So what is this thing called Gacha anyway?  

Think gumball and trinket machines for grownup avvies.  As a kid I would put a quarter in the gumball machine and cross my fingers hoping the red gumball would drop, and jump up and down in excitement if I got the coveted red treat.

In Second Life, Gacha machines dispense all kinds of goodies…

…from hair accessories to outfits to home and garden stuff to cute little critters, and buyers cross their fingers hoping the goody they want will be the one that drops. (As always, click the pics to see them in their glorious larger sizes in my Flickr stream.)

Gachas are oh so addicting, with many dispensing their prizes for less than L$200. In fact, my very favorite Gacha machines, seen below, dispense their treasures for only L$60 a pull – I call that a bargain! Yes it adds up if you do a lot of pulls, but you can get great single items for only L$25 to L$60, so I include this in my Bargain Hunters blog.

Gachas are great for both buyers and vendors. The vendors offer their goods at a great price per pull, but the buyer never knows what prize will come with each pull. Each Gacha machine will dispense a number of items, some that are common drops, and fewer that are rare.  And the rare is how they get ya…for those buyers that just have to have that rare, they may have to splurge on several pulls to get the coveted treasure of choice.

However, buyers are a crafty bunch, and in groups like !Epic Gacha Chat! Trade! Sell! you’ll find a healthy dose of Gacha trading, where buyers can swap out and sell their extras.

Epiphany, Gacha goodness through August 5th

Hello, my name is Prettyflower, and I’m an addict.

I heard about a new Gacha event called Epiphany, and had to go check it out. Epiphany runs through August 5, 2015 and provides a little twist in Gacha-ing. Epiphany prizes, when first rezzed, give you the option to keep them or trade them in for points. If you keep them, then you can use or trade unopened boxes to other buyers as usual. However, if you decide to trade them in for points, the box will disappear from your inventory and you will credited with points which can be collected and redeemed for exclusive items created by the designers. It’s a pretty cool system that gives something back for all those extras buyers get while on their quest for that coveted rare.

The Epiphany event location build is really sweet, with ambient lighting and a big fluffy cloud to walk on as you shop. The booths are lovely, decked with white curtains that don’t detract from the item posters in front of the booth. I wandered around, enjoying the experience, and then IT happened. IT happens to every Gacha shopper – you find that one special machine (sometimes more, depending on how bad your addiction is) that has the prize you just have to have. For me, it was the La Parca outfit by May’s Soul. .

“La Parca” outfit by May’s Soul

Damn you, Gacha, why must you be so cool? Why must you tempt me to play over and over and over again, until I have the full outfit in matching colors? In red.

I wanted these treasures. And at only L$50 a pull, I knew I would have at least some of them. I pulled and got the Blind. Oh Joy!! That Blind thing is SO cool!  I pulled again, and got the Red Unders – the bra and thong set. Oh YAY I got the red ones, to match the Blind, which is also red!! Woohoo I’m not gonna stop now! I pulled 2 more times and got… 2 more Blinds. That cooled me down enough to call it a night.

The next day I got the fever again and went back, in hopes of getting the red Camisk I was so craving. I pulled, and OHMYGACHA I got the rare Crown!!! Woohoo!! This had to be a sign, right? I was destined to get that red Camisk too. But heck, even if I didn’t, the black one or the white one would match up nicely with the red Unders anyway. The only one that wouldn’t really match was the blue one, and the odds favored me. I pulled again, and I got…the BLUE Camisk. Pffft. I was done spending by now, but yay for the Fantasy Collective Updates Group! I put out a call for a trade, and I soon had the red Camisk in hand! Woot!

Well that’s it for this adventure in SL, folks. I hope you enjoyed the Gacha ride, and please do let me know if you are a fellow addict, lol. Feel free to leave a link to your favorite Gacha location in the comments – there’s no sponsors and no limitations here so share away with your fave Gacha shopping places and let us know what’s there!

My posts will mostly be about pretty places to visit to indulge my fave virtual hobby, SL photography, with some adventures and stuff I like to do sprinkled in too. And yes I will include links to stuff I’m wearing, cause I know they are useful to you shopaholics out there, lol. I know I do a lot of my shopping on Flickr. If you see something you like that I didn’t call out, please feel free to ask. I’m happy to share my fave shopping info 🙂