There's a game called Pick Me Up.
It's a mobile game launched 2 years ago by Moebius Inc., carrying the subtitle "Hyper Roguelike Summoner RPG".
Today marks Pick Me Up's 2nd anniversary and its milestone of surpassing 100 million downloads, and I've had the honor of writing this special feature article. Thank you for your readership.
While Pick Me Up is already a popular game boasting 100 million users worldwide, I'd like to introduce the game once more for those who might not be familiar with it.
When Pick Me Up first appeared on the app stores, many people expressed doubt.
"Isn't this just another generic, mass-produced game?"
However, Pick Me Up gradually gained popularity through word-of-mouth, and now it has become a globally beloved mobile game, enjoyed not only in Korea but around the world.
What factors enabled Pick Me Up to become a mobile game contending for the world's top spot? Let's look at its key attractive points.
First, the Moebius Summon.
This is a key system said to have been completed after about 5 years of development. The essence of the system lies in randomly mixing thousands of patterns to create infinite heroes.
In other words, whether you summon hundreds, thousands, or even tens of thousands of times in Pick Me Up, the chance of getting a duplicate hero is practically zero. It defies common sense, but Pick Me Up arrived shattering this very notion.
However, an even more revolutionary system was waiting, making this seem like a minor anomaly.
Second, Quantum AI.
Several years ago, the match between a world-class Go player and an artificial intelligence became a hot topic. That match of the century ultimately ended in the AI's victory.
Watching that historic spectacle, I, the reporter, also imagined: Wouldn't a highly advanced AI, like those seen only in movies, emerge in the near future?
Ironically, such an AI revolution began at a game company.
Therein lies the secret to cultivating tens of millions of 'Pick Me addicts' (Pick Me being the abbreviation for Pick Me Up). The developer, Moebius, applied this highly advanced AI—something thought to be decades away—to a mere mobile game.
Pick Me Up's heroes feel emotions and think for themselves. Put any hero into a stage, and you'll get a different reaction every single time. Heroes make demands of their Master, assert themselves, sometimes refuse orders, and sometimes comply.
When it comes to combat, the core of the game, the results are even more astounding. Even without the Master giving specific commands, heroes autonomously employ tactics they deem efficient, using different strategies and formations in every battle.
Furthermore, even with the same training, growth stats differ, and even at the same level and grade, battle processes and outcomes vary.
Therefore, hero tier lists and predetermined development paths common in other games don't exist here. Each of Pick Me Up's millions of heroes is reminiscent of a unique individual.
This became the biggest reason why Pick Me Up is called the 'Devil's Game'.
Because it's excessively realistic. The heroes in the game are merely products of data, yet they feel incredibly real.
The developer, Moebius, still hasn't revealed the detailed algorithms.
Recently, a massive Chinese corporation attempted to acquire the developer with vast sums of capital [originally hundreds of billions of Won], but failed. Attempts to infiltrate the company or hack them to steal the algorithm have also been frequent, but none have ever succeeded.
Third, Roguelike.
"Ah, there's f***ing nothing to do."
"There's not enough content."
These two sentences are laments representing the feelings of hardcore users found in any game. It's also proof that in most games, development speed cannot keep up with content consumption speed.
An employee from Moebius said this in an interview:
"A whale spending tens of millions [of Won]? A super hardcore user playing all day? Go ahead, try and beat this."
When this interview first came out, many users scoffed. However, even now, two years after launch, not a single user has reached the end of Pick Me Up's main dungeon.
This is true even now, with plenty of users spending hundreds of millions, even billions [of Won], far beyond just tens of millions, and many investing over 18 hours a day into Pick Me Up.
Pick Me Up adopted a hardcore rule.
When it was first revealed, users reacted with disbelief. This was because hardcore meant that when a hero died, they were permanently gone (permadeath).
A hero you poured millions [of Won] and hundreds of hours into could disappear after a single battle? In Pick Me Up's early days, this was pointed out as the game's biggest flaw and drew resentment from countless users.
Of course, Moebius never revised this rule. Instead, over time, more and more people began to see it as an attractive feature.
One enthusiast argues:
"Pick Me Up's heroes are meticulously programmed puppets, easily mistaken for humans."
"If they are 'born' through summoning, isn't it natural for them to also face 'death'?"
Furthermore, Pick Me Up's stages change randomly, and no one can predict what mission will appear. Since the AI handles combat autonomously, once a mission starts, there's little room for the Master to intervene.
Beyond this, there are dozens, hundreds of unpredictable variables. Sometimes, a party sent out in desperation clears an ultra-high difficulty dungeon, while other times, an elite party of 6-star heroes gets wiped out in a low-difficulty dungeon.
Everything in Pick Me Up is unfixed.
It constantly changes and flows.
Some criticize Pick Me Up like this:
"Then what's the point of the player? Are we just spectators? Since it's basically a luck-based **** game ('Unppal Jotmang Game'), what's the meaning of even playing? Isn't it just a broken game with no control or strategy, where you rely on luck to pull high-star heroes who then win on their own?"
To those people, I want to introduce a certain Master from Korea.
His account name is Loki.
