NIKKE Announces Constellation-Style Gacha System Requiring Duplicate Pulls — Re:Zero Collab Is Garbage Tier, Players Crowdfund Protest Truck

NIKKE players have finally had enough. A crowdfunded protest truck — yes, a literal truck — is heading straight to developer Shift Up's doorstep. And the explosives that lit this fire? Two warheads detonating simultaneously: a new constellation-style gacha system and a disaster-tier Re:Zero collaboration.

The trigger was the announcement of the 'Keepsake' (珍藏品) system. According to forum players, this system requires characters to reach 3-star ascension (meaning you need to pull multiple copies of the same character) to unlock the full Keepsake content. The community instantly drew parallels to Genshin Impact's constellation system — universally dreaded as the 'stone block' (石块) mechanic that forces you to whale for duplicates. One poster nailed it in seven words: "Stone blocks incoming, truck crowdfunded."

The official line is that Keepsakes are meant to buff older characters, but players aren't buying it. A highly-upvoted comment laid out the fear plainly: "This is just the excuse. How long before new characters NEED their Keepsake to be viable? New unit + Keepsake = instant meta-breaking must-pull. That's why the truck happened." Another veteran dropped hard numbers: "NIKKE said it'd take 3 copies. I've been playing for over a year, averaging 200+ RMB/month (battle pass, roulette, monthly card). Count how many characters you have at 2+ breakthroughs." The implication: even moderate dolphins can't keep up, let alone F2P players.

Had it been just the Keepsake controversy, things might not have escalated to truck-level protest. But the Re:Zero collab that dropped around the same time was universally panned — character art slammed as "ugly," "lazy," and "shamelessly low-effort." One commenter put the two issues together bluntly: "Re:Zero collab art is hideous and phoned in." A lazy collab plus a predatory system announcement: a one-two punch that blew the lid off months of accumulated frustration.

The comment section's most entertaining exchange revolved around whether the Keepsake system was truly as bad as people claimed. Some tried to lump it together with the 'exclusive weapon' (专武) system, arguing both are equally scummy. They were immediately clapped back. One user delivered a now-legendary analogy: "How do so many people confuse 'corpse pieces' with 'exclusive weapons'? Stinky tofu and actual crap are NOT the same thing — stinky tofu is still stinky tofu no matter what sketchy oil and GMO soybeans you make it with." Translation: exclusive weapons are tolerable (the stinky tofu), but constellation gacha is where you cross the line into actual excrement.

A few voices tried to normalize the system by pointing to other gacha games. Someone cited Epic Seven's duplicate-pull awakening mechanic as precedent, only to get demolished by another player: "E7 works because it's 120-pity for 6 copies to awaken — even day-one players can't guarantee their launch-era characters at SSS rank." The subtext: if E7's system is already brutal, NIKKE copying it would be even worse.

Crucially, the devs appear to have caved under pressure while this thread was still active. Some players reported that the Keepsake system was revised to allow exchanges using in-game resources (母猪石, 'mother pig stones' — the community's slang for universal dupes). But another veteran immediately poured cold water: "NIKKE doesn't even HAVE mother pig stones — if it did, none of this would've happened in the first place." The extent of the actual concession remains murky, and the trust deficit hasn't healed.

Reading the room, many players have already voted with their wallets — one admitted they're "listing my account on the trading platform (螃蟹/Crab) right now," while others are playing the 'one more chance' gamble: "I'm betting on the half-anniversary — betting Shift Up won't screw up again." When your playerbase is split between "I'm out" and "maybe one more shot," you've crossed the line from a PR hiccup into full-blown trust erosion. You can redraw collab art, but you can't truck back lost trust.