The best gacha games on Android in 2023

Free-to-play games and gachas overlap, but committing to gacha games is entirely different from most titles; the chance-based gameplay leads to dopamine hits like no other. However, it doesn’t come without difficulties; some games will put progression behind paywalls, while others hide boring, repetitious gameplay loops with auto-play. But it doesn’t mean that some of the best Android games cannot be gachas. Sometimes, these games will drive your focus away from the gacha systems to focus on the core game instead. Great gacha games should offer a polished story and content, a well-designed voice track, and worthy music to sync up with your finest pair of wireless earbuds, and ultimately won’t pressure you to break the bank to fuel those wins. This is why we’ve compiled a roundup of the best gacha games out there that tick these exact boxes, so you finally have a good reason to gamble your time.

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Another Eden

Another Eden is a narrative-driven gacha game without the pressurized grind, and you’re the one who gets to set the pace; there’s no energy mechanic, no PvP, and no dailies for you to stress over. The best part is that it’s a free-to-play single-player experience written and directed by Masato Kato and music composer Yasunori Mitsuda, both responsible for the classic RPGs Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross. Another Eden doesn’t push its gacha as the primary focus but instead wants to drive the traditional JRPG experience for the player, making it an excellent choice for newcomers unfamiliar with gacha gaming.

Arknights

Arknights is like no other gacha game; there’s a strong focus on tower defense, which requires an actual strategy to win. You’ll find a mixture of other gameplay elements like card collecting and auto-play (but with restrictions) that’s convenient for when you have to step away from your device. The game is known for being F2P friendly, where you can invest into 4-star units to get you through most of the content, leaving the 5 and 6-stars as added luxuries for your team, and there are no competitive modes that force you to pay to win anyway. All that’s required is a bit of understanding of the game’s mechanics to get you through, where working hard and strategizing well pays off.

Honkai Impact 3rd

It may take a bit of time to get into Honkai Impact 3rd, as the writing and gameplay don’t feel very polished at first. But the more time you invest into playing, the more apparent it is that this is one of HoYoverse’s core projects. Honkai Impact 3rd offers impressive visuals, an addictive rock-paper-scissors combat system, and an evolving deep story. Due to the age of Honkai Impact 3rd, you can now acquire currency outside of the gacha, used to obtain more units, making the PvE content much more F2P friendly than when the game first launched.

Punishing: Gray Raven

It is a disservice not to mention Punishing: Gray Raven in today’s gacha roundup. The combat is exceptionally fluid and polished compared to a vast majority of action RPGs on Android. However, the game can be challenging since you’ll have to execute perfect dodges, play at a fast pace to carry out your combos, and utilize your orb mechanics to take down bosses. The story and setting are not for the faint of heart, taking great inspiration from NieR:Automata and Honkai Impact 3rd, both known for offering darker, mature, and gloomy themes.

Genshin Impact

HoYoverse is rapidly making waves with Genshin Impact, becoming the most expensive video game ever. HoYoverse spends millions on content, artwork, and music to raise the experience as a triple AAA game. Genshin Impact is still primarily a single-player open-world game, so whaling isn’t a necessity to beat the main content; the most challenging content currently is the spiral abyss in which anyone can achieve 36 stars if you spend your resources wisely, invest in your units and plan your team around based on the buffs/enemy line-ups. Genshin Impact is still considered one of Android’s best games, but given how much of a time-sink it can be for free players, you’ll either love or hate the game.

Guardian Tales

An underrated entry on this list; Guardian Tales will make any old-school Zelda fans feel welcome. The gameplay focuses on dungeon-crawling, puzzle-solving, and 2D action combat. The game is also F2P friendly outside of PvP, while the gacha is only there to help speed things along, but it is not mandatory for in-game progression. Guardian Tales offers a humorous and cute storyline while adding unique gameplay elements that you can’t depend on auto-battling your way to victory.

Counter:Side

Initially praised for its flashy 2D visuals and unique setting/premise since it isn’t every day you’re playing as a CEO trying to prevent your company from going bankrupt. At the same time, you must carefully select your employees to prevent the company’s downfall while saving the world. Overall, Counter:Side is a guilty pleasure gacha game. Crafting your team will require extensive planning for resources, and you’ll be punished for throwing a team together lacking in synergy (you can’t just pick your favorites). However, the biggest selling point for Counter:Side is the ongoing story that’s actually enjoyable, offering an incentive to keep grinding to unlock more episodes and character side stories.

Dragon Ball Z: Dokkan Battle

An anime action puzzle game that’s seen a ton of success since its 2015 release is still going strong today. Dragon Ball Z: Dokkan Battle offers a PvE focus compared to Dragon Ball Legends, which means you can take the game at your own pace and not be forced to keep up with ongoing meta builds after every update. Thousands of characters are recruitable (perfect for team-building goals), and new players will have access to SSRs from the start. The game has received plenty of quality-of-life updates over the years, making this gacha a reliable title to get into.

Alice Fiction

A new kid on the block with high potential, Alice Fiction combines puzzle mechanics and tactical RPG battling to keep players engaged while stringing together a team filled with familiar historical figures. The exceedingly high visual quality and amazing soundtrack can carry the experience by itself, which is why it deserves an entry on this list despite the young age. So if you’re looking to get into a gacha on the ground floor, Alice Fiction is a worthy choice.

Tower of Fantasy

Tower of Fantasy is the odd man out on this list due to its focus on MMO gameplay over its gacha system. But it still has plenty of gacha mechanics that require attention while you’re playing, vitality is essentially your energy meter that limits your daily progression, and your weapon builds require summoning on the gacha banners for Simulacrums and upgrades. Tower of Fantasy is a jack-of-all-trades game that will offer plenty to do while immersing yourself in a fully explorable map where you can team up with friends. MMORPGs and gacha games often don’t go hand-in-hand since the combo quickly exploits the pay-to-win factor. Still, at least Tower of Fantasy has content to offer outside of its competitive game modes that extends some generosity when using the gacha system; such in the case that the free-to-play Gold Nuclei used to earn permanent banner characters are still relevant at higher constellations in the global version.

Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes

Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes is a collection-based RPG that has you gathering legendary ships and iconic characters across the Star Wars Universe to engage in epic team battles against light and darkness. After completing your roster, you can join a guild to fight in territory battles to conquer the Galaxy, bringing the gameplay grind onto a macro scale. In addition, a recent update enables gearing up newly acquired characters much faster, so putting together your dream team is manageable for the new player experience. So far, Galaxy of Heroes is the most faithful adaptation on mobile, offering lots of replayability and exploration. And clearly, one that has earned over 50 million downloads on the Google Play Store for a good reason.

Alchemy Stars

The music and art are top-tier in Alchemy Stars. The bite-sized strategy turn-based battles fit naturally for mobile while not needing to include action-oriented open-world elements to expand on the experience (as fun as that is, sometimes we need a happy medium between the two sides for mobile gaming). Staying free-to-play isn’t a challenge, either. Completing in-game events will warrant enough resources to keep your account healthy; plus, you can’t just turn your brain off while playing Alchemy Stars since the auto-battle function isn’t always the most efficient way to clear levels. But needless to say, the story mode isn’t difficult to play through, so you don’t have to stress about obtaining meta units at the start.

Know what you are getting into

At the end of the day, gacha games are an acquired taste. It is still a famous debate whether gacha gaming is virtually gambling, leading to many grey areas in gaming. But that’s why we’ve highlighted a list to showcase that gacha games are not just there to satisfy a gambling addiction, but they have the potential to play like full-fledged games with added depth. Hopefully, this helps provide a good starting point, but always ensure you know what you’re potentially getting into first!