Wednesday 4 March 2015

Tutorial - Gacha Minion - Part 1 - How to get Started

I'm doing something a little bit different today. I had always planned on offering some tutorials of some sort, regarding sl, on Free*Style.

I can't say this is exactly what I had in mind for my first one, but it is about something I am sort of excited about.

There are going to be a ton of pictures, so I am going to put a break here, for those who see this on a feed, and not on our Original Free*Style site.

Today I am going to be showing you about Gacha Minion, a new tool, which will help you with your gacha collecting, selling and trading.


Why would I be putting this on Free*Style? Well, Gacha Minion has a free version of their product, though limited, which I feel can suit the needs of some of our Viewership here. We also cover gacha items on Free*Style, so I thought it was relevant  as well. I think that even if you just have the Starter account, and either don't feel the need to have the other features, or simply can't afford an upgrade, there are other very valuable things about this tool, which I will try and show you.

I am going to take you through the setup process of the free account, as I myself do it. Gacha Minion as a company has it's own tutorials and answers many questions of the Official Site, which I have links to at the bottom of this post.

This is just my experience, setting it up.


In order to start you new journey in the world of gacha, you must get a Gacha Minion account. To start the process, you simply TP to the Official Kiosk.


You can click the HippoGroup sign, to stay updated on new features and news, as well as click the various links on their Media Board. I suggest you click around, see what it is all about, as I probably will not be saying every possible thing about Gacha Minion here.

The Main Board above the HippoGroup sign is where you will really get started. Click the type of membership you want; Starter, Standard or Pro. I will only be covering the Starter in this tutorial.

In local, you will get a password code, once you click on the membership button. This is unique to your avatar. Take the time to put this somewhere safe, so you do not lose it. I, myself took a screenshot of it.


Then you click that link, in local, or copy/paste it.

The login screen will pop up, and you just type in your SL Name(your original name, not what you use as your display). Then paste in your password.


Now you got a snazzy Gacha Minion account.

Next step is to set up your Profile.

You can have a 1024x1024 Photo, as well as being able to fill out various other info, such as media site links, and a little blurb about yourself.


Now you have a Profile, this is where people can view your various lists, as well as other important information, like alternative ways to contact you to trade.

 From here you can start to explore and use the site.

To the left of the screen you will see a dashboard, which helps you navigate various parts of the site. 

Click on events.

Now this is one of the things I think will help those who might not want to purchase a Standard or Pro Membership.

Gacha Minion has a team of people, who load up all the gachas for the various events on the grid. Not everything upon everything is up there yet, they are starting with the most recent, and have already started to backdate some of the events. So be patient with this process. 

What this event page will do is allow you to preview, or catch up on past events you might have missed.

I don't know how many times I have needed a gacha key, and have had to go search store websites, Seraphim, Flickr, the web in general, trying to find that hard to find Key.

I will be enjoying Gacha Minion for this feature alone, haha. Took me 2 hours the other day to find an official pic of some Noodles ring from last year.


Currently running events are up top, and past events will show up at the bottom, as they are imputed, or cycled out of the current events list.

I clicked on Thrift Shop 8.0 for the tutorial purposes today.

So you get to see all the keys, which show up in alphabetical order.

The next step would be to find the item you have extras for, then click the green "All Products Listed" button.





I played the Greymoon gacha, and with this one you had to collect each side of the lash seperate, so naturally, in order to complete a set, I need some I am missing. So I am going to put up my wants for this gacha.



To do this, I cycle down the list, then put what I want, and add how many. If you have any extras, you would click the have button, then put the number of extras you have.


Now, on my account page, I can see my various lists. People can click on these, and see what I want, or what I have to trade.


Clicking on my want list, here are the ones I am still looking for. To share this list, all you have to do is click the green "Share this List" button.


A little window will pop up, and it will give a unique link, which you can then just paste into you trade groups, put on a flickr picture of yours, post on your facebook, or any other place you put your Gacha info. Can even put it in your profile!


Search is super easy. Just pick the event, pick the option(general, traders or sellers), then type in a keyword.

Results will show up.


We can go into this a bit more, with part 2. I think I made this long enough for a first Tutorial. You are well on your way, and can now explore the site on your own.

The Starter Membership is limited in what you can do, you can only list 5 Wants and 5 Haves. If you are a casual gacha player, that should be more than enough. Or if you have an active flickr or just want to get a bit of info out there.

Look out for Tutorial - Gacha Minion - Part 2 - Search & Lists in the coming week, where we will get a more indepth look to the Search and how to navigate other member's lists.


***Added Note*** - I love the idea of this, for the gacha community. I have already talked with the developers, and obviously this is in the baby stages.

One thing I would really like to see is the ability for people to submit older gacha items themselves. I am fine with there being a form to fill out. I am fine with these having to be approved. I am fine with there being proof/backup, as to dates, and what items were in the gatcha, as well as a link to a gacha key. 

I know it takes time to backdate a database. I know they have a team on it.

I just foresee there being many things I'd like the ability to trade, but wont be able to use this system for those items yet, thus still having to still have a Google doc.

This is just my personal opinion and wish. If you would like to see the same, maybe them hearing it from more than just me will help =)