Is Azur Lane worth playing in 2023?

Azur Lane is an RPG mobile game created by two Chinese developers, Manjuu and Yongshi. This gacha game is still popular among gamers due to its generous gacha and reward system. It is a side-scrolling, bullet hell game featuring naval warfare in an alternate reality of the Second World War. The game saw its global release in 2019, two years after the Chinese and Japanese release in 2017.

Azur Lane features 2D anime-style graphics, easy gameplay, auto-play settings, and over 700 ships to unlock and upgrade. Players collect beautiful anthropomorphic battleships based on ships from the Second World War era. With the fourth year of its global release, this article discusses if it is worth playing in 2023.

---

Here is why Azur Lane is worth playing in 2023

Azur Lane is still one of the best gacha titles in 2023. It features a unique story, beautiful ships, generous gacha system making it one of the best free-to-play friendly gacha. One can complete the game’s content even with low-rarity units.

Like other gacha games, players collect various ships and in-game items from the gacha mechanics. However, its generous nature makes the game different from other games.

---

Generous Gacha and reward system

Azur Lane offers over 700 ships with different rarities: Common, Rare, Elite, Super Rare, and Ultra Rare. In standard pulls, the probability of Super Rare, Elite, and Rare is 7%, 12%, and 26%, respectively. The pull rate on special events for Ultra Rare is 1.2%, Super Rare is 2%, and Elites are 2.5%. High-rarity ships are powerful but not necessary to complete the game’s content.

Additionally, ships are also obtainable by building them using cubes and coins. Completing stages, missions, and most events give ships as a reward to players. Furthermore, In-game resources such as oil, Gems, Wisdom Cubes, and more are obtainable from mission completion.

They are also obtainable by doing dailies, leveling up, and completing events. In short, players can get all resources and characters through gameplay without spending real-world money. The high gacha rates and reward system makes the game one of the best free-to-play friendly gacha.

---

Azur Lane Gameplay

In Azur Lane, players build a fleet of 6 ships divided into Main and Vanguard divisions. Ships in the Vanguard division are front liners consisting of Destroyers, Heavy Cruisers, Light Cruisers, Large Cruisers, or Battle Cruisers. The back liners are in the Main division consisting of Battleships, Aviation Battleships, Monitors, Repair Ships, Aircraft Carrier, Light Aircraft Carrier, Submarines, or Submarine Seaplane Carrier.

The game has multiple chapters consisting of various maps. After building the desired fleet, the ships step into the map defeating enemy fleets until the boss appears. Upon defeating them, players earn three stars advancing to the next stage. Each ship has unique abilities and stats that are upgradable using experience points earned from battles and missions.

As one gradually progresses the game, more challenging bosses and enemy spawns appear on the map. With campaign mode, Azur Lane offers various rewarding events and an online PvP mode. This famous mobile game also features an auto-play useful for farming resources in the late game.

---

The game has a unique story

Azur Lane features naval warfare in an alternate reality of the Second World War. Eagle Union, Royal Navy, Sakura Empire, and Iron Blood form a military alliance named Azur Lane. They aim to protect humanity from an alien entity called Siren. However, Iron Blood and Sakura Empire side with Siren using their advanced technologies and forming a new alliance, Crimson Axis.

The Azur Lane alliance believes in saving humanity from the technological manipulation of Siren. On the contrary, Crimson Axis believes using Siren’s technology is the only way to save humanity. Additionally, some members of the Crimson Axis only want to gain more power and dominate the Earth.

The opposing principles and Siren’s manipulation leads to conflict between the two alliances. They both use ship girls in the battle to crush each other. However, Siren also has a hidden agenda that players will know as they progress through the game.

Ship girls are more anthropomorphic interpretations of warships from the Second World War. The game also features decisive battles of the era: the Battle of Midway, the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal, and the Mariana and Palau Islands Campaign.

---

The game combines a high pull rate with an engaging storyline and simple gameplay, gaining the reputation as one of the best gacha titles. The game’s community is still active and helpful as well. Developers are introducing new events, characters, character reruns, and several event reruns to the game.

To sum up, Azur Lane is worth playing in 2023, even after years of its release. However, with tons of content, it might be overwhelming for beginners and new players.

Azur Lane is free-to-play friendly, has a generous gacha and reward system, and has simple and easy gameplay. Additionally, it features cute anime characters and beautiful skins. Most importantly, players do not need to spend their hard-earned money to enjoy the game.