Dark Summoners=Pay2Win?

You can't do much in this game without paying for summons or ep

I disagree, but I can respect the frustration the game sometimes gives to players who don't pay (especially if they aren't prepared for it).

I have never put a cent into the game, but I have done just fine putting in time instead. I saved up a few EP, got a few monsters that I could trade, and built up a good team using the bestiary and advice I got here.

It just took a little longer than if I had spent My teacher said good "job". And honestly, the average reward for buying a summon is a terrible A you couldn't sell if you wanted to. I can make EP by planning ahead a little about what monsters are going increase/decrease in price in the future. I never rushed spending EP, and really - until this event I only saved up.

Now I have three AAs and am ranked 30th in this current event for my guild. Of course, the rewards I get from this event are worth more than the EP I put into it, so from here on out I should be in the clear for doing well.

Far more importantly, since there is no "win condition" in Dark Summoner like in other games I've played, it's less a matter of "pay to win" or not, but rather "pay to have fun" or not. If you enjoy the meeting friends, trading, slow and steady progress, and planning aspects of this game, you'll do fine without paying anything. If you enjoy getting the newest monsters right away every time, and out-bidding other players on auctions all the time, and doing well right off the bat at a low level, then maybe you do need to pay to have fun. I think those are the least interesting parts of the game, personally.

But again, you're not the only person to be frustrated by some aspects of the game, so I see where you're coming from. I just wanted to offer another side of the issue : ).

I am a chinese.

Compare to many "free" mmo in china,DS behaves like a saint.

Btw,if u are not going to pay in this game,choose green is a wise choice.

Gonna have to disagree as well.

Though yes, it is without saying those who pay will sometimes have an upper hand, especially if they pump a few hundred dollars as many seem to do; however, this is not the majority.

Once you accept you're not going to ever be the greatest thing since toast it's easier to grasp tjhe fact that this is more or less a strategic lottery game with the added bonus of looking awesome.

But i haven't ever gotten an AA from a dark summon, and rarely get good stuff; i just trade my brains out.

Results, 2 AA's and a plethora of elites, currently shooting for a third AA so.... it's not impossible just keep bartering.

Something else though is it's worth mentioning you only get what you put in out of the game. Do the events, get the A's, store up poitions and don't spend them like those 5 ep are gonna get you ranked in for that AA and build your way up to a more formidable standing.

Few will rightfully accept it, but this game requires patience and bartering to accel as a free player.

Hijinx wrote:
Something else though is it's worth mentioning you only get what you put in out of the game. Do the events, get the A's, store up poitions and don't spend them like those 5 ep are gonna get you ranked in for that AA and build your way up to a more formidable standing.

Few will rightfully accept it, but this game requires patience and bartering to accel as a free player.

Can I do more than agree with this statement?!? ... Ummm I WHOLEHEaRTEdLy agree!!!

Patience and trading is the key to "winning"

Yes patience is key. Once u save up to about 175 ep do an event and get the AA. Sell that AA for 300 ep. Rinse and repeat. It takes ep to make ep.

Why can't we say m o n e y?? It replaces it with my teacher.

First day i play and I gonna throw 1000 usd, doesn't matter you play half year or 1 year for free. I still have way upperhand than you. Not to mention I get aaa. Isn't that obvious its pay to win? Oh forget I can even rip the f2p off with my junk a's. Selling prog to gain some ep for my advantage.

dextery wrote:First day i play and I gonna throw 1000 usd, doesn't matter you play half year or 1 year for free. I still have way upperhand than you. Not to mention I get aaa. Isn't that obvious its pay to win? Oh forget I can even rip the f2p off with my junk a's. Selling prog to gain some ep for my advantage.

the company has to make money(no game at all otherwise), if you got 1000 dollars to throw at the game, by all means i think you should have an advantage over me, i wouldnt be mad about that lol. that said, you can still do pretty good for having spent no money, i know plenty of people with thousands of eps(myself included) and run full(high bp) aa+ forms.

