AFK Journey is a brand-new immersive AFK role-playing game that serves as a sequel to the original hit AFK Arena. Developed by LilithGames, players can venture into the lush open world of Esperia in full HD 60 FPS. Explore the untamed wilderness and find the hidden secrets lurking behind the scenes. AFK Journey is available as a free-to-play game on both Google Play Store and iOS App Store.

For new players and veterans alike, it’s quite important to gauge the importance of knowing the basic gameplay mechanics and systems. Each system is set in place to enhance your growth and develop your character. In this beginner’s guide, we will be exploring all such systems and giving you our personalized overview of each of them. Let’s start!

Understanding the Combat Mechanics of AFK Journey

If you ever wanted to play a high-quality top-down Idle RPG, then AFK Journey fulfils all those conditions. Boasting next-generational visuals and paper artistic style, the game has been in development for quite some time. With the global launch just on the brink, it’s crucial for you to understand how the combat works in this game. Firstly, Idle games are notorious for being too automated and AFK Journey is not an exception to this fact. The entirety of the gameplay is your characters moving on the map on their virtue. 

AFK Journey Beginner's Guide – Factions, Game Modes, Gacha System Explained

Players will have limited control over their characters, being able to only trigger their ultimate abilities. Your character will have 2 separate bars – a green bar denoting HP, and a yellow bar denoting Energy. Once the green bar hits 0, your character will fall off in the battle. Once the yellow bar hits full, it will shine, indicating that your character is ready to release their ultimate ability. Each character also has access to other passive and active abilities that will function on their own. 

AFK Journey also provides a huge advantage to the average joe who loves idle games. It has a 3X auto speed function on top of a complete auto battle mode. Simply sit back, and relax, as your characters use their abilities on their own. 

AFK Journey: All Factions Explained

Each character in AFK Journey represents a faction. Regardless of the rarity, characters from the same faction share a bond. The factions are as follows:

  • The Lightbearers – Heroes who fight for Dura are known as the Lightbearers. Their primary enemies are Graveborns, Maulers, and Hypogeans. Their primary objective is to rid Esperia of evil.
  • The Maulers – The Maulers are a warrior culture that values strength above all else. Might and usefulness are the standards by which one should measure the value of an object or person. While some stories from Peaks of Time claim that some have fought for the Hypogeans, this is comparatively uncommon, and most people are still fighting for Dura.
  • The Wilders – The Wilders’ abilities frequently reflect their enchanted bond with Yggdrasil and the forest. It is said that as a farewell gift to the Wilders, Dura planted Yggdrasil and left behind the spring of life.
  • Graveborn – The heroes known as the Graveborn are those who serve in death, are resurrected as the Undead, and use necromancy and the dark arts to achieve immortality. However, it is unknown if the Hypogeans are served by the Graveborn.
  • The Celestials – A major force in both Journey and AFK Arena are the Celestials. Their primary objective is to eradicate the Hypogeans and any lingering Darkness that threatens Esperia.
  • The Hypogeans – The primary antagonists of AFK Arena are the Hypogeans, and it’s possible that they have a similar function in Journey. Their primary objective is to disperse evil throughout Esperia in order to destroy all of Dura’s creations.

AFK Journey Beginner's Guide – Factions, Game Modes, Gacha System Explained

The Gacha System of AFK Journey

AFK Journey harbors an intense gacha system that allows players to summon different heroes from different factions. There are several banners dedicated to the craft, each unique and fulfilling certain conditions. You will need to either have invitation tickets, special invitation tickets, and/or Diamonds to summon on these banners. These are termed as “summoning currencies”. You will get a lot of them from completing daily missions, guide quests, main quests, events, pre-registration rewards, and redeem codes

The 3 distinct summoning banners are:

  • All-Hero Recruitment: This is the game’s standard banner, where you can find every non-Celestial/Hypogean character that is playable. You can use Invite Letter and Diamonds to pull on this banner. A single summon costs 300 Diamonds; however, if you summon ten at once, the cost is 2700 Diamonds, saving you money. The Wishlist System, which lets you “favourite” two S-Level and two A-Level characters per faction, will become available to you after you complete 30 pulls. The pity is set at 60 pulls for a guaranteed S grade hero. 
  • Rate-Up Recruitment: This is the game’s event banner, used to introduce new heroes or existing ones at a higher rate. You can use Event Invite Letter and Diamonds to pull on this banner. A single summon costs 300 Diamonds; however, if you summon ten at once, the cost is 2700 Diamonds, saving you money. The pity is set at 40 pulls for a guaranteed copy of the rate-up hero. 
  • Epic Recruitment: Better rates and a Wishlist are available right away with this second banner, but you can only use special summoning currency called “Epic Invitation Letters” to pull on this banner. Epic Invite Letters are available for purchase, in a variety of ways, and by advancing through the main narrative. You can only add five characters to the Wishlist here as opposed to the previous banner, but it is unlocked as soon as you gain access to it. In this case, the pity likewise starts at 10 and rises to 30 pulls when you pull an S-level character.

Equipment in AFK Journey

Characters in AFK Journey no longer need to equip gear because a class-based equipment system has taken its place. All you have to do is collect gear that is appropriate for your class, and each character in your class will wear it automatically during combat. In addition to making gear management much simpler, this lets you experiment with different characters and quickly switch them out before a fight if you need their unique set of abilities.

AFK Journey Beginner's Guide – Factions, Game Modes, Gacha System Explained

Six pieces of equipment are available for each class to equip: a weapon, gloves, an accessory, a helmet, armor, and boots. Because every piece has a different set of stats—some are more offensive, some more defensive—you should upgrade different pieces first for different classes.

Although you can find higher item level equipment as rewards from quests or drop it from AFK stages, you can also manually Forge and upgrade the pieces with Casting Shards you get from recycling gear you no longer need. Your Resonance level is directly related to the quality of the equipment you can forge.

Exclusive Equipment in AFK Journey

Unlocking and upgrading a character’s Exclusive Item is possible once they reach the Mythic+ tier. This exclusive item unlocks a fourth ability in the character’s kit (called an EX or exclusive skill) and bestows upon them a set of stats specific to their kind. Special Stones can be used to upgrade the Exclusive Item, but obtaining higher rarity versions of them and raising the character’s tier will depend on the level of the EX-weapon.

Playing AFK Journey on a bigger screen of your PC with BlueStacks without worrying about battery drainage and smooth gameplay, is highly recommended.