The REAL Truth Behind Power Creep in Gacha

[@davidalexander6346]

Games like FGO does gives quests (strengthening) to upgrade the older units, to the point than some older 4 stars are among the best units in the game thanks to those. Just recently Wuwa kinda upgraded the spectro rover kit. So is about willingness to keep the game balanced

[@Tunnelsnakes]

GFL2 does it with expansion keys. There are plenty of examples of powercreep mitigation.

[@chithanhnguyen5989]

Arknights with module system brings back old operators from dead to useable/niche/meta

[@WanshiLucidDreamer]

PGR gives leap to your characters which doesn't make them meta but a new playstyle for more fun gameplay. Also for older legends limited units in DBL, Zenkai Awakening makes them super busted among as high as top 5 meta characters again.

[@pixelenjoyer5865]

Limbus Company releases IDs (characters) that buff others based on theme (like an Office or Association) and EGOs (ultimate skills) that buff specific units or are custom tailored for them. Since you can spark anything in the game, you can get your hands on those things without pulling the wallet out.

[@XenonDante]

Dokkan Battle has Extreme Z-Awakenings, increasing a UR's max level from 120 to 140, with a brand new kit, and LR characters get a brand new kit. Now "Super" Extreme Z-Awakening introduced in 2024 version to bring back characters who have already EZA'd, so characters in Dokkan released today are guaranteed 2 upgrades, great since we're currently celebrating the 10th Year Anniversary. 10 years of powercreep can vanish with a character upgrade.

[@CyberSoldier101]

This should go without saying, but to all of my fellow gacha players out there, PLEASE SPEND RESPONSIBLY!

[@yokumob]

i will NOT spend ever

[@adoroselatte]

Would rather spend on clothing line character and their main merch nowadays than in-game!! I spent 3k++ and dropped in-game before because all I paid for png or jpeg after pulls!!

[@damastah100]

2 minutes in and Hex highlighting one of the major issues of powercreep in some games(the inability to directly buff older units/characters) and the breakdown around the 4 minute mark and onwards regarding "Internal" and "External" powercreep already put this video above almost every other take I've seen on this topic. The point about "shaking up the meta" around 7:46 is a valid point as well. And finally, the question suggestions at 12:30ish are just perfect and cover all bases one could go to in a powercreep debate. Hexjuice cooked with this video, great stuff!

[@hexjuice]

This is so nice, I was nervous about posting this and everyone being so complimentary is making my… eyes… sweat… 😅

[@priqe]

i dont think its the inability, it’s the devs game, they have the ability to do it if they want. More like the unwillingness to buff older characters, there are many gacha games that directly buff older units thru quests, giving additional upgrades, etc.

[@doublevalentine5970]

Comes in, no bias, no pointing fingers, spitting straight gas, leaves. This video is such a breath of freash air. I'm burned out if all the current drama going on so far

[@marshmallowearlgrey]

Fr

[@natncat]

girl we *needed* you in this community holy

[@SerraAbyssAlisaris]

YEP People need to Set the baselines.

[@モノローグ]

so far in WuWa, as long as there's a player who can clear ToA by solo Danjin, I'd consider people who can't clear it to just have a skill issue or device issue

[@huntercrow9553]

i have above 170 ping cant do perfect combos so wuwa is a casual game for me why did i play in america servers while in asia, so i could play with my online friends

[@PabloRodriguezreal]

​@@huntercrow9553isn't wuwa's combat client-sided tho? I don't think ping really affects you that much unless you play coop

[@huntercrow9553]

@PabloRodriguezreal there are still some delays even on solo content like toa, and god forbid my isp spikes or dips

[@PabloRodriguezreal]

@@huntercrow9553 I see I didn't notice so far ,I thought it didn't make any difference, good to know

[@Silks-q8r]

@@huntercrow9553i think its depends on wifi or device cuz i play on all servers and never had such a problem

[@stiixxed]

Tbh, gacha games CAN change a character kit after release, by BUFFING them only. I believe they are not allowed to NERF them according to laws, but buff is totaly allowed, they are just not willing to except for very specific cases (like what you mentionned with GI, zhongli being highly anticipated and ended up trash on release so they had to buff him bc of the wave of complaints)

[@panjipewe]

so... how about we buff old unit... with new support unit ? so old unit still will be relevant...

[@stiixxed]

@panjipewe at this point there is no saving grace for some characters, like seele in HSR but I might be wrong, well see. After all, what you Say litteraly happened for characters like Jing Yuan in HSR, bad for so long, became great after sunday's release.

