Genshin Impact Pity Guide: How to Optimize Wishes

Genshin Impact Pity System

Genshin Impact runs on a gacha system that allows players to wish for characters and weapons. This system is luck-based, and many times, you will not get the character or weapon that you want.

However, with the pity system, you will be able to greatly reduce the variance of the gacha system and get more characters that you want as long as you have patience and discipline.

What is the Pity System?

Pity is a term coined by the gacha community describing how many pulls or wishes it will take to guarantee a major character. In Genshin Impact, this refers to the amount of pulls needed to guarantee a 5-star pull.

On the limited banners, you are guaranteed a 5-star on your 90th pull if you do not get one within 90 pulls. Once you get a 5-star character, this 90 wish timer is reset.

Furthermore, there is a 50% chance that you will receive the limited 5-star character on the limited banner. The other 50% chance goes to the standard 5-star characters in the game.

If you lose the 50/50 and get the non featured 5-star character, you are guaranteed to get the featured character on your next 5-star wish.

Essentially, if you really want a specific character, it will take up to 180 wishes to guarantee that you get them. That’s a lot of wishes.

Use this to your Advantage

The pity system on limited banners carries over to the next banner and so on. What does this mean?

Let’s say I really want Raiden Shogun and I have to wish 90 times in order to get a 5-star. There is a 50% chance that I will get a 5-star character that isn’t Raiden Shogun.

When this happens, I have two options.

• Option 1: I wish up to 90 more times in order to guarantee that I get Raiden Shogun.
• Option 2: I decide to stop here and save my guarantee for a future banner.

Don’t be too upset if you fail a 50/50. This means that in the future, if I want a 5-star character on a new banner, I’m guaranteed to get it within 90 pulls.

History

By checking the History button on the Wish page, you will be able to see your previous wishes. Using this, you can count how many wishes away you are from the guaranteed 90 wishes.

Building Pity

Sometimes, you may hear people refer to something called “building pity.” This refers to wishing on a banner where you don’t want the 5-star character, but want to maybe wish for the 4-star characters on this banner.

This is only acceptable if you are currently not guaranteed the 5-star on the banner. If this isn’t true, you may screw yourself over for the next banner where you really want the 5-star character.

Limited Guarantee

Let’s say I don’t want Raiden Shogun because I already have her. However, I really want to pull at least 1 Bennett (a 4-star character). I decide to wish just a few times in order to get Bennett.

My last 5-star wish was a non limited character, so I currently am guaranteed the limited character on the banner.

Within my first 10 or 20 wishes, I accidentally get Raiden Shogun along with Bennett. Why is this an issue?

This is a problem because this resets the guaranteed limited character. In the future, if I really want a 5-star character, I’ll reset back down to a potential 180 wishes in order to get them.

Limited 50/50

However, let’s say my last 5-star pull was a limited character and I currently have a 50/50 chance to get a limited character or a non-limited character.

Building up pity is less of an issue here because the drawback is less severe.

If I wish only a few times and I get Raiden Shogun, I’m back where I started with a 50/50 chance of getting the next limited character I want.

If I wish and I pull a non-limited character, I am ecstatic. This means that on the next banner, I am guaranteed the featured limited character within 90 wishes.

Weapon Pity System

For Limited Weapon Banners, the pity system is slightly different. Since each weapon banner has 2 featured weapons, the pity system is different and much more unforgiving than the character banner.

Firstly, the amount of wishes for a guaranteed 5-star weapon is 80 wishes, so slightly less than that of a character. Also, instead of a 50/50 like it is for characters, you have a 75% chance of hitting a featured weapon. If you hit a non-featured weapon, then the next will be guaranteed just like the character banner. I’ll refer to this as the 75/25 pity system.

However, the issue with weapon banners is that there are two featured weapons. Oftentimes, there will be one weapon that is great, and one weapon that is not as recommended. This makes it much more of a gamble when wishing on the weapon banner.

Epitomized Path

In the character banner, you know that it will take a max of 180 wishes in order to get the featured character you want.

For the weapon banner, it’s very different. Since there are two featured weapons, it is much harder to guarantee one of the specific weapons.

The Epitomized Path is the pity system for the weapon banner where you can choose which weapon you want to build pity for.

Unlike the character banner, you will need to miss the weapon twice in order to guarantee that your next 5-star wish is the weapon you want.

This means that it will take up to 240 wishes in order to guarantee the weapon you want. Furthermore, this pity system does not carry over to future weapon banners. Only the 75/25 odds you get will carry over.

Wishing for Weapons as a F2P or Low Spender

If you are a F2P (Free to Play) player or a low spender, you may want to avoid weapon banners entirely. The only time you want to wish on the weapon banner will be when both of the featured weapons are very strong or something you want for your account.

This way, you don’t have to rely on the Epitomized Path which is very expensive. This doesn’t happen very often, but there will be times where the weapon banner includes two very powerful weapons.

Conclusion

And that wraps up everything you need to know about the pity system in Genshin Impact. Using this knowledge, you can plan out when you want to wish for characters and weapons to maximize the value of your primogems.

To understand the best ones to target, don’t miss our list of best characters.

Lastly, I want to note that even with this knowledge, you should still wish when you want something. Genshin is a game that can be enjoyed even without the best characters or best weapons. You can definitely chart out the optimal strategy for wishing, but it’s also okay to take it easy and simply go with your gut.

Just don’t be surprised if things don’t go your way and make sure to spend responsibly if you choose to do so.