Princess Connect 6th Anniversary Adds FOUR New Grind Systems — Master Enhancement Locked Behind Paywall, F2P Players in Shambles

Want to max out a single TP Up node before this month's Clan Battle? Sure — just pull the rate-up unit, buy from the Master Shop, purchase a paid gacha ticket, AND drop ¥5,000 on a new bundle. Four separate spending avenues, and you'll have exactly 6 Master Shards. This is what Princess Connect Re:Dive's 6th anniversary "gift" looks like.

It all started when a Taiwan server player posted a detailed breakdown on NGA of the JP server's anniversary update. The result? Four entirely new progression systems stacked on top of the existing grind — a full-on "grind hell" escalation.

The first system introduces elemental attributes to all characters. Teams with matching elements get massive damage boosts, and hitting a boss's elemental weakness deals 1.5x damage.

The second is an Attribute Level system — five elements, each leveling independently up to 500, boosting damage for all characters of that element. Leveling materials come from a new high-difficulty dungeon so brutal that "even max-investment players are sweating bullets." After clearing it, you need to daily sweep for materials. Sweeping all five elements costs 500 stamina, while your total daily stamina income is roughly 1,700 — that's nearly a third of your daily budget just for sweeps.

The third is a Talent Tree system that applies bonuses to all characters, with upgrade materials again sourced from that same punishing dungeon.

The fourth — and by far the most controversial — is Master Enhancement. Its Level 2 node grants TP Up, widely considered the single most premium stat in the game. Hardcore Clan Battle players absolutely need to unlock it before this month's ranking period.

But Master Shards are absurdly scarce. To hit 6 within the month, you need ALL of the following: pull the rate-up gacha unit (3 shards), buy from the Master Shop (1 shard), purchase a paid guaranteed 3-star ticket (1 shard), and buy a brand-new ¥5,000 bundle (1 shard). The original poster fumed: "This anniversary update is shamelessly greedy. Does CY really think this will make players open their wallets?"

The post instantly blew up. The top-voted comment cut straight to the point: "Revenue data must have been abysmal — this is a desperate Hail Mary." Another veteran sighed: "Game's in its twilight years. This is the devs gently releasing a pheromone: it's been years, you've been freeloading long enough, time to spend." A third added with gallows humor: "Be grateful it's still alive. Next they'll announce PCR World."

But the comment section wasn't a one-sided roast. A detailed rebuttal from one player (floor 12) pointed out that the actual Clan Battle team compositions these past few days "mostly still revolve around the usual suspects, with only a handful of older characters seeing playtime." They also noted that bosses lost their hit-to-gain-TP mechanic, so elemental mismatches "won't prevent you from copying team compositions in most cases." On Master Shards specifically, they calculated: "The paid guaranteed 3-star banner doesn't even go live until February 29. Even if you pull AND buy the bundle, you'd only have 5 — not 6." So whales literally can't max it this month either.

The most effective counterpoints came from floors 16, 17, and 18. One player called out the OP directly: "Cherry-picking much? Why didn't you mention that the OLD grind content got massively reduced?" Another highlighted the new Synchro system as a genuine QoL win, noting "PCR JP has actually been buzzing with activity this past few days — tons of Abyss team-building discussions," and posted a screenshot showing increased community engagement. A third concisely added: "Didn't they reduce the old grind? Adding new progression alongside that seems fine." Someone else tried a business angle: "The game's 6 years old, barely getting new players. Previously F2P and whales were on nearly equal footing. Now there's a small gap — revenue goes up, and it's not even real pay-to-win if you're not chasing top ranks." The instant rebuttal: "The difference between Rank 1 and Rank 2 rewards is 500 gems. Who's spending money over 500 gems?"

Meanwhile, some players couldn't care less about the drama and just wanted new games: "Please just give us Princess Connect Relink" and "Why keep piling onto this mountain of spaghetti code instead of cooking up a new title?" Perhaps the most savage comment was floor 19's callout: "First it was BA players cherry-picking, now it's TW server players — what exactly did you cut from the full picture this time?" — implying this kind of selective screenshot drama is a recurring pattern.

Bottom line: the 6th anniversary update has genuinely split the community. Defenders say the old grind reduction + Synchro system are real wins. Critics argue that stacking four new progression systems on a 6-year-old game is textbook late-stage gacha monetization. But at least both sides agree on one thing — 500 gems difference between ranks? Not exactly the hill to whale on.