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Game Info, Rerolling, and Progression

Ark: Recode

Recode is a turn-based RPG mobile gacha (with porn of course). It's got a linear story mode, an Event Story that changes every 2 weeks, and a few other PvE content. Most of the endgame fun is in the PvP though.

Not only can you fuck your characters, they also have an explicit cut-in when they use skills.

Characters are depicted in 2D/Live2D and doesn't really have interactive elements. Story and scenes are presented VN-style.

This game is a copy of a Korean gacha game Epic Seven (E7).

Epic Seven is a turn-based RPG mobile Gacha released on 2018. Content in Ark Recode copies E7:

• Basic game systems, battle mechanics, content, etc are the same

• 90+% of units are the same skills and stats-wise

There are key differences:

• Completely unique roster and unit release order

• Completely unique PvP meta

• Some Endgame PvE content missing

• Slightly different PvE meta due to unit difference/system difference

• Certain units are buffed or changed significantly (which contributes to the meta differences)

(Don't trust Epic Seven guides to work on Recode - subtle differences make big impact!)

This game uses Generative AI for some artwork.

Most of them are fine, and animated scenes especially don't seem to be AI. However some of them are really bad. 

Take a look at these masterpieces...

• SFW (link), Mildly NSFW (link), NSFW (link)

If you have problems with bad art or have ethical concerns with AI you might want to watch out for that.

Further reading: https://arkrecodewiki.miraheze.org/wiki/EROLABS_vs._Nutaku from the Miraheze Recode Wiki

The Server Situation

Ark Recode was first released by Erolabs on 2023/11/1. The server will be 2 years old coming this November. On September 3rd, Erolabs launched a native Windows client, and released a massive Quality of Life and content update, with a brand new reward track containing a heap of valuable gear, free units, and more. 

Nutaku server, completely seperate from the Erolabs server, released on April 2025. The server started from a clean slate just like Erolabs did when it released, with only "Day 1" units (all later-released units missing, to be debuted later).

However, Nutaku immediately started diverging from the Erolabs release schedule by releasing very impactful limited events just two weeks since server start. Until the Steam release, Nutaku had about 10x smaller playerbase compared to Erolabs. They also have loli characters missing from the game.

The Steam release happened on 2025/8/26 and joins the existing Nutaku server. Steam players doesn't seem to be able to use their Nutaku accounts or reset/transfer their game progress. This also means that unlike Nutaku players, Steam players can't get premium Nutaku currency for free, despite playing on the same server.

The Handbook officially recommends playing on the Erolabs server.

Pros for Erolabs server

Platforms: Cloud Gaming (Web), Windows, Android, iOS

• Much bigger playerbase (currently). Bigger community especially for international players.

• Much wider and interesting unit roster, including some "loli" characters who got cut from Nutaku.

• Faster banner rotation - Mystery rerun banners feature a selection, more combo banners in general.

• Expanded reward track for new players, tons of free gear and units for completing Story Mode.

• Several exclusive Quality of Life features. 

• Native Windows and iOS client.

• Most guides and ingame information are based on Erolabs server (Including the Handbook)

Pros for Nutaku server

Platforms: Cloud Gaming (Web), Android, Emulator (Windows)

• Potentially longer longevity from influx of Steam players (Speculative...)

• Nutaku accounts get some premium currency for free, can buy low-cost rookie packs for free

• Sparse PvP scene, Top 100 rank spots in the Arena are faster to achieve due to low population 

• Less server age means proportionally more players are bad at the game, low rank PvP is very very easy

Pros for playing on Steam

Platforms: Windows

• Plays on the Nutaku server (Same advantage of less populated and easier PvP)

• You can log your hours to see how much of your life you've wasted

• Runs much better than the Web client or Android Emulators

• Can use Steam Wallet credits or Steam gift cards

Links to each release

Erolabs: https://www.ero-labs.com/en/game/ark-re-code
Erolabs discord: https://discord.com/invite/6MWsKCAfPA

Nutaku: https://www.nutaku.net/games/ark-recode/
Nutaku/Steam discord: https://discord.com/invite/ZvCwWscwBe

Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3587140/Ark_ReCode

Recode as a Gooner

You'll get fucked and sucked by 4 women just in the tutorial. The amount of free scenes in the Story Mode is fairly decent, and Story is easy to complete without much difficulty. There might be a few hard levels here and there. Most units that you add to the collection have additional pictures or scenes as well.

If you don't pay attention towards resource management or PvP, you have to either pay for pulls to obtain new units, or be happy with what the game gives you.

If a particular ad caught your eye and you found your way here, Rerolling for Scenes (link) might be of interest to you.

Alternatively, find all scenes in https://arkrecodewiki.miraheze.org/wiki/Love_Link or the Scenes thread in #nsfw-free-talk in the Discord.

Recode as a Casual

Low rank (Gold 4~Master 5) PvP can be challenging in a good way and might tickle your brain. Turns out, if you rip off a successful Korean Gacha, you can have great gameplay without even trying...

With a little bit of resource management and doing "Homework" every day (about 30 minutes of playtime spread throughout the day) you can slowly make free tickets and currency to pull new units.

Recode isn't suitable to be your "Main" game that you grind all day, there isn't enough content for that. Keep it slow and chill.