If you can't afford to pay but want to get ahead, you'll just have to put time into the game. Like most people said, trade and trade often. There are deals in the leader board and auction house. You'll have to buy some cheap monsters and sell them a little bit higher. As you accumulate EP, you'll be able to try to rank in events. Some events are better than other for their return on investment so make sure you pick the right one.

Even if you can't rank in an event, you can still try to get some of the low hanging fruits depending on the event. Some event offer GES, Anima Summons, Random summons, or AA summons which if you get them, you can sell them for EP.

Also, join an active clan. They communicate all the time and offer all sorts of advice and some do their own fun events.

The only "real" grief I have with the game is that trading is so godawfully designed that you're forced to go onto a forum to do the trading. - (No offense to the forum, it does it's job awesomely.)
But, if you look at the other game they all manage to solve this problem "in the game" rather than chasing players out of the game to do their trading.

The ingame AH is of a pathetic sort of design.

bbr wrote:The only "real" grief I have with the game is that trading is so godawfully designed that you're forced to go onto a forum to do the trading. - (No offense to the forum, it does it's job awesomely.)
But, if you look at the other game they all manage to solve this problem "in the game" rather than chasing players out of the game to do their trading.

The ingame AH is of a pathetic sort of design.

Totally agreed, the auction in game is so unbalanced. I'm a total free player, and the forum has helped me in the start and got me my all AA form today. Although, there are some cases where trading in-game has given me the upper-hand, especially when you find the right sale.

NghiaLe wrote:If you can't afford to pay but want to get ahead, you'll just have to put time into the game.

True dat. This game is only free if your time has no value.

The game's not pay to win, but it can be very time consuming. I remember that one event not too long ago, I forgot the name, but it was the special Kingdom Conquest collaboration one, I remember I'd always stay up really late and try waking up in the middle of the night to participate more.

FrankF wrote:

NghiaLe wrote:If you can't afford to pay but want to get ahead, you'll just have to put time into the game.

True dat. This game is only free if your time has no value.

if someone is not enjoying putting the time in and getting results, i dont think they should play this game, seems like their not having fun lol

FrankF wrote:

NghiaLe wrote:If you can't afford to pay but want to get ahead, you'll just have to put time into the game.

True dat. This game is only free if your time has no value.

lol that's deep. I like it.
Example: Watch Dr. Oz or play Dark Summoner? = Time has no value to you.

Ologolos <== guilty

Isn't "playing" the game supposed to be the enjoyment factor, yea it takes a while to get good things if you don't spend real mulla, but so what, its supposed to he played for a long time and enjoyed, if you got all the amazing things really fast it would be boring and have no point to it. You know I thinkg these threads are a perfect example of what's wrong with today's youth, they want everything immediately and not have to work hard or try, they just want it given. Kids don't want to work for anything anymore, all the people who post these threads or complain in other threads about this kind of thing, they have that give me give me I'm 12 years old personality, that is what's wrong with this countries youth, and it scares me.

P.S. I'm 25 btw so I'm not some 90yo man complaining here.

I do not want to be mean, but this discussion is annoying.

Why all the time complaining about folks that pay ? Why people that pay don't complain about f2p player that have success in that game ?

Why don't grow up a little, stop complaining and try your best and work as hard as you can for your own success ?

Life is life, you can't do nothing about it. In real life money is king, true ? (for replacing the famous "ep is king"). You won't change the world,so try to adapt to it that's all.
Remember that there's all the time people better than you no matter what you do. But that's not a reason to stop, even if you're not the better it's not the end.

Bref, wake up.

