Infinity Nikki has been out long enough for gacha fans to truly understand whether it’s a game you can play if you’re not a big spender, and just how far you can hope to get into it without every paying real money. Papergames market is free-to-play, but here’s actually how far you can go in Infinity Nikki if you truly refuse to pull.
Infinity Nikki is an open-world RPG that has players of all types in its grip, and for good reason. It’s calm, cozy, and colorful, and the game’s real forte is its core gameplay and its outfits. But labeling it a dress-up game would be a disservice. Infinity Nikki carries a truly immersive storyline.
Still, the dress-up side is so well-designed that most players may want to freeze their credit cards into an ice cube, because Infinity Nikki’s best outfits are locked behind a gacha paywall. But can you simply finish the storyline if you’re really good at resisting temptation?
Infinity Nikki core gameplay explained
Before getting into how much of the game opens up without payment, it helps to understand what you are and are not paying for. Infinity Nikki is a gacha game, but unlike Genshin Impact or Wuthering Waves, you don’t pull for new characters or weapons. You only ever play as Nikki.
Instead, the Resonance gacha system lets you pull for individual pieces of clothing that combine into themed outfits.
You’d think that outfits are merely cosmetic items, but that’s not the case. Think of them as weapons in a traditional game. The better weapon you have, the higher your chances of winning. If you’re good at the game, even a regular pull can do the job. The process and time, however, may differ had you paid for a pricier weapon.
Simply, outfits in Infinity Nikki have stats. A high-rarity Resonance outfit isn’t just cosmetic. It carries higher numbers in one of five style categories: Cool, Fresh, Sweet, Sexy, and Elegant. These directly affect your performance in the game’s styling challenges.
It means that, technically, the gacha is tied to gameplay, not just the glamour. But the gap between what free players can build and what paying players can build is much smaller than it is in most gacha titles.
Here’s how the premium currency works:
- Diamonds are the premium currency, earned in-game or bought with real money.
- Every pull costs 120 Diamonds, or one Revelation Crystal or Resonite Crystal.
- Diamonds drop from quests, exploration, events, chests, and a dozen other small activities throughout the world.
To appreciate what free-to-play players are skipping, you have to understand what Infinity Nikki’s gacha Resonance actually offers.
The pity system guarantees one 4-star piece for every ten pulls and one 5-star piece for every twenty pulls. Sounds generous, until you remember that an outfit isn’t a single item, it’s a set of nine or ten pieces, each of which has to be pulled separately.
Completing a full set requires significantly more resources. The Crystal Poems set, for example, contains nine pieces, which means 180 pulls to guarantee completion via pity. Collectors should budget for 180 to 200 pulls per complete set depending on item count.
For a free player, getting 180 to 200 pulls means accumulating 21,600 to 24,000 Diamonds for a single outfit. It’s worth noting here that Diamonds are a premium currency and earning those is a task in itself.
Infinity Nikki is a strong free-to-play game option
You can complete the main story of Infinity Nikki without spending money, making it a capable option for those looking for a free-to-play game.
There are eight chapters in total, and the campaign culminates in crafting the Wishful Aurosa Miracle Outfit, which is itself a free reward. Wishful Aurosa is the first and currently only Miracle Outfit available at launch, and it is completely free. You progress through the main story until you reach Chapter 8 and unlock it there.
Over 30 different items go into creating all the pieces of the outfit, and some of them require beating the Sovereigns of each styling faction in styling duels. There are four Sovereigns in total, one for each region’s dominant style, and beating them requires first defeating the three faction leaders beneath each Sovereign.
That means beating twelve mid-bosses before you ever face a final one. You get the Glimmering Scale by beating the Sovereign of Cool, the Golden Fruit by beating the Sovereign of Fresh, and so on for the other Sovereigns.
The stats and Eurekas you need to beat these bosses are entirely obtainable if you’ve got the time. The simplest path is just playing the game, and really playing it. Complete every side quest, explore every corner of the world, and there isn’t a single story-critical item you can’t claim on your own. It just takes longer.
Basically, if you have enough practice ignoring gacha mechanics and just want to complete the main story, you’ll be fine while playing Infinity Nikki as a F2P title because the game gives you a fairly healthy amount of free items along the way.
How to beat Infinity Nikki without paying money
If you want to beat Infinity Nikki without paying any money, the day-to-day task is best reduced to a handful of efficient routines that will produce the goods you need to progress.
Diamonds come from exploration, quests, and events more than from any specific farming activity. The premium currency can be used for occasional pulls, if you deem those necessary to complete the game faster. Mini-games and box games scattered through the world map can yield up to 40 Diamonds apiece in under a minute.
Perfect scores on Styling and Mira Crown challenges award another 30 to 40 Diamonds each. Random map exploration uncovers Diamond chests in odd places. The Daily Wishes system gives Diamonds, Threads, and Bling in roughly five minutes of work and only requires you to be in a central location.
Eurekas are the F2P player’s secret weapon. A few chapters into the game you unlock the Realm of Eureka, which awards accessories that complement your outfit’s style score. There are fifteen Eurekas total, three per body slot per style category, and like outfit pieces they can be leveled to 10.
The way to quickly progress in Infinity Nikki is through fashion challenges, and if you refuse to spend money on gacha, Eurekas are your best friend. Upgrade existing Eurekas to push fashion scores from “barely passing” to “perfect” without burning glow-up materials on clothing.
The Mira Journey app is the battle pass. Its free track gives meaningful rewards just for playing the way you’d play anyway, and skipping it is leaving Diamonds and glow-up materials on the table.
Whether you should play Infinity Nikki F2P or spend money on the game really comes down to your relationship with completion. If seeing a five-star outfit on the limited banner you can’t get for free fills you with FOMO, this game will be hard on you.
But if you can shrug, save your Diamonds for the next banner you really love, and enjoy the open world with your free wardrobe in the meantime, you’ll be able to get hundreds of hours out of Infinity Nikki without spending a dime.
