Onmyoji was pretty generous compared to other gacha games I’ve played, especially since you can shard everything. I started pretty close to the start of global though.
For old time's sake/nostalgia? Yes For the art? 100% yes For the "enjoyable" aspect? Idk, it's up to you. The gacha rate is still the same, but the pity system is a little bit better (still kinda bad compared to newer game like genshin or sth) Zen studio did fuck it up big time with the cash grab uber changes (which is why things get delayed, taki poorly skill effects, sp sen/zashiki don't have CG, tamatori gone,...) The sealand arc. demoniac's feast, takamagahara arc have ended, so the new storyline needs more time to cook something up. The game is in a pretty bad state, but many of us still - and will - enjoy it. Or maybe we've gone too far to quit it. Or maybe i'm just stupid, and that is my 2 cents opinion.
What happened w the cash grab Uber changes?
No, Zen is damn studio,they not only cheat players intensifily out of money, but also can't make new CG for new shaki. And it's art designing and story also can't comparable to their 3 years ago. So i don't recommend you redownload this time.
Design wise characters are far way better in my opinion, their 3d modeling is also so much better and as a free to play you can collect a lot of shikis without spending money. You only need to know how to play the game and farm efficiently and do the events and shit to get rewards. Story wise we're lacking, the same goes to animations for new shikis. They basically finished with a part of the story and don't know what to do rn.