Punishing: Gray Raven (frequently stylized as PGR) features a large variety of different shops and currencies, most of which are completely free-to-play, but potentially difficult to navigate for those who are just beginning the game. PGR offers a massive roster of over 40+ playable characters, with more being added every month. Like many free-to-play games, there are many cosmetic skins available for both characters and their weapons, and these skins can be attained in a large variety of ways including the battle pass, shop bundles, direct purchase via microtransaction, and in-game events.
However, PGR also offers a way for players to obtain most of the premium paid skins without ever opening their wallets! The system to get paid skins for free is not immediately obvious to players as it involves an optional part of the game (the "dorm"), as well as two different in-game currencies which must be converted via a special shop.
What is the Dorm in Punishing Gray Raven?
Punishing Gray Raven offers players an optional portion of the game called the dorm, which is essentially player housing for chibi versions of the playable characters. In this mode, players can decorate rooms (which can hold three chibi characters each) and interact with the chibi-fied characters or watch them interact with each other.
Most players will likely be familiar with the dorm because opening it once a day game's daily system, which rewards premium currency. However, the daily only requires opening the dorm, not interacting with any of the systems within, so players could opt to simply close the dorm afterward and never delve further into the optional system.
How to Use PGR's Dorm System to Get Free Skins
If a player is interested in getting premium skins for free, however, they should not ignore the dorm system! The dorm system has its own set of dailies every day, all of which are very easy and very rewarding.
The dorm dailies include crafting furniture, sending your chibi characters on idle missions called "chores," petting your chibi character three times, and completing dorm events (essentially clicking on the characters who have events to do that day). Completing all the dailies in the dorm will award players with a currency called "dorm coins," which can be used to buy various items including residence permits (to exchange for more dorm rooms), gifts to raise your character's friendship, and most importantly, coating sketches, which is the currency used to obtain premium skins for free.
The dailies will award players with three coins daily, and fortunately, there are five discounted coating sketches per day that cost those exact three coins! The player will accumulate further coins via the aforementioned dorm events and other non-daily tasks, and it is entirely up to the player if they would like to limit themselves to the five daily discounted coating sketches or to splurge on the slightly higher priced coating sketches (five for five coins instead of three) to obtain a skin at a faster rate.
What are Coating Blueprints in PGR?
Now that the player has purchased their first coating sketches in PGR, it is time to go into detail about how coating sketches are used. If the player goes to the coating (skin) shop, they will see that most skins are on sale twice, once for rainbow cards (PGR's premium currency) and once for a currency called coating blueprints.
In most cases, new skins will be offered exclusively for rainbow cards for a while, but will eventually make their way to being offered for coating blueprints as well. The cheapest skins, which cost 98 rainbow cards (roughly USD $17) will generally be available for 49 coating blueprints. From here, the prices continue to vary, being dictated by the initial price of the skin upon release, with required coating blueprints costing either 49, 70, 90, or 110.
How to Exchange Coating Sketches for Coating Blueprints in PGR
Coating sketches are a currency that is used to exchange for coating blueprints. This conversion can be initiated in the "coating exchange shop," which is nested under the exchange shop option. Every 25 coating sketches can be converted to a coating blueprint, meaning that if a player was to only buy the five discounted coating sketches per day, it would take them over 200 days to afford a skin at the cheapest price of 49.
While attaining skins in this manner isn't the fastest method in the world, it is extremely easy, requires minimal effort outside of dailies and patience, and will allow the player to earn the in-game skins completely free of any microtransactions. Furthermore, players are completely free to convert any excess dorm coins into the non-discounted coating sketches, as once players have fully unlocked all the dorm rooms, it is the most useful application of the dorm coin currency.
Punishing Gray Raven is now available for Mobile and PC. PC players can download the game directly through the Punishing Gray Raven website.