I've been in quite a few Dom rushes but I usually get stuck at the back of the pack as my thrusters haven't been upgraded too much yet. Seeing a game end in less than 5 mins as a pack of Doms rush the enemy HQ and fill it with Giant Baz shots is a beautiful thing to behold.
Microtransactions: It's a "Free to Play" game so it has a lot of the quirks that come with this model. There is a "real money" store, which unfortunately requires a japanese credit card to buy credits for. If you want the best stuff, you're gonna have to pay real money for them. Furthermore, you can use real money to buy in game points which are used for upgrading your suits, making this game very much a "pay to win" game. However, there IS a lot of free content still, and stuff like new suits that started off as Real Money purchases eventually become stuff you can get for free. You'll never be a top 10 player without paying real money I don't think, but you can easily be in the top twenty.
It's true that you'll probably be schooled by players who are willing to pay when you're not. This is mostly unavoidable. The thing I hate is that is there are exclusive items that can only be bought by using the "real money" store such as the original MSG BGM. I'd happily save up in-game cash to buy stuff like that but nope, real money or forget it.
Gashapon: The thing I hate most about the game. Gashapon is basically a sort of gambling you are required to do in the game. There are three types of Gashapon. Normal Gasha, DX Gasha and EX Gasha. Normal Gasha uses points you earn in game, while DX Gasha uses real money (it also has the best and newest stuff). EX Gasha uses vouchers you get from post battle drops.
I don't mind the Gashapon system too much as when you know what to expect, you'll be reasonably well off in in-game money. No, it's not ideal by any stretch but I've seen far worse in F2P MMOs. Complete all the tutorial missions as this nets you a nice chunk of cash via Challenge rewards. Server maintenance nets you 10000GP whether you tried to login when the game was down or not which ends up being like a weekly stipend. Keep track of your daily challenges too, you can get some nice rewards for completing these and doing 7 will get a cash bonus. Some of them are as easy as just bringing a single cannister back to your teams spawn point too.
The Golden Week event has been great for EX Gashapon tickets and by selling all the junk items I got from spending them, I bought quite a few upgrades. I liked the fact that the shop remembers what you won in EX Gashapon previously and won't let you win duplicate items. I think this how I was able to win my Zaku F2 - there was basically nothing of high value left for me to win!
Unfortunately blue prints aren't sold in the game's shop. If you want new mobile suits, you either have to hope you get the blue prints post-battle, or chance gashapon. Good luck with that. Blue Prints are usually the rarest item, especially the superior gold prints.
The game has been designed around using the gashapon system and it shows. The best advice I have for using it is to save up and buy 10 at once since the shop gives you 11 for the price of 10. It might seem like a lot of in-game money but you can get enough for 10 gashapon after about 3 games, winning or not. I usually sell every single item that I win post-battle netting me between 10000-20000GP. Any junk items you get from buying gashapon, sell them immediately too and start saving to buy the next set! Concentrate on saving up for a specific upgrade or winning a new blueprint and it's reasonably manageable.
If you want to try out a new MS without getting blueprints, you can also rent a pre-made high level MS. These are pretty costly for what they are and generally aren't worth it unless you want to see how a specific MS operates in practice. If you don't like it, you can even sell the rental MS for cash. (I tried an Acguy this way, sadly it's not for me...)
Balance: Earth Federation is overpowered. That isn't just me whining as a Zeon player. Most Federation suits have a functioning shield, something only the Gelgoog has for Zeon. This shield is amazing. It can tank bazooka rounds and rockets. Furthermore, Federation suits have beam rifles, which reload quickly, fire quickly and do a hell of a lot of damage, while Zeon suits only have machine guns (and sometimes shot guns). Severally outclassed there. Still, I have won as Zeon multiple times, but the Zekes certainly have to work harder for their kills.
The stock Zaku I and Zaku II F have spike shields... which unfortunately are destroyed after blocking once. :-/ It's a shame the Zaku II shoulder shields don't actually seem to add any obvious armour bonus. The weapon choices for the Feds can be frustrating to see at times. The GM Repair mech outclasses the Zaku I equivalent by being able to wield a Bullpup machine gun! If you're forced to use an MS which can use Zaku machine guns, I'd recommend upgrading to the 3 shot burst fire one as this is pretty powerful even at a distance if you can get a headshot.
On this note, why is Namco-Bandai so insistent on making headshots so damaging when the head only contains the main camera? The pilot (and reactor!) is in the torso. It annoyed me in the Spirits of Zeon arcade game and it annoys me here.
Hassle to set up: The game has an IP block. You can get around this with a VPN, but that means you're gonna have to put up with some lag if you get stuck with a bad relay.
Yep. It's annoying and I'm not sure why Bamco IP locked this game.
Things that I'm neutral towards: Waiting for matches. If you're playing the game when it's the weekend afternoon in japan, you're going to wait 9 minutes for a match. it sucks, but oh well. On the bright side, the developers made accomodations for this. The longer you wait for a match, the bonuses you get. You can get increases in post-match drops, and increased experience and credit bonuses. Plus, if you want, you can practice while you wait. So it works out.
I'd recommend finding a squad to join rather than going in solo. There are lots of public squads you can just jump into and most players seems friendly enough. You'll earn lots more ribbons in-game due to being in a squad especially if you try and work together. That means more rewards, more challenges completed and more cash! If you can't speak (or type) much Japanese you can at least type "46" which seems to be a pretty common shorthand for "yoroshiku".
So overall, MSGO is a pretty fun game
Agreed, especially for free.
EDIT: Wow, that was a really long post! Sorry guys! :-/
