Genshin Impact’s Wish gacha has been a point of contention among the community since the game’s launch. While some feel the base rates for 5-stars and regular income of Wishes are unfairly low, others argue that the Pity System more than balances it out, especially in comparison to other gacha games on the market. Regardless of what one thinks, it’s good for new players to be aware of how Pity works in Genshin and how to plan their Wishes around it. Pity can be quite helpful for those that wish to stay F2P or to spend as little money as possible.

Wish Rates

The Wanderlust Invocation, or Standard Wish, is a permanent Wish banner containing a set of non-event exclusive characters and weapons. There are no special rate-ups on this Wish and no time limit as well. Occasionally new items may be added to it. The base rate, and consolidated rates (Pity included), are as follows:

• 5-Star Character or Weapon: 0.6% (1.6%)
  
• 4-Star Character or Weapon: 5.1% (13%)
  
• 3-Star Weapon: 94.3% (85.4%)

The Character Event Wish is a time limited banner that features one event exclusive 5-Star character and three 4-Star characters on special rate-ups. Players will have increased odds of obtaining the featured characters. Aside from the featured characters, the rest of the items in the pool are identical to that of the Wanderlust Invocation, with the exception of 5-Star weapons. The base and consolidated rates are the same as the Wanderlust Invocation aside from the fact that 5-Star items only include characters and not weapons.

• 5-Star Character: 0.6% (1.6%)
  
• 4-Star Character or Weapon: 5.1% (13%)
  
• 3-Star Weapon: 94.3% (85.4%)

The Weapon Event Wish is a time limited banner that features two event exclusive 5-Star weapons and five 4-Star weapons on special rate-ups. Players will have increased odds of obtaining the featured weapons. Aside from the featured weapons, the rest of the items in the pool are identical to that of Wanderlust Invocation, with the exception of 5-Star characters. The base and consolidated rates are slightly different from the other two and do not include any 5-Star characters.

• 5-Star Weapon: 0.7% (1.85%)
  
• 4-Star Character or Weapon: 6% (14.5%)
  
• 3-Star Weapon: 93.3% (83.65%)

4-Star items have a 50% chance of being either a character or a weapon, meaning 2.55% base chance for each on the Wanderlust Invocation and Character Event wish, and 3% each on the Weapon Event Wish. When players receive 4- and 5-Star items on Character Event Wishes for the first time, there is a 50% chance of it being the featured item and 50% chance of it being a non-event item. For Weapon Event Wishes the chance for featured items is 75%.

Hard Pity

The base rates by themselves look terrible, but the Pity System helps to balance out these unfavorable odds. One way the game does this is known as ‘Hard Pity’. A Hard Pity occurs when the game guarantees a certain rarity or item after the player fails to receive them within a specific number of Wishes.

4-Stars

In terms of 4-Stars, the game will guarantee the player an item of that rarity, or higher, on the 10th Wish, if they have failed to receive one after nine Wishes. That means for every 10 Wishes, the player is guaranteed to get an item of at least 4-Star rarity. Once a 4-Star item is received, the Hard Pity counter is reset. The game states that on the guaranteed Wish, the probability of receiving a 4-Star item is 99.4% and that there is a 0.6% chance of it being a 5-Star item; the probability becomes 99.3% and 0.7% respectively for Weapon Event Wishes.

In addition, another form of 4-Star Hard Pity exists when it comes specifically to Character and Weapon Event Wishes. If a player receives a 4-Star item that is not an event featured one, then the next time the player receives a 4-Star item it will be guaranteed as one of the featured items. This means it will only take a max of 20 Wishes for a player to receive a featured 4-Star item. Likewise, once a featured 4-Star item is received, the feature Hard Pity counter is reset, meaning the next 4-Star will once again have only a 50% chance of being a featured item.

Keep in mind, all featured items share an equal chance of being received. For example, once a player is guaranteed a featured 4-Star weapon, there is a 20% chance for each of the five featured 4-Star weapons to appear. This means that it is incredibly difficult to target specific 4-Star items as there is no guarantee for each individual one.

5-Stars

For 5-Star items in Wanderlust Invocation the Hard Pity occurs at the 90th Wish. Players that do not receive a 5-Star item after the 89th Wish will be guaranteed one on the 90th Wish.

Likewise, 5-Star characters in Character Event Wish also have a Hard Pity at the 90th Wish. Like 4-Stars, if players fail to win the 50/50 odds of getting the featured 5-Star character, the next one is guaranteed to be the featured one. Therefore, a maximum of 180 Wishes is needed to guarantee the featured 5-Star character if one is extremely unlucky. The Pity counter will, of course, reset upon gaining a 5-Star character or featured 5-Star character.

5-Star weapons on the Weapon Event Wish operate slightly differently when it comes to Hard Pity. This is mostly due to the fact that, unlike characters, two 5-Star weapons are usually featured simultaneously. 5-Star weapons have a Hard Pity on the 80th Wish. Similarly, if players lose the 75/25 odds to get a featured weapon, the next 5-Star weapon is guaranteed to be one of the featured ones. The odds of getting either featured 5-Star weapons on a guaranteed Wish is 50/50.

The problem arises when players desire only one of the two featured weapons, to which the developers have answered with the ‘Epitomized Path’ mechanic. Epitomized Path allows players to chart a path towards their desired 5-Star weapon. Each time the player receives a 5-Star weapon not of their choice, they will gain one ‘Fate Point’. Once they reach two Fate Points, the next 5-Star weapon that appears will guarantee to be the one they chose for the Epitomized Path. Fate Points will reset whenever the player receives their Epitomized Path weapon of choice. Players are free to change their weapon of choice whenever they want, however any Fate Points gained will be lost upon the switch.

