Understanding Genshin Impact’s Pity System: A Guide to Gacha Game Mechanics

Demystifying Pity: Your Dry-Witted Guide to Gacha Game Luck (or Lack Thereof)

Have you tossed digital pennies into a wishing well, seeking favor in your gacha game? You aren’t alone. Gacha games offer rare characters and powerful weapons based on chance. Under this randomness is a mechanic designed to save you from despair: the Pity System. Let’s clarify this crucial system.

Understanding the Pity System: It’s Not Actually Pity, It’s Math

So, what is this “pity”? In games like Genshin Impact, pity acts as your safety net. It’s the game’s way of signaling, “Alright, we see you’ve tried.” Formally, pity guarantees a top-tier item—a 5-star character or weapon—after a set number of attempts, even if luck has left you.

Imagine it as a celestial vending machine. Sometimes, it gives you exactly what you want quickly. Other times, it gobbles your coins and gives you the opposite. Pity ensures that after enough tries, the machine will provide the grand prize.

Hard Pity: The Unbreakable Guarantee

Let’s detail specifics. “Hard pity” is the ultimate safety net. At a certain point, game developers declare enough is enough. You WILL receive a 5-star item. In Genshin Impact, hard pity starts at 90 wishes for character and standard banners. Yes, 90. It is a lot, but it’s a guarantee. Reach your 90th pull and bam! A 5-star character or weapon is yours.

Weapon banners are slightly more lenient with hard pity commencing at 80 wishes. That’s still a decent sum, but somewhat better. To recap: for character and standard banners, 90 pulls are required for hard pity. For weapon banners, it’s 80 pulls. Remember these numbers; they might save you from gacha dread.

Soft Pity: When Luck Hints It Might Be Thawing

Next, let’s explore “soft pity.” Soft pity is like the game suggesting, “Psst, your luck may be turning.” It’s not a guarantee, but it increases your odds of pulling a 5-star item before hitting hard pity. It’s as if the game feels sorry for you before delivering something good.

The timing for soft pity start varies within the Genshin Impact community. Some say it begins at the 70th pull. Others target around the 74th or 75th wish. The conclusion is that between your 70th and 80th wish, your chances of getting that coveted 5-star rise significantly. For weapon banners, soft pity seems to start around the 64th to 70th pull. Thus, total pulls needed may average around 70.

Soft pity serves as a signal to prepare for potential digital fireworks. It’s not a guarantee, but it’s an encouraging nudge.

Tracking Your Pity: Counting Sheep, But With Wishes

How can you gauge where you stand on the pity journey? Unfortunately, Genshin Impact doesn’t display a pity counter on screen (though that would be transparent). You must do some detective work yourself. The method is simple: count. Count each wish on a specific banner since your last 5-star drop. That’s your pity count.

Each failed attempt adds one to your tally. Once you pull a 5-star, congratulations! But also, your count resets to zero. It’s time to start anew. Tracking this manually can be tedious if you wish often. Don’t worry; helpful tools exist.

Banner Types and Pity: Separate but Equal (in Pity Mechanics)

Genshin Impact presents various banners, each tempting with unique digital rewards. Pity isn’t universal; each banner type has its own independent system.

Separate Pity Counters: Banners Behaving Badly (Independently)

Think of it: Standard Banner, Character Event Banner, and Weapon Event Banner act like three separate gacha machines. Wishing on one does nothing for the others. Your Standard pulls don’t contribute to your Character Event Banner pity and vice versa. Each has its own pity counter, tracking pulls within its own little world.

This separation is key for strategic wishing. If you’re saving for a specific character on an event banner, your Standard Banner wishes won’t help that goal. Use your Primogems wisely.

Pity Carryover: Good News for the Strategically Inclined

Now for some good news: pity isn’t entirely cruel. It can carry over, but with caveats. Pity carries over between banners of the same type. This distinction matters. If wishing on a Character Event Banner and not hitting pity before it ends, your count doesn’t vanish.

If you make 70 wishes on a character banner and the banner expires without luck, during the next Character Event Banner, only 20 more wishes are needed to hit hard pity (at 90). This carryover applies to character and weapon event banners, rewarding persistence and planning.

However, pity does not carry over between different banner types. Your Character Event Banner pity won’t assist you on a Weapon Event Banner or contribute to your Standard pity. Additionally, pity carryover is typically contained within the same game. Genshin Impact savings won’t assist you in titles like Honkai: Star Rail.

Games like Honkai: Star Rail and Zenless Zone Zero employ similar systems within their banners, illustrating trends in gacha design favoring player retention and resource management. Understanding pity carryover is essential for efficiently managing resources in games.

Pity Reset: The Inevitable Zeroing Out

Pity must eventually reset after receiving a 5-star item from the banner. It’s a clean slate: guaranteed reward achieved (or perhaps lucky early), and your counter resets to zero for the next cycle. This reset applies across banner types. Whether you receive a 5-star at pull number 5 or pull number 85, the counter resets.

A misconception exists that pity might reset after an arbitrary period of inactivity—six months, for example. This is false. Time is irrelevant to pity as clarified by Yahoo! News Singapore. Your pity count lasts until you pull a 5-star, no matter how long it takes. Accumulated pity won’t disappear if you take a break.

