Decoding Genshin Impact’s Pity System: Yes, Those 10 Wishes Absolutely Count (and Why You Should Care)
You have entered the world of Genshin Impact. This land holds adventure, mystique, and characters that appeal to collectors. You face the gacha system and its notorious Wish mechanic. Terms like “pity,” “50/50,” and “Primogems” can confuse you. Do your wishes impact your quest for that five-star character? Yes. Every wish, solo pull, or ten-wish spree contributes to your pity count. Understanding pity is crucial. It distinguishes strategic wishing from just wasting Primogems.
Understanding the Pity System: Your Safety Net in a Game of Chance
Consider the pity system as your safety net in gacha games like Genshin Impact. “Pity” ensures that after a certain number of wishes, the game gods will grant you a top-tier reward. Think of it as a loyalty program for wisher. Keep pulling, and the game tracks your progress, preventing endless loops of three-star weapons.
Hard Pity: The Ultimate Guarantee
First, let’s discuss hard pity. This is your no-questions-asked guarantee. In Genshin Impact, hard pity begins at 90 wishes. Yes, 90. If luck isn’t on your side after 89 pulls, that 90th pull guarantees a five-star character or weapon. It’s like the game says, “Alright, here’s your five-star.”
To clarify: if your count nears 90 pulls without a five-star, you’re about to hit hard pity. Panic is unnecessary. A five-star is coming on or before that 90th wish. This system is reliable. If you’re near 90 pulls without a five-star, double-check your count. The system itself is stable.
What occurs when you pull a five-star? Whether it’s your first or your 89th pull, your pity counter resets to zero. Poof. It’s a clean slate, allowing you to start accumulating pity again. This reset happens only with a five-star. Not time or changes in banners reset pity.
Keep in mind, hard pity also applies to four-stars. Every 10 wishes, you will receive at least a four-star weapon or character. This acts as a mini-pity system within the larger one. So yes, those ten pulls impact both four-star and five-star pity counters as well.
Soft Pity: Where the Odds Start Tilting in Your Favor
Hard pity is your safety net, but soft pity adds more interest. Soft pity is the game whispering, “It’s time to give you a break.” The odds increase for getting a five-star but not as a guarantee like hard pity. Soft pity typically starts at around 70 to 75 wishes.
Before soft pity, chances of getting a five-star per wish are low (base rate is 0.6%). Once you reach soft pity at wish number 74, your chances increase. You may gain about 6% per pull. By the 90th wish (hard pity), there is a 100% chance of getting a five-star. Soft pity builds up to this guarantee.
The 4-Star Pity: Your Reliable Companion
4-star pity. This system ensures you receive more than three-star weapons. Every ten wishes guarantees at least one four-star item, whether a character or weapon. It’s more frequent, making ten-pulls appealing. You earn rewards consistently every ten wishes.
Navigating the 50/50 System: The Coin Flip of Destiny
Next, consider the 50/50 system. This applies to character event banners. When you pull a five-star on a character event banner, it’s a coin flip. You have a 50% chance of pulling the featured character and a 50% chance of obtaining one of the standard five-star characters (like Diluc or Jean). Players often call them “standard banner characters.”
This 50/50 adds complexity to Genshin’s gacha system. It introduces extra chance elements even when you hit pity. Yes, you are guaranteed a five-star, yet it may not be the one you want. Winning means getting the featured character. Losing means receiving a standard character instead. This can be exhilarating or heartbreaking based on luck.
Losing the 50/50: The Silver Lining
Losing the 50/50 may feel discouraging if you hoped for that featured character. But there’s a silver lining. Losing the 50/50 guarantees that the next five-star you pull on that banner will be the featured character. This is called being “guaranteed.”
Think about it: when you first hit a five-star on a banner, the game flips a coin. Heads, you win (featured character). Tails, you lose (standard character). If you get tails, the game says, “Next time, you’re guaranteed a win.” The next time you reach pity on that banner, you will receive the featured character at 100% certainty.
This guarantee is powerful for players. Losing the first 50/50 does reset your pity counter, just like pulling the featured character would.
In this case, it guarantees a featured character on your next five-star pull. The temporary disappointment leads to a victory later.
Capturing Radiance: A Sprinkle of Extra Chance
A new mechanic called “Capturing Radiance” exists. Losing the 50/50 gives a small (around 10%) chance for “Radiance” to trigger. If it does, it boosts your odds of getting a limited five-star character to 55%. This helps you toward your desired character.
If “Capturing Radiance” triggers with a 50/50 loss, it resets both the 50/50 guarantee and the Capturing Radiance counter. This next 50/50 resets your chance. If you lose again, the guarantee for the featured character returns.
Primogems and Wishes: The Currency of Hope
You need wishes’ currency: Primogems. Each single Wish costs 160 Primogems. So, a ten-pull demands 1600 Primogems. Some suggest single pulls for reasons, but generally, save for ten-pulls due to the guaranteed 4-star within ten wishes.
For hard pity on a five-star character (90 wishes), you’ll need 14,400 Primogems (90 wishes x 160 Primogems/wish). Soft pity starts around 70-75 wishes, needing 11,200 to 12,000 Primogems (70-75 wishes x 160 Primogems/wish). Planning your Primogem gathering is crucial for wishing.
