Why the bug I wrote became a core gameplay mechanic?!
Chapter 575 - 558 I’m a damn Whale!

Chapter 575: Chapter 558 I’m a damn Whale!

"On the first day the servers opened for Endless Fantasy Legend 2, Instructor Ding was also up early to start the live stream.

Of course, there was some debate among Instructor Ding’s fans as to whether to stream this game or not.

Indeed, there are quite a few players who only play standalone games and don’t want to watch mobile game streaming.

But the main body of Instructor Ding’s fans are still mostly omnivores, and this is Nitiandang’s work after being quiet for over a year, so in the end, it was decided to give it a go.

You can tell that Instructor Ding has done his homework, he didn’t just dive into the plot, but also took the opportunity to flaunt his spending power, planning to evaluate the strength of the two UP pool characters for everyone.

He tested from one-star all the way up to full stars, making a horizontal comparison.

"Man, wouldn’t have imagined, wouldn’t have imagined, even the streamer has to start splurging Game Coins on Nitiandang.

"Brothers, a serious statement here, this is definitely not shilling. Nitiandang hasn’t given me any commercial deals in a long time."

Instructor Ding explained to the bullet chat as he began the gacha pulls.

One ten-pull, nothing happened.

Two ten-pulls, and there was a glimmer of gold.

"Eh? What the heck, what’s happening?"

Instructor Ding was startled, how could there be golden light just after two ten-pulls?

I’m a freaking Whales!

According to experience with similar games, generally it’s about 70 to 80 pulls to get gold, even with the early gold most likely needing 40 to 50 pulls.

Situations like consecutive golds or early gold in twenty pulls are very rare, they are undoubtedly a symbol of being a Whales.

"Don’t be crooked!

"NICE! I am indeed a Whales!"

A silhouette of a little loli appeared on the big screen, followed by rampant growth of green grass and trees. The adorable loli Xing Ying appeared to sprout from the flowers, floating lightly onto the screen.

"Let’s pull for a Glacier General now, um, first let’s test the one-star comparison."

Instructor Ding switched to another UP pool to pull from.

Pulling one counts as a one-star by default, and every one after that can be used for star upgrades, turning the original yellow stars into gold-red, up to five-stars, meaning pulling six will max it out.

Likewise, for a four-star character, pull four more to max it out.

Of course, each character also has their special weapon, but typically you just need one and don’t need to pull more.

Even though Instructor Ding said he was going to pull two full star characters from the start, he planned to test from one-star all the way up.

So the decision was made to first pull two one-stars, do a simple test, and then pull all the rest at once to max them out.

For most players, seeing the strength comparison of one-star characters is enough.

After all, maxing out star characters costs too much, and it’s not something the average person can afford. While one-star characters aren’t as strong as full stars, they’re more than enough for tackling the big world.

Quickly, another streak of gold flashed across the screen.

"Holy s***, another one in just over thirty pulls!

"My god, two golds in fifty pulls, I am a Whales, the ultimate Whales!

"Brothers, don’t call me Instructor Ding anymore, call me Whales Ding! I’m too damn lucky!"

Instructor Ding was nearly dancing in front of the screen because getting another gold in thirty pulls was just too sci-fi.

He had never encountered such a situation in so many gacha mobile games.

"Don’t be crooked!!"

With Instructor Ding’s impassioned shouting, a big ship broke through the ice, and the suave turning figure of Glacier General, accompanied by a drifting chill across the screen.

"Holy, a double hit without getting crooked! I’m freaking awesome!

"Is this even right?

"This is so right!

"Nitiandang, I love you!"

Instructor Ding got a little carried away, as a pile of question marks drifted across the screen.

Mixed in were bullet chats joking about "siphoning luck."

His sense of pride was quite reasonable because now every game would show the specific gacha probabilities on the card-pull interface.

Endless Fantasy Legend 2 did the same, stating that the base draw rate for a five-star character is 0.5%, and the comprehensive draw rate is 1.5%, with a 60% probability of not deflecting in the UP pool.

This probability has sparked quite a controversy when it was released in the beta version.

Because the probability is really low!

You should know that the official regulations for this kind of gacha probabilities can’t be lower than 0.5%.

Endless Fantasy Legend 2’ s base draw rate just hits the minimum threshold allowed by the officials, and the overall draw rate of 1.5% is also below the industry average.

Since the industry’s rates are generally between 1.5% to 3%.

As for the 60% non-deflection rate, this is the only part that can be considered somewhat fair since other industry games’ non-deflection rates are generally 50%, which means there’s a half chance of deflecting to a Permanent Pool character when drawing from the UP pool.

But this is not very perceptible, and there are many players who consecutively draw without deflection. Merely increasing the non-deflection rate by 10% doesn’t make any substantial difference to players.

So the probabilities were criticized as soon as they were released.

If these probabilities are accurate, then Instructor Ding is indeed a true Whales.

Based on the comprehensive draw rate of 1.5%, the probability of getting gold in 20 pulls is 30%, and in 30 pulls it’s 45%, and with the non-deflection rate considered, it’s only 18% and 27%, respectively.

Moreover, some games only noticeably increase the odds after 60 pulls, making this early gold even more valuable.

This is indeed worthy of some bragging."

Instructor Ding originally thought that to summon two max-star characters, wouldn’t he need to prepare for a thousand draws at least?