[@giangtrinhtruong7952]

​@@panjipeweYou solve powercreep using powercreep? Not a good one

[@АлександрМорозов-й3й]

@@panjipewe Support Units CAN revive old chars, BUT 1)There is little space in parties for them 2)Some chars, to be on par with new DD, need MASSIVE stats or mechanics upgrades - with stats, it would be Powercreeping previous supports, which previously did it (but it is universal). IMHO the mechanics upgrade IS good powercreeping sollution, but oftentimes that is TOO niche- so those units won't bring a lot of money.

[@joaomarcoscosta4647]

@@panjipewe This is a form of indirectly buffing older units, and in some cases, it can work! However... It needs to be handled carefully, since this new character will effectively buff all units of the same archetype. This also means that, in order to make your older units viable, you NEED to pull a newer unit as well. And more importantly, you need to keep in mind there is nothing stopping devs from releasing direct buffs that specifically target the units that really need it. They are simpler to implement, and come with no aditional cost for the players. Some games do it pretty regularly - Epic 7 being the most notable example, among the games I've played. They usually release dev notes with around a dozen of buffs before the start of a new RTA reason, resulting a relatively dynamic meta where both newer and older units can be relevant. Other games do it more sparcely. A good example is PGR: every once in a while, they will release items in the shop (which can be purchased with farmable f2p currency) that not only increase a specific character's multipliers and damage output, but also add new mechanics to their kit. Not all characters get this treatment, and even those who so are not neccessarily on the same level as the "top meta" options, but it is a way to breath new life into older characters. Nerfs are harder to implement, though. Legal consequences aside... Nerfing a popular unit will usually result in a lot of backlash unless they give compensate the player with something of equal value. (Such as a character selector / the option to reimburse all resources invested into that character.) Heck, even when there is a proper compensation, nerfing someone's favorite unit will create dissatisfaction, and potentially result in finantial losses for the devs due to the opportunity cost of issuing free character selectors or reimbursing the gems invested on a banner, so... Nerfs tend to be more of a last resort.

[@Augzzz]

Just a critique on your point on gacha games not changing characters after release, that's only true for hoyo titles which I guess most people are used to. A lot of gachas tend to give upgrades to older units or rebalance their kits to be more in line with the modern units. For example Fate/Grand Order, Granblue Fantasy, Arknights, Punishing Gray Raven to name a few that I've played. Also IMO the problem lies with hoyo's end game model, which is to release high hp "challenge modes" WITH A TIMER every few weeks which constantly scales in hp. This is NOT COMMON in the gacha space in the past, so power creep doesn't happen as fast in a lot of other titles.

[@hexjuice]

Thanks for the feedback! I obviously wasn’t super informed regarding other games, however, I do think my points are still valid since usually conversations about power creep tend to revolve around post-Genshin titles. I’m kinda tempted to look into all those systems in other games though, it seems really interesting based on the comments I’ve gotten.

[@Satyr42]

@@hexjuice Reverse 1999 is a recent game that will start buffing older units from the next patch onward. It is also a turn based game so you can compare it with HSR. Could be useful for a video about power creep in HSR if you ever plan on doing one.

[@Sakaki98]

@@hexjuice Tbh the biggest problem here is that you’re correct in the usage of the term “post-Genshin.” So many people defend everything wrong with that game that its success has negatively warped the wider gacha game industry as companies realize “wait, we can get away with that? Consumers will not only accept but actively defend that?” and consequently lower their standards: Power creep not being directly addressed, limited 5 stars almost *never* being added to the standard banner, weapons being *more* expensive than characters to reliably acquire, not expanding stamina caps as you level up… Thee are just a small handful out of an upwards of *a dozen* player-unfriendly dynamics that newer games have been… shall we say “inspired” by Genshin to go through with. It’s more than a little frustrating to see us go so far backwards that *decade-old* QOL features like a skip button and the ability to spending more stamina per run-think condensed resin but not something you have to craft and with no cap, so you could burn an entire day’s worth of stamina on a single upgrade material stage clear if you wanted-have become selling points. What’s really being powercrept is everything wrong with modern Sports games lmao

[@joyboy_3165]

​​@@hexjuiceThis isn't a pre/post genshin thing nikke who just released 2 years ago and pretty popular in itself already has a similar system too. I don't want to come off as a douche but y'all hoyo and adjacent CCs really need to do further research before making these sweeping statements about the whole genre.

