Price anchoring

A marketing practice where deals of a product are being shown to the consumer so they perceive what they’re buying as a good deal. This is used in gacha as extra roll deals and virtual currency deals to get the consumer to buy more. Studies show that consumers buy on the basis of the price of a single product and not all of the products prices combined which entrepreneurs take advantage of. Customers only look at the price at hand of a product and compare that to the deal and not the sub charges of the product. In mobile games this is used by a cheap product to set the anchor then the more expensive ones that shows deals making the player feel better for a purchase because they have more value.^[7]

Intermittent rewards system

Makes the player more engaged by giving the player rewards intermediately throughout the game so that the player will work for these rewards in order to get what they desire. Making the player either have to play to get these rewards or paying to get an advantage and getting the rewards without having to play. An example of this is getting a free gacha pull by doing certain tasks in game.^[7]

Near miss tactic

Showing the player rare items that they want and whenever the player does a gacha pull and does not get the desired item. The player would then want to spend more to obtain this item because they feel that they were close to getting the item and that the next roll will get their targeted item. When the player starts a roll it passes by the items in that banner then stops on the item the player obtained while teasing what items were next to or close to the item they got making the player feel as if they have missed the desired item.^[7]

Fear of missing out (FOMO)

Some items are only available for a limited amount of time, incentivizing players to directly purchase or otherwise obtain the item for an in-game power advantage or bragging rights. Limited time events can also condition players to consistently play the game out of fear missing an event or specific item. Daily login rewards can encourage players to open the game each day in order to collect a specific daily reward.^[8]

Rolling/pulling

A gacha game will have collectable characters, cards, or other items. Many of them are obtainable only through a "gacha" mechanic,^[3] wherein the player exchanges in-game currency for "pulls" or "spins", each pull yielding a random collectable "drop". The "pulls" are analogous to spins on a slot machine or roulette wheel.

Some of the "drops" drop less frequently than others. As such, drops can often be categorized into rarity "tiers". Historically, gacha games did not always share their droprates. Those that did so were called "open gacha" and those that didn't were "closed gacha". In many jurisdictions it is now legally required for the item rarities to be public information. As such, virtually all contemporary gacha games share this information.

Between rarity and limited-time availability drops, players are incentivized to roll while their desired item is available.^[3]

Spark system

Some gacha models use an "eventually guaranteed drop" mechanic called "pity" or "spark": the player will be guaranteed a given drop after pulling for it a large number of times without success. This mechanic by itself does not start at the beginning but rather at a fixed point. Pity mechanics can be "soft" or "hard". Depending on the game, these mechanics usually start at a designated pull count and at the very end for that matter."Soft" pity increases the probability slightly of getting a rare item with every pull, counting up and recalculating the probability until the rare item is received, while "hard" pity uses a counter to keep track of the number of pulls and automatically dispense or allow the item to be purchasable with in game currency after reaching a preset number of rolls.

In-game currency

Gacha games often feature several in-game currencies with intricate conversion methods, obscuring the actual value of non-premium currencies. While players can earn the "premium" currency during gameplay, it's available in strictly limited amounts.

Virtual item

Many kinds of virtual items can be in the loot table for a banner. Gameplay units such as cards, characters, equippable gear, or more abstract loot such as "experience" are all possible.

Login and task rewards

In many games, gacha rewards are essential for players to make progress in the game.^[6] Players are generally given free or discounted gachas in low amounts on a regular schedule, in exchange for logging in or doing in-game tasks.

Banners

Banners are "pools" of available items (characters, loot, cards, etc) that players can "roll" on. Offered banners can be perpetually available or can have a limited duration. Games generally have some of both, with player retention efforts and in-game advertising emphasizing the limited availability of some or all of the items in the latter.

Stamina

Stamina is a resource that is required for, and consumed by, core in-game actions such as (in a fighting-oriented game) beginning combat encounters. It regenerates over time, often only up to a cap. It can typically be regenerated or gained instantly through some form of microtransaction or premium currency spending. The name for this resource is usually different on a per-game basis, but stamina is typically the general term used for this type of currency in general across games.

