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11 Overview
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3-Lord of Mysteries is a free-to-play title with cosmetic-driven monetization. The core game (story campaign, Pathway system, dungeons and raids, faction warfare) is fully accessible without payment. Spending money buys cosmetics, convenience items, and limited-rate stash space, not raw power. The Gray Fog Test build confirmed the season and battle-pass structure (detailed below); whether the live game uses any gacha mechanic remains unconfirmed.
3+Lord of Mysteries is free to play. The story campaign, all six launch Pathways, dungeons, raids and faction warfare are reachable without spending money. Since the Mainland China launch on August 21, 2026 the shipped economy is documented rather than speculative, and it is more layered than the pre launch summaries suggested.
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5-Cosmetic Shop
5+Two things are documented and neither cancels the other. The paid catalogue is heavily weighted toward appearance goods: outfits, mounts, emotes, titles and dice skins. At the same time, randomised loot boxes are part of the shipped build. Platform age rating disclosures for the Chinese client state that it contains loot boxes (抽奖箱), alongside advisories for occasional mild cartoon or fantasy violence and for frequent or intense competition. That is a first party platform classification, and it retires this wiki's long standing statement that the game carried no randomised pulls, which traced to a single translated pre beta interview.
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7-The cosmetic shop sells outfits, hairstyles, weapon skins, ritual-prop reskins, mounts, banner frames, codename plaques, and home-base décor. Most items have two purchase paths: a direct purchase in real currency, and a slower purchase in an in-game premium currency that can be earned passively from gameplay events, daily completions, and faction reputation rewards.
7+A claim that the game sells appearance only and never sells power circulates widely in coverage of the launch. This wiki does not state it as fact, and does not state its opposite either. What follows is what is actually documented: the currencies, the price list, the passes, the pull rules, and where the published record stops. The section on the open question below sets out exactly what has not been established.
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9-Outfits are visual-only: they do not provide combat stats. Some 'set bonus' aesthetics carry a tiny non-combat utility (faster sanity tea brewing, a small XP nudge on Acting practice) but never anything that affects damage, healing, or HP.
9+Currencies
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11-Premium Currency
11+The economy runs on two denominations, each split into a bound and an unbound form. Bound currency is earned in play and spends on a restricted list. Unbound currency comes from top ups and from the player exchange, and it spends on everything.
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13-The premium currency is purchasable in real money and earnable in small amounts from gameplay. Premium currency buys cosmetics, Pathway-change tokens, character re-customisation tokens, name change tokens, additional inventory slots, and stash space. The conversion rates and earn caps are not yet finalised at the time of the Crimson Test.
13+CurrencyFormHow it is obtainedWhat it buys金镑 Gold PoundsUnbound premiumReal money top upCosmetics, pull currency, convenience services绑定金镑 Bound Gold PoundsBound premiumExploration tiers, story and event rewards, Bounty Value redemption in the city undersideBasic cosmetics, everyday consumables, exchange for 历史明灯苏勒 SolUnbound standardPlayer exchange tradingSealed artifact upgrade material 【历史回响】, exchange goods绑定苏勒 Bound SolBound standardGeneral play, pre registration rewardsVendor goods and everyday consumables历史明灯 Lamp of HistoryPull currencyIn game mode shops, exploration, or exchange at 120 绑定金镑Pulls in the Connections system投影片段 Projection FragmentDuplicate byproductDuplicate Connections pullsTraded in the Connections shop, mainly back into 历史明灯
14+Premium currency sells at a ten to one rate against the local currency. The launch top up ladder is published on the mobile storefront listing.
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15-Battle Pass / Season Pass
16+Top up tierGold Pounds grantedPriceTier 160 金镑¥6Tier 2300 金镑¥30Tier 33,000 金镑¥300Tier 46,080 金镑¥608
17+Alongside the top up ladder, the launch catalogue carries several small fixed price bundles: 狒狒小礼 at ¥1, 初行衣装 at ¥6 and 灰雾馈赠 at ¥12.
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17-A seasonal pass model is confirmed. The Gray Fog Test build runs on a standard season structure, and the studio has stated that the first season (S1) was built out as complete content. Two passes are offered: a basic battle pass (时代恩典, Era's Grace) and a deluxe battle pass (命运馈赠, Destiny's Gift). Both follow the standard free-and-paid track model, with the rewards weighted toward cosmetics. The studio has stated that a free-to-play player who simply works through a season's content can fully complete that season's progression by its end.
