Summon (mechanic)

Summon (召喚, shoukan^?), also known as gacha (ガチャ, gacha^?) is a recurring mechanic in Tales series. It exclusively appears in mobile titles where it is a means of acquiring new characters or units as well as gear.

Appearances in Original Titles[]

Tales of Luminaria[]

In Tales of Luminaria, since all the playable characters are unlocked from the start, Summons allow the player to acquire new weapons, armor, and accessories. Receiving duplicates of a piece of equipment increases that piece's raw stats and, to a certain point, the effectiveness of its associated arte and skill. A single Summon costs 30 PB and a 10x Summons costs 300 PB. Primordial Beasts can also appear in the 10x Summons sequence, changing the outcome of the result, such as Aglaya giving a 11th prize.

Appearances in Crossover Titles[]

Tales of Link[]

In Tales of Link, Summons allowed the player to acquire new units, weapons, or Guardians.

Tales of Asteria[]

In Tales of Asteria, Summons allow the player to acquire new units.

Tales of the Rays[]

In Tales of the Rays, Summons allow the player to acquire new gear for characters. A single Summon costs 20 diamonds and a 10x Summons costs 200 diamonds. New summon banners may appear in following situations:

Event banner, which contains new gear for newly introduces and featured characters in a currently running event.
Campaign banner, which does not include new gear, but is released for a limited time to celebrate a game's release for example.

Tales of Crestoria[]

In Tales of Crestoria, Summons allow the player to acquire new Memoria Stones with first-time acquirement awarding them with an associated character unit. A single Summon costs 250 gleamstones and a 10x Summons costs 2,500 gleamstones. There are many types of Summons:

Premium Summons (プレミアム召喚, Puremiam Shoukan^?), which usually introduce new basic or seasonal SSR Memoria Stones along with associated character units; usually it is two new character units, although sometimes the number may increase to up to three. Both basic and seasonal SSR Memoria Stones appear in subsequent Summons of all types.
EX Summons (EX召喚, EX Shoukan^?), which introduces a variety of SSR Memoria Stones with associated character units that do not fit the theme of Premium Summons; it mainly includes antagonists, previously non-playable mascots, and Tales of Crestoria setting exclusive versions of already existing characters, e.g. Leon wielding the Swordian Stahn. Memoria Stones introduced in this category can only be acquired through EX Summons, including the ones introducing new EX SSR Memoria Stones.
Limited Summons (リミテッド召喚, Rimiteddo Shoukan^?), which introduce new SSR Memoria Stones along with associated character units that are available for a limited time and do no reappear in other types of Summons.
Pick Up Summons (ピックアップ召喚, Pikkuappu Shoukan^?), which initially feature a single SSR Memoria Stone released in one of the above types of Summons with increased drop rate, but later started to feature two Memoria Stones with increased drop rates.

There are also Friend Point Summons which allows the player to collect materials, Event Summons which allows for collecting event-exclusive rewards among regular items, and Guild Summons which allows for collecting materials and guild-exclusive Memoria Stones.