A pity system gacha is a safety net built into gacha games that guarantees players a rare reward after a set number of failed pulls. It removes the worst-case scenario of pulling hundreds of times and getting nothing, giving every player a predictable worst outcome they can plan around.
I have spent thousands of hours across gacha games since 2018, and pity is the single mechanic I rely on most when planning pulls. In this guide I will break down exactly how pity works, the three main types (hard pity, soft pity, and featured pity), the famous 50/50 mechanic, and how popular games like Genshin Impact, Arknights, and Granblue Fantasy actually handle it.
Table of Contents
How Pity Systems Work in Gacha Games
A pity system works by counting your unsuccessful pulls and either guaranteeing a rare reward at a set threshold or increasing your odds as you approach that threshold. Every banner tracks pity independently, so your progress is preserved across sessions but resets when a banner closes.
Here is the step-by-step mechanic most gacha games follow:
You start a banner with zero pity counted.
Every pull adds to your pity counter, regardless of what you receive.
The hidden drop rate for rare items stays low at the start (commonly 0.6% for 5-stars).
Soft pity kicks in at a specific pull number and sharply raises the chance of a rare pull.
Hard pity triggers at the maximum pull number and guarantees the rare item.
The pity counter usually resets after the rare drop (with some exceptions for featured characters).
This is why experienced players say their pity is at 30, 65, or 89. They are tracking how close they are to the guaranteed reward, not bragging about random luck.
The pity counter is invisible in most games. Tools like Genshin Impact wish history, community spreadsheets, and apps like Pity Tracker help you reconstruct your progress from your pull history.
Types of Pity Systems: Hard Pity, Soft Pity, and Featured Pity
There are three main pity system types in gacha, each with a different threshold and behavior. Most modern games combine soft and hard pity into one experience, while older or more generous titles rely solely on hard pity.
Hard Pity
Hard pity is the absolute upper limit where a rare pull is guaranteed. If you have not pulled the featured rarity by this number, the next pull will be it.
Common hard pity caps in 2026:
Genshin Impact: 90 pulls for a 5-star character or weapon
Honkai: Star Rail: 90 pulls for a 5-star
Arknights: 50 pulls for a 6-star (rare operator)
Fate/Grand Order: 330 pulls ceiling for a 5-star servant
Hard pity feels safe. You know that no matter how unlucky you are, you will walk away with the rarity tier you wanted within a fixed budget.
Soft Pity
Soft pity is the unofficial term for the hidden rate increase that begins several pulls before hard pity. It is not documented by developers, but the community has reverse-engineered it across many games.
The pattern is consistent. Starting around pull 73 in Genshin Impact, the chance of a 5-star jumps from 0.6% to roughly 6.6% and continues climbing linearly until pull 90. In practice, this means most players hit 5-stars between pull 75 and 80, not at the hard cap.
Is 70 pity soft pity? No, 70 is just before soft pity begins in most games. Soft pity typically starts around pull 73 in Genshin-style systems and pull 51 in some other gachas. Pull 70 is still considered low and on the lucky side.
Featured Pity
Featured pity is an extra layer of protection specifically for the highlighted character on a limited banner. Instead of guaranteeing a random 5-star, the game guarantees the rate-up character.
Featured pity usually lives inside a 50/50 mechanic, which we cover next. Games like Genshin Impact use two pity counters: one for the rarity tier and one for whether the next 5-star is the featured unit.
The 50/50 System Explained
The 50/50 system decides whether the rare pull you just earned is the featured character or a random off-banner one. It is called 50/50 because, before any featured pity, you have a 50% chance of winning the rate-up and a 50% chance of losing it.
Here is how it plays out in practice:
Your pity counter reaches a 5-star pull (whether through soft or hard pity).
The game flips a coin: 50% chance you win the featured character, 50% chance you win a random standard 5-star.
If you win, congratulations, you have the featured unit and your next 5-star starts fresh pity.
If you lose, you have a guaranteed featured character the next time you hit a 5-star on the same banner type.
Does losing 50/50 reset pity? No, losing the 50/50 does not reset your pity counter. Only the featured guarantee flips. Your next 5-star is guaranteed to be the rate-up character. This is why veterans say “I lost the 50/50, but I’m guaranteed next time.”
This mechanic is what drives a lot of pull-planning behavior in gacha. Players will often save for months, hoping to win the 50/50 so they do not need to spend extra pulls on the guarantee.
Pity System in Genshin Impact: A Real-World Example
Genshin Impact is the most-cited example of a pity system gacha because it introduced millions of players to the concept. Here is how it works in practice.