[@heophan8072]

Please remove GBF from that list.

[@danielbarnes1241]

As an arknights enjoyer "Wouldn't let that shit happen to me tho~" 5 years in and even the most broken units won't save you from skill issues and not reading stage mechanics. Endfield looks to be similar with how the potentials seem just as ignorable there as before.

[@bellart_ramana]

As an arknights player myself i do have to say that endfield dupes seem more potent than OG arknights. In OG arknights a dupe may mean -1DP cost or 2 or 3 extra % on a talent equaling maybe a 3-5% increase in overall power level for a max duped character. Endfield has more notable boosts like 15% skill damage which when fully duped could mean a 40-50% increase in overall potential. HOWEVER it is still much more generous than genshin, HSR or even WUWA. Genshin and HSR see about 350%-400% increase in overall power level and WUWA sees about a 200%-250% increase in overall power level for max dupes. We will have to wait and see but for the meantime endfield is still MUCH less reliant on dupes than most gacha games on the market except azur lane.

[@basty_gaming5750]

Same for Limbus Company

[@Ur3thr4franklin]

The only game I am familiar with that directly butfs old characters is FGO. These buffs have to be earned by completing specific quests, and can increase the multiplers of character ultimates or skills, add new effects, or completely re-work skills in some cases. FGO absolutely has powercreep, but I can still saber Artoria who launched 7 years ago in the western version of the game very effectively. In fact, through buffs like these, she is significantly more meta visble than she was at launch. There are also several viable metas currently in the game, giving the player a fair amount of freedom to chose the characters and playstyle they prefer.

[@peacockterumi528]

Honestly as much as a lot of people like to shit on fate for a wide variety of reasons. The one thing I can give credit for is it does handle power creep well, and old servant doesn't feel too underpower due to them getting direct buffs that can shoot them to the top of the meta, or be decent quality of life buff that make using their kit overall better, *looks at Mary read and Ann guts and tunt buff* Newer servant would most likely be better than older servants for a variety of reason, but at least you are not too shafted for pulling an older units, and only require the base line investment as you would put into any other servant for them to be used for most content in the game.

[@siege_sensei]

Pgr gives old characters leap skills to bring them more in line with newer characters.

[@BuffBaraBoi]

Reverse 1999 recently did this with some OG characters as well. You have to earn it. But it keeps them strong and meta!

[@Kyle_116]

WuWa also buffed old characters with the new Nightmare echoes, as almost all of them were tailored to buff characters already released. Nightmare Thundering Mephis: tailored to Xiangli Yao Nightmare monke: tailored to Jiyan Nightmare Inferno: tailored to Changli Nightmare Crownless: tailored to Camellya Nightmare Mourning Aix: tailored to spectro Rover Nightmare Tempest Mephis: tailored to Yinlin

[@mightymanatee5342]

Final Fantasy brave exvius did this a lot during the last few years of it's global run.

[@joaomarcoscosta4647]

Nice video! It is actually pretty well thought out. However, I feel I should mention it: direct buffs aren't anywhere near as unusual as this video makes them out to be. Some games regularly alter older units kits to keep them relevant in the current meta - Epic 7 probably being the best example I know. While I was an active player, it wasn't unusual for a dozen or so characters to recieve buffs just before a new RTA season started, creating a more dynamic meta. There are also a fair share of games that release character exclusive gear or upgrades obtainable with in game currency: the Pri-Arms in Honkai Impact, the exclusive equipment obtainable through the Hall of Trials pn Epic 7, and the Character Leap system in PGR (Which unlocks new skills and mechanics) are some example. While those require some action on the part of the player to activate, (so... I'm not sure if they would fall into this video's definition of "direct buffs") they are a way to buff a single character without affecting their whole archetype or requiring players to pull a new character. I wish we could normalize older characters getting direct buffs. They don't even have to be placed on the same tier as the current top new meta characters, just make them powerfull enought that it doesn't feel like you are playing with a handcap. It seems like such a simple way to mitigate the more negative impacts of powercreep, as well as a good way to create some hype and shake up the meta a bit without having to develop a whole new playable character.

[@joaomarcoscosta4647]

Also, one more thing. Regarding the whole internal vs external powercreep discussion... I've seen a lot of players who basically defend that "internal powercreep is fine, as long as there is no external powercreep". The problem is: when the new characters power level keep increasing, the only choices are to either adjust the endgame difficulty (resulting on the dreaded HP inflation players complain about on HSR) or to leave the difficulty unchanged until all content becomes piss easy. (Which would also leave a good portion of the playerbase dissatisfied.)