Earning Primogems: The Frugal Traveler’s Guide
Primogems fuel wishing, and Genshin Impact offers ways to earn them. Completing the Spiral Abyss provides regular rewards. It resets often, giving Primogems for conquering floors. Daily Commissions are another steady source. Simple tasks done daily add up.
Exploring areas, opening chests, joining events, and claiming rewards through updates yield Primogems. Finishing Archon Quests and Hangout Events gets more Primogems too. Hangout events offer achievements rewarding Primogems, including hidden ones for special tasks. Stay diligent to ensure a constant Primogem flow.
If you consider spending real money, Genesis Crystals are premium currency available for purchase. They convert to Primogems at a 1:1 ratio. However, maximizing free Primogem gain is often preferred for smart players.
Banner Types and Pity Carryover: Banner Hopping Strategies
Genshin Impact has various banners, and knowing pity carryover matters for efficient wishing. Good news: pity carries over between limited character and weapon banners of the same type. For example, if you pull 50 times on one limited character banner without a five-star, that pity moves to the next limited character banner. You only need 40 more pulls for hard pity.
This carryover aids strategy, allowing thoughtful pity savings across banners. If a character banner isn’t ideal and you’ve gathered pity, save those pulls for a future banner with a character you prefer. However, pity does not carry over between different types of banners. Wishing on the Standard Wish (Wanderlust Invocation) won’t affect your pity on character or weapon banners. Their tracking is separate.
Additionally, Fate Points used on weapon banners to guarantee a specific weapon do not carry over into the next weapon banner. Fate Points reset when a weapon banner ends. Unlike pity, Fate Points are use-it-or-lose-it within a singular weapon banner timeframe.
Wish Counts for Guaranteed Goodies: Quick Reference
Here’s a summary of wish counts for guaranteed rewards:
- 4-Star Item (Character or Weapon): Guaranteed within every 10 wishes.
- 5-Star Character or Weapon: Guaranteed within 90 wishes (hard pity) on character banners, 80 wishes on weapon banners.
- 5-Star Featured Character: Guaranteed within 180 wishes (if you lose the 50/50 once). This means preparing for potentially hitting hard pity twice if 50/50 luck is bad.
- 5-Star Weapon (Featured, with Fate Points): Guaranteed within a maximum of 240 wishes (if all Fate Points are used).
Knowing these helps plan your Primogem spending and manage expectations when wishing.
Soft Pity in Detail: Riding the Rising Odds
Previously mentioned, soft pity is when chances for a five-star increase. It begins at about 70-75 wishes. After the 74th wish, five-star probability rises with each pull. Hoyoverse doesn’t disclose exact percentages, but it’s estimated at around 6% per wish once soft pity begins. Reaching the high 80s makes getting a five-star more probable before hitting the full 90-wish hard pity.
Soft pity is subtle, but knowing this can fine-tune your wishing strategy. Being close to soft pity and wanting a specific character makes pushing extra wishes worthy to enter the zone of better rewards.
Pity in Other Games: A Gacha Game Standard
The pity system isn’t exclusive to Genshin Impact. Many gacha games use similar mechanisms to ensure players eventually get high-rarity items. For instance, Hoyoverse’s other title, Honkai Star Rail, has an identical pity structure. It shares the 90-wish soft/180-wish hard pity for five-star characters and a 10-wish pity for four-stars, like Genshin. However, Honkai Star Rail uses “oneiric shards” or Stellar Jade akin to Primogems for wishing purposes.
Even in Zenless Zone Zero (ZZZ), another Hoyoverse game that’s coming, a pity system is anticipated. While specifics may differ, guaranteed rewards after set pulls is a recurring theme among many gacha games from Hoyoverse. This consistency enhances understanding of pity systems across games for gacha fans.
According to Screen Rant’s overview of Zenless Zone Zero’s pity system, it mirrors Genshin’s 90-pull hard pity structure for five-star characters and 10-pull for four-star characters, affirming this common structure of Hoyoverse games.
Practical Wishing Wisdom: Tips and Tricks
Now armed with knowledge about pity, 50/50, and Primogems, let’s distill practical advice for wishing:
- Save Primogems for Ten-Pulls (Generally): Statistically single pulls equal ten-pulls’ odds. However, ten-pulls unlock guaranteed four-star items within that set. It’s slightly more time-efficient as well.
- Single Pulls for Precision: Single pulls let you stop once you attain what you want. Close to pity? A few more pulls might save you from overshooting after getting your desired character or weapon.
- Pity Doesn’t Expire: Your pity counter never resets due to time or banner changes. It resets when you pull a five-star. This means you can save up pity across banners without losing your progress.
- Plan Your Wishes: Choose weapons or characters you want and plan Primogem spending accordingly. Understanding the pity system lets you determine wishes (and Primogems) needed to guarantee characters, factoring the 50/50.
As this HoYoLAB guide for Genshin’s pity explains simply, understanding pity counts in decision-making.
In summary, every wish matters for
pity, including those in ten-pulls. Understanding and utilizing the pity system and navigating the 50/50 is crucial for Genshin Impact players strategically building their roster of characters and weapons. So wish wisely, Traveler. May the gacha gods be in your favor (or at least, may pity be with you). For more on the 50/50 system, see Sportskeeda’s guide on Genshin’s 50/50 pity system.