19+Battle Passes and the Monthly Card
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19-Gacha
21+Season passes ship as a named HUD system (战令) sitting alongside the shop, the summon panel and the events board. Two paid tiers are sold, and both run the usual free track plus paid track structure with rewards weighted toward cosmetics.
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21-Whether the live game will use a gacha system has not been confirmed. Because the player creates and progresses their own character through character creation and Acting Method, there is no announced random-pull mechanic for acquiring playable characters, but the studio has not ruled a gacha system in or out. Cosmetic gacha may exist (limited-time outfit pulls); this is not a confirmed system as of the completed closed tests. Community discussion has surfaced both an expectation that gacha may appear and a separate, unverified claim that the game will avoid gacha; neither has been confirmed by SPARK NEXA.
23+ProductChinese namePriceNotesBattle pass, deluxe时代恩典 (战令豪华版)¥68The lower of the two paid pass tiersBattle pass, collector命运馈赠 (战令典藏版)¥128The higher tier, with the fuller cosmetic setMonthly card愚者福音¥30Adds five extra daily letter interactions in the Connections system on top of its standing rewards
24+Season one is named 大帝的归来·上 and runs from August 21 to October 14, 2026, which makes it an eight week first half rather than a full season block. Its story frame is Roselle Gustav and the Fourth Epoch War of the Four Emperors.
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23-If cosmetic gacha appears, it will follow standard industry rate-and-pity disclosure rules required by Mainland China regulators.
26+Randomised Pulls
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25-Free Cosmetics at Launch
28+Two systems use pulls. Connections (人脉) draws historical projections of past era characters, each carrying a usable combat or utility skill. 秘偶 (Mystic Puppets) uses a comparable wish and pull structure, described in the studio's own guide as similar to the Connections rules. The Connections tables are the ones published in full.
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27-Ahead of the public launch the studio set out which cosmetics are granted rather than sold, which sharpens the cosmetic-only model described above.
30+RuleValuePull currency【历史明灯】, exchangeable at 120 绑定金镑Soft pityA purple (Epic) Connection is guaranteed within 5 pullsHard pityA gold (Legendary) Connection is guaranteed within 40 pullsSingle versus multiSingle pulls and five pulls follow identical rulesPity resetPity resets after a gold resultInterfaceA twenty pull button unlocks once total pulls reach 40Wish (许愿)Raises the chosen target's rate up to 80 percent, missing at most onceWish economyTwo wishes per week, reset on Monday, no carryover, plus one extra wish per 110 pulls
31+No per item drop percentage beyond the wish rate up has been published, and none should be assumed. The pity counts above are the only guarantees the studio has stated.
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29-Pathway outfits: each of the six launch Pathways has an exclusive outfit that is granted free when the player reaches Sequence 8. It is not sold and not pulled.Character-creation set: completing character creation permanently grants a starter outfit set. The studio states it requires no pull and no payment.Server-open rewards: several hundred further cosmetic items are claimable by playing from server open.
33+Duplicates and Affinity
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31-These grants sit alongside the paid cosmetic shop rather than replacing it, and none of them affect combat strength.
35+Duplicate pulls are not dead weight. They feed skill ranks and a fragment currency, and affinity progress on a gold Connection eventually hands back a second copy of that character.
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33-What is Not Sold
37+MechanicDetailSkill ranksEach duplicate grants one upgrade point; six duplicates (seven copies in total) max a Connection's skill at rank 5Purple duplicates2 【投影片段】 each, rising to 4 once the skill is cappedGold duplicates10 【投影片段】 each, rising to 50 once the skill is cappedAffinity capLevel 7Affinity payoutEvery gold Connection grants a second copy of itself at affinity level 6Daily interactions漫步 (Stroll), 邀约 (Invite) and 共舞 (Dance); the first invite each day is free and further ones cost 【漫忆请柬】, supplied weekly in exactly the quantity one Connection needs for seven daysAffinity rewardsFurniture, social emotes, avatar frames, titles, and 【记忆珍匣】 redeemable at 往事陈列馆
38+One consequence needs stating plainly: activating Connection relationship bonds accumulates 历史研究值 (History Research Value), and the studio's own guide states that crossing certain thresholds grants a substantial boost to combat power. Connections are acquired through pulls. So the pull system is not separated from character strength, whatever the route to reaching it turns out to be.
