The era levels are gated behind the "star" of your character, so you have to 7-star in order to max the era level. This is indeed very predatory in terms of prices. You also cannot do any F2P past the initial era levels, you can only progress by spending cash.
Given that you also have to wait for the era to end before using the character in actual game modes, the only real reason to invest in this is to obtain the materials needed for relic 10. You also unlock the character at a certain relic level according to your investment when the era ends.
CG's earlier post implied most F2P accounts would end the era around level 65 on the era level. Given that it costs money to actually progress I am not sure how that can happen. But level 65 would be equivalent to gear 12, so not on the relic scale yet.
I think it's a failed system, it is using an auction for relic 10 materials effectively as an attempt to increase earnings. I would never spend so much for the dubious benefit of relic 10. You will have to spend hundreds of USD per character throughout the era to really participate on it. Of course some will do it, but the vast majority will probably not engage heavily. Even for big spenders the fact that you don't unlock the characters before 90 days has passed, will have many on the fence looking for actual reasons to spend....
We will 100% see relic 10 required for new journey guides very soon to provide more incentives to participate on this system. It is turning ever more predatory
I believe the rewarded era level currency and materials increase with each successive marquee release so that you can keep coming back to upgrade Luke. By the end of the era I think we will be getting rewarded with much more than we are now so that you can go through and upgrade all six marquee characters to era level 65 by the end.
At least I think that's what's going to happen. None of this has info been released in the game though and the vast majority of players don't use these forums so most players out there are very confused by the whole system I think.
I do think the cumulative stacking of rewards through 5 or 6 toons is what gets you to 65 across the board. But, yeah, R10 aside from your first one appears to get gated behind a giant paywall. You HAVE to get era currency (lots of it) to generate the mats for a single R10, though. It all but eliminates the 90% of the player base from getting more than the initial R10.
I think they'd have do themselves a huge service by telling people the first toon or two will likely make most people miserable but it starts to balance out and see movement then. They didn't. Worse than that, it's really poor design. Who introduces an element to the game that makes 90% of players miserable because they can't do anything with it and are literally gated in what they can accomplish?
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