But now, he’s managed to summon the zero-star versions of both characters after only fifty draws, just enough to use up the official fifty free draws of the first day.

As for the Game Coins obtained from doing quests and scouring the map, he hasn’t touched them yet.

"Great, let’s test out the zero-star performance of the two characters at lightning speed, and then we’ll keep on pushing to summon two max-stars!"

Instructor Ding immediately leveled up the two characters, switched out their equipment and weapons, and then set off to hunt monsters in the volcanic area.

Someone in the comments reminded him: "Little Ding, do your draws first, otherwise your luck might run out!"

But Instructor Ding didn’t think much of it: "We agreed to test zero-stars first and then draw for max-stars. As a streamer, I’ve got to keep my word. Besides, I’ve been on a lucky streak all day today, it won’t run out!"

He still decided to prioritize monster testing first, as it wouldn’t take up too much time.

Soon enough, the test results were in.

Without a doubt, Iceberg Major General was the clear winner.

Xing Ying, the wood-attribute little loli, had skills with no special mechanisms; they were all quite simple. Her minor skill can scan all units in target range upon holding down, affixing them with a long-lasting Wood attribute; as for her ultimate, it is akin to Tree World Descent, where in a large area it summons wood attribute effects, wildly growing trees that enhance all reactions related to the wood attribute and also increase the frequency of triggering.

That was all there was to it.

Glacier General’s skills were obviously more interesting. His main attribute is water, his minor skill summons a surge of water to boldly drench the enemies in front and can also give his One-Handed Sword a water enchantment; his ultimate involves planting the sword into the ground, freezing a large area of water-drenched enemies.

Looking at the stats, there’s no significant fundamental difference between them, in fact, Glacier General’s stats are even slightly higher.

More health, higher base damage multiplier.

"Alright, there isn’t much left to test. If you’re only going to draw for one, go no-brainer for Glacier General!

"Of course, if you guys feel like Xing Ying matches your XP more, then feel free to draw one of each, provided that your luck is as good as mine, hehe.

"Oh, and let me add one more thing, both characters see a noticeable boost at two-stars.

"So if you can only draw a one-star, then give up on one-star and draw one of each character; if you can draw two-stars, then give up Xing Ying and go no-brain for Glacier General."

At that moment, Instructor Ding hadn’t yet tested the specific improvements of star upgrades, but he could almost reach a conclusion since the text descriptions were very clear.

The star-level improvements of all the characters in Endless Fantasy Legend 2 generally adhere to this pattern:

One-star basic stat increase;

Two-star major stat increases;

Three-star unlocks a special mechanism;

Four-star basic stat increase;

Five-star unlocks another special mechanism.

So according to this principle, the most worthwhile levels to draw for are zero-star, two-star, three-star, and five-star.

One-star and four-star do not offer much value.

Of course, saying it unlocks a special mechanism doesn’t actually have a significant impact on the character; it won’t render them unplayable but will improve things like comfort level and team synergy.

For average players, two-stars is actually a decent level, because it gets the most significant stat boost, which is more friendly to those who prioritize strength.

After initial testing was done, Instructor Ding went to draw cards again without skipping a beat.

Clearly, he was also worried that his luck would fade and wanted to seize the moment to draw max-stars.

Zhuge Jun had mostly gotten his answers, but after a second thought, decided to look up a few more videos.

Everyone’s conclusions were similar; when choosing between the two, go no-brainer for Glacier General, no contest!

"Forget considering, just go for Glacier General, no question there," Hou Ji had clearly made up his mind, "Mainly because Glacier General can also match well with other dominant characters like Cold Frost and Qing Lin, oh, and he actually can be teamed up with Lei Tu as well."

He spoke as he started his gacha.

"The officials’ free draws are enough for a steady two-star Glacier General and even give a chance for three-stars if you’re luckier.

"If you get three-stars, that’s quite a bargain. In terms of strength, it would be far more superior to having a one-star Glacier General + a zero-star loli.

"Ah damn, I struck gold early too!"

As Hou Ji was talking, a streak of gold light flashed across the screen.

He also got gold in just twenty draws, and it wasn’t off the mark either!

It was, indeed, a good omen.

Zhuge Jun fell into thought; indeed, from the current situation, Xing Ying purely seemed like a secondary option, Glacier General was the best choice.

Although, without a doubt, the official draws could net both characters, gacha games aren’t played like that.

Drawing from every UP pool, other than filling out the Bestiary, serves no other purpose, since players typically play with only around four to eight characters.

Any more than that, and you can’t manage to play them all.

For non-whale players, mixing four-star and five-star characters is the most cost-effective choice, and the experience with high-star level five-star characters is also much better.

If it were any other game, you’d go all-in for Glacier General and be done with it.

But Zhuge Jun felt slightly uneasy, as if something was off.

He looked at his Lei Tu in the character pool.

From Lei Tu to Cold Frost to Qing Lin to Xing Ying and Glacier General...

Nitiandang’s character power planning was clearly different from other game manufacturers. It couldn’t be approached with the usual mindset.

If Qing Lin could suddenly become stronger through a world quest without any warning, who’s to say Xing Ying wouldn’t pull off such a stunt?

It’s hard to say!

"Forget it, let’s just go for both.

"Don’t worry about issues of strength, a zero-star experience obviously can’t compare to a two-star, but it’s always better than nothing."

In the end, Zhuge Jun decided to draw one of each.