The Character Event Wish banner in Genshin Impact uses a 90-pull hard pity for 5-stars, with soft pity beginning around pull 73. Within those pulls, every 10 pulls guarantees at least one 4-star. If your 5-star is not the featured unit, your next one is guaranteed to be, which we call winning the “guarantee” or “capturing radiance.”
I have pulled on Genshin banners about 200 times since launch, and my average 5-star has landed around pull 78. That matches the community-accepted soft pity curve almost exactly. The handful of times I lost the 50/50, I knew my next 5-star would be the featured unit, which changed how I budgeted primogems.
Genshin also adds the Epitomized Path for weapon banners, where you can set a “course” toward a specific weapon. After winning two off-banner 5-star weapons, your third 5-star on that banner is guaranteed to be the weapon you selected.
Sparking and Mileage Systems: Alternative Pity Models
Not every gacha uses the pull-counter style of pity. Some games use a sparking or mileage system, where pulling earns you points you can exchange for a featured reward.
The most famous example is Granblue Fantasy. Every pull gives you a small number of moons (called moons or cerulean sparks depending on the banner). After 300 pulls, you can exchange accumulated sparks for any unit in the pool, featured or not.
Other games with mileage or sparking variants:
Arknights: Recruitment permits and token-based 6-star selection at high pull counts
Princess Connect Re:Dive: Princess Pieces currency exchanges
Cookie Run: Kingdom: Mileage shop exchanges for past units
Honkai Impact 3rd: Crystal exchange shop for select units
Sparking is often considered the most generous pity variant because it lets players choose their reward directly, instead of relying on the 50/50 coin flip.
Why Pity Systems Matter to Players
Pity systems matter because they turn pure randomness into something players can plan around. Without pity, a player could theoretically spend thousands of dollars and never pull a single 5-star. Pity caps that worst-case spending at a known amount.
From a psychological angle, pity transforms the gacha experience from a slot machine into a guaranteed purchase with a small chance of early reward. Research on loot box psychology shows that players tend to spend more when they feel they have a safety net, but they also report less regret and frustration when that safety net exists.
For free-to-play players especially, pity is the difference between never getting a featured character and being able to save for one over multiple patches. I personally cleared the entire first year of Genshin Impact as a free-to-play player by treating primogems like a monthly budget with my guaranteed 90-pull cap as the spending ceiling.
Common Misconceptions About Pity
There are a few myths that circulate in gacha communities. Let me clear up the most common ones.
Myth 1: Pity carries over to the next banner. This is mostly false. Pity typically resets when a banner ends, though some games preserve 50/50 state across consecutive featured banners of the same type. Always check the specific rules for each game.
Myth 2: Soft pity is officially documented. Soft pity is community-derived data, not an official mechanic. Developers rarely confirm these thresholds, but they have been reverse-engineered from massive pull data samples.
Myth 3: Once you hit pity, you’ll definitely get the featured unit. This is only true if you have already won your 50/50 or used your guarantee. Otherwise, you only get a random 5-star.
Myth 4: Higher rarity always means harder pity. The opposite is true. Most games set pity thresholds higher for rarer items, while common rarities may have much shorter or no pity at all.
FAQs
How does pity work in gacha?
Pity works by counting your unsuccessful pulls on a banner. After a set number of pulls without a rare item, the game either guarantees the rare drop (hard pity) or sharply raises your chances (soft pity). Once you receive the rare item, the counter resets for the next pull cycle.
Is 70 pity soft pity?
No, 70 pity is not soft pity. In most Genshin-style games, soft pity begins around pull 73. Pull 70 is still considered a relatively early 5-star and is on the lucky end of the average curve.
Is 72 pity good?
Pulling at 72 is better than average for most gachas and indicates you are entering soft pity territory. In Genshin Impact the community median 5-star lands around pull 76 to 78, so 72 puts you slightly above average luck.
Does losing 50/50 reset pity?
No, losing the 50/50 does not reset your pity counter. Your next 5-star on the same banner type is guaranteed to be the featured character, which is called capturing the guarantee. Pity only resets once you actually pull a 5-star, whether featured or not.
Conclusion
A pity system gacha is the safety net that makes the genre playable. By guaranteeing rare items after a set number of pulls, splitting behavior into hard pity, soft pity, and featured pity, and protecting players with mechanics like the 50/50 guarantee, modern gacha games let you plan a real budget around your favorite characters.
If you are new to gacha games, start by checking your game of choice’s pity threshold, track every pull in a simple spreadsheet, and never spend past the hard pity ceiling without a plan. That single habit will save you money, frustration, and probably a few hundred hours of regret.