He is Korea's only top-tier global ranker and a prominent user known as the 'Master of Master'.
"But still, he's not number 1."
That's true. Loki is 'only' 5th in the world rankings.
Looking solely at the rankings, calling him the world's best Master might be a bit of a misnomer.
However, he is mentioned more often than the actual #1 ranker, and among the top players, he is the only one to have earned the glorious title 'Master of Master'.
The reason is simple.
He has been incredibly unlucky.
Pick Me Up's summon system uses stars to differentiate grades.
Free summons yield 1-star to 3-star heroes. Paid summons yield 3-star to 5-star heroes.
The commonly discussed condition in the community for becoming a top ranker in Pick Me Up is having at least five 'natural' 5-star heroes. Generally, higher-star heroes fight much better than lower-star ones.
While a 1-star hero can be evolved to 5-star by collecting materials, people unanimously agree that they are significantly inferior compared to natural 5-stars.
And here we have Loki, the Master.
He has performed approximately 4,500 paid summons but doesn't have a single natural 5-star hero.
Compared to the world's 4th and 6th rankers surrounding him, who possess dozens of natural 5-star heroes, his roster is strikingly humble.
His highest-grade hero is merely a single 4-star.
Yet, he proudly maintains his position as Korea's #1 and the world's #5 ranker. This is proof that Pick Me Up isn't just a 'luck-based **** game,' and that there is ample room for skill and strategy to determine success.
Although Masters cannot directly intervene in combat, they can develop heroes in other ways: identifying talents and values not quantifiable on the status screen, assigning efficient training methods, and forming parties optimized for each hero's capabilities.
Loki has proven that while natural 1-star heroes are 'generally' weaker than higher-grade ones, they are not 'unconditionally' weaker.
It's no exaggeration to say that the Pick Me Up meta is divided into 'before Loki posted his strategy guides' and 'after'.
Besides these, listing all the revolutionary changes Loki brought to Pick Me Up would...
...(continued below).
▼ [Comments – 3135]
[Lv.51] Dawwww11
Likes 8742, Dislikes 6644
Seriously, why did this reporter go off on a tangent? Praising some random user in a game feature article? Does that make sense? Did they hire you just to simp for Loki?
└[Lv.17] 로키만세 (LokiManse / Loki Hurray!)
Likes 513, Dislikes 672
ALL HAIL LOKI!
└[Lv.3] 흐스읏읏읏 (Heuseueueut)
Likes 13, Dislikes 5
I heard one of this site's reporters is a 'Distinguished Member' of Ragnaroki [likely Loki's fansite]. Could it be this person? What's the boss doing, not firing them?
[Lv.21] 디오라마 (Diorama)
Likes 11, Dislikes 13
Honestly, I don't know if Loki deserves that much praise. Isn't he just another whale?
[Lv.76] 용이내가된다 (YongiNaegaDoenda / I Become The Dragon)
Likes 3, Dislikes 5
What the heck is Ragnaroki anyway?
[Lv.31] 꾹꺅꾺꺅 (KkukKkyakKkokKkyak)
Likes 0, Dislikes 0
It's Loki's fansite. They say you need his autograph to rank up to Distinguished Member.
└[Lv.76] 용이내가된다 (YongiNaegaDoenda / I Become The Dragon)
Likes 4, Dislikes 3
That's ridiculous.
[Lv.7] 시리스쟝 (SirisJjang / Siris-chan)
Likes 1132, Dislikes 2564
[Comment blocked by administrator.]
I want to lick Siris-chan's butt! Lick lick!
[Lv.22] 지갑킹김과금 (JigapKingKimGwageum / Wallet King Kim Spender)
Likes 811, Dislikes 532
Regardless of the article's bias, you can't ignore Loki's influence on Pick Me. Before Loki's account was revealed, wasn't it just seen as another typical pay-to-win game, no matter how good the gameplay was? It's no exaggeration to say the meta changed afterward.
└[Lv.15] 선조부터대대로선비 (SeonjobuteoDaedaeroSeonbi / Scholar For Generations Since Ancestors)
Likes 4, Dislikes 9
Look, another Lokistan! [Derogatory term for obsessive fan]
[Lv.22] 지갑킹김과금 (JigapKingKimGwageum / Wallet King Kim Spender)
Likes 321, Dislikes 157
Did I say something wrong? Honestly (TBH), didn't all the Korean rankers except Loki get totally crushed by international players last time? Right now, Loki is the only Korean ranker left standing. Korea's Pick Me IS Loki, and Loki IS Korea's Pick Me. Frankly, if Loki had just one 7-star hero, he could have aimed for World #1.
[Lv.7] 시리스쟝 (SirisJjang / Siris-chan)
Likes 325, Dislikes 1132
[Comment blocked by administrator.]
I want to lick Siris-chan's armpit! Lick lick!
└[Lv.15] 전자발찌 (JeonjaBaljji / Electronic Ankle Monitor)
Likes 913, Dislikes 132
Why isn't this lunatic banned? He pulls this crap on every Pick Me related article!
[Lv.1] Isel0479
Likes 13, Dislikes 11
All Hail Loki! All roads lead to Loki!
...(comments continue).