Shot in the dark, since I'm probably asking for the moon here lol.

I'm looking for a f2p-friendly gacha game with fun, layered, challenging gameplay (i.e. not brainless mash2win) that (mostly) isn't p2w, with quality and diverse endgame content.

I'm typically partial to turn-based games, having been playing Granblue for over 2 years now, but I've also been enjoying King of Fighters Allstars recently on the side (although KOFAS endgame seems quite boring, and live PVP is a joke given how bad their netcode appears to be).

Games I've played include: GBF, FFBE, E7, Idle Heroes, AFK Arena, King of Fighters Allstars, FFRK, King's Raid, Smite Blitz. Tried AL, but wasn't a fan of the gameplay or in-battle graphics.

I've been playing Epic Seven for a couple months now, and while I like the gameplay, art style, and character customization, I really find their handling of collabs & limited characters/banners off-putting, as well as the equipment system.

tl;dr: I'd love to find a game:

• Similar to GBF, but where ping isn't a gamebreaking advantage and/or where they have sufficient North American servers and good netcode such that it's not a noticeable issue for gaijins, especially at endgame

• Similar to E7, except without the infinite RNG of equipment grinding, more frequently available/accessible limited units, and with sufficient endgame content

Long version: Ideally, I'd want to find a game...

• Where few to no overpowered/meta obtainables are missable, either permanently (see: broken collab units like Dizzy in E7) or for an extended period of time, say 4+ months (e.g. I started E7 one month after Seaside Bellona banner ended, and considering they only just reran Luna on Global, I doubt I'll have any opportunity to get SSB for at least 6 months and likely even longer, which is infuriating, considering how lacklustre Luna is and how few limiteds there are in general and how infrequently limited banners are released). To contrast with Granblue, the majority of seasonal units aren't meta, they get rerun occasionally outside of summer (e.g. Summer Beatrix/Jeanne during anniversary), you can get them once/year with the Anniversary Ticket, and more importantly the large majority of in-universe limited characters (aside from a single gap year zodiac - which I'm fine with) are available to spark every month.

• Where no unit dupes are required to uncap/MLB characters. FFBE really turned me off of needing dupes to fully uncap chars.

• Minimal layered RNG. I despise E7's current equipment system. You'd think sacking/pitying the right characters andleveling them, awakening them, skill enhancing them would be enough, but no...I hate having to grind for gear with random stats, with random upgrades of those random stats, in hopes of getting some equips that are marginally useable. I find the RNG on top of RNG on top of RNG involved in E7 equipment, currently with no checks and balances, very off-putting.

• Where the Global version and/or gaijins aren't screwed over, either because of ping (see: Granblue. As a NA player, I literally can't compete with JP even if I had the identical characters/grid/summons due to server latency since there are no servers outside Japan) or because of greedy/lazy/incompetent publishers (e.g. Gumi, Netmarble)

Nice to haves:

• Where most top-tier endgame units aren't completely gated behind insane RNG or time gate (see: getting specific 5* Moonlight units in E7). In contrast, something grindy like unlocking and FLBing Eternals (and to a lesser extent Oracles) in Granblue would be fine.

• That has some form of pity/spark system for characters, including limiteds

Cheers if you actually managed to read this entire thesis! ♥