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35-Combat power: no purchasable items raise damage, HP, or sanity in any meaningful way.
40+The Open Question: Does Money Reach the Pulls?
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37-Sequence advancement: cannot be skipped. Each potion is earned through gameplay, Acting Method performance, and ingredient gathering.
42+This is the question that decides whether the appearance only framing holds, and the published record does not answer it. Setting out the evidence rather than the conclusion:
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39-Pathway access: all six Crimson Test Pathways are free at character creation; later live patches will add additional Pathways without paywall.
44+Every documented route to the pull currency runs through bound currency or activity rewards. The studio's guide gives the default source for 历史明灯 as the shops attached to the game's various activity modes, plus an exchange at 120 绑定金镑, which is the bound variant. Exploration tiers, the 往日瞬间 activity, Hidden Space clears from the highlights panel, and the 投影片段 loop through the Connections shop all supply them too. None of those is a purchase with unbound currency.No published source shows purchased 金镑 converting into pulls, and none shows that it cannot. Whether any paid bundle grants bound Gold Pounds, and whether the pull currency is also sold directly, has simply not been documented.Randomised paid boxes definitely exist somewhere in the build, because the platform advisory says so. Player reporting attaches that to a costume pull rather than to Connections, but that is player reporting and it does not settle which systems are involved.Player reporting also describes the two currency split as bound currency being earned in play and restricted in what it buys, against unbound currency coming from top ups and spending on everything. If that is accurate the two claims pull in opposite directions, which is why a single community account cannot close the question.
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41-Story content: every Act of the main campaign is free.
46+So: loot boxes exist, and Connections progress raises combat power. Whether spending money reaches Connections pulls is not established in published material, and this wiki will not assert it in either direction until it is. Anyone reading a confident claim on this either way should check what it is sourced to.
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43-Raid participation: no entry-fee monetization. Raid lockouts are weekly and apply equally to all players regardless of spend.
48+What Is Documented as Free or Unpurchasable
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45-Account Services
50+These are individually sourced, and none of them generalises into a claim about the whole model.
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47-Character re-customisation, Pathway change, name change, and additional character slots are sold through premium currency. The re-customisation token is generously priced, the Pathway-change token is rare and expensive (it bypasses gameplay progression that cannot be skipped any other way), and the name change is throttled per account per year.
52+Sequence advancement. Potions are earned through play, Acting Method performance and ingredient work. No purchasable skip has been published.Pathway access. All six launch Pathways are free at character creation.Story content. Both the source faithful line and the personal main line are free.Raid entry. Raid lockouts are weekly and apply equally to every character regardless of spending.Strategy Server rewards. The studio states that every Strategy Server payout is an exclusive cosmetic, including the permanent club war banner. That is a statement about one mode's rewards and nothing wider.A large block of appearance items. The free launch cosmetics below are first party and explicitly zero spend.
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49-Regional Differences
54+Free Cosmetics at Launch
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51-Monetization rates and currency exchange ratios are expected to differ by region in line with Mainland China and global publishing norms. Mainland China clients comply with the local gambling-disclosure regime (named 'probability disclosure', 抽卡概率披露); global clients comply with the equivalent rating-system disclosures in their respective jurisdictions.
56+A large slice of the appearance catalogue is granted rather than sold, and the studio has been specific about which parts.
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53-Confirmed Monetization Model (Gray Fog Test)
58+GrantHow it is obtainedCost「焕然衣新」 creation setGranted permanently on completing character creationNo pull and no paymentPathway exclusive outfitsGranted on promotion to Sequence 8, one per PathwayFree21 高定 outfit setsClaimable at launch alongside several hundred further appearance itemsExplicitly zero spendServer open rewardsClaimable by playing from server openFreePre registration setBrooch 丝绒克喵, titles 愚者的老乡 and 塔罗持牌者, emote 执杖响指, sticker 苏勒, dice skin 伦纳德·米切尔·紫藤絮语Free to pre registered accounts
59+Cosmetic slots the game tracks separately include 胸针 (brooch), 称号 (title), 动作 (emote), 贴纸 (sticker) and 投骰皮肤 (dice roll skin), the last of which reskins the dice used in dice checked exploration.
