can you enjoy the game as much without using real money?

[TaigaUC]

Saiki units are easy to get now.
Just do the recommended quests every day, to get keys for bonus quest.
There's a fairly high chance of getting Saiki from the bonus quests.

I'd say the main benefits to buying AC would be:
- Buy extra item pack slots, so you can pick up a ton of stuff and get into another good run quickly, instead of wasting time sorting crap.
- Buy extra Mags, if you want to play multiple styles on a single character. Otherwise just make a character for each major attack type (S-ATK, R-ATK and T-ATK).
- Buy extra skill trees, if you need them (eg. optimal Force/Techer has trees for each element type, Braver may need Bow tree and Katana tree, Techer may need Wand melee tree, etc).
- Able to purchase 11-12 star stuff, but you can get 3x 12 star passes from the titles for doing XH.
- Able to get into populated blocks more easily, but this is mostly only useful if you want to play with certain friends.
- Buy AC scratch and sell that to get lots of in-game money easily.

[TehCubey]

Assembling a saiki set is easier now than ever. Other units (fahren set, crafted whatever) can carry you in the meantime.

EQs hand out decent 11*s like candy. Red weapons are available for all and very powerful. Best weapons are 13*s that you can't buy from other players either way, premium or not.

Only few classes require multiple skill trees for 100% top meta optimization, but for being a decent to good player, only one skill tree will suffice for all.

Meseta is easy to make so you can buy all those affix fodders or qt hairstyles and outfits you want.

Esthe counter passes are actually handed out as daily login rewards.

Playing this game without paying real money is definitely doable, and doesn't make you feel like a second class player.

The only really inconvenient parts is that you can't have more than one mag per character, and skill tree resets are distributed only infrequently - so be careful with your skill point allocation!

Where as a premium player can buy fodder for his units and get the right affixes instantly, you would have go out and farm the items and abilities

You realize, you don't need premium to buy fodder units, right? You may need a pass if it's 10* or 11* but there's plenty of fodder below that rarity.

[Shiikii]

You realize, you don't need premium to buy fodder units, right? You may need a pass if it's 10* or 11* but there's plenty of fodder below that rarity.

Example, 2 weeks ago:
5s weapon Modulator + 4 crap = 1m+ if 10* or higher, 1.5m+ if below 10*

Anyway.
Only reason to spend money IMO is to exchange few hundreds of 10/11/12* weaps and 10/11* units into Passes for use in future. So, one-time Premium, and that's all... Everything else is doable without Premium. You can take your place at block before it get's crowded and stay there. You can buy fodders but they could be a bit more expensive. If you want specific 10* or higher rarity item, you need to farm it instead of buying.

Being non-premium is not a shame. It's a bit more difficult path, but it's also a challange - You can't just buy your desire 12* weap. You need to drop it, you need to work for it. IMO - it's more satysfiing path, without premium.

[Dephinix]

Example, 2 weeks ago:
5s weapon Modulator + 4 crap = 1m+ if 10* or higher, 1.5m+ if below 10*

Anyway.
Only reason to spend money IMO is to exchange few hundreds of 10/11/12* weaps and 10/11* units into Passes for use in future. So, one-time Premium, and that's all... Everything else is doable without Premium. You can take your place at block before it get's crowded and stay there. You can buy fodders but they could be a bit more expensive. If you want specific 10* or higher rarity item, you need to farm it instead of buying.

Being non-premium is not a shame. It's a bit more difficult path, but it's also a challange - You can't just buy your desire 12* weap. You need to drop it, you need to work for it. IMO - it's more satysfiing path, without premium.

You trust randoms that much, damn. I for one don't have time to stay logged in all day or would want to put my pc through that work. I'll take prem to get in the same block for maybe 1 hour's time rather than idling for 6+ hours. Wasn't this a bad thing for many people early on?
Red weapons ruled out a lot of 12 star and under stuff, though sometimes getting in a good CM block needs premium, but sometimes you want to go to the one with less people anyways. Find a group that's right for you kind of thing.
Dropping a 12* isn't satisfying to me anymore, and even then... didn't we all get like, at least 2 freebie 12 star passes a couple of months ago from titles? I mean, if you're hurting for a 12 star, bam, there you go. If not, then you've been holding on to many passes you have nothing to do with, andf the last paragraph is irrelevant.

[Stryfe Lenayus]

so do you automatically get 10 star pass by going premium?

[Kondibon]

so do you automatically get 10 star pass by going premium?

No, you have to exchange 10* weapons for them while having premium, but this is a pretty hardcore necro, you could have just used the quick questions thread