Recode as a Competitive Player

If you are an ex-E7 player, or you like PvP-heavy gacha games, this game isn't a bad choice. Being a porn game the playerbase is relatively small compared to "Commercial" Gachas, which can be both a blessing and a curse. 

The most notable advantage is that we have tons of "leaks" in the form of E7 info; any new content is inevitably going to be the same as, or at least very similar to, what it is like in E7. There are very few surprises or anticipations in terms of new units and new content. We do not need to wait around for a new unit's skills to be revealed and frantically theorycraft for their uses, we just look up their original version in E7 and can see exactly what they do (to a point).

On the other hand, anyone who's jaded with E7 might appreciate the fact that our meta is completely different compared to E7. If you've played E7 before you might feel that Recode is like an alternate universe E7. If you're tired of Smilegate's meta or their antics, recode can be a refuge for players like you.

Getting to the highest Arena ranks or the best Guild War guilds certainly take hard work, but you don't need to whale or be extremely lucky to do it. All it takes is a few smart decisions and a good attitude towards learning.

The author's main account is a 5,000 rated Victor (highest Arena rank, except for an exclusive Legend rank for Top 100 players), and they keep tabs on PvP trends in lower ranks with a free-to-play testing alt account parked at Master 5.

Make no mistake: This game is a Gacha. All gacha games are, by design, a predatory gambling system.

That said, yes, it's F2P friendly.

There are (as of now) three paid-only units; one is annoying (Div Apostle), the other two are utterly replaceable (Apostle, Eva).

The main combat strength of your team comes from gear (equipment) and not units; While it is possible to buy "perfect" gear pieces with real money, the upgrade results of said gear is still random, and the price-to-performance ratio of doing this is very low. Gear farming / gear grinding takes time, but the rate of increase in quality plateaus the better your gear already is, meaning new players have an easy time playing catch-up.

Merging duplicate copies of units to make them stronger is possible, but is VERY insignificant. Only the top 0.1% whales actually bother with unit dupes for competitive strength; all of us "normal" people can play with 1 copy of units only.

If you do not pay any attention towards optimizing your gameplay or doing PvP you might find your progress very slow or even run out of content to do. But with just a little bit of effort you can definitely enjoy this game with $0.

$10 can get you a ton of value in beginner pack deals if you're fine with dropping a little bit of money.

I got lured by an ad and want to find it ingame, or I want to find sexy units to pull

Check out Rerolling for Scenes (Link).

I'm a casual, I just want to make 1 account and start playing

Check out Simple Rerolling (Link). 

Simple rerolling makes 1 account, and you start with Celeste and Joyce.
Erica is guaranteed within 2 weeks, with up to 2 more strong units of choice depending on luck.

I want lots of strong characters and I'm willing to work for it

Check out Advanced Rerolling (Link).
WARNING: STEAM players cannot reset or delete their game progress. They should do Simple Rerolling.

Advanced rerolling makes multiple accounts. They start with 1~3 event units depending on who they're rerolling for, as well as Celeste and Joyce. Erica plus up to 2 units are guaranteed within 2 weeks with a bit of hard work.

I want to buy a beginner account from an account farmer/reseller

Not recommended for three reasons:

1. It's hard as a new player to determine what units are actually worth your money and what's bloat/filler.

2. They tend to be extremely overpriced for what they are.

3. Cheap beginner accounts are easy to make yourself with just 1~2 hours of work.

4. "Used" accounts with high PvP ranks, crazy units, etc are often inflated in price so the previous owner can recoup their ingame purchases. More importantly, you will miss out on all the earlygame content and learning experience.

It's very hard to "brick" your account

Pretty much nothing short of deleting your lv.75 beginner gear sets will actually make your account "bricked" or unsaveable. It is very hard to mess up your account so bad you have to restart.

If this describes you, don't mind the noise and keep playing:

• I don't care about progress or anything, I don't care if I get stuck on story stages sometimes

• I don't want to put effort into a porn gacha, I have better things to do

• I have no interest in becoming stronger or doing PvP

Suboptimal start slows progress

If you have interest in PvP at all, you should care about your progress and restart if necessary.

The reason why your start is important is this:

1. 90% of unit strength comes from the gear (equipment).

2. Gear is primarily farmed by doing Hunts.

3. To do Hunts, you must get through Earlygame (early story mode etc) quickly, and save resources to invest in Hunt units.

4. Therefore, starting with units who can easily clear early PvE, and can be used as strong Hunt units, are the best.

5. Bad units with good gear crushes good units with bad gear. "Good PvP units" will come with time.

The most recommended units are

• Erica: very very important, demolishes Story mode, useful in all 5 kinds of Hunts, even useful in PvP

• Celeste: highly useful in boss stages in PvE, as well as Blue hunt (a very important hunt). Also very powerful in PvP

• Joyce: extremely versatile and powerful healer for PvE, Hunts, and PvP

Should I restart?

Strongly consider restarting if

1. Your account is above lv 20, below Rank 59

2. You are struggling with Part 1 of Story Mode

3. You have no limited units, Erica, Celeste, or Joyce

4. You can't beat any Hunt level 10 stages

5. Your tickets and gems are low

6. You didn't spend money on the game, or only spent very little

Feel free to ask in the Discord if your account is "salvageable." It's very hard to truly brick your account - maybe all you need is a few helpful tips to push forward.

If you're willing to restart, check the above section, "How do I begin playing?"