Spending money for a gacha game is a difficult topic.
An addiction is just one of dangers of spending money; the most problematic and disturbing problem is that most (packages, contracts, etc) are made so that people cannot immediately figure out the value. A package you buy may end up being a waste because materials you gain are not really helpful in the long term.
This guide is made to help you avoiding such pitfalls.
I noticed we really do not have many heavy spenders here. So perhaps this guide is not beneficial, but there are some ways to spend money as little as possible for the maximum value. So let's quickly cover F2P-ish players first.
1. If you are F2P.
TLDR: At least buy the battle pass and gold contract, which cost you about 15 dollars per month.
One thing you must understand is that after a certain point, it is actually almost impossible to properly build your characters because you just can't get enough materials even with time. The most offending material would be the Basic Info Core, a.k.a "purple core."
You probably notice by now that they do not come often to us. Once you fully mined out Neural Survey and Boss Fight, there aren't many new sources for these cores.
Next thing would be golden weapons in general. If you check the Probability Disclosure of any limited character banner, you will find out that there is no golden weapon listed on 50/50 loss. Only characters will show up on the character banners, and only weapons will show up on the weapon banners. By nature, F2P players would not run the weapon banners, which may lead to the lack of the golden weapons.
Pistols are the exceptions, but almost all cases, any golden weapons are far better than purple weapons. The way the game calculates damage, flat attack values are crucial, and those purple weapons simply do not provide good attack values.
Then, how about these scbscription contracts?
I notice that vast majority of people have not bought these contracts, and I have to say that's a big mistake; especially the gold one is the most effective way to buy collapse pieces. Even the silver one is extremely efficient due to 2x gold bonus given.
So, the Hunter's Path and Monthly Crystal Contract are the ones I highly recommend all of you to buy without any hesitations. There are certainly far worse ways to spend your money.
Now, below are for dolphins and whales, so you may close this guide if you are F2P.
2. Packages.
First, we look at the Beginner Packages.
They are all good. The problem is, once you buy them, they never come back. My suggestion is save them for emergency.
Then, we see Time-Limited Packages.
Despite the wording, most of these packages refresh periodically. They are basically quantity-limited packages that have better values, especially Lucky Bags. The exceptions are Affinity Gift boxes, the Growth Supply Box, and Targted Gift Crate which are for whales.
That being said, I must bring these two particular packages on front.
The Targeted Access Gift Crate and Box are very good because they are one of few boxes that give the purple cores while still in a decent value overall. If you are going to spend a bit of money, I actually suggest to buy a $49.99 package, at least once, to obtain purple cores.
For the just best for money categories, Recruitment Gift Box "1", and all three Lucky Bags are the best. If you are a dolphine, buy them.
At the Regular Gift Pack, we are getting into the whale categories, but the Premium Selection a and b are actually really great for money. Especially $2.99 one is almost as good as Lucky Bags.
Now, let's look at the Standard Packages...
With the exception of the Covenant Ring (a.k.a mind-control, slave collar for your dolls), all of these packages are bigtime whales, or those who are impatient. Only thing that is worth to buy is the Covenant Rings. No, you won't see the ring available for free after the first one. Not a single future events from the CN server ever offered the ring for free.
This abyss is for those who want V6R6 all of dolls.
A quick word on skins; only at the first release, most (but not all) skins have 10% discount. For re-run, there is no discount.
3. The Last Word.
Nothing lasts forever, for sure. Eventually, everything will be gone. We are spending our money AND time for digital characters who can disappear overnight.
But that's okay.
Since there are far worse ways to spend your money, and more importantly, your time.
Seriously, trust me. THERE EXIST FAR WORSE WAYS, with some of them you may be surprised to hear.
So please enjoy yourselves. Just limit your spending so you won't regret too much when you inevitably stop playing this game. But before that happens, have fun!