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Like any gacha game, Genshin Impact has to show that it’s not just gambling. Though if you’re interested, definitely keep up with the news and legal implications of gacha – which includes Genshin’s wishing system. Travelers can use Primogems or Fates (Acquainted and Intertwined) to wish for characters and weapons. Wishing may seem random, but there’s a method to the madness. Ultimately, you can plan for the characters you want. With the addition of the Epitome Invocation, it’s easier to get the 5 Star weapon you want too.
Don’t lose sight of the most important part of wishing: wish responsibly! And hopefully, you’ll be able to get what you want without spending money.
More Genshin Impact Guides: Genshin Impact – Best DPS and Support Units | Character Guide | Genshin Impact: Venti Ascension Materials Guide | Character Guide | Genshin Impact: How to Use the Parametric Transformer | Gadgets Guide
The Basics
Every 10 wishes guarantees you at least a 4 Star Character or Weapon. Though not impossible, the game very rarely rewards Travelers with more than one 4 Star per 10 wishes.
There are three types of wishing banners: Character Event, Weapons, and Standard. The featured character and weapons banners are the limited time ones. These banners highlight certain 5 Star characters and weapons, with an increased drop rate for the duration of the banner.
Certain 5 Star characters are always available: Jean, Diluc, Keqing, Qiqi, and Mona. However, most 5 Star characters are only available through their event banner. This includes Venti, Zhongli, Raiden Shogun, Eula, Kazuha…the list goes on.
The Pity System
Every 90 wishes guarantees a 5 Star character or weapon. This is generally referred to as the Pity System because it truly does feel like the game is pitying your bad luck. The Pity System is broken up into Soft Pity and Hard Pity.
Soft Pity is when a 5 Star comes home around the 60-70 wish mark. It’s not a hard and fast rule, but it’s common enough to warrant a label.
Hard Pity is when you get the 5 Star at 90 wishes. No matter when it happens, your Pity resets once you get a 5 Star.
Using the History option at the bottom of the screen is the easiest way to track your Pity. History will show your wishing results going back six months. You can filter banners, so if you only want to see Character Event results, you can choose that option through the dropdown menu. The grid shows you 6 wishes at a time, highlighting 4 Star pulls in purple and 5 Star pulls in gold. With this, you can count the number of wishes between your 5 Star pulls.
The introduction of the second Character Event Banner put a wrinkle in all of this. The History will show you all wishes made on both Character Event Banners. They’re distinguished in the right column as Character-Event-1 and Character-Event-2. At this time, there isn’t a way to filter between wishes made solely on Character Event 1 or Character Event 2. Be careful when you count.
Pity does not transfer from banner to banner. For example, you can’t build Pity for the Character Event banner on the Standard banner. Pity for Standard stays on Standard. Pity for Weapons stays on Weapons. And unfortunately, Pity does not carry over from Character Event 1 to Character Event 2.
However, Pity does carry over when the same banner swaps out. So if you built Pity on the previous banner for Ayato and you didn’t get him, that Pity will carry over to the next banner. That means if you pull 50 times on Ayato’s banner – the previous banner – and stop, you need to wish at most 40 times on Ayaka’s banner – the current banner – in order to get Ayaka. This is how Travelers build Pity for the characters they want.
The 50/50
Don’t celebrate just yet. When you wish for Featured Characters, there’s one more coin toss you have to win. This is the dreaded 50/50. While the Pity System guarantees a 5 Star, it does not guarantee the featured 5 Star. You will either get the featured character or you will get a random 5 Star character. You have a 50/50 chance. If you want true pain, watch Zach Aguilar (voice of Aether) pull for Ayato.
However, losing the 50/50 isn’t completely terrible. As a consolation prize, you are guaranteed the featured character the next time you hit Pity. For example, let’s say you wish on Ayato’s banner, hit Pity, and get Diluc. You try again during Ayaka’s banner. If you hit Pity in Ayaka’s banner, you’re now guaranteed Ayaka.
Some Travelers will use this to guarantee the character they want, especially if they have a habit of losing the 50/50. The 50/50 resets whenever you win it.
Weapon Banner: Epitome Invocation
The Weapon Banner generally operates on the same Pity System as the character banners. The only difference is that the Weapon Banner offers two featured 5 Stars rather than one. Ultimately, this used to mean that players could lose the 50/50 twice: either by getting a random 5 Star weapon or by getting the featured weapon they didn’t want.
After Version 2.1, the game introduced the Epitome Invocation. This aligns the Weapon Banner 50/50 with the other banners. The Epitomized Path allows you to choose between the two featured weapons and will eventually guarantee you that weapon.
Essentially, this feature tracks your Pity and whether or not you lose the 50/50. If you lose, then once you hit Pity again, you’ll receive the weapon of your choice. You can change your selection at any time, but it will reset your 50/50.
