Home > News > Gacha Roundup > May 18 to 24, 2026
News by: Jessica Orr
Published on:
This week in Gacha (May 18 to 24, 2026)
The inevitability of EoS, Sword x Staff debuts on Global, and a Disney… otome?
This week in gacha news brought us an EoS announcement, a potential Disney otome, and a surprising end to Part 2 of Honkai Impact 3rd. Plus, Sword x Staff releases on Mobile, and Honkai: Star Rail details its continuing collaboration with Fate/stay night. All this, and more, below!
Jump to:
This week in Gacha
Fate/stay night collaboration continues this Summer in Honkai Star Rail
Gilgamesh and Rin Tohsaka from the Fate/stay night: Unlimited Bladeworks anime are coming to Honkai: Star Rail this Summer. They’re the second batch of Fate characters to appear on special collaboration banners, with Archer and Saber debuting last year. “Summer” is likely to be version 4.4, which should launch July 15 based on the confirmed banner dates for version 4.3. Oh, and you can get Gilgamesh or Archer for free just by logging in. Nice.
Sword x Staff Global version out now
Release date: May 19
Platforms: Mobile
Developer: SSStudio / 开发 (China)
Publisher: Boltray Games (Global)
Sword x Staff is a “Third Way” RPG, which is just weird marketing talk for being a strategy idle game where you can also explore an open world. You pick how “hardcore” you want to play, whether that be treating it like a typical idle game, or more of an more active RPG experience. It’s already been out in China and other Asian markets for nearly a year now, and is estimated to have made a cool $235 million USD in revenue (1.6 billion yuan) from its first six months alone.
Part 2 of Honkai Impact 3rd is ending in version 9.0
Well, that didn’t last long. As confirmed in its version 8.9 Chinese livestream, version 9.0 marks the end of the main story of Honkai Impart 3rd Part 2, but the narrative will continue for a bit after 9.0 to tie up some loose ends. Kind of like an epilogue. Part 2 only started in February 2024 during version 7.3, over a year after Part 1 ended. Meaning, by its end, that game’s Martian adventures will have only had a fraction of the updates that Part 1 got over its seven year runtime. Nothing about a Part 3, or something similar, was teased. But maybe developer miHoYo is leaving that for closer to the game’s 10th anniversary this October.
Disney Sparklink Stars announced, but only for Japan
Disney sure likes its Japanese gachas, huh? Apparently not satisfied with just Twisted Wonderland, Disney Sparklink Stars was revealed this week. We know next to nothing about it other than it’s “coming soon” and being developed by coly Inc. This Japanese developer is known for its gacha otome games, which sure seems an odd fit for Disney. But sure, I’ll give romancing Aladdin a try. (Sorry, Jasmine.) It seems more likely that the visual novel and puzzle-solving elements could be the focus of Sparklink Stars than us breaking Disney Princesses’ hearts, but you never know.
Farewell, My Hero Ultra Impact
We’ve known it was coming for a while now, but My Hero Ultra Impact officially ended service on Monday, May 18. This My Hero Academia spinoff had a decent run, launching in February 2022 exclusively on Mobile, marking over four years of updates. Pie in the sky numbers for a certain other gacha…
AlternaVvelt Blue Exorcist AS announces EoS
The painfully named AlternaVvelt -Blue Exorcist Another Story- has announced it will end service on June 22, 2026 at 8pm PDT. It only launched on June 25, 2025, meaning it won’t even make its one year anniversary. Thankfully, it’s not all bad news, as an offline version will be available to download until September 30, 2026. This alternative version doesn’t carry over data, but all characters are fully enhanced, and one copy of each Cursed Card will be fully enhanced. Full EoS and offline mode details can be found here.
Neverness to Everness is coming to Steam and the Epic Games Store
While PC players can already use its dedicated launcher, Neverness to Everness is releasing on Steam and the Epic Games Store this June, alongside Nvidia GeForce NOW and Samsung Galaxy Store versions. The news was revealed in NTE’s version 1.1 livestream, alongside details of all the new characters, events, and optimizations coming in 1.1. I’m kinda miffed Hotta are already redesigning characters as part of the classic “we’re listening” placations, but I am happy to boot another random launcher off my PC. You win some, you lose some, I guess. Such is the gacha way.
New characters this week
- May 20 – Nicole and Prune Genshin Impact
- May 21 – Denia, Wuthering Waves
- May 21 – Nasti, Cairn, and Skybox in Arknights
- May 21 – Makoto Yuki, Persona 5: The Phantom X
Did you get any of them?
After last week’s Qiqi devastation, I thought I’d give the classic cheeky 10 pull a go on Nicole’s banner, and… I didn’t get her. But in even better news, I pulled Jean instead! No, I’m not a Jean main, but with my lost 50/50 out of the way, I now have enough pulls to guarantee getting Sandrone next patch. Now I somehow need to gacha math my way into pulling Columbina, Ineffa, and Lauma on their next reruns as well. (It’s not looking good, folks.)
Next week in Gacha
All of these dates are for the Global version of each game, unless stated otherwise.
- May 26 – Duet Night Abyss 1.4 livestream (7am ET / 12pm BST)
- May 27 – Starlight Billy debuts in Zenless Zone Zero
- May 28 – Sea of Remnants playtest starts (China)
- May 28 – Prika debuts in Goddess of Victory: Nikke
- May 28 – Lorentz Butterfly debuts in Reverse: 1999
- May 28 – Infinity Nikki version 2.6
See you next week!
See more: Gacha Roundup, Honkai: Star Rail, PC, Mobile, PlayStation, Xbox
Leave a comment