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55-The Gray Fog Test made the live-service monetization model concrete for the first time. The model is cosmetic-only: spending never buys combat strength. The studio's stated principle is that the game sells no combat values, so payment cannot create a numerical advantage over free players.
61+A 90 percent discount voucher for appearance items (外观1折券) was announced on August 23, 2026, framed by the studio as thanks to players who buy cosmetics. The announcement says the voucher will be introduced and does not state when it goes on sale.
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57-Two paid currencies sit at the centre of the model:
63+Premium Cosmetic Tier
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59-Point cards (点券): the real-money premium currency. Point cards buy only decorative items, cosmetic outfits, and exclusive mounts or vehicles. They have no effect on combat strength.Bound Gold Pound (绑定金镛): an account-bound currency used for basic cosmetics and everyday progression consumables rather than premium-tier items.
65+Above the ordinary outfit catalogue sits a premium appearance tier called 神眷 (God's Favor). Its first item is 「苍白之冕」 (Pale Crown), a gothic romantic outfit sold in the 灵界焕容 shop during the public launch period or redeemable for two 神眷牌 (God's Favor cards). Acquiring it also unlocks a matching animated avatar, an idle pose flourish and a settlement animation, so a 神眷 purchase is a bundle of linked presentation pieces rather than a single outfit.
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61-Recurring purchases include a monthly card (the 愚者福音, Fool's Gospel) and the two season battle passes described above, alongside a real-money top-up with a recruitment-period rebate. Exact prices and exchange rates are beta values from the Gray Fog Test build and can change before launch.
67+The Player Exchange
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63-Gray Fog Test Participation Fee (Distinct From Live Monetization)
69+A player to player exchange (交易所) is live. It trades in unbound 苏勒 and is the main practical route to 【历史回响】, the material that upgrades a sealed artifact's quality tier once a character reaches level 46. The studio's guide notes that for players who do not engage with trading, the other acquisition routes for 【历史回响】 are very limited and slow. Do not confuse 【历史回响】 with the 「历史回廊」 sealed artifact, which is a different item entirely.
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65-The Gray Fog Test (灰雾测试), which ran from June 26 to July 5, 2026, was a paid wipe test (限量计费删档测试). The participation fee covers a slot in the test build for selected testers and does not unlock anything in the eventual live game. Accounts and any spending are wiped at the end of the test. The participation fee tier has not been published by SPARK NEXA as of the May 22, 2026 recruitment announcement.
71+Everyday Earning
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67-The live game remains positioned as free-to-play with cosmetic-driven monetization as described above. The Gray Fog Test fee is a closed-beta-only construct and is not a preview of any launch pricing.
73+Two named systems supply currency and materials without spending. 躺赢 ("win while lying down") is a daily catch up loop granting experience, vigor, invoices, potion materials and 非凡馈赠 chests. City underside activity in 罪恶廷根 raises a 悬赏值 (Bounty Value) meter that redeems for 绑定金镑, with a weekly acquisition cap the studio's own guide reminds players to spend before it resets.
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69-Recruitment giveaway prizes are not platform commitments: the Gray Fog Test sign-up campaign advertises prizes for participants, including a PlayStation 5 console, exclusive merchandise, and shopping vouchers. These are promotional prizes for the recruitment drive only. They are not a launch target and do not indicate a console version of the game; the confirmed platforms remain PC, iOS, and Android.
75+Regional Compliance
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77+The Chinese client applies the standard local regime: real name registration, anti addiction (防沉迷) checks against the registered identity document, and spending caps for minors. Randomised item probabilities are disclosed in client as required. A global release has not been announced, so no other regional pricing exists to compare against.
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79+Historical: Test Build Pricing
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81+The Gray Fog Test, which ran from June 26 to July 5, 2026, was a paid limited wipe test (限量计费删档测试). Its participation fee bought a slot in that build and unlocked nothing in the live game; accounts and any spending were wiped when the test closed, and beta data does not carry into the launch client. The fee tier was never published. Recruitment prizes advertised during that campaign, including a console giveaway, were promotional prizes for the sign up drive and were never a platform commitment. Pricing quoted from either closed test should be read as historical, not as launch pricing.