Understanding the Pity System

Genshin Impact has gained tremendous popularity for its impressive selection of characters and creatively designed weapons. Yet, obtaining these coveted items isn’t always straightforward, thanks to the game’s gacha system. With multiple banners offering various characters and weapons, players often find themselves puzzled about which ones to target and what their chances are.

Luckily, the game incorporates a "pity" system that makes acquiring 4-star and 5-star items just a tad easier, though some nuances can be perplexing for newcomers. Read on for a comprehensive explanation of how Genshin Impact’s pity system operates.

Understanding Genshin Impact’s Pity System

At its core, Genshin Impact’s pity system guarantees that players will eventually snag items of certain rarities after a set number of Wishes. Specifically, if a player makes nine consecutive Wishes without getting a 4-star item or better, the tenth Wish will guarantee a 4-star character or weapon. The system extends to 5-star items too, but it activates a bit later.

Here’s a breakdown: every 10 Wishes will certainly yield a 4-star item, every 90 Wishes on character banners will produce a 5-star character, and every 80 Wishes on weapon banners secure a 5-star weapon.

Both character and weapon banners include a guaranteed 4-star item after nine unsuccessful tries, while a 5-star pity pull happens after many more attempts. This setup slightly increases the likelihood of pulling high-rarity items beyond the base rates, providing players with more optimism towards scoring their desired picks.

The 50/50 System

Adding a layer of excitement and suspense is what fans call the "50/50 system." When players aim for a featured 5-star character during a limited-time Event Wish, they face a coin flip. There’s a 50% probability of pulling the event-exclusive character but an equal chance of getting a permanent 5-star character from the Standard Banner squad: Jean, Diluc, Qiqi, Keqing, Mona, Dehya, Tighnari, or Mizuki.

However, should a player not secure the event character after a 5-star pull, the system ensures the next 5-star draw will be the featured character. This safeguard remains effective across different banners, ensuring that losing one 50/50 challenge doesn’t mean missing out in subsequent pulls.

Capturing Radiance Update

In an exciting twist, Hoyoverse enhanced the 50/50 mechanism in 2024 with "Capturing Radiance." Now, if a player fails to nab the featured character during a 50/50 pull, they still have a 5% shot at obtaining them, courtesy of a special animation. This makes the actual odds more favorable than they initially appear.

Navigating the Weapon Banner

While character banners offer guarantees after a 90-pull stretch, the weapon banner, or "Epitome Invocation," provides a similar guarantee after 80 pulls. Besides, the weapon banner presents a unique system known as the Epitomized Path.

Unlike character banners where featured figures each get separate showcases, the weapon banner combines two limited-time weapons. This could lead players to snag the "wrong" option. Through the Epitomized Path, players can choose a preferred weapon. If they happen to pull a different 5-star weapon, they earn a Fate Point, which ensures their next 5-star pull will be the weapon they’ve pinpointed.

Just keep in mind, while Fate Points prove invaluable, they don’t transfer from one banner to another.

Focusing on Featured Four-Stars

In tandem with five-star pulls, the system also enhances odds on pulling featured 4-star characters and weapons. Each banner includes three four-star characters which are more likely to be secured compared to other four-stars. However, players might draw a single four-star character multiple times before getting others from the same list.

For both character and weapon banners, if an off-feature 4-star is obtained, the next four-star pull guarantees it will be one of the featured options. While this doesn’t allow choosing a specific four-star item, it does promise items from the featured selection.

Banner-Specific Gain

Crucially, pity counts are isolated to each type of banner. This means you can’t tally Wishes across various banners to hit a milestone. Consequently, players can rest assured that their in-progress efforts won’t go in vain when new event banners arrive, though these counts won’t apply to different banner categories.

Exploring the Soft Pity System

Besides the hard guarantee, there’s also a "soft pity" boosting the probability of pulling a 5-star item before reaching the full count. While exact figures aren’t verified, players commonly find their luck improving notably after around 74 Wishes. This typically means hitting that lucky 5-star pull happens sooner than later.

Chronicled Wish: A Special Treat

The Chronicled Wish banner arrived in 2024, offering an extraordinary blend of limited and standard 5-star characters, and select 4-star items. Operating with a pity cap similar to regular banners, the Chronical Path strategy now lets players steer toward specific five-star goals.

In short, Genshin Impact deftly balances unpredictability and certainty, giving fans ample opportunity to strategize their pulls, maximize resources, and relish the thrill of each draw.