Resemblance to gambling

Studies done in Europe and the United States show that more than half juveniles who participate in gacha around 5 percent of them developed bad gambling habits and 10 percent were starting habits ^{[clarification needed]}. The gacha industry invokes gambling addiction and 30 percent are students who spends 256 to 1280 dollars of which these students have no steady income ^{[clarification needed]}.^{[7][citation needed]} As of 2020, the EU Parliament has regulated a form of gacha on the basis of consumer protection due to exploitation by the industry. Parliament sought an alternative basis for player protection with hopes of finding a better solution.^[17] This has been considered for regulations many times by many countries but only a few of them have actively taken action against gacha. Belgium has banned loot boxes, China has made a requirement on showing chances of obtaining a particular item, UK has adapted to a wait and watch. As of 2019 55 percent of the highest income in UK games are loot boxes and gacha on mobile and 36 percent on pc.^[18] Players with already set gambling problems are a lot more susceptible to spending more money on loot box and gacha games. This is largely because there is no committed limit for how much the person will spend on pullls or opens spending more because of it. 30 percent of the revenue from gacha and loot boxes are players who are moderately at risk for gambling addiction.^[19] UK does not consider loot boxes and gacha gambling because the virtual item have no real monetary value outside of the game. As studies show the brain likes randomness and surprises which gacha is a surprise in a way that what the player might get will be amazing or poor. this is because the brain likes to predict what reward they will get from the pull and makes the player excited at the possibility of getting something that they desire. just like cards the buyer will always get something just maybe not what ^[20] the consumer wants to get unlike gambling.^[21] Gacha games go by the philosophy of all or nothing when pulling the player either pulls till they get the desired item or they stop half way getting nothing of value. Gacha games are not inherently bad it is based upon the developer of the game making the gacha a requirement to continue the game or if the items are just to help the player continue the story or main quest. Pay to win is also dependent on the game itself as not all gacha games are pay to win but most gacha games let the player buy advantages to help them in the game.^[22] ESRB (Entertainment Software Rating Board) does not consider gacha gambling because the player is guaranteed to earn some sort of prize which gambling does not. "The Netherlands Gambling Authority" has stated that gacha violates "the Betting and Gaming Act" and "the Belgium Gaming Commission" states that is it gambling because of its random chance. Illegal third party sites make it so players can sell virtual items for real money making it closer to gambling because at that point it deals with outside game currency.^[23] Gacha items has rarity which means by proxy it has a value which therefore can be sold on third party sites for real life money depending on rarity. Similarities can be drawn from crypto games because of the breeding method turning two crypto games into a new one by a set random chance just like the random chance of gacha.^[24] One big criticism is pay to win give an advantage to players with more money and gacha is one that has been criticized for pay to win. From a survey they used 46000 users and out of them 586 where pay to win and has purchased loot boxes or gacha to gain an advantage. 50% of those users where high risk gamblers and low level education. ^[25] Gacha is one of the highest grossing in the industry acquiring $6379756 a year making it one of the most lucrative.

In May 2012, an article was published in the Yomiuri Shimbun, that criticized social networking games and specifically gacha for exploiting the naivety of children to make a profit. The main complaint of the article was that the gacha model too closely resembled gambling. The paper called for an investigation by Japan's Consumer Affairs Agency to prevent abuse of the system.^{[26][full citation needed]}

Several cases of teenagers and even younger kids spending equivalents of over US$1000 have been reported in the media.^[27][28] Shortly after, the suggested investigation was performed and the model of complete gacha was declared illegal by the Consumer Affairs Agency. The Consumer Affairs Agency stated that virtual items could be considered "prizes" under existing legislation written in 1977 to prevent the complete gacha practice in the context of baseball trading cards. Within a month of the statement being issued, all major Japanese game publishers had removed complete gacha rules from their games, though many developers found ways around this.^[10][29]

Several lawsuits have been filed in Japan against companies publishing gacha games, sometimes resulting in decreases in stock prices.^[30][31][32] Japanese mobile game developers, including GREE and DeNA, worked to establish a self-regulating industry group, the Japan Social Game Association, which was an attempt to push developers from these models, but it did not prove successful, and the Association was disbanded by 2015.^[29]

The mechanism has come under scrutiny for its similarity to gambling. Some countries require drop rates to be made public, or have banned certain practices (e.g., complete gacha).^[33][34] Many players also feel regret after making purchases in these games according to a survey.^[35] Gacha games have also been criticized for exposing children to gambling-like mechanics where they will also potentially have the ability to make in-game payments.^[36]

A 2019 research paper has noted that "the gacha system has proven to be addictive and problematic" and speculated that the loopholes in the gacha system could be exploited for international money laundering.^[30]