This means an unlucky player may require a maximum of 240 Wishes to Hard Pity the weapon of their choice. The Epitomized Path mechanic also does not carry over to subsequent Weapon Event Wishes. Although miles ahead of what it used to be, without Epitomized Path, it is still quite difficult for F2P and low spenders to save up 240 Wishes.

An additional detail to note is that 4- and 5-Star Pity counters for Invocation Wanderlust, Character Event Wish, and Weapon Event Wish are all independent of each other. Fortunately, the Pity counters for both types of Event Wishes carry over to subsequent ones. So, if a player is 40 Wishes into a Character Event Wish without having received a 5-Star character, that counter will carry over to the next Character Event Wish. This also includes feature guarantee Wishes, meaning if a player gets a non-feature 5-Star item on Wish A, the next 5-Star on Wish B will be a feature 5-Star item. When two Character Event Wishes occur simultaneously, the Pity counter also carries over between the two.

Soft Pity

Soft Pity is a term used for increased odds of obtaining certain rarities or items when players fail to receive them after a specific number of tries. Soft Pity odds usually increase gradually until the player receives the item or hits Hard Pity, at which point all Pity is reset. In Genshin Impact, the details for Soft Pity are hidden and not officially shown. Fortunately, many incredible players have conducted some amazing research using community collected data to discover the existence of Soft Pity in Genshin.

Image from Genshin Wishes

One such research, with community data of over 24 million Wishes, has been detailed here by the players of Genshin Wishes. For Wanderlust Invocation and Character Event Wish, they found that Soft Pity starts around the 74th Wish for 5-Star items and increases linearly until it hits 100% at Hard Pity. For Weapon Event Wish, they found that Soft Pity starts around the 63rd Wish. This means that on average it is unlikely for players to come close to Hard Pity and even more improbable to ever reach it even.

Similarly, 4-Star items have a Soft Pity that occurs on the ninth wish, right before the Hard Pity. They also discovered that 5-Star items do not appear to reset the Pity counter for 4-Stars, but instead take precedence by delaying them. For example, if the 10th pull is the Hard Pity for a 4-Star item, but the player receives a 5-Star item instead, then the 4-Star item will be pushed to the 11th Wish. If multiple 5-Star items occur back-to-back, then the 4-Star Pity will be delayed by each continuous 5-Star that occurs.

Image from Genshin Wishes

Additionally, players have also discovered a likelihood of a hidden algorithm that attempts to evenly distribute characters and weapons with a one-to-one ratio. Essentially the system tries to ensure that players receive at least one character and one weapon within three Hard Pities. Meaning one of each 5-Star in 270 pulls and one of each 4-Star in 30 pulls. This mostly pertains to Wanderlust Invocation as players can receive both 5-Star characters and weapons. This video by TenTen does a great job of explaining this potential algorithm.

To help keep track of Pities, players can go to the Wish menu to look at their Wish history for the past six months. Third party sites like Genshin Wishes also offer Wish tracking beyond the six-month limit in the game.

Average Wish Count

To put things into perspective, let’s look at the average number of free Wishes that players can earn from each Version update. From several player estimates, the consensus seems to place the average income per Version at around 8,000 to 9,000 Primogems worth of Wishes. This average excludes those from permanently available one-time sources such as quests, hangout events, exploration, and achievements. Including permanent sources, the average per Version may be closer to that of 10,000 Primogems.

For those that are curious, here are some calculations that players have done in the past:

• Estimated Primogem Average Income Per Patch Cycle (from 1.1 to 2.8 (present)) by HorseLover82 on /r/genshinimpacttips.
  
• I Have Calculated the Freemogem Average that F2P Players Need to Save for 4 Months to Guarantee a Character by Glissile on /r/genshin_impact.

Players that purchase Welkins can expect an average of around 13,000 to 14,000 worth of Primogems per Version. If Gnostic Hymn is also added to the equation, the average is brought up to around 15,000.

If the max number of Wishes needed for a featured 5-Star character is 180 (28,800 Primogems) - which is statistically unlikely - then it can take on average three Version updates for a complete F2P player to save up enough Wishes. Even if the average amount needed is closer to 160 Wishes, it still takes more than two Versions to save up enough. A player with Welkin and Gnostic Hymn will still need more than one Version of time to save up enough as well. Now imagine the amount needed to guarantee a featured weapon.

Prioritizing and Being Patient

So, what does this mean for F2P and low-spending players? Unfortunately, it’s statistically an uphill battle if a player attempts every new Event Wish that comes out, especially when each Version update brings two sets of them.

Players will have to learn to prioritize items that they desire most and sacrifice others if they are likely out of reach. Fortunately, event-limited characters and weapons are regularly brought back for reruns every few months. If players miss out on certain items, there is likely more opportunities in the future to obtain them.

It is also recommended to prioritize 5-Star items as there is no system in place to guarantee specific 4-Star items. The game regularly hands out free 4-Star characters and weapons to help bolster players’ rosters. There is also the option of focusing solely on obtaining limited 5-Star characters and settling on free or budget 4-Star weapons.

Regardless of what players decide, planning around Pity and having patience is highly recommended. Having a rough estimate of the amount and time required to save for items can help set realistic expectations and avoid disappointment.

Conclusion

Playing gacha games is often a marathon rather than a sprint, unless players are willing to shell out large amounts of money to speed up the process. Genshin Impact is no different and that is simply the reality of most gacha games. Attempting to aim for everything will most likely result in disappointments. Being patient and learning to make compromises can go a long way. Good luck on your Wishes and may you always win your 50/50s!