Quick Links
One ofGenshin Impact’s biggest draws is its huge roster of interesting characters and well-designed weaponry, but not all of them are easy to acquire. With the existing gacha system, players have access to several different banners with different characters and weapons. Figuring out which one to pull on, and how to calculate one’s chances of a desirable result, can be confusing.
Thankfully, there is a pity system in place that makes getting 4-star and5-star items inGenshin Impactslightly easier, though some players may be confused about certain aspects of this mechanic. For those fans that are looking to have these confusions alleviated, this guide has full details onGenshin Impact’s pity system.
How The Pity System Works In Genshin Impact
To put things simply, the pity system inGenshin Impactguarantees that playerswill always receive items of certain rarities within a designated number of Wishes. For instance, if a fan makes nine consecutive Wishes without earning an item of 4-star rarity or higher, then they are guaranteed to obtain a four-star character or weapon on their tenth Wish. Something similar is in place for 5-star rarity items, though the pity system does not kick in here until much later.
Essentially, invery short summary, a four-star weapon or character is guaranteed every 10 wishes, a five-star character on the character Banners is guaranteed every 90 wishes, and a five-star weapon is guaranteed on the weapon Banner every 80 wishes.
Guaranteed Four-Star (or higher)
After 9 pulls without winning a four- or five-star
After 89 pulls without winning a five-star
After 79 pulls without winning a five-star
This means that the chance of pulling a 4-star or 5-star item is actually a bit higher than what is indicated on a Banner, which is only the base rate at which those items are awarded. More specifically, the rate for 4-star items climbs to13-14.5%when factoring in the pity system. The rate for 5-star items rises to1.6-1.85%when doing the same. While this is not an extremely significant jump, it may at least help fans with their eyes on a particular character or weapon feel more hopeful.
The 50/50 System
Further to the above guarantees and pity systems, there is also a system fans refer to as the 50/50 system. In essence, this is another guarantee toward pulling a featured character based on certain circumstances.
On the limited Character Event Wishes, there will be a featured five-star that is only available for a limited time during their own event series (usually three weeks at a time, with occasional reruns on later dates for another three weeks).
When a player pulls a five-star character, there is a 50% chance* that it will be the featured character. This is called “winning” the 50/50. However, there is also a 50% chance* it could be a permanently-available Standard Banner character. These characters are Jean, Diluc, Qiqi, Keqing, Mona, Dehya, Tighnari, and Mizuki. They are always available on the Standard Banner, Wanderlust Invocation. This is called “losing” the 50/50.
However, this is where the pity system has another effect.If a player “loses” the 50/50 and obtains a Standard Banner character, they are guaranteed to obtain the featured character next time they pull a five-star.This effect carries over across banners, so if you lose the 50/50 and don’t get the character you want, you don’t have to worry about losing the 50/50 again before you get the next win, even if the character banner changes over.
*Capturing Radiance
While the 50/50 system is referred to as such, and was a straight 50% / 50% ratio for the first few years of the game, Hoyoverse introduced a new mechanic in 2024 called Capturing Radiance. Here’s how it works.
When a player “loses” the 50/50, there is a 5% chance that they will still obtain the featured event character. This is marked with a special animation. As a result, the 50/50 system should be thought of as a 55/45 system, where there is a 55% chance of obtaining the featured character, and a 45% chance of “losing.” However, most players still use the term 50/50 for ease and brevity.
The Weapon Banner Pity System
While character banners have a pity system that guarantees a five-star character every 90 pulls, the weapon banner (Epitome Invocation) is a bit shorter. It guarantees a five-star weapon every 80 wishes instead. Like the character banners, the weapon banner promises a featured limited weapon if the last five-star pulled was a Standard Banner weapon. However, it also has a system called Epitomized Path that the character banners do not.
Since the two featured five-star characters each have their own banners (Character Event Wish and Character Event Wish-2), players need not worry about pulling the “wrong” limited five-star, as it’s not possible. But, on the weapon banner, both the limited weapons are on the same one. So, if a player successfully pulls the limited five-star weapon, they can still “lose” by getting the wrong one.
The Epitomized Path mechanic was introduced to combat this problem. Players choose their “path,” or the weapon they want to pull for. If they obtain a different five-star weapon (the other promotional featured weaponora Standard weapon), they’ll earn a Fate Point. Then, the next time they pull the limited five-star weapon, the Fate Point will be consumed and the weapon they charted their path for is guaranteed to be won.
So:
The Epitomized Path system essentially combats the problem of there being two featured weapons on the Weapon Banner. Whereas on the Character Banners, players are simply guaranteed to win the 50/50 after losing it the first time, on the Weapon Banner, the next “guaranteed” promotional five-star could be the “wrong"one, so the Epitomized Path system helps with that.
While normal pity (ensuring that a limited weapon is won if the last five-star was a Standard Banner weapon) is carried over banner to banner, much like character pity, Fate Points do not carry over to the next banner.
Featured Four-Stars
While most people are concerned with the pity system as it pertains to pulling a five-star character or weapon, there are also mechanics in place to ensure pulling the featured rate-up four-stars.
Each character banner has three rate-up four-star characters, and each weapon banner also has a pool of rate-up four-star weapons. These characters and weapons are more likely to be pulled than others of the same rarity. Four-star characters pulled on the character banners have a50% chance of being one of the featured rate-up characters, and four-star weapons pulled have a 75% chance of being one of the featured four-star weapons.
