Earning Photocards

As mentioned previously: “Photocards are, quite simply, a reward for engaging with the site in its intended purpose: reading.”

So, yes, if you wish to earn more photocards to expand your collection, the best way to do is by reading! But there are other ways too...

(Note: Here, a ‘roll’ is referred to often, hereby defined as the trigger point at which you may earn a photocard; however, hitting a roll is not a guarantee, and you are still at the mercy of the RNG gods. All rolls are different, and rolls for some actions may have higher chances of success than others.)

(Note: Please be aware that any numbers mentioned below, whether hours or limits, or whatever, are subject to change and also can be dynamic.)

The droppable pool

On any occasion below, where you roll for a photocard and are successful, you can earn any photocard in the droppable pool.

The droppable pool currently consists of all 1st and 2nd edition cards, as well as the current limited collection (Summer ‘26 at the time of writing).

While the rates are not visible, as the rarity increases, the cards are less likely to drop. The droppable rarities are as follows. The most common at the top, rarest at the bottom.

Common
Uncommon
Rare
Epic
Legendary
Ethereal
Cosmic
Celestial

You may notice that the previously mentioned Secret cards are not part of the droppable pool. These are shrine exclusive and how to acquire these will be covered in the shrine section of the guide.

Update 20260704: Photocards are now seperated into three categories, which each have individual limits that work independantly of the others. The limits are available to view on both the inventory screen and the shrine info tab. To summarise, the three caps are ‘active’ for your actions taken on the site such as reading and commenting, ‘passive’ for writers to earn from their posts, and ‘prayer’ for those that are earned via the shrine.

In each of the sections below, I will note which limit each method contributes toward.

By hovering over each of the limits, you can see when your next card comes off cooldown (explained below).

Reading (Active)

There are two main ways to roll a chance to earn a poca while reading, and one is, well, just reading, while the other is commenting.

As you read a story, you pass several hidden ‘checkpoints’ within a fic, where a roll occurs with a fairly high % chance to drop a random photocard. 

These checkpoints scale with the length of the fic, so you are not punished for reading one long story, or several short ones. While the specifics aren’t clear, you can make a good assumption that a story with 2k words may contain 1-2 checkpoints, while something at 5k words may contain 3-4 checkpoints.

(Note: No, you cannot just scroll/skim through a fic to hit the checkpoints without reading; there is protection in place against this. Reading at any normal speed is fine, whether fast or slow. As long as you are reading.)

So yes, just by sitting down and reading your favourite author, your collection will grow.

However, if you wish to more actively engage with a story, every single in-line comment, story-level comment, or series-level comment you make triggers a roll. This is a lower % roll than the reading checkpoints; it may take several comments before you see a card successfully drop, but you can make a lot more comments.

In my experience, actively commenting as I read through a fic has massively increased my drop rate.

So in effect, the most efficient way to grow your collection is to read and comment.

Other actions such as bookmarking do not trigger rolls, so no, you will not benefit from going around and spamming surface-level interactions with stories.

One final note is that there is a cooldown between rolls that is dynamic in nature, but is roughly 10 minutes, so there is no need to rush reading or to spam comments. Just go naturally, and the pocas will flow.

Update 20260625: There is no longer a cooldown between drops, so continue to read at your own pace.

Writing (Passive)

Fear not, dear writers; you do not have to take time away from your busy period of procrastination ahem I mean writing to go farm photocards by reading, because writing now passively earns you photocards too!

While every time you post a new story/chapter/part does earn you a single roll for a photocard, this isn’t a consistent nor worth the amount of time you put into writing. So, with the latest update, passive poca rolls have been introduced!

So every time your lovely readers interact with any of your posts, it has a small chance to trigger a roll for the author too. So you can passively earn cards by putting out stories that people love to read and comment on!

Your rolls can be 50% of your total poca cap (covered below) for free users, and 75% for Fan+ users.

And yes, that means for readers, your support just got even more valuable, as you are effectively generating photocards for your favourite authors just by reading their stories; isn’t that kind?

Praying at the Shrine (Prayer)

UPDATED 20250625

Praying at the shrine is a regular activity you use if you wish to top your photocards. The prayer system is available on the shrine page.

The prayer system operates on charges. Everytime you hit pray, you can receive a blessing of anywhere from 0 to 3 random photocards.

You can stack up to 3 (free user)/ 4 (Prose+)/ 5 (Fan+) charges, and each charge takes 3 hours to recharge for free members and 2 hours for Fan+ users.

Update 20260704:

There are four types of wishes. The prayer system works on a charges system, where you can store up to 3 (free user)/ 4 (Prose+)/ 5 (Fan+). A charge is replenished every 2 hours, as long as you’re not capped.

Using the drop down shows you the prayer options. Each option has a tooltip, but just to quickly cover them:

Peace: Receive 0-3 random photocards. These drop at the same rarity rates as any other drop type.

Happiness: Refill your shrine offering charges. (These are covered in the next chapter)

Abundance: Increase all of your photocard limits by 25% for 2 hours, allowing you to over-cap.

Prosperity: Either increases your photocard drop rate, or reduces your shrine failure chance. (Reward is random between the two)

Fulfilling wishes (Active)

For those who are kind of heart, it is possible to earn a roll by fulfilling the wishes of another user. By visiting the wishlist and gifting one of your hard-earned photocards to someone’s wish, you are rewarded with a roll for a new card.

Good karma is real.

(But remember, abusing this system by passing cards back and forth with a friend is against the rules and you could lose access to the poca system. Bad karma is also real.)

Giving Flowers (Active)

Flowers are a way for you to show your appreciation to other users, and each time you give one out, you get a roll!

This site really is all about kindness…