The Infamous 50/50 System: A Coin Flip with Digital Fates

The 50/50 system generates both excitement and despair for many Genshin Impact players. The 50/50 system

Character Event Banners introduce a coin flip when you pull a 5-star. You have a 50% chance to get the featured character, the one on the banner. The other 50% is a standard character from the general pool, like Diluc or Jean. They’re strong, but this feels like losing the 50/50.

Losing the 50/50 stings after grinding. However, it’s not a defeat. It guarantees your next 5-star pull on that banner will be the featured character. The game acknowledges your struggle. It says you will get what you seek next time.

If you lose the 50/50, your pity counter resets. Now, you have what people call “guaranteed pity.” Your next 5-star on that banner is guaranteed to be the featured character. You will only need up to two pity cycles to secure a specific character from an event banner.

This 50/50 mechanic may frustrate players. Still, it adds strategic depth to your wishes. Knowing that losing sets up a guaranteed character may influence your decisions. Sportskeeda’s guide emphasizes the importance of understanding this to maximize your resources.

Primogems and Wishes: Currency of Hope

You need wishes to engage with the pity system. You mainly require Primogems, the game’s premium currency. One wish costs 160 Primogems. A 10-pull costs 1600 Primogems and is often more efficient.

To reach hard pity on a character or standard banner, you’ll need 14,400 Primogems. That’s based on one wish costing 160 Primogems. Planning your Primogem accumulation and spending is vital for anyone who aims to hit pity for specific characters.

Additional Mechanics: Radiance and 4-Star Pity

Genshin Impact offers more mechanics beyond basic pity. A notable one is “Capturing Radiance.” This activates if you lose the 50/50 three times on character banners. After that, your next pull is guaranteed featured, even on another loss. It’s a safety net against bad luck.

There’s also a 4-star pity system. You’ll receive at least a 4-star item every 10 wishes. This counter resets whenever you pull a 4-star or higher item. So, every 10 pulls, you are guaranteed something of at least 4-star quality.

Common Misconceptions: Busting Pity Myths

Some misunderstandings about pity need clarification. Pity does not reset based on time; it persists until you pull a 5-star.

Another misconception is that single pulls versus 10-pulls affect pity differently. This is false. The odds of pulling a 5-star remain the same, regardless of pull type. 10-pulls offer efficiency and guarantee a 4-star but do not increase rates for 5-stars.

External Tools: Pity Trackers to the Rescue

Tracking your pity manually can be tedious. Fortunately, many tools and websites help players track pity progress. One popular choice is Paimon.moe. This site allows you to import your wish history. It can calculate your pity on each banner and provide statistics.

The official Hoyolab app, while not solely a pity tracker, offers features that can help. While it lacks a dedicated counter, accessing wish history can improve functionality. These tools are essential for optimizing your wishing strategy.

Pity Across Games: A Gacha Game Standard

The pity system isn’t unique to Genshin Impact. Many gacha games have similar mechanics, including those from HoYoverse and others. Honkai: Star Rail also features pity systems with carryover between similar banners, like Genshin Impact. Upcoming titles like Zenless Zone Zero also have confirmed carryover.

Game Currencies and Pity Costs: A Quick Comparison

Primogems serve as Genshin Impact‘s wish currency. Other games have different equivalents. Honkai: Star Rail uses Stellar Jade, and Zenless Zone Zero utilizes Polychromes. The wish costs and pity systems remain mostly consistent. In Honkai: Star Rail, a single warp costs 160 Stellar Jade and hard pity stands at 90 warps, just like in Genshin Impact.

Farming Primogems: Fueling Your Pity Engine

How do you gather enough Primogems for pity? Genshin Impact provides several farming methods. The Spiral Abyss is the most consistent source for players. Clearing its floors yields many Primogems. Daily Commissions also offer steady Primogems daily.

Exploring new regions and opening chests yields Primogems too, especially in new areas. Limited-time events also give significant rewards for participation, while developers often distribute Primogems during updates and server maintenance. Using all methods lets you accumulate a decent number of wishes over time.

General Pity Wisdom: Numbers and Probabilities

To conclude, let’s consider a few points about pity and wish probabilities. Hard pity stands at 90 pulls for character and standard banners and 80 for weapon banners. Statistically, you have a decent chance of pulling a 5-star before hitting hard pity, especially after soft pity kicks in. Some calculations show around a 35.5% chance of pulling a 5-star within 73 wishes.

If planning a long-term wishing strategy, a player starting out can expect to accumulate around 300-400 wishes over time. On average, you might earn about 60-70 wishes per patch cycle through gameplay and events. These numbers are rough estimates that provide a general idea of resource accumulation rates in Genshin Impact.

A final tip: If you consider spending real money on Primogems, do the math on different options to reveal surprising efficiencies. Sometimes buying two $50 Gem packs gives more Primogems than a single $100 pack. Be a savvy shopper, even in the digital realm.

Understanding the pity system is essential for navigating Genshin Impact mechanics. It’s not just about luck; it involves informed strategy, resource management, and patience. Now armed with this guide, go forth and wish wisely, traveler!