In a game thatвЂ™s tuned for a constant increase in difficulty thereвЂ™s no problem with additive rather than multiplicative progress, but Sakura Clicker has the same near-exponential increase thatвЂ™s the genre standard, and the character upgrades donвЂ™t take this into account. If it was x25% per upgrade, that same pickup would be 931 gold. The +25% gain from 325 to 350 is also only a 7.7% increase overall, and the overall percentage only gets smaller each time itвЂ™s added on. When youвЂ™ve had ten bonuses of +25% apiece, what that means is 100 gold becomes 350. ItвЂ™s nice enough for the first couple upgrades, but the additive nature quickly means the bonus gets less and less worthwhile. The next time you level up a character who has that skill, that 100 gold will now be 150 gold, which is of course 100% + 25% + 25%. That first 25% bonus means what would have been 100 gold is now 125 instead, and hereвЂ™s where things start getting tricky. When youвЂ™ve got no followers youвЂ™re at 100%, so 100 gold = 100 gold.

Take one of the more common skills, which is a 25% bonus to earned gold. Unfortunately these skills are additive rather than the standard multiplicative, and the game isnвЂ™t really tuned in the later levels to work with this. In an average idle game, leveled-up characters get new skills that increase your effectiveness, and thatвЂ™s true to a point in Sakura Clicker as well. The problem with Sakura ClickerвЂ™s progression is that itвЂ™s based on an additive formula. The real currency becomes the length of time it takes to earn enough cash to buy the upgrades necessary to defeat the boss. What this means is that, quite literally, time equals money. endlessly taking out random enemies and adding the gold to your growing stockpile. When that happens the game backs up to the highest level before the boss and pauses there. As the game progresses they get more and more powerful, so if you arenвЂ™t regularly checking in and powering up the latest member of your army or hiring someone new, youвЂ™ll eventually slow down and finally stop as a timed boss gets too much for your underpowered army to handle. Each bought character adds to the overall idle damage per second (DPS from here on), meaning if you walk away the monster-girls are still being defeated and progress is being made. Every follower you hire reveals the next one available, expensive beyond the current levelвЂ™s wildest dreams but immensely powerful and worth saving up for as you advance. Leveling her up by spending the gold dropped by defeated enemies makes each click a bit stronger, and pretty soon youвЂ™ll be able to hire your first follower. To explain this properly, however, itвЂ™s necessary to back up a bit and explain some idle-game basics-ДЄt first thereвЂ™s just your hero, doing a set amount of damage per click. The first major issue is itвЂ™s progresson. There are two primary things wrong with Sakura ClickerвЂ™s basic structure that prevents it from having any long-term staying power, and a few other, lesser issues as well. ThatвЂ™s not how any game is supposed to work, and itвЂ™s a problem that even giant-boobed anime girls canвЂ™t quite overcome. Whether you pay attention to its systems or just bang away all day long, youвЂ™ll perform roughly the same in the long run. Sakura Clicker, on the other hand, is merely about patience. Games like Clicker Heroes understand this and tune the experience around relentlessly rewarding players who take the time to figure out what the numbers mean. TheyвЂ™re actually skinner boxes tuned to numbers, eventually turning into equation maximization games once you get familiar with the underlying systems.

Idle games are not, as they may first appear, complete skinner boxes.

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