Speaking of gacha, I do want to cover the microtransaction aspect of Delta Force Boosting. There are quite a few things you can buy in this game with outright dosh, such as various Operator and weapon skin bundles to don and some of them look really cool! Others look a bit… Extravagant. Plenty of skins that feature gold and rubies on them for anyone interested in that. I found the prices for these paid bundles to be reasonable and there’s a solid variety if you want to pay for something off the bat. And as I mentioned earlier, playing the game nets you cosmetics as well even if they’re locked behind a bunch of confusing menus. The Season Pass this time around (and as of this writing) is also giving a unique Arknights-themed skin for one of the medicinal Operators Smee, donning the wisecracking Brit Smee in the clothes of the Executor from the tower defence mobile game.

Right so, here’s the part I’m going to talk about that I definitely don’t like. Certain Operator skins, like the tech-aficionado sniper “Hackclaw” have skin bundles that include various cosmetics like watch skins, executions, voice lines, match ending screens, and the skin itself. In Hackclaw’s case, she has the “Inky Reflections” skin, which not only features all of the above but even an exclusive song “Got You”, a hardcore pop slash house listen with an enthusiastic beat (and honestly, it’s a bit of a banger). This song can be played in the main menu and can also be heard when the player is victorious in a match. It’s a really cool touch and nearly every skin bundle of this series have their own songs which you can also pull up over on streaming services and other music distributors.

Essentially, the skin is part of a pool with those bundled items I mentioned, and you need to “pull” each time in hopes that you pull the Operator skin or exhaust the pool and collect everything within. Each pull gradually increases in pricing and if you’re unlucky, you could easily spend nearly a hundred bucks trying to get the skin you want. The last time I played a game with this system was ‘Honkai 3rd Impact’ and I hated it there just as much as I hate it here. But I think what really stinks is that the game isn’t upfront with what the next “step” will cost, and each cost is buried under a virtual currency that you’ll have to manually calculate to figure out how much the game wants from you. I’d appreciate the upfront cost being displayed because it’s easy to feel cheated.

And in my case, it hurts more because as of this writing, the buy Delta Force Boost game has a series of collaborative skins from that Arknights game I mentioned earlier. These skins are too damn cool, but you’re limited on how much time you can procure them. Unlike the permanent Inky Reflections skin, the current Arknights banners have expiration dates and who knows when they’ll return (if ever).