Golden Pekka & Cosmetics
Authors:
AlpeLast updated: 2025-04-20
Page change log:
- Created: 2025-04-20
Page contents:
Important to know:
Clash Royale China has operated independently from the international version since 2022-03-16.
Although the two teams share some assets (season art, new troops, updates...), this localised version of the game has developed many features that never transferred back. This implies that all the features discussed in this blog may remain as Chinese exclusives.
Cosmetics in Clash Royale
Despite regular claims and rants by members of this game's community, calling Clash Royale pay to win (P2W) is arguably unfair; freemium game is far a better fit.
The main stage of this game is based on progression, which can be shortened with in-app purchases. These purchases give players an advantage while they are in the race to reach the endgame, but the advantage is non-existent once they reach that endgame.
In short, having 8 maxed cards (Level 15) and 2 evolutions is everything that a player needs to compete among the best. Having a deeper collection allows for flexibility and meta adaptation, but many players have proven this is not a requirement.
But the free to play path isn't fast an easy; with regular time commitment, it would still take around 6 months to complete. Many players argue that this is too much time, and wish Supercell would direct the monetisation strategies towards cosmetics instead of progression.
Ignoring the benefits of a slow progression pace for player retention and engagement, is this a viable path? Has Clash Royale been able to monetise cosmetics?
Until this day, the amount of experiments in this category has been fairly limited:
- New Emotes (June 2018)
- Star Level troop skins (December 2018)
- Temporary golden name with Pass Royale (July 2019)
- Tower Skins (July 2019)
- Battle Banners (June 2022)
From these, Tower Skins and Battle Banners face the single-use cosmetic issue, meaning that players can only use one at a time. This limits their usage, and also their demand once a player has found a favourite one.
New Emotes and Star Level troop skins are more flexible in this regard, but also have some issues.
Emotes have arguably reached a point of excessive supply. With more than 300 different ones, it's hard to see how these cosmetics can remain appealing for non-collector players.
As for Star Level troop skins, their release for new troops was paused indefinitely on October 2021, 3 years after their initial release. At the time of writing this, only 28 out of 119 troops have Star Level 3 available, which is the tier that visibly changes the design of troops inside the arena.
Why did this happen? Aren't players still asking for more of these skins? There isn't much public information on the topic, but we have seen some clues over the years.
In Clash of Clans, the skins of the troops slightly change as they level up. On max Level they look pretty cool. Did you ever think of implementing this element (or an aberration of it, like skins for troops) to Clash Royale? What are the arguments against it?
In August of 2017, John "Cip" Cipriani, Art Director, answered:
We have talked about it, it's not completely off the table. The reasons we've put it on hold is because the characters become too bitsy, messy, and difficult to read and distinguish from each other. Also the atlas size of our textures would increase dramatically and thus our download size would increase a lot. So we would have to think of a better way of tackling this, but currently our priorities are on other features.
The size constraints that were present ~8 years ago don't seem such a significant concern nowadays. Since this was mentioned, Clash Royale has added many images and dense textures in many parts of the game. E.g.: character previews, Battle Banners...
It's been a long time since the star levels came out, but there haven't been any new levels about it. I think it would not be difficult to update that. Is there something thought about that?
In February of 2022, Rick, a previous Clash Royale Community Manager, answered:
As they are not 3D, it is more effort to make skins for the characters.So the balance we have to consider is to make art for more features in the game, or skins and with not everyone currently having them all, it's best to think of new things for everyone.
Btw is there any chance we have skins in the game any time soon just like brawl stars?
In November of 2022, Max, a previous Clash Royale Community Manager, answered:
Unfortunately not, because:
1. game readability
2. technical implementation
Brawl is in 3D, Heroes in CoC are in 3D, which makes skins implementation easy. In CR, everything is in 2D. Creating a new skin = redoing a unit animation frame by frame - which is VERY time-consuming
If we take these comments at face value, the conclusion is that these troop skins are too expensive to make. It probably doesn't help that these Star Levels weren't easily monetisable, as the upgrades were only available through a currency that was analogous to player XP.
Could a better monetisation strategy make these skins viable? The localised version of Clash Royale in China is looking for that answer!
Golden Pekka Skin announcement
On March 31st, official sources announced an update that would be released the following day.
This update would introduce Golden Pekka as a new skin, paired with other cosmetics with a similar theme, such as an Emote and Battle Banner.
These cosmetics would be available for 2 weeks, and it is unknown if they would ever return afterwards.
Box Gacha System
The Pekka skin was introduced with box gacha, a kind of loot box mechanic that's entirely new for Clash Royale. The box gacha system is common in many games, including other titles by Supercell (e.g.: mo.co).
What is a Box Gacha?
