The highly anticipated open-world subculture title 'Neverness To Everness' has peeled back the curtain on its gameplay, promising a gacha experience free from 'off-rate' frustrations, immense player agency, and a dense cityscape packed with content.

Publisher Perfect World hosted a special preview broadcast on the 18th ahead of the launch of their urban fantasy open-world title, 'Neverness To Everness.' The development team took the stage to detail the game's systems and launch events. The title is set to drop on mobile, PC, and PS5 on the 29th, with pre-downloads kicking off on the 27th at 11:00 AM.

One of the most noteworthy aspects of Neverness To Everness is the overhaul of character acquisition—specifically, the elimination of those soul-crushing 'off-rate' pulls. The game introduces a unique system dubbed the 'Scarborough Market,' which visually mimics the thrill of rolling dice on a board. For limited boards (banners), the base S-rank pull rate sits at 0.99%, with a 'pity' system that kicks in at 70 pulls, ramping up until a guaranteed character drops at 90. Crucially, your progress toward this guarantee carries over to the next limited banner.

The standard board offers a 20% discount on 10-pulls, and once you hit 50 pulls, you can select one of six S-rank characters as a one-time bonus. Thankfully, choosing this reward doesn't reset your pity count. Duplicate pulls yield 'Directionless Artifacts' and 'Dimensional Artifacts,' which can be traded in the shop for dice, Triple Keys, or cosmetic items. To ease the burden of character dupes, the first 'Awakening' (constellation) allows you to freely select and swap between various enhancement effects, regardless of sequence.

For equipment—referred to as 'Arcs'—the S-rank rate is 3%. Spending 'Triple Keys' nets you a guaranteed S-rank at 60 pulls, with a featured Arc guaranteed at 80. Similar to characters, pity carries over between banners. Players can also earn or craft S-rank Arcs through world exploration and completing commissions.

Beyond the gacha, the game explores a world where the mundane and the supernatural collide. These anomalies have long been managed by an organization known as 'The Circle,' but a massive catastrophe 40 years ago brought them to the public eye. You step into the shoes of 'Zero,' an esper suffering from amnesia who arrives at the headquarters of the Anomaly Management Bureau in Hetero City.

The game leans heavily into urban freedom. You can purchase cars, customize them at tuning shops, and even have other characters ride shotgun, each reacting uniquely to the journey. While you can drive in first-person, you can also commandeer citizen vehicles using your Bureau ID. Be warned: traffic violations—like threatening pedestrians, hitting bystanders, or causing property damage—will land you in custody. Once behind bars, you'll need to pay bail, perform community service, or attempt a daring jailbreak to get out.

Home ownership is also on the cards. You can decorate your place and invite characters over, who will sport different outfits and engage in activities like stargazing or walks depending on your bond level. A photo mode, complete with filters and drone photography, is available, and there’s a neat first-person transition when you hold hands with another character while walking the streets.

Your 'Funds' are managed via 'City Tycoon' side-gigs like delivery work, taxi driving, shop management, and fishing, all of which consume 'City Vitality'—a separate resource from your combat stamina. As you rank up your Tycoon level, you'll unlock features like a music player for walking and eventually earn the S-rank character 'Cheese.' Content like the maid café mahjong or the 'Rob the Pink Purse' bank vault heist supports both solo and multiplayer, rewarding you with exclusive cosmetics.

Combat revolves around six elements: Light, Spirit, Metal, Image, Soul, and Darkness. Building a team with diverse elements allows you to trigger an 'Esper Cycle' via support skills. Once charged, these cycles unleash powerful extra damage or debuffs. Master the 'Extreme Dodge'—the game’s take on a perfect parry—and you’ll trigger an 'Extreme Counter,' which stuns enemies and chips away at their 'Collapse' meter, eventually leaving them wide open for a beatdown.

At launch, the first S-rank featured characters are Avon-affiliated hunter 'Nanari Collins' and shop manager 'Hotori.' Nanari, a Spirit-element user, can run on walls and ceilings in her electromagnetic state and summon 'Alter Egos' for massive AoE damage. Her ultimate summons an Alter Ego that deals continuous Spirit damage, pulling in enemies with every normal attack.

Hotori, a Light-element character, manipulates time. Her ultimate delivers wide-area Light damage and freezes time, allowing her to charge up her greatsword for a devastating finishing blow once time resumes. The Nanari banner runs from launch until May 13th, followed by Hotori from May 13th to June 3rd.

The launch also brings plenty of events, collaborations, and quality-of-life tweaks. Expect ray-tracing support, improved controller feedback, and revamped key mapping. To curb account trading, UIDs will be generated randomly. Look out for the Porsche 918 Spyder in-game, along with musical collaborations with 'Persona 5: The Phantom X' and 'Tower of Fantasy.' Locally, expect tie-ins with Nene Chicken and GS25.