It looks like someone need to categorize the diffrent between complain and discussion. I am talking generally the way the game is built. You sounds like its epic stuff to do in trading / doing lowball offer and resell. A game and you talk about work for it? Needless to say game is for fun and yes I got a steady job as a shop manager, throwing 150 usd a week isn't a problem for me. Burning 160 flamenet with no complaints. What I'm seeing is alot of player takes a hell lot of time to reach to certain status. So we are dicussing would you consider this game as p2w thats all.

dextery wrote:It looks like someone need to categorize the diffrent between complain and discussion. I am talking generally the way the game is built. You sounds like its epic stuff to do in trading / doing lowball offer and resell. A game and you talk about work for it? Needless to say game is for fun and yes I got a steady job as a shop manager, throwing 150 usd a week isn't a problem for me. Burning 160 flamenet with no complaints. What I'm seeing is alot of player takes a hell lot of time to reach to certain status. So we are dicussing would you consider this game as p2w thats all.

i think that depends on what u think "win" is.

Nope never spent a cent on this game and have 2 a rank formations 1 of demons,1 of dragons.

Just recently did a free dark summon and got ash and now have my first aa+ demon formation I am leveling

Traded ash for 285 ep and used it to get Manutavisu+ with his skill changed to party attack plus.Cruelty of Night plus already maxed, So now I can just aution of my cruelty of night reg some time for 10 ep and get some skills,Got a manipulation demon I used to plus mine along with velvet dreams,And already had red light,soruluna tho weak her skill is great for a aa+ formation.So now I am just leveling the aa+ demons I have.

And out of the 285 ep I have ten left and will get another ten back at least for cruelty of night so thats 20 ep for skills. Once the aa+ are done being leveled and I get more gold I can also auction of my formations maybe replace soruluna for a stronger aa+ with the same skill. Or get a aa with ipa to stack with party attack plus.

And I am only lvl 95.

Personnaly, i got an IPA wspirit during the Forgotten Island event. I echanged it for Finis +m (10) + Heal Spirit + some other goods cards.
After that i got some other card that i sold like Selene +m (52 ep).
Now, level 76' i got an entire AA+ undead formation
Finis + ; Sara+ ; Skull of Flames +
; Necromancer of Death + ; Magna Carmilla +
All maxed, now my team is good and i'm saving EP to replace Necromancer by Axe of Annhilation (around 200 EP). I will probably change his skill in the future, before buying another big Undead (Vector or Soul consumer, and Primula)

And i nerver bought a single EP.

Nicinic wrote:Personnaly, i got an IPA wspirit during the Forgotten Island event. I echanged it for Finis +m (10) + Heal Spirit + some other goods cards.
After that i got some other card that i sold like Selene +m (52 ep).
Now, level 76' i got an entire AA+ undead formation
Finis + ; Sara+ ; Skull of Flames +
; Necromancer of Death + ; Magna Carmilla +
All maxed, now my team is good and i'm saving EP to replace Necromancer by Axe of Annhilation (around 200 EP). I will probably change his skill in the future, before buying another big Undead (Vector or Soul consumer, and Primula)

And i nerver bought a single EP.

ill sell ya axes for 175 lol

If only i had the money x) . If you can wait one or two month at least, i will buy it.
Only need 2000 more crystals lol.

I never spent anything in this game and still doing better than decent. Getting EP has always been hard for me though.

I've not spent a dime, and I'm sitting on a 157bp AA+ Covert Mystic team. I've been playing for... 127 days.

Granted, I'm in a much better position than most players... I've got 2 brothers and between the 3 of us, 9 accounts. We help each other out a lot.

That, and I managed to create a Health Up spirit before Ateam hotfixed the Random Soul skill transfers...

The best advice ever: EP makes EP. It generates income. Just take it slow, level your account, build a nice pool of EP (both your stat and the items) and just shove it all down the throat of an event that has a monster you want. Or for a monster you know will sell. The current event for instance? Winged Impulse Demon with what, 42bp? If you pay attention to the auctions and these forums, you'll know something like that is going to sell for a few hundred EP easy. If it costs you 100-200ep to rank and you can sell it for 300-400ep? Or trade it for two or three cheaper creatures to get your own team sorted out? Profit!

Just takes a while to get there.