Box gacha refers to a reward set with random chances but no duplicate rewards. Imagine a box with a strictly defined set of 10 items. Even if one of these items has a tiny 0.1% chance of dropping, you can be sure that you’ll get the item within 10 tries. The worst-case scenario is that you’ll need to pull out nine other items first.
Practical Game Design by Adam Kramarzewski and Ennio De Nucci
Feature Summary
Players spend a special currency ("Shining Coins") to get a random item from the pool.
Every time an item is pulled from the pool:
- The item is removed from the pull, so it can't be obtained twice
- The price increases for the next pull
The pool starts with 9 different items, and the Golden Pekka skin is the rarest of all.
Loot Box Probabilities
The loot box tab included details for the probabilities assigned to each of the items in the pool.
Description (original, in Chinese)
黄金皮卡超人 - 活动规则
一、活动名称
黄金皮卡超人
二、活动时间:4.1 08:00-4.15 17:00
三、参与资格
本活动的参与者(下称:您)应具备以下全 部资格:
您应年满【18】周岁。
本活动不鼓励未满【18】周岁的未成年用户参与。若您为不具备完全民事行为能力的未成年人,您应在监护人的陪同下阅读本规则,并取得您监护人的同意。如您监护人同意您参与本活动,应对您参与本活动期间作出的行为进行正确监督和引导,同时,您行使和履行本活动规则下的权利和义务,均视为已获得您监护人认可。请理性消费。
活动期间,每个自然人仅可以使用一个自己合法有权的有效账号(QQ号码、微信账号)参与活动,如使用自己名下多个账号或使用他人账号,您的全部参与行为将被视为无效,且无权获得任何奖品。
四、活动规则
活动期间,玩家可以通过商城或活动界面购买道具赠送获得闪耀币,投入抽奖并获取对应奖励,抽奖结果即时显示。
活动期间,在每次抽奖中您需要根据活动页面提示投入指定数量的闪耀币,每次抽奖必得一件奖品但每件奖品仅可被抽中一次, 抽中的奖品将会从奖池中剔除,无法重复获得。您可以在活动界面点击领奖记录查看您已获得的奖励;若您已通过活动获得了奖池内的全部奖励,则无法继续抽奖。
奖项及概率设置:
- 黄金皮卡超人皮肤 0.10%
- 金皮卡表情 5.19%
- 金皮卡战旗装饰 10.38%
- 金皮卡战旗背景 10.38%
- 皮卡超人觉醒5.19%
- 皮卡超人卡牌12.46%
- 金币×100000 12.46%
- 4星幸运惊喜 17.80%
- 金币×50000 26.04%
奖励获取:您中奖后,领取的奖励会立刻发放至您参与本次活动的游戏账号内,超时未使用的抽奖币将会以1:400的比例转化为金币,请及时使用!
五、参与资格、获奖资格的取消
您若采取任何不正当手段、违反活动规则或法律法规的行为,腾讯有权单方面取消您的参与资格、获奖资格等。
六、管辖条款
本规则的成立、生效、履行、解释及纠纷解决等相关事宜,均适用中华人民共和国大陆地区法律(不包括冲突法)。若您和腾讯之间发生任何纠纷或争议应将纠纷或争议提交本规则签订地即深圳市南山区有管辖权的人民法院管辖。
Description (translated, in English)
Golden P.E.K.K.A - Activity Rules
- Activity Name: Golden P.E.K.K.A
- Activity Time: 2025-04-01 08:00 - 2025-04-15 17:00
Participation Qualifications: Participants of this activity (hereinafter referred to as: you) should have the following qualifications:
You must be at least 18 years old.
This activity does not encourage minors under the age of 18 to participate. If you are a minor who does not have full civil capacity, you should read these rules in the company of your guardian and obtain your guardian's consent. If your guardian agrees to your participation in this activity, he/she should properly supervise and guide your behavior during your participation in this activity. At the same time, your exercise and performance of the rights and obligations under these activity rules are deemed to have been approved by your guardian. Please consume rationally.
During the event, each natural person can only use one valid account (QQ number, WeChat account) that you are legally entitled to participate in the event. If you use multiple accounts under your own name or use someone else's account, all your participation will be deemed invalid and you will not be entitled to any prizes.
Activity Rules
During the event, players can purchase items through the mall or event interface to get Shining Coins, participate in the lottery and get corresponding rewards. The lottery results will be displayed immediately.
During the event, you need to invest a specified number of Shining Coins in each draw according to the prompts on the event page. You will win a prize in each draw, but each prize can only be drawn once. The prize drawn will be removed from the prize pool and cannot be obtained repeatedly. You can click on the prize collection record on the event interface to view the rewards you have received; if you have received all the rewards in the prize pool through the event, you cannot continue to draw.
