How Does Pity Work in Genshin Impact? (2026 Guide)

Getting your favorite characters in Genshin Impact can sometimes feel like trying to catch a Crystalfly with your bare hands—frustrating, unpredictable, and entirely dependent on luck. But underneath the flashing lights of the wishing screen lies a highly mathematical safety net designed to ensure you never go completely empty-handed.

If you are a casual player and you are wondering how does Genshin pity work, you are not alone. The game doesn’t always do the best job of explaining the hidden numbers behind your wishes. Whether you are saving up for the newest Archon or just trying to understand why everyone keeps screaming about “losing the 50/50,” this guide will break down the entire Genshin Impact pity system in simple, easy-to-understand terms.

By the time you finish reading this, you should be in the know about when the next 5-star will be released, how to keep track of your pulls, and a little bit about how Version 5.0 changed things in the gacha.

The Basics: What is the Genshin pity system?

In gacha games, “pity” is a built-in mechanic that guarantees you will eventually receive a high-rarity item after a certain number of unlucky pulls. It is the game taking “pity” on your bad luck.

If you are wondering how does Genshin pity work at a foundational level, it revolves around your “Wishes” (pulls). And every time you get a failure (i.e., not a 5-star character or weapon), this increments an internal counter. Eventually, this counter grows high enough, and the drop is forced to be 5 stars.

There are four main banner types in the game, and each has its own separate Genshin pity tracker:

1. Character Event Wish (Limited Banners): Features newly released or returning limited characters.
2. Weapon Event Wish (Epitome Invocation): Features the signature 5-star weapons tailored to the current limited characters.
3. Standard Wish (Wanderlust Invocation): The permanent, evergreen banner featuring the standard pool of characters and weapons.
4. Chronicled Wish: A special rotating banner featuring older limited characters and weapons. It uses Intertwined Fates and allows you to “chart a course” for a specific older character or weapon using a 1-Fate-Point system.

Crucial Note: Pity carries over between banners of the same type. If you make 40 wishes on Mualani’s Character banner and don’t get a 5-star, you will start the next Character banner with 40 wishes already logged. However, these don’t carry over to the Weapon, Standard, or Chronicled banners.

The 4-star guarantee & the stardust economy

While everyone hyper-focuses on the elusive 5-stars, the Genshin Impact pity system also protects you on the lower tiers.

You are guaranteed to pull a 4-star item (either a character or a weapon) at least once every 10 pulls. If you do single pulls and get nine 3-star weapons in a row, your 10th pull will magically turn purple.

Furthermore, every single pull you make yields a secondary currency that creates a continuous pulling loop:

• Masterless stardust: Awarded for pulling 3-star weapons.
• Masterless starglitter: Awarded for pulling 4-star and 5-star items.

These can be exchanged for other currencies at Paimon’s Bargains to obtain more Intertwined and Acquaint Fates. Since you have to wish for something, this is actually a free wish!

Soft and hard pity Genshin Impact explained

To truly master your Primogem budget, you need to understand the difference between soft and hard pity Genshin Impact mechanics. The game only explicitly tells you about hard pity in the banner details, but the community discovered soft pity through millions of logged wishes.

What is Genshin soft pity?

The base chance of pulling a 5-star character on any given single wish is a microscopic 0.6%. However, once you hit a specific number of pulls, the game drastically increases those odds. This hidden ramp-up is known as Genshin soft pity.

• Character, standard, and Chronicled Banners: Soft pity Genshin kicks in at exactly 74 pulls. Starting on your 74th wish, your chance of getting a 5-star jumps from 0.6% to roughly 32%.
• Weapon Banners: Soft pity kicks in slightly earlier, starting around your 63rd pull.

Most players will get their 5-star during this soft pity window.

What is Hard pity Genshin Impact?

If you are incredibly unlucky and fail to pull a 5-star during the soft pity phase, you will eventually hit the absolute ceiling. This is the impact that enforces, meaning the drop rate becomes a guaranteed 100%.

• Character, Standard, and Chronicled Banners: Hard pity is exactly 90 pulls.
• Weapon Banners: Hard pity is exactly 80 pulls.

As soon as you pull any 5-star item, your pity counter instantly resets to zero.

The Notorious 50/50: How does 50/50 work Genshin?