[@Blackshores_877]

"Oh, you think you built a perfect team for Firefly? Well, how about a 5 star fox girl that can enhance the Break Effect even further, making it more broken? Why? No reason~ we just want your money hahaha" - HSR

[@Blackshores_877]

"Also~ we're going to let you sit through an hour of boring ass story and cutscenes for this character because we want to enslave you in our game! Have fun~"

[@de4thINC.]

I like the hsr yap tho especially the black background i like that hsr really minimalize their budget on cutscenes so that i can focus on reading a lot of yapping text. Yah dude this is how hsr 3.0 lover sounds to me 🤣

[@dreamsandhopes6802]

​​@@Blackshores_877 an hour is a understatement though, 3 to 10 depending on their moods🥰

[@Silks-q8r]

@@de4thINC.its crazy cuz they actually sound like that and i thought u were actually one of em untill i read the last part😭

[@JackiShadow]

I want play FF, but HATE RM. I was so happy to get that fox girl and making 0 cycle with sustain in my FF team.

[@gameplayerone3917]

Another positive about powercreep that is extremely overlooked, is that it greatly benefits the new player. Especially in games like gacha, it's very disheartening to not have joined day one. Powercreep in general alleviates this, and since the majority of players are new this is an objective positive for most of the player base.

[@natewrites6397]

You sound so incredibly articulate when youre reading off a script. Please do more of these works! I really enjoy listening in the background

[@RAZORlukic]

Glad to see you back Hex... Aside from a few other people, you are the rare SANE person in this space, glad you back. Can't wait to watch the video

[@ahmedal-rawi3276]

Honestly , this is the best video i've listened to about this topic recently , simple to understand and stright the point without trying to make a game look good while the other looks bad , thank you

[@Alister1310]

Dragon Ball Z Dokkan Battle has a mechanic that directly buffs units called extreme z awakening ,and more recently super extreme z awakenings, you just do a few stages of an event that gives you the medals you need and using them on the specific character gives them an upgraded leader skill, super attack effects and passive (and makes them go to level 140 if they're a TUR), and super extreme z awakenings just upgrade the characters passive without changing anything else and is exclusive to characters that already have an extreme z awakening, and the characters affected are (usually) very good for the meta they they're in

[@Darkkefka]

To this day my Hua Tao vap team still clears one side of the abyss.

[@9KRED]

I don't know if you had seen my comment on your last video however this is exactly what I meant - excellent video. Good job staying out of the mess that's going on more informative + comical. It's a good critical take and honestly even brought up some ways I hadn't thought about it as well.

[@mantisonmoon983]

2:40 the law is base in Japan which is like the second Homeland for Chinese dev, the law basically means that you can't nerf "product* you sold.

[@Hoontarius]

A take I never see past around by CCs is the idea of implementing an EZA/Zenkai system like Dokkan and Legends have where they have another stage of awakening added to characters as they age to bring them back into the meta/just make them more usable, and the best part is thats the sort of thing that could happen multiple times not just once, it would also incentivize people to pull on reruns of older characters WAY more and generate more money for them. For example, maybe you have a player who hates Acheron but loves Kafka but is angry Kafka is useless, a player might willingly buy a Kafka but be unwilling to spend on Acheron's banner out of spite. So if the player all of a sudden knew she had an upgrade you can get to make her better or barely worse than Acheron. Who in their right mind would pull for Kafka right now without that system?

[@Hoontarius]

Also yes they sometimes do buff characters with new relic sets, but lets be honest with you, that new DoT set did not revitalize Kafka for more than a patch or two, and that was back on the fucking Loufu

[@vellikaari3008]

I haven't even started the video, I just wanted to say: It is SO GOOD to see you making more videos. Keep up the amazing work.

[@ostycream]

Love how you approched the subject and it was easy to understand and follow. Thank for your amazing work! Waiting on the next one :)

[@Neonderthrals]

Love the format of this vid Hex. Its more... Cleaner to watch and digest. I also think that this is good for the new viewers perspective. Keep it up Hex and welcome back 😁

[@alyssajolie]

So nice to have your wisdom back in the gacha space again :) thank you for explaining thing so eloquently

[@zoe6181]

This is honestly such a breath of fresh air. Thank you Hex for the effort you put into these videos!

