For the last four years, all kinds of players have been enjoying Cookie Run: Kingdom. While the game mostly uses gacha mechanics to obtain playable characters, it’s rather user-friendly. Most challenges can be faced with any Cookies players want to use, and overcoming these obstacles gives strengthening rewards, with the cycle continuing in a way that just feels good and fun to play. With a gameplay loop like this, it’s been easy for fans to make their way through the story, save up Crystals, and get the newest Cookie Run: Kingdom Cookies with hardly any stress – though recent Cookie additions are harming that vibe.
Gacha mechanics have been the subject of criticism from gamers for years. Talk of rates and predatory monetization practices are by far the most common topics, but lately games like Genshin Impact have brought the power creep that comes with constantly updating live-service games into discussion. For many players, power creep feels like just an unfortunate side effect of a game that adds characters and content regularly. Cookie Run: Kingdom, however, is starting to reach a surprising stage where Cookies are being added that encourage further gacha pulling in their abilities themselves. It makes one wonder just where – or when – the lines should be drawn.
How Cookie Run: Kingdom Outgrew Its Gacha Mechanics
One of the silver linings of the current state of CRK is that its gacha systems have more or less stayed the same. There is one event gacha for the marketed “must-have” Cookies of the update, like Hollyberry Cookie’s original Nether-Gacha, and an update to the regular gacha pool that features a new Epic. Power creep first became a concern as rarities like Special, Beast, and Dragon came into play. In some regards, it was to be expected that newer players who got lucky and pulled Sea Fairy Cookie in their first pulls would be able to blast through the first seven chapters of the game’s story mode. Things gradually changed, with Update 4.1 being a turning point.
When Cookie Run’s Powercreep Began to Be Too Much
The warning signs appeared when Chapter 16 first went live and Stardust Cookie’s final boss of the chapter saw players asking for full-fledged synergy advice from the best team builders the community had to offer. Beating him without a decent team felt impossible. This trend would continue into Chapter 17, with Golden Cheese Cookie’s final boss also demanding a dedicated team. It was also a matter of whether players could make that much progress in Chapter 17 to begin with. Regular bosses had high HP bars, and debuffs affected Cookies that weren’t relevant to the map, so if players were unlucky with the gachas at the time, they had a harder experience overall.
In all fairness, Cookie Run: Kingdom has always been generous to some degree. It wasn’t too hard to stockpile items thanks to its many events, so strengthening Cookies was never too tough unless players had to upgrade one from scratch. In this regard, some newer Cookies being stronger than the old ones made sense. Still, the event buffs and debuffs that encouraged players to pull, obtain, and awaken the event characters to progress wore out the cogs of Devsisters’ well-oiled machine for some players, and now the recent event has made things worse.
Jagae Cookie and Manju Cookie Toe a Line Cookie Run: Kingdom Seems to Be Okay With Crossing
The 6.6 update introduces Jagae Cookie, Manju Cookie, and Lime Cookie after the previous update added two new Cookies. Not only has the rate at which new characters are added to the game sped up recently, but Jagae Cookie and Manju Cookie have special bonus effects that help each other only if they’re on the same team. It encourages players to have them both with their best chance of getting them only during this update specifically at 1.4% each. While there’s an argument to be made that at least Jagae Cookie and Manju Cookie are Epics, at the rate the game is going, a Super Epic tying into another Epic – or even two Super Epics tying into each other – isn’t off the table for future updates.
…the event buffs and debuffs that encouraged players to pull, obtain, and awaken the event characters to progress wore out the cogs of Devsisters’ well-oiled machine for some players…
In the end, these problems haven’t deterred many Cookie Run: Kingdom players from enjoying the game they love. These issues will likely serve to be annoyances in the long-term for many players, as they already have been for some, but that doesn’t mean they should be accepted as they are. If Cookie Run: Kingdom fans voice their concerns about the health of the game, then maybe stricter rules and balancing will become a reality someday.

Cookie Run: Kingdom

- Released
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January 21, 2021
- ESRB
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e
- Developer(s)
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Devsisters
- Publisher(s)
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Devsisters
- Engine
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Unity
- Multiplayer
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Online Multiplayer
#Kingdoms #Power #Creep #Control