Pick Me Up!

There is a game called “Pick me up.”

It is a mobile game launched by Mobius Co. LTD. two years ago and carries the subtitle “Hyper Roguelike Summon RPG.”

Today, we are celebrating the 2nd anniversary of Pick me up and its achievement of surpassing 100 million downloads. In commemoration of this glorious occasion, I have been tasked with writing a special feature article. Please take care of it.

Pick me up is already a popular game boasting 100 million users worldwide, but for those who may not know about it, let me introduce the game once again.

When Pick me up first appeared in the app store, many people were skeptical.

Isn’t this just another ordinary generic game?

However, Pick me up gradually gained popularity through word-of-mouth and has now become a national mobile game enjoyed not only in Korea but around the world.

What could be the reason behind Pick me up’s rise to compete for the top spot in the global mobile game market? Let’s take a look at its attractive features.

First, Mobius Summon System.

It is a key system that took about five years of development. The essence of the system lies in shuffling thousands of patterns randomly to create infinite heroes.

In other words, whether you draw hundreds, thousands, or even tens of thousands of times in Pick me up, the chance of getting duplicate heroes is almost zero. It defies common sense, but Pick me up breaks that common sense and presents itself.

However, this revolutionary system was just a minor variation, as there were more groundbreaking systems waiting.

Second, The Quantum AI.

A few years ago, there was a buzz about a showdown between a world-renowned Go player and artificial intelligence. In the end, the victory went to the artificial intelligence.

As a journalist, I have imagined such a historic scene. In the not-too-distant future, the highly advanced artificial intelligence seen in movies would emerge.

Ironically, this AI revolution began at a game company.

The secret lies in the cultivation of tens of millions of Pickmes (abbreviation for Pick me up) addicts. Mobius, the developer, applied the highly advanced artificial intelligence, which was thought to be decades away, to a mere mobile game.

The heroes in Pick me up feel emotions and think. When each hero is put into a stage, there are hundreds of different reactions if the situation is the same. Heroes make demands, assert themselves, sometimes refuse orders, and sometimes obey them.

When it comes to the core of the game, which is battles, even more astonishing results are shown. Without the master giving individual commands, heroes autonomously adopt the tactics they consider efficient and use various tactics and formations in each battle.

Furthermore, even with the same training, heroes have different growth values, and even at the same level and grade, the process and results of battles differ.

Therefore, there is no common hero grade chart or predetermined training method like in other games. Pick me up’s thousands and billions of heroes make each one capable of surpassing the other.

This became the biggest reason why Pick me up is called the “game of the devil.”

It’s too realistic. Although the heroes in the game are just products of data, they are so lifelike.

Even now, Mobius has not revealed the detailed algorithm.

A few weeks ago, a giant Chinese company attempted to acquire the development company with billions of capital, but it ended in failure. There have also been frequent attempts to invade the company or hack the algorithm, but none have been successful.

Third, the Roguelike part.

“Oh, there’s nothing to do.”

“The content seems insufficient.”

The above two sentences are sighs that represent the frustration of hardcore users in any game. It also reflects the fact that the development speed of most games cannot keep up with the consumption speed of content.

One of the representatives from Mobius said in an interview:

“Are you talking about those geeks who pour tens of millions of won into one game and play it all day? You think you can finish it? I challenge you to finish it!”

When this interview was first released, many users scoffed. However, up to this day, not a single user has reached the end of Pick me up’s main dungeon.

Not to mention millions, there are users who pour billions or tens of billions and invest over 18 hours a day into Pick me up.

Pick me up adopted the rule of hardcore.

When it was first revealed, users showed some bewilderment. Hardcore meant that when a hero dies, they disappear without a trace.

Investing millions and spending hundreds of hours, and then having the hero disappear after just one battle? In the early days of Pick me up, this was pointed out as the biggest drawback of the game and attracted the resentment of many users.

Of course, Mobius did not revise this rule at all. Instead, over time, people started to see it as an attractive feature.

A certain mania claims:

The heroes in Pick me up are precisely programmed dolls that can be mistaken for humans.

Then it’s only natural that there is death as well, just as there is birth through summoning, right?

Furthermore, the stages in Pick me up change randomly, and no one can predict what missions will come up. Since the battles are adjusted by artificial intelligence, once a mission starts, there is hardly any room for the master to intervene.

In addition, there are dozens or hundreds of unpredictable variables. Sometimes a party sent in haphazardly clears a super difficult dungeon, and sometimes a party of 6-star elites perishes in a low-level dungeon.

Everything in Pick me up is not predetermined.

