Is Cookie Run Kingdom pay to win?

Image of three cookies together in Cookie Run: Kingdom

Image of three cookies together in Cookie Run: Kingdom

Cookie Run Kingdom is one of the most popular mobile games, period. However, the genre is renowned for its reliance on microtransactions as a payment structure, leading to one question: is Cookie Run Kingdom pay to win? Luckily for you, we're here to give you a definitive answer.

This Cookie Run Kingdom guide will explain whether the game is pay to win or not, based on how microtransactions and real-life money function in the game. That should help you see how the game's payment structure works, and whether it's something you'd want to spend money on it or not.

Simply put, Cookie Run Kingdom isn't really pay to win. While there are microtransaction elements in the game, none of them really constitute a scenario where real-life money equates to tangible gameplay advantages. Instead, spending money is just a way of speeding up the process, getting access to items and scenarios you'd otherwise have to grind for.

The main way that Cookie Run Kingdom could be pay to win is if you could spend money to boost your gacha odds. Random spins are at the heart of the experience, as you hope to roll the rarest cookies, bolstering your team. While you can spend real money on purchasing more spins, that's entirely different to spending money on boosting your odds in gacha.

Therefore, Cookie Run Kingdom isn't one of those mobile games that favours paying players by letting them purchase the best items and characters straight off the bat. Instead, you can spend money on more random spins - but the randomness means you aren't guaranteed something good anyway.

Image of the store screen in Cookie Run: Kingdom
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While the gacha game isn't a pay-to-win experience, that doesn't mean microtransactions aren't involved. In fact, once you've completed the initial tutorial sections, you can head to the shop to purchase banner packages. These include a range of resources, like cookie cutters, jellies, and plenty of crystals.

Crystals are the currency used to purchase gacha spins, so it's no surprise to see them appear in the store. However, some of the packages come with a guaranteed epic cookie, which some could consider as pay to win, since you can technically spend money to guarantee a top-tier cookie. Other than that though, Cookie Run Kingdom microtransactions don't have a tangible pay to win benefit.

Elsewhere on Cookie Run Kingdom, peruse our codes guide for some freebies to save you spending money. We've also got an overall Cookie Run Kingdom tier list that ranks all the cookies, on top of a PvP tier list if you feel like battling against real people online.