Genshin Impact is a popular free-to-play open-world action RPG developed and published by miHoYo. The game features a gacha system in which players can obtain characters, weapons, and other items through wishing on banners using either in-game currency called Primogems or real money. Understanding how pity and guaranteed pity works in Genshin Impact can help players strategize their wishing.
What is Pity?
Pity refers to an underlying mechanic in the wishing system that increases the chances of getting a 5-star character each time you make a wish on the character event banner. Specifically, the chance to get a 5-star increases with each wish you make after your last 5-star. It starts at 0.6% and gradually increases until you hit 90 wishes, at which point the pity system guarantees you a 5-star item on your 90th wish.
So in summary:
- Your chance to get a 5-star gradually goes up each wish after your last 5-star
- The pity counter resets every time you actually get a 5-star
- You are guaranteed a 5-star item on your 90th wish since last 5-star
The weapon event banner has a similar pity system, except it guarantees a 5-star weapon at 80 wishes instead of 90.
What is Hard Pity?
Hard pity refers to the guaranteed wish threshold where you are guaranteed a 5-star. As mentioned above, this is 90 wishes for the character banner and 80 wishes for the weapon banner since your last 5-star.
So in other words, hard pity is hitting that maximum number of wishes required to trigger the guarantee: 90 wishes for character event banner, 80 wishes for weapon event banner.
Soft Pity
While hard pity is the guaranteed threshold, soft pity refers to an increased chance to get a 5-star before hitting hard pity. Specifically, the soft pity range is from wish 75 to 89 on the character banner. During this soft pity range, the chance to get a 5-star gradually increases with each wish, making it likely you’ll get a 5-star before having to rely on the hard pity guarantee.
On the weapon banner, soft pity is from wish 65 to 79 where the 5-star rate also increases until hard pity kicks in at 80.
Pity Carryover Between Banners
An important thing to note is that the pity counter is carried over between banners of the same type. So for example:
- Pity count carries over from one character event banner to the next
- Pity count carries over from one weapon event banner to the next
However, the pity counter does not carry over between the character and weapon banners. They have separate pity counters.
The standard banner also has its own separate pity counter that does not overlap with the limited character or weapon banners.
Guaranteed Featured 5-star Pity
There is one more pity mechanic that guarantees the featured 5-star character or weapon on certain occasions:
- If you get a non-featured 5-star on the character or weapon banner, your next 5-star is guaranteed to be the featured one
- This carries over between character banners. So if you get a non-featured 5-star character, your next 5-star character is guaranteed the featured one even on the next banner
In summary, this guaranteed featured 5-star pity gives players peace of mind that even if they lose the 50/50 once, the next 5-star they get will 100% be the featured character or weapon.
Pity Counter Trackers
To help keep track of where you are at with pity, many players use online Genshin Impact pity calculators and wish trackers. These tools connect to your in-game wish history and display statistics on your current pity count, how many wishes since your last 5-star, your guaranteed featured 5-star status, and more. Some popular pity counters include:
- paimon.moe
- genshin-wishes.com
- gi-wish.com
Using one of these can help you always know where you stand with pity as you are wishing.
Strategizing Around Pity Mechanics
Understanding Genshin Impact’s pity systems allows players to strategize their wishing approach better.
Here are some examples of pity strategies:
- Only wishing up to 75-80 wishes on a banner you’re 50/50 on, then saving the guarantee for a banner you really want
- Pre-farming primogems to have enough for back-to-back pity by the time a desired character rerun arrives
- Wishing 20-30 wishes on the weapon banner to build some pity for the next weapon you want
- Stopping once you hit soft pity thresholds to avoid “wasting” wishes going beyond guarantees
Overall, while Genshin Impact’s gacha system relies on some randomness, understanding the pity mechanics provides a degree of control and planning ability.
Conclusion
Genshin Impact’s pity system provides a guarantee that you’ll get a 5-star character or weapon after a certain number of wishes. The key points to understand include:
- Pity gradually increases 5-star odds until the hard pity guarantee threshold (90 character, 80 weapon)
- Soft pity from 75-89 wishes has an increased 5-star rate before hard pity
- Pity carries between consecutive banners of the same type
- Getting a non-featured 5-star guarantees the next 5-star is the featured one
Learning these pity mechanics and using wish trackers allows players to strategize their primogem spending and wishing approach. While the gacha system still involves luck, pity provides a degree of predictability and control.