Hitting pity is only half the battle. Once that golden meteor streaks across your screen on the Character Event banner, you are faced with the most stressful mechanic in the game: the 50/50.

If you are wondering how 50/50 work Genshin, here is the breakdown: Whenever you pull a 5-star on a limited Character banner, there is a chance it will be the featured limited character (e.g., Raiden Shogun), and a chance it will be a character from the permanent Standard pool (like Jean, Qiqi, or Keqing).

If you get a Standard character, the community calls this “losing the 50/50.” However, there is a silver lining. If you lose, your next 5-star pull on the Character Event banner is 100% guaranteed to be the featured limited character.

The 5.0 Update: “Capturing Radiance” and 50/50 Genshin explained

In Version 5.0, HoYoverse introduced a massive, permanent quality-of-life update called Capturing Radiance, changing the gacha math for the better.

Here is a visual breakdown of how the 50/50 system improved:

Weapon banner updates: Epitomized path made easy

The Weapon banner used to be considered a massive Primogem trap for casual players, but Version 5.0 completely overhauled it, making it much safer to invest in signature weapons.

The Weapon banner features two limited 5-star weapons. To combat bad luck, the game uses the “Epitomized Path” system, where you manually select which of the two weapons you want. If you pull a 5-star and it is not the weapon you chose, you gain a “Fate Point.”

Here is how the system improved:

(Note: Unlike the base wish pity counter, Epitomized Path Fate Points do NOT carry over between banners. They reset to zero when the weapon banner ends.)

How to check your Genshin Impact pity Counter

You do not need to use third-party websites to figure out how close you are to your next 5-star. You can calculate your Genshin pity Counter directly in the game.

Follow these steps to check your exact pity:

1. Open the Wish screen in-game.
2. Select the specific banner you want to check (Character, Weapon, Standard, or Chronicled).
3. Click the “History” button at the bottom of the screen.
4. Count the number of items you have pulled since your last 5-star drop (the 5-star text will be colored gold).

Pro Tip: Each page of your history displays 5 items. If you have 8 pages of 3-star and 4-star items since your last golden text, you are at exactly 40 pity (8 pages x 5 items).

The waiting game: Dealing with missed banners

With the roster of playable characters expanding massively across regions like Sumeru, Fontaine, and Natlan, the wait time for a specific character’s “rerun” banner can be agonizing. Sometimes, it takes well over a year for a fan-favorite Archon or top-tier DPS to return to the wishing screen. If you lose your Genshin pity 50/50 on a banner you have been anticipating for months, the FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) can hit incredibly hard.

In community forums and Discord servers, people talk about how they handle this dreaded waiting game all the time. Some players immediately start speed-running quests and grinding out 100% exploration in every region, desperately trying to scrape together enough Primogems before the banner disappears. Others discuss a completely different route; you will often see people talking about skipping the wait altogether by migrating to pre-rolled or secondary Genshin Impact accounts that already have the exact 5-star characters, signature weapons, or team compositions they missed out on.

A few members of the community have been mulling over the idea of Frantic Exploration and Alternative Routes in an attempt to get out of the Rerun Waiting Room. Unfortunately, the best way to play this game is as an endurance race rather than a sprint race. By patiently saving your Primogems, utilizing the Stardust exchange, and relying on the new Capturing Radiance system, you can guarantee your favorites the next time they roll around.

Pity system quick reference table

Need a quick refresher? Here is a breakdown of the core Genshin Impact pity numbers to keep handy when you are planning your wishes.

Frequently asked questions

How does pity work in Genshin for beginners?

Every time you make a wish and don’t get a 5-star, your “pity” counter goes up by 1. Once you hit 90 wishes on the Character banner, the game forces a 5-star to drop, resetting the counter to zero. Additionally, you are guaranteed a 4-star item every 10 pulls.

How does pity work across different banners in Genshin?

Pity carries over between banners of the same type. For example, if you make 50 wishes on an active Character banner, you will start the next Character banner with 50 pity. However, Character banner pity does not mix with Weapon or Chronicled banner pity.

What is the Genshin Chronicle’s Wish banner?

The Chronicled Wish is a special banner featuring older limited characters and weapons. It uses a 1-Fate-Point system, meaning if you lose your 50/50, your next 5-star is guaranteed to be the specific character or weapon you charted a course for.