[@gengarscurse]

Thank you for making a video like this. "Power creep" is such a broad topic and pointing out the specifics and guiding the argument is the way to go since there are always different ways to go about it. Please make more videos similar to this because hearing you talk about this is calming, informative, and opens new ideas to the viewers.

[@NiaTheMilkTank]

Side Note: The Magic TCG and card games in general can and DO get changed after release, not often but it does happen It's called an Errata Not the best example The only reason Hoyo doesn't do it is because of Chinese Law for Gacha games

[@automato436]

Yet Wuwa has done it for spectro rover

[@NiaTheMilkTank]

@@automato436 what exactly did they do. Add a new set? The beta stuff? Be specific

[@yanowen]

Really liked your nuanced take on powercreep. A lot of creators that argued about it had a complete black and white definition on the topic which led to the conversation going nowhere since the 2 sides were so separate.

[@nightowlstunlocked]

THE MOST REASONABLE VIDEO IN GACHA GAMING, common hex W

[@Violent03]

This is only a problem to the most popular and mainstream gatcha games. (Aka Hoyo games) Games like Fgo, Arknights, GFL2 buff old characters to compete with new characters.

[@JechiUni]

Earned my sub from your other video about you almost quitting gacha and ended up on this video too. Amazing work! looking forward for more content

[@no_dojo8056]

I really do like the scripted videos, mainly because it’s easier for someone like me (who doesn’t really understand the mechanics of games) to digest the complexities of what is being said. And you explain and explore these topics very well and in a nuanced and educated manner almost like a college professor. We’re happy to have you back bat queen 🦇💖

[@quantum_aspect]

I disagree with the magic comparison. With physical cards you can’t ask every holder to edit their own cards. However with a live service you can absolutely go back and change the characters fundamentally. You gave an example of this with Zhongli in Genshin. This makes power creep in games even worst when you realize the devs can fix it with effort. Besides that one point very good video!

[@navynarupan8979]

There are gacha games that do try to fix powercreep of old units by updating their kit. At the top of my head are FGO and PGR. FGO updates old units by giving them new buffs for their skills or ultimate through Strengthening Quests. PGR updates old unit through the addition of Leap Skills, which can be unlocked through buying Currency that can be farmed in-game. These two games show that developers acknowledge powercreep exists and that they give players a way to circumvent this by practically updating the powercreeped units, making them still part of the meta or become the new meta themselves. Edit: I remember playing Epic 7 and to make 3* units more useful, they have an awakening mechanic that they added in order to make the lower rarity units viable, but the higher rarity units are still the most sought after meta, especially for Real Time Arena.

[@SirSaif93]

Who said Character can't be buff in gatch game it only doesn't happen in hoyo games but others gatch they always palace there old uint and buffs them to keep up with new release

[@Kaine.Kaslana]

glad to have you back, banger video

[@ynProdigy]

This was honestly great! Very rare to see a gacha creator be unbiased and knowledgeable when it comes to talking about these things without spewing hate towards the game or company which just furthers the toxicity in the community.

[@themostdop3533]

Hex! You should look up how Reverse 1999 and Langrisser Mobile buff older characters. It's definitely a thing that is more common than people realize when it comes to gacha games. I don't think nerfing is popular or allowed for obvious reasons, but buffing older ones makes much more sense, especially when they're widely agreed upon weak characters. It would be cool to see similar buffing systems implemented in Hoyo / Kuro / whatever new upcoming gacha games are coming out.

[@hyuufly]

Nerfing wise, there's Hwayoung in Epic Seven. Epic Seven likes balancing their character kits every once in a while.

[@SlinkyVT]

This was a very well made video. Good job

[@sinespecialidad6222]

I loved how you broke down each aspect of powercreeping. Keep it up, I'm subbing for more ❤

[@yuorion3056]

I loved the hell out of this video format, but I also don't mind the more freeform one!

[@R1v3n_B0rn]

Finally some coverage that isnt just "out with the old in with the new"

[@OfficialBaKa.]

Wow! Its been a while since I've watched a hex juice video but I can really see the quality improvement! Keep it up 💯🤙

[@JoSno13]

Thank you for the laying the groundwork for actual productive conversation

[@GeneralHaha1]

They can buff older characters externally and they did. The introduction to Fontainian artifacts buffed my Noelle, but I did grieve when the introduction of Yunli heavily overshadows Clara.

