Is Monster Hunter Outlanders a gacha game? Pity, pulls and pay-to-win explained

I'm not going to beat around the bush: Is Monster Hunter Outlanders a gacha game? The short answer is yes; the long answer is yes, it is free-to-play with in-app purchases. The monetisation is basically the same as what you normally get within the mobile RPG sphere, but before you dismiss this as yet another money-grab that'll bleed your wallet dry, it's worth knowing how much of an effort the developers seem to have made to make the Monster Hunter gacha as palatable as possible.

And in all honesty, I think they've done a bang-up job. For one thing, the gacha only applies to pre-set characters you may or may not want to use. For another, everything that made the franchise great - the grinding and crafting for gear, in particular - should still be very much at play here. 

What is the gacha system like?

That said, why is Monster Hunter Outlanders a gacha game, and what is the summons pool like? As mentioned, the gacha will only be applicable to characters and NOT WEAPONS, as many players seem to misunderstand. And it's not even a requirement, really, as there's this thing called the Fated Adventurer that you can customise fully to your liking.

The Fated Adventurer is essentially your main protagonist, and you can grind for gear and craft equipment for them regardless of your chosen build. You can obtain resources simply by playing through the content and progressing at your own pace without spending real money. The other characters, which will have set builds and weapons, are the only ones you'll be pulling for in the gacha. No weapons, no equipment - not even Buddies.

Are Buddies free?

After the second Closed Beta Test, the dev team decided to completely remove the gacha system for Buddies in Monster Hunter Outlanders, according to the official announcement on the blog. Buddy training caps have been lowered as well, and featured SSR Buddies will have free acquisition methods too. Who says there's no such thing as a free lunch, amirite?

What are the gacha rates in Monster Hunter Outlanders?

As for the pity system, all we really know at the moment is what's been shown in the previous tests. At the moment, however, it seems you can pull a guaranteed SSR in the beginner banner after 50 recruitments, and at a reduced cost, at that. The targeted banner or featured character banner offers a guaranteed SSR after 120 summons, while the standard banner guarantees an SSR pull after 90 recruitments. This also gives you a guaranteed SR every 10 pulls.

As for the currencies you'll need to actually pull from the gacha, there's the Standard Contract for the Standard Recruitment and the Featured Contract for the Featured Recruitment, which you can obtain from clearing quests or exchanging them wth Ruta Coins, obtainable via regular gameplay. In short, it's all about the grind - and that's actually what the series is known for (and loved for!).

So, at the end of the day, is Monster Hunter Outlanders a gacha game? It most definitely is, but it's not as negative as a lot of gacha-naysayers might think. If you're still not convinced, Shaun details his experience going hands-on with Monster Hunter Outlanders, or if you're curious, we've got an interview with the devs to tide you over until the October 29th launch!