you need him 4* to try the trials (still not implemented) and to breaktrough him in our version (sadly).

even if you own the books you still need him 4* (they are just implemented as a 1st place reward in the recharge/spending wheel)

as a proof i can show you this:

same exact mechanics.

in china was at 3 stars as far as i know, but evidently was too cheap XD

He meant they want whales to spend on him 300k to be viable.

While in china 20k were enough (after you got him a first time).

If they want people to spend a lot on to get frags for skill books in this server, I'm pretty sure they won't care about those who can't.

Skill trials allows both players to get the skills but whales are more likely to get perfect skills as they can spend for the protection items if RNG fails them while F2Ps need luck in RNG to get perfect skills.