[@RissShinsei]

I really like your takes. I wish the last drama didn’t go that bad for you. While I know these things, I like how you explain what power creep actually is, people do need to be educated on the topic before hearing the thoughts on it. Good work, welcome back ~

[@togsana]

2:11 at least in yugioh (which is the only tcg/ocg I play) there is a system called errata’s that essentially reprint a banned card in a new set but change the text to make it more balanced, unban the card and only the printings from that set and onwards of the card are allowed in competitive play

[@Zuh_Hybursa]

Even if you can't change a character so you can't simply go back and nerf or buff them after they are released, you can always implement systems that players can opt in to strengthen those specific characters, just like the module system in arknights, the original character is there, you just equip it with an unique item that gives them extra skills, such thing could be easily done in genshin and star rail whenever necessary to balance old units.

[@doedoel035]

Thanks for the concise video, Hex! It's a pleasant surprise to see you on my feed page. Now, I'm sorry if this worded poorly, but I think the crucial part of why this video is good is that Hex doesn't force herself to make a video about gacha. Like, she does what she wants. So yeah, thanks for the video, and keep doing whatever you want, Hex. ✊

[@Thachery]

Finally a constructive video about the power creep debacle

[@Doro-bashi]

Nikke adds treasures, that once you raise to a certain level, adds Gimmicks to an old character, making it viable again Ahhh life in Nikke is so good

[@azaril7780]

nikke does a incredible job at managing powercreep, nearly 3 years later and liter is still top tier burst 1, and alice is still a goated bossing unit

[@ViszRenata]

good job on this video. your presentation and opinions in regards to powercreep are very informative. no drama no bs just straight to facts.

[@denji9847]

Love the vid, I believe you were the only one to approach this subject in a productive manner. I wanted to bring an example of units getting changed to be better post release, that game being Epic7, they do it in two ways, one is special equipments (which gives the char extra stats, exp 12% crit chance, and a bonus ability, such as 10% more dmg on their ult) or straight up buffs/full kit reworks (which are not feasible for single player game tbh). I know it's a pvp game, but I think it's a good approach to aleviate the effects of powercreep on older units

[@tuhin1757]

Good to see you back Hex. Hope you are doing well and good luck lol

[@joyboy_3165]

Pretty much all none hoyo gacha games İ have played (PGR, azur lane, nikke, priconne and fgo) do have systems to upgrade older units İ don't know why hoyosphere CCs and players have this mentality that this is somehow illegal/impossible to do just because their developers are too lazy to implement anything.

[@diazpramudita5165]

Hoyo did that in HI 3rd, but alas that was shit the unit is still useless 😂. Hoyo is really bad at balancing this kind of stuff, esp in HI 3rd cause it has PvP.

[@cobeliusotaku7784]

We miss you Hex!!! this video would be so good before all those wars

[@regx5]

I feel like Genshin and WuWa are still okay. HSR is bordering on criminal, everything feels like we need to pull a whole team, and almost every patch powercreep a fair bit the previous one.

[@ConsueloHigdon]

I love you so much, it’s like I think it and you say it!! Earned my sub with your ZZZ discussion vid and I am here for the same sense of actual thoughtful discussions in the future. ❤😊

[@meowforheals]

welcome back hex!!! ^^

[@Adloquiem]

Another game that changes characters regularly after release is granblue! They regularly rework/buff older characters to stay up to date and some even get so good they’re better than some limiteds! And also they give older characters new artwork and upgraded kits and stories so it’s always fresh

[@TheSaltyGamer969]

First of all, im glad you're back to posting/creating more content. I love and enjoy your content. Second of all, great written video with good information around powercreep, the different types, and how developers use it to "shake-up" the meta or push units. My gripe is, especially with HSR, is the rate of units released and how most of them are the next great unit for the environment you use your characters in. This will always be present and I am slowly accepting the fact that I cannot roll every unit that comes out and that is ok.

[@joao17282]

Hex dont let people mess with your head, stay strong you have potencial to grown

[@CHeroVT]

First off, welcome back to the gacha community! Second and most importantly, I think this is a pretty solid video (and I think I want to react to it live on my next HSR stream to discuss it with my viewers on live, if that's OK for you). I think powercreep is inevitable, and if it is used too loosely, it can be a "double-edge sword." It could either improve the gameplay or not. I think HSR specifically is going on a very bad route of powercreep, but I will have to look at the game and ask myself the questions you said here. I would say that majority of casual HSR players probably don't care the negative effect of powercreep, and only just want to play the way they want to, which is what every people should do anyway. We all just want to have fun in the games we like, but playing it too much cannot be healthy either.

