Ash Echoes Dishes Out 100 Free Pulls for Lunar New Year — But Players Aren't Buying It: 4 Simultaneous Banners, Dreadful 3D Models, and a Copypasta That Won't Touch the Art

100 free pulls for Lunar New Year — sounds generous, right? Well, the Ash Echoes community did the math, and the reality is far less rosy than it appears. Those 100 pulls? Not even close to being enough.

The original poster immediately zeroed in on the catch: sure, the pulls feel great in the moment, but doesn't this essentially confirm the earlier predictions about dual-banner pools? For context, Ash Echoes (白荆回廊, developed by Aurogon/烛龙) isn't just running two 6-star character banners — there are also two imprint (烙痕) pools. That's four simultaneous gacha banners, and 100 pulls across all of them barely registers as a dent.

One commenter nailed it: 'Why is every game dropping 100 free pulls this Lunar New Year? Are they all trying to scoop up Genshin refugees?' Another quickly replied with receipts: 'Because Ash Echoes is running two 6-star character banners, plus two more imprint pools.' The free pulls aren't really a gift — they're an entry ticket. You still need to whale to actually participate.

Veteran players showed up to share the real tea. The core gameplay loop is all about collecting cards and building team compositions, but unlucky players (非洲人, meaning those with terrible gacha luck) can't complete viable teams, making the experience painfully frustrating. Only gacha gods and big spenders thrive. As one player put it bluntly: the 100 pulls are purely 'a move to retain players and protect the cash cow.' Another added: '2 SSR characters + 2 SSR imprint pools, and this is all they give? I'll let that speak for itself.'

But what truly set the community on fire was a viral copypasta (定型文, a template-style praise post) making the rounds. It lavished praise on the Spring Festival event, voice acting, art style, and combat system — even calling the game's future 'limitless.' Yet somehow, not a single word about the 3D modeling. Players immediately caught on: 'The 3D models are so catastrophically bad that even a copypasta template doesn't dare praise them.'

This touched off a roast relay. One commenter wrote: 'If you want NGA users to praise Ash Echoes' modeling, Aurogon would need to hand out at least 1,000 more pulls. The art team's conscience isn't cheap.' Another was more savage: '100 pulls and you expect me to praise those models? Give me 10,000 and maybe I'll consider it.' Someone even proposed a more cost-effective alternative: 'Just send a 6 yuan red envelope during the event — better ROI than buying ad space.'

Some players zoomed out to the bigger industry picture: 'Maybe it's because that one game that got handed a golden opportunity just crashed and burned, miHoYo is being stingy as usual, and that other dev is shooting themselves in the foot — everyone's scrambling for market share.' While speculative, this take reflects the cutthroat competition in the Chinese gacha market at the time, with studios rushing to poach players whenever a rival stumbles.

The most gut-punching comment came from a launch-day player: 'My memory of Ash Echoes is still the day it launched, when I played all day and couldn't even hit pity… How did they suddenly become this generous?' Accompanied by a facepalm meme, it perfectly captured the whiplash from stingy launch to extravagant giveaway. It raises the question: is this generosity from the heart, or are retention numbers so dire that Aurogon had no choice but to hemorrhage pulls?

To sum up this Lunar New Year pull drama: 100 pulls sounds great until you realize four banners are running simultaneously to drain them. Praise posts flood the community, yet the 3D modeling remains the elephant in the room that nobody dares acknowledge. The timing — right as competitors are stumbling — reeks more of anxiety-driven marketing than genuine player appreciation. But one thing is certain: in the eyes of the playerbase, no amount of free pulls can fix those models.