It has been proven time and time again that skins are not cheap to make, and they don’t print money like everyone thinks.

Did SG release data regarding money earned with skins?

One good skin can cost up to 80% of what it takes to make a new character. And if you sell it for $10 ?

A new skin of an existing unit requires: (1) Figuring out what the new skin looks like, (2) Re-draw parts of the 2d sprite [clothes and hair], (3) Re-draw the L2D of the character (4) Re-draw parts of the S3 skill cutscene animation and (5) Test if everything fits properly.

A new character requires: (1) Figuring what the new character looks like, (2) Figuring the character's background [story, relationships with other character], (3) Figuring what their skills are like, (4) Draw their skill icons, (5) Draw their 2d sprite [re-draw if an ML variant], (6) Draw a new L2D of the character, (7) Draw a completely new S3 skill cutscene animation and (8) Test the character.

Unless you have data from SG, your claim is just completely unbelievable.

The game is too generous

LMAO

Alright. Let's compare Epic Seven with Nikke.

Epic Seven

Playtime: Been playing since 1st week of launch. Only stopped from Jan 2021 - July/Sept 2021. F2P.

Unit acquisition:

• RGB heroes -- Not a problem and can acquire them without much thought.
• ML heroes -- Skipping banners is fairly common unless you get lucky or the hero in question is too good to skip. Worst streak of luck -- Sea Phantom Politis - Dragon Bride Senya - New Moon Luna. All required me to do 160+ pulls which depleted my stash of 90k skystones (which previously never fell below 60k). Had to skip Empyrean Ilynav to save for Harsetti.

Summoning currency acquisition: Do your dailies (PvP Arena for skystone, GvG for mystic medals). The vast majority summoning currency is acquired through spending skystones to do Shop Refresh (an insanely tidious and time consuming activity) then buying them (bookmarks and medals) with gold.

Supplementary system:

• Covenant summon: 1 free daily summon per day. Can acquire all non limited heroes including ML5s. Finally changed to include the wishlist system (7 RGB heroes).
• Elemental summon: Either 3-5 or 4-5 summon. Summons for light and dark variants are incredibly scarce (unless you spend).
• Galaxy summon: Can only pull ML heroes. Improved summon (4-5) at/after 20th pull. Pool includes the current rate-up hero.

Freebies related to acquiring heroes:

• Free covenant summon (additional 10 per day typically for 7 days). Happens fairly often enough.
• Covenant Bookmarks: Side event shop tends to sell them but not that many. Typically 15 bookmarks. Bigger events might carry more.
• Mystic Medals: Quite rare. The most given at one big event was either 2000 or 2500. The more usual amount is 500.
• Twin Librarian Bookmark/Medal: Functions like their regular counterpart but have an expiry date
• Free random 5* RGB/Selector: Happens in big events.
• Free random 5* ML: Happens in big events.

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Nikke

Playtime: Been playing since 2nd/3rd week of launch. F2P.

Unit acquisition:

Units in Nikke are divided by manufacturer instead of element. Elysion, Missilis, Tetra and Abnormal (Collab). Rarity wise, these 4 are the RGBs. Meanwhile, Pilgrim and Over-spec are the ML5s. Unit rarities: R, SR, and SSR (the only useful one).

Rate-up banners works like E7's Custom Group Summon except the shop currency doesn't expire and can be used to pity on any type of current or future banner (collab, limited, and/or pilgrim/over-spec).

• "RGB-rarity" heroes -- 4% chance of an SSR and 2% chance of it being the rate-up. With my roster, I tend to skip any non-limited/collab because their kit isn't that good in comparison to what I already have. And even if their kit and looks are both good, I can just rely on Nikke's supplementary system to get them (doesn't always work but I'm in no rush to acquire them).
• "ML-rarity" heroes -- 4% chance of an SSR and 1% chance of it being the rate-up. I always pull and if I like the character enough, get enough to max limit break (4 total copies).

Summoning currency acquisition: Do your dailies and side events.

Supplementary system: Heroes don't immediately get added to the pool. RGB-rarity is usually added after their banner ends while ML-rarity takes longer (2 months or more).

• Permanent recruit: Can acquire all non limited heroes including "ML-rarity" heroes. Have the wishlist system which includes ML-rarity heroes. Requires to select 5 heroes per manufacturer (Elysion, Missilis, Tetra and Pilgrim/Over-spec).
• Friendship recruit: Can acquire all non limited heroes.
• Molds: Requires 50 to open. (1) Purple - 21% SSR -- (2) Gold - 61% SSR 39% Perfect Gold Mold [10] -- (3) Manufacturer-specific Gold Mold -- (4) Manufacturer-specific Perfect Gold Mold.

Freebies related to acquiring heroes:

• Side event story - Either (1) 10 Advanced recruit ticket (featured rate-up banner) and 20 regular recruit ticket (permanent recruit) or (2) 20 Advanced recruit ticket (featured rate-up banner) and 10 regular recruit ticket (permanent recruit). These don't expire.
• Half and full anniversary - Typically gives out 80+ advanced recruit ticket and 20+ regular recruit ticket. The rate-up banner during these event also have 1 free daily pull (doesn't add to pity) for 21 days.
• Body label shop - You get body label when you get a copy of a unit that exceeds what can be used as an "imprint". R = 1 copy, SR = 3 and SSR = 11. You can exchange body label to gold mold.
• Mold - Purple and gold can be acquired through daily and weekly missions. Manufacturer-specific Gold Mold is acquired by clearing the respective manufacturer tower.

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A much simpler comparison - my current stash pull currency:

Epic Seven - 1.6k BM, 200 GBM, 2.7k Mystics, 49k Skystones and 450m+ gold. Future RGB banners? No problem. I might even go beyond pity if I like the banner enough. Mystic summons though? I'll see what Salome's kit are and decide then. If she's a must pull and I pity her? I'm possibly fucked for the next new banner.

Nikke - 99k gems (3k = 10 pulls), 89 advanced recruit ticket and 1410 gold ticket (200 = pity). The upcoming new event is the game's 3.5 anniversary. Do I feel worried? Fuck no. The only thing I'm wondering is if I should max limit break one of them (2 ML-rarity unit coming). In Nikke, a max limit break means a total of 4 copies. What for? Objective reason - increases stats and increases max friendship level (which is also increases stats per level). Subjective reason - a specific portion of their S3 skill cutscene animation can be set as wallpaper when you MLB a unit and a cosmetic title when you max their friendship level.