[@JarinHilbrecht-re7qj]

I think a good recent example of absolute "internal" power creep is the release of miyabi in zzz. More specifically how she completely directly blows ellen out of the water in basically every respect and made pulling for ellen feel completely pointless once I had miyabi even though ellen was the unit I wanted most in the game and was highly anticipating her rerun. Hoyo is the worst about this. Instead of trying to be creative with new units and developing the meta game they release units that directly compete with and out perform old ones inside existing niches.

[@eugenejamesmora5881]

Not powercreep related but what the heck your mouth move in sync with your voice .. so good 😮😮😮

[@kazumakariama]

This is a really good video! Not enough people talk about this and i am happy that my favourite Vtuber and Twitch Streamer is yapp- talking about it. Goated

[@athaualpa5595]

OMFG! it's so good to have HexJuice back

[@mistress3847]

Yes Doctor Hexjuice, I'll stop gooning and once again become a normal human that do his basic hygiene

[@abbeylite]

Reverse 1999 is gonna apply an "Euphoria" system to buff old characters, I wish the rest did the same

[@mayavelle]

9:29 Hi, I'm a TOF CC... "kinda". I can attest to the powercreep in that game. I recently did some testing where my old nearly max invested whale comp (the equivalent of a full team of E6S1 units in HSR) from patch 2.2 or so was outperformed in damage by a single new unit at E0S0 now in patch 4.6. Compare that to an E6S1 Jingliu with equal invested teammates getting outperformed by just The Herta E0S0 without any teammates. Sounds crazy just thinking about it. Side note: great choice of background music. Ahm Araeng

[@Satyr42]

This was a very good video. Well balanced with a lot of very good and well informed points that should indeed be taken into account when discussing this topic. I hope other CCs and the general player base takes note of this.

[@hardikarmana8977]

TOF powercreep is so insane that Basic Attack of the new char/weapon do more damage than Discharge/Ulti of old character.

[@ozarkeusful]

Fantastic video hex! Super informative! I sometimes struggle with not pulling when the unit is very strong and very attractive haha or just blue. It's my favorite color so when i found out Jinhsi had a blue dragon, i started whaling on WuWa. Lol also her attack sequence is better than anything i had ever seen in genshin

[@redfoxakame]

It's actually good to have videos like this from time to time since your thoughts are all laid-out. W video!

[@teenagesilver6512]

this is the best video about powercreep, what really are happening, and what exactly you need to consider, because nowadays this "problem" created a bunch of misconception

[@Altair_Ibn_La_Ahad]

Good to see you, Hex.🎉

[@shonenhikada9254]

Devs make OP unit to sell characters. In order to entice people to pull on newer character that new unit needs to be more powerful than the last one or be much easier to play. This creates power creep.

[@ugmo0722]

Glad to see you back

[@Balto678]

Yeahhh keep the conversation on power creep alive. We should never stop talking about it.

[@jp99gaming14]

The one thing I was missing from all the videos I have seen about the topic. We can keep talking about it. But not everything is good but at the same time not everything is bad. And if we all know what exact thing we gonna talk about and not change topic. Discussions can be more interesting. Look forward to seeing you again in my yt feed 👍

[@raykirushiroyshi2752]

Omg, you brought back the old intro 🥺

[@Novk010]

Video essay hex sounds cool

[@freakout-w9x]

Power creep is inevitable, but devs can design a character that is much more stronger than the enemies, which means such character can be still useful through many patches. What's more, I think wuwa have given us an good example, we can fix the power gap with skills. For example, Danjin can still conquer the tower and reach three star without any other characters. This is icredible

[@XzMondayNightzX]

Hex's eyes are predatory. Anyway... as for examples of gachas that DO buff existing characters to avoid this? Well there's GranBlue Fantasy where characters on the regular get overhauls with an insane roster and new forms. Girls Frontline buffs it's characters with "Mods" or "Arma" or "links" depending on which of the 3 games you play. Yes, they've kept an upgrade system across all 3 games. FGO does something similar and that boomer ass game Kancolle that's barely a game uses Kai Ni and blueprints to upgrade units. There's probably a bunch more but compared to the current mindset devs seem to prefer the dump and pump characters and that's it. I don't know any korean gacha games because I find their p2w culture and grind insane. Since hoyo is super popular a lot of devs are going that route. I also think it's also a cultural / region thing. Korean games balance characters but never really "nerf" them while Japanese games often buff existing chars with additional systems or forms AFTER release. Japan I think has rules against changing it once it's marketed. No idea how it works in china. Powercreep is less impactful when you design and improve upon the systems and add stuff. What's that "turn based" game with the 2 skills that they won't improve on that seems to be tank hard? Huh. No wonder it's being destroyed by powercreep. You have nothing to really work with so the two skills start to carry a sh!tload of baggage.

