Features
The studio behind Genshin Impact, Honkai: Star Rail and Zenless Zone Zero — some of the most profitable gacha games ever made — just announced a new game where you cannot pull for characters at all.
HoYoverse revealed Nodusfall at Gamescom Opening Night Live on August 25, 2026. When the obvious question followed the trailer, the studio answered it directly in a statement to PC Gamer:
Nodusfall will be a free-to-play, long-term game. What we can share at this time is that characters are not obtained through random draws. We hope to allow players to unlock this core gameplay experience through continued play. Cosmetic monetization is an important avenue we will be considering.
No random draws. No pity system. No 50/50. Characters unlocked by playing, with revenue coming from outfits, hairstyles and accessories instead.
What Nodusfall actually is
It is a dark fantasy cooperative action RPG built in Unreal Engine 5, and it looks nothing like anything HoYoverse has shipped before. The vibrant anime aesthetic is gone, replaced with hyper-realistic gloom that most coverage has compared to Elden Ring.
You play a Weaver in a world where divine authority has collapsed. You form squads with companions and hunt corrupted mythological creatures, choosing between different Styles and Skill combinations in combat. Defeating the large creatures rewards resources used to unlock new skills and weapons.
The bestiary is deliberately broad. HoYoverse frames it as a multi-mythology title, drawing on beasts rooted in Eastern mythology alongside Western dragons, with the Chinese classical text Classic of Mountains and Seas running through the world design.
How it plays
PC Gamer hands-on impressions are useful here precisely because they resist the easy comparison. The fights are described as more forgiving, snappier and more fast-paced than the Elden Ring and Monster Hunter reference points suggest — not quite either, and definitely not Genshin.
Four characters were available in the demo, customisable with different outfits, hairstyles and accessories.
Why this is a bigger deal than it sounds
Dropping character gacha is not a small design tweak for this studio. It is the removal of the mechanism that generated most of its revenue.
Two pieces of context explain the shift, and neither is a secret.
The FTC settlement
HoYoverse paid a $20 million settlement to the US Federal Trade Commission. The FTC Bureau of Consumer Protection director said at the time that the company had led players — particularly children — to spend hundreds of dollars on prizes they stood little chance of winning.
That is a regulator describing gacha mechanics in language that does not leave much room for a defence.
The revenue drop
According to tracked app-store data, HoYoverse combined mobile revenue across its active titles fell roughly 48% between 2024 and 2025.
A halving of mobile revenue alongside regulatory pressure is a strong argument for testing a different model, and Nodusfall looks like that test.
The part indie developers should pay attention to
The largest gacha studio in the world just publicly bet that a cosmetics-only model can sustain a long-term free-to-play game.
If Nodusfall succeeds, it becomes the reference point every publisher points at when arguing against loot-box monetisation. If it fails, it becomes the reference point for the opposite argument. Either way, a lot of business-model conversations over the next few years will cite this game.
It also lands in a market where players have become extremely sensitive to monetisation and shortcuts generally. The same audience currently review-bombing games over visible AI art is the one HoYoverse is trying to win over here, and both stories are the same underlying trend: players punishing anything that feels like value being extracted rather than delivered.
What is still unknown
- No release date has been announced
- Platforms are not fully confirmed, though PC support has been indicated
- How characters unlock in practice — “continued play” could mean a reasonable progression curve or a grind severe enough to sell shortcuts
- Whether cosmetics alone will actually sustain the game long term
That third point is the one worth watching. Removing gacha and replacing it with a grind that pushes players toward paid time-savers would be the same business model wearing a different coat.
Frequently asked questions
Does Nodusfall have gacha?
No. HoYoverse has confirmed that characters are not obtained through random draws. Characters unlock through continued play, and monetisation is planned around optional cosmetics such as outfits, hairstyles and accessories.
Is Nodusfall free to play?
Yes. HoYoverse has described it as a free-to-play, long-term game.
What kind of game is Nodusfall?
A dark fantasy cooperative action RPG built in Unreal Engine 5. You play a Weaver hunting corrupted mythological creatures in squads, in a world where divine authority has collapsed.
When does Nodusfall release?
No release date has been announced. It was revealed at Gamescom Opening Night Live on August 25, 2026, and platforms have not been fully confirmed.
Why did HoYoverse drop gacha for Nodusfall?
The studio has not given a reason, but two pieces of context are relevant: a $20 million FTC settlement over gacha practices that regulators said led players, particularly children, to spend heavily on low-probability prizes, and a roughly 48% drop in combined mobile revenue between 2024 and 2025.
Is Nodusfall like Elden Ring?
It draws obvious visual inspiration from Elden Ring and structural inspiration from Monster Hunter, but hands-on impressions describe the combat as more forgiving, snappier and faster-paced than either.
For more on how monetisation and player trust interact, see our piece on why Steam players review-bomb games over AI art.
