{
  "slug": "pity-system",
  "url": "https://gachawiki.com/wiki/pity-system",
  "type": "term",
  "title": "Pity system",
  "description": "Any mechanic that bounds bad luck in gacha draws, from hard guarantees at a fixed pull count (Genshin Impact's 90) to escalating rates (Arknights) and hidden soft pity ramps documented by players.",
  "aliases": [
    "pity",
    "hard pity",
    "soft pity",
    "pity counter"
  ],
  "tags": [
    "terminology",
    "mechanics"
  ],
  "verification": "verified",
  "lastUpdated": "2026-07-09",
  "lastVerified": "2026-07-09",
  "sources": [
    {
      "title": "Genshin Impact in-game Wish Details rate disclosure",
      "url": "https://genshin.hoyoverse.com/en/home",
      "publisher": "HoYoverse",
      "accessed": "2026-07-09",
      "note": "Documents the 90-wish guarantee and 1.6% consolidated rate."
    },
    {
      "title