[@Dominion-Regalia]

A fine video and I appreciate the shadowbringers music.

[@Paradox666-66]

This may be the most constructive, clear and the best way to handle the explanation about powercreep. Glad to see you back with a banger !

[@olMISAKAlo]

Solid video as a starting point for future conversations. Thinking about how we deal with a point of power creep outside of gacha with FF14 WoW with gear updates (hell let's just point at the frequent level boasts and world difficulty level increases of borderlands games) ,and even YGO/mtg in the form of erratas. It can be frustrating to say the least in one way or another. Side note my reference ridden brain may be too easily distracted for its own good: I couldn't help but get distracted by Sands of Amber playing in the background. It's one of my favorite area themes of Shadowbringers ❤️

[@Apollyon47]

Just like Wuthering waves warning in shop, "SPEND RESPONSiBLY"

[@Ovnidemon]

Another example of good powercreep: Genshin Fontaine Region and the Pneumia/Ousia mechanics. Fontaine characters had an advantage by stunning easily the enemies. But it didn't increase the damage, meaning older teams didn't lose in efficiency.

[@chocobox1571]

Love the structure of this video

[@amarshegokar]

Coming here after seeing your tweets the difference is crazy

[@sergionery5053]

As someone who has played for over 20 years Yugioh TCG, cards can be buffed or nerfed and the same card will be massively printed with the new effect and the old version is no longer Legal to play with its old effect, and notification online are made to ensure more people know about the change. So Yes, they can change physical cards remotely and so gacha can do it as well for example ZhongLi in genshin was changed a Ton, overbuffing him after his official release and placing him as the best shielded in the entire game with a monstrous 20 sec duration . EDITnote: Standard banner characters can also be Tier 0 (SSS) in their respective games for example Girls Frontline 2 EXILIUM, Tololo is a day 1 permanent banner character and after a year she is Tier SSS DPS and the other permanent banner Quiongyou is Tier SS and it’s been over a year just by adding 1 piece of Gear with a specific skill with the lowest effort you can have the 2 Most Meta units from the permanente banner and actually 2 more of the permanente banner are also Meta when used with certain Limited character, so the relevancy it’s there even though they are just permanent units since day 1.

[@TheOneOfAll]

Awesome video format

[@Johndesto]

Hexjuice welcome back

[@azaril7780]

2:39 even if there arent laws, if you nerf a character especially after showing them perfoming a certain way in a livestream, you will get GLASSED by jp, at least thats what happened with red hood, and then cinderella launched with like, 3 bugs, one of wich made her do way more damage, so su had to just make that her baseline to probably avoid another rh situation. nikke i think does a really good job with powercreep, as you pretty much never NEED the new characters (unless it was when blanc and noir were at their peak) stronger characters basically let you push campaign at higher cp deficits with a little less investment, i also think it depends heavily on how fast the powercreep happens, nikke has powercreep, but we only really get our busted units on annis and new year (unless its eva and asuka is cracked fire dps). nikke drops something like 20+ characters a year (i feel they should slow down a tad but hey, every event is 2 free 10 pulls) and the consensus is to never use your advanced tickets on new banners unless its pilgrims since they have a lower rate. plus several of the new characters we got recently arent as good in certain areas ex:red hood is CRACKED for bossing, while modernia is better for getting adds off your back.

[@mites7]

Welcome back hex

[@bigborgir1]

hmmm based off this sounds like Firefly was a good case as they only check off the Game Evolution box in that Absolute Powercreep table. Firefly isnt directly stronger in all aspects than the other break dps, BH is better in ST and rappa is better in AOE. FF is more of a general content DPS. When FF released, BH is still usable, I guess he got powercreeped by AOE content focused characters. And break DPS only included BH whose still usable.

[@triplecatnip7413]

With how simplistic HSR combat systrm is, powercreep was inevitable. Though not the severity of it