Prizes and probability settings:
Golden P.E.K.K.A Skin 0.10%
Golden P.E.K.K.A Emote 5.19%
Golden P.E.K.K.A Banner Decoration 10.38%
Golden P.E.K.K.A Banner Frame 10.38%
x6 P.E.K.K.A Evolution Shards 5.19%
x100 P.E.K.K.A Cards 12.46%
x100,000 Gold 12.46%
4-Star Lucky Drop 17.80%
x50,000 Gold 26.04%
Rewards: After you win the prize, the reward you receive will be immediately distributed to the game account you participated in this event. The unused lottery coins will be converted into gold coins at a ratio of 1:400. Please use them in time!
- Cancellation of Participation and Award Eligibility: If you take any unfair means, violate the activity rules or laws and regulations, Tencent has the right to unilaterally cancel your participation and award eligibility, etc.
- Jurisdiction Clauses: The establishment, effectiveness, performance, interpretation and dispute resolution of these Rules shall be subject to the laws of the mainland of the People's Republic of China (excluding conflict of laws). If any dispute or controversy arises between you and Tencent, it shall be submitted to the People's Court with jurisdiction over the place where these Rules are signed, namely, Nanshan District, Shenzhen.
| Item | Probability |
|---|---|
| Golden Pekka Skin | 0.10% |
| Golden Pekka Emote | 5.19% |
| x6 Pekka Evolution Shards | 5.19% |
| Golden Pekka Banner Decoration | 10.38% |
| Golden Pekka Banner Frame | 10.38% |
| x100 Pekka Cards | 12.46% |
| x100,000 Gold | 12.46% |
| 4-Star Lucky Drop | 17.80% |
| x50,000 Gold | 26.04% |
This distribution of probabilities makes it very unlikely for the Golden Pekka Skin to be obtained before the 9th and last pull.
Around 96.8% of players will need to spend all 9 attempts to get the skin. But what is the price for that?
Loot Box Pricing
To find out, we first have to look at the other piece of the puzzle, the price per pull. This price increases more or less linearly, meaning that the aggregate cost has a quadratic relationship with the amount of pulls.
| Item | Price | Total | Total (CNY) | Total (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pull #1 | 6 | 6 | ¥6 | $1 |
| Pull #2 | 12 | 18 | ¥18 | $2 |
| Pull #3 | 18 | 36 | ¥36 | $5 |
| Pull #4 | 24 | 60 | ¥60 | $8 |
| Pull #5 | 30 | 90 | ¥90 | $12 |
| Pull #6 | 40 | 130 | ¥130 | $18 |
| Pull #7 | 50 | 180 | ¥180 | $25 |
| Pull #8 | 60 | 240 | ¥240 | $33 |
| Pull #9 | 60 | 300 | ¥300 | $41 |
This puts the total price of the skin at around $40 USD. The price for 9 pulls includes all the other items, like a full evolution and cosmetics, but it's stil 3-4 times more expensive than Pass Royale, which includes better rewards for progression.
Currency Conversion
The prices for each loot box attempt are shown as Shining Coins in-game, which map 1 to 1 with renminbis (CNY).
Currency conversion: x6 Shining Coins = x60 Vouchers = 6元 (CNY)
CNY is converted to USD with a 1:0.137 ratio, but this conversion isn't representative of local prices. Price conversions for digital goods are usually at double the nominal price: 1:0.2-0.3.
Besides this, it seems that Clash Royale does use the 1:0.137 ratio for IAPs. For example, the recent Boss Bandit release offer was priced at:
- In China: 283元, which converts to $38.78
- In USA: $39.99
Prices in chart format
Unfortunately our access to Chinese Clash Royale is very limited. Without an API or public information of any kind, it's hard to even make a guess for the performance of this offer.
Skin Selection UI
The addition of skins has been paired with new UI elements that allow players to select specific troop skins. Unlike with the troop skins from Star Levels, these aren't activated automatically.
Troop Sprites
Earlier in this blog we saw comments from Community Managers, alluding to the technical complexity of non-3D assets.
What do these 2D skins actually look like? Let's take a look at the troop sprites:
Normal Pekka
This sprite is for the normal Pekka, which contains the base troop in friendly mode (blue), and also the variations for enemy mode (red).
A troop skin essentially has to recreate all these positions from scratch:
Golden Pekka
On top of this, given that Pekka has an evolution, all this work has to be doubled. In total there are 4 sprites for Pekka:
Normal Pekka (Blue / Red)
Golden Pekka (Blue / Red)
Evolved Normal Pekka (Blue / Red)
Evolved Golden Pekka (Blue / Red)
And lastly, there's also the troop previews, which also need 4 versions:
Loading Screen Design
The development team also shared some highlights of the drafting process for the Golden Pekka loading screen.
Golden Pekka vertical wallpaper (1080x2337)
Golden Pekka horizontal wallpaper (1920x1080)
Other links and related content:
Search terms:
Clash Royale: 皇室戰爭
Golden Pekka: 黄金皮卡超人
Websites:
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