IdleOn - The Incremental MMO

My biggest issue with IdleOn after playing for over 4000 hours is the bundles, at the time of writing this there is 55 bundles worth a collective $1113.45 averaging about $20 per pack. On one hand, a dev has got to monetize their game somehow right? If more than half the bundles weren't so strong they basically feel required, then maybe I could see it as barely acceptable. Meanwhile the bundles give account wide bonuses, pets with permanent buffs, powerful equipment to equip to 1 of 11 characters at any given time, event plays whenever an event is around, or PREMIUM CURRENCIES. When buying bundles you can expect to receive an average of 229 Gems per $1 USD you spend, while 90% of the upgrades you buy with Gems cost at least 400. Not to mention the "BUY NOW" bonuses that are Pet Crystals, or that the bundles themselves rotate visibility so you can't even see them all at once in game. It should also be mentioned that in recent years, every update has come with at least 1 more pack. Expanding on the premium currencies, you have Gems which you can use to buy account wide boosts to different areas of the game for QoL or to straight up multiply the output of that mechanic. There are ways to farm Gems in game, but they are very time consuming (about an hour of farming world bosses once per day for roughly 100 gems as just an example). Next up is Pet Crystals which can only be obtained through bundles or direct microtransactions. This is the only way you can get the pets and remember they provide permanent powerful bonuses. A recent change by the dev makes it so you can gacha daily for a free pet, but there is an entire catalogue of pets that you cannot roll for anymore, and just under half the pets are event exclusive or bundle exclusive. There is a pet mart that rotates options for you to buy with a bunch Pet Crystals that sort of bypasses the exclusivity / missing catalog restrictions, or even to just get one of the stronger pets without the gacha. However, recently the dev went and made Pet Mart+ which gives existing pets you already own another tier to upgrade to, with another Pet Crystal cost for just another layer of microtransactions to support the dev with. With all that said, by the time you reach the "endgame" of released content, if you haven't been playing for the last 7 years grinding diligently every day, you are likely to hit a wall with progress. If this doesn't make you quit outright you will probably seek out ways to improve which will be to either grind, or buy bundles and then grind less. If how this game is monetized isn't a problem for you, and having dozens of mechanics to maintain for hours every day also doesn't bother you, then maybe you'll like this game. However I strongly recommend against supporting this game as it is, the monetization is truly awful and you will feel like you need to buy bundles or pets at some point.