There is no way to chart a course for a particular four-star character or weapon. Therefore, players may pull the same four-star character several times before pulling one of the other two, for example.
Both the character banners and the weapon banner have guarantees on next-time pulls, similar to the 50/50 system with five-stars. If a four-star weapon or character is pulled that isnotone of the featured ones, the next one pulled is guaranteed to be one of the featured ones. However, it can be any of the featured characters or weapons. If a player obtains a non-featured four-star character, for example, they’re guaranteed to pullone ofthe three featured four-stars, but cannot choose which.
The system of obtaining a four-star every ten wishes is also carried over patch-to-patch, but does not apply between different types of banners.
Is The Pity System Per Banner Or Overall?
The pity system tracks Wishes on aper-Banner basis. This means thatGenshin Impactplayers cannot make 89 Wishes on the Standard Banner, and then receive a guaranteed 5-star item from an Event Banner by putting their 90th Wish there. Or, they cannot put 70 wishes on the Weapon Banner and have that pity count apply to the simultaneously-running Character Banner. Pity is contained within each “category” of banner. Thus, fans' pity progress will carry over to new Event Banners when they launch, as well as apply to both of the currently-active Event Banners at the same time, but cannot be used between different banner types.
For example, if a player is sitting at 89 Wishes without a 5-star on theVenti bannerwhen it ends, their first wish on the subsequent character promo banner will guarantee a 5-star. Additionally, bothlimitedCharacter Banners share a pity pool. A player can put wishes on each one back and forth and it will all contribute to their pity for both.
As for four-star characters, they have (at the time of writing) always been the same three characters on both limited Character Banners. Whether any type of difference would apply if the two character banners had different four-stars is currently not confirmed.
The Soft Pity System In Genshin Impact
In addition to the hardpity system inGenshin Impactthat guarantees a 5-star for every 90 Wishes, there is also a soft pity cap that increases the odds of getting a 5-star before 90 pulls has been reached. Although the exact numbers aren’t officially confirmed, it’s clear that the odds of getting a 5-star character increase significantly after players have made at least 74 Wishes since their last 5-star. Because of this system, it’s likely that most players won’t have to go all the way to 90 to receive a 5-star character. Pulling a five-star character is thought to be around 0.6% up until around the 74th pull, give or take.
In short, as the player nears the “hard pity” of 80 pulls on the weapon banner or 90 on the character banner, the chances of obtaining a five-star increase little by little (theorized at around 6% per wish) until they hit 100%. For the character banner, for example, that looks something like this:
% chance of obtaining five-star character
74
6.6%
75
12.6%
76
18.6%
77
24.6%
78
30.6%
79
36.6%
80
42.6%
81
48.6%
82
54.6%
83
60.6%
84
66.6%
85
72.6%
86
78.6%
87
84.6%
88
90.6%
89
96.6%
90
100%
Please note that these are not officially confirmed numbers, and are theorized from fan testing and discussion.
Regardless of whether the soft pity was triggered, the counters toward a guaranteed 4-star or 5-star itemimmediately reset upon receiving an item of one of those rarities. While this may be well understood from the preceding description of the mechanic, it is worth clarifying.
Chronicled Wish Pity System
In 2024, Hoyoverse introduced the Chronicled Wish, a new type of banner that only runs periodically. This banner is special in that it features a large roster of limited five-star characters and weapons, some Standard five-stars, and a specific pool of four-star weapons and characters. Three-star weapons are also obtainable.
Candidacy for a character to appear on a Chronicled Wish banner is as follows:
There is no listed eligibility criteria for weapons, but they seem to be based on the region that a Chronicled Wish is based in (for example, the first Chronicled Wish event was mainly characters and weapons from Mondstadt; the second was Liyue).
Chronicled Wish pulls use Intertwined Fates, and feature the same pity system where a five-star is guaranteed at 90 pulls, though with this, it applies to both charactersandweapons. Four-stars are guaranteed every ten pulls. Also like normal banners, the five-star pull works on a 50/50 system. However, instead of being 50% the featured character/weapon and 50% a Standard Banner character/weapon, the Chronicled Wish uses a new mechanic called Chronicled Path.
Chronicled Path, Explained
Chronicled Path works similarly to the Weapon Banner’s Epitomized Path system, with some differences. Players chart a course for whichever five-star character or weapon they hope to pull. When they pull a five-star, it’s a 50/50 split whether they get the one they selected or a different one. If they lose the 50/50, the next five-star is a guaranteed win. It’s a gamble between the selected five-star and all the other featured five-stars, not a gamble between the featured five-star and a Standard pool.
Additionally, it should be noted that choosing a Chronicled Path will lock the player’s five-star pulls to either weapons or characters. If a character is selected for the Chronicled Path, all five-star pulls will be five-star characters, and no weapons. If a weapon is selected for Chronicled Path, all the five-star pulls will be weapons. This doesn’t apply to four-stars; four-star weapons or characters can be pulled regardless of the Chronicled Path chosen.
Like regular banners, the pity built up on Chronicled Wish cannot be applied to other banners, but interestingly,will carry over to the next Chronicled Wish, despite them only running about once a year.
