Blue Archive is Nexon’s latest hit Gacha game and came out in English late last year in November. With the Japanese release being in February 2021, the English servers have had to play catch-up and that means we’re celebrating Valentine’s Day in September!
For those unfamiliar with “gacha” games, it’s a term used for games where players spend currency (either premium or earned in-game) to try and “roll” for characters and items. The term comes from “gacha” machines in Japan where you put in a coin and get a toy or other piece of merchandise. We technically have those in the US in front of just about every grocery store, though temporary tattoos and super bouncy balls aren’t exactly collectible merchandise.
In Blue Archive, players take on the role of a faceless Sensei who’s put in charge of helping the students of Kivotos, an academy city. Only just about everyone in Kivotos is an indestructible gun-toting high school girl.
Players put together a team of six girls from across schools and tackle missions in auto-chess style combat. Players have some control through the timing and placement of ultimate abilities. Players also use items to level up their favorite characters, while many of these items can be gained through play recruiting new characters requires the use of the game’s premium currency.
The new Valentine’s Patrol event is also occurring at the same time as Wakamo’s Feast which is a new update that continues the game’s main storyline. Fans can expect special recruitment for the new characters which include:
- Kosaka Wakamo: A Striker which uses a sniper rifle, a mysterious masked girl from the Hyakkiyako Alliance Academy and a member of the Seven Prisoners. Her special ability does massive damage to a single target and marks it for death.
- Himuro Sena: The leader of Gehenna Academy’s Emergency Medicine Club, Sena is a Support unit with a grenade launcher. Her special ability summons an ambulance which heals and raises ATK in an area around it.
- Nemugaki Fubuki: An officer in training at the Valkyrie Police Academy, Fubuki is a Striker unit with a sniper rifle. Her special ability is a straightforward ATK boost on herself.
- Kagami Chihiro: The deputy director of the hacker group Veritas and a student at the Millenium Science School. Chihiro is a Support unit with an assault rifle. Her special ability does high damage to a single target, and if the target has heavy armor they’re stunned for over five seconds!
These new characters will be available for special recruitment through the course of the event, meaning players will be able to spend their pity currency to purchase them directly. The Valentine Patrol and Wakamo’s Feast event will be running from September 6 to September 20.