It constantly changes and flows.

Someone criticizes Pick me up like this:

Then what is the meaning of the player’s existence?

Are they just spectators? What’s the point of playing a game that is purely luck-based and hopeless?

Isn’t it just a pay-to-win game without control or strategy, where you draw lucky high-star heroes and send them out to win?

To that person, I want to introduce a master from Korea.

His account name is Loki.

He is the only Korean who is ranked among the top players in the world and is called the Master of Masters.

But he’s not the first, is he?

That’s right. In terms of ranking, Loki is only fifth in the world.

If we look at the ranking alone, calling him the world’s best master has some drawbacks.

However, he is mentioned more frequently than the first-ranked players and is the only one among them who has earned the glorious nickname of Master of Masters.

The reason is simple.

He had extremely bad luck.

Pick me up’s summon system has different star ratings.

Free summoning ranges from 1 to 3 stars, while paid summoning ranges from 3 to 5 stars.

Commonly mentioned in the community, the condition for becoming a top-ranked player in Pick me up is to have at least five 5-star heroes from birth. Higher-star heroes generally fight much better than lower-star heroes.

People gather and say that evolving 1-star heroes with materials to 5 stars is insufficient compared to natural 5-star heroes.

And here, there is a master named Loki.

He has done about 4,500 paid summons, but he doesn’t have a single natural 5-star hero.

Compared to the world’s 4th and 6th-ranked players around him who have dozens of natural 5-star heroes, his achievement is meager.

He has only one time managed to summon a high-ranking hero, a 4-star.

However, he confidently maintains his position as the top-ranked player in Korea and fifth in the world. This proves that Pick me up is not just a luck-based game, but there is ample room to compete with skill and strategy.

Although the master cannot directly intervene in battles, he can cultivate heroes in different ways. By discerning the talents and values of heroes that are not reflected in their status window and designating efficient training methods, he forms parties optimized for each hero’s performance.

While 1-star heroes are generally weaker than higher-grade heroes, Loki has proven that they are not “always” weak but only “mostly” weak.

The meta of Pick me up can be said to be divided into before and after Loki posted his strategy guide.

In addition, if we list the revolutionary changes brought by Loki to Pick me up…

…(Click to See More).

▼ [Comments – 3,135]

[Lv.51] Dawwww11

Agree 8,742, Disagree 6,644

Why is this journalist thriving and then falling flat? Is it appropriate to praise a single user in a game special feature article? Did Loki ask the journalist to do this?

└[Lv.17] Hail Loki

Agree 513, Disagree 672

All hail Loki!

└[Lv.3] Hssut-hssut-hssut

Agree 13, Disagree 5

I didn’t know that there’s a member of the RagnaLoki among the journalists on this site. Why isn’t the CEO firing him?

[Lv.21] Diorama

Agree 11, Disagree 13

Honestly, I’m not sure if Loki deserves all this praise. Isn’t he just lucky?

[Lv.76] IBecomeADragon

Agree 3, Disagree 5

What’s this about RagnaLoki?

└ [Lv.31] Kukkukkukkuk

Agree 0, Disagree 0

It’s a Loki fan group. To become an excellent member, you need to sign up.

└[Lv.76] IBecomeADragon

Agree 4, Disagree 3

This is ridiculous.

[Lv.7] SiriusSlave

Agree 1,132, Disagree 2,564

[Blind comment]

Seris, I want to lick your armpits! Lick, lick!

[Lv.22] WalletKingWhale

Agree 811, Disagree 532

Regardless of the fairness of the article, Loki’s influence on Pick me up cannot be ignored. Saying that the meta changed after Loki’s account was revealed, it’s not an exaggeration.

└[Lv.15] ScholarFromGenerationsToGenerations

Agree 4, Disagree 9

Here comes another RagnaLoki!

[Lv.22] WalletKingWhale

Agree 321, Disagree 157

Did he say something wrong?

To be honest, aren’t all the wide world players get ignored except Loki? Now, there’s no one left among Korean players except Loki too. Korean Pick me up is Loki, and Loki is Korean Pick me up.

In short, if Loki had just one 7-star hero, he would become the top player in the world.

[Lv.7] SerisSlave

Agree 325, Disagree 1,132

[Blind comment]

Seris, I want to lick your armpits! Lick, lick!

└[Lv.15] ElectronicAnkleShackle

Agree 913, Disagree 132

This lunatic keeps doing this in every Pick me up-related article. Why isn’t he banned?

[Lv.1] Isel0479

Agree 13, Disagree 11

All hail Loki!

All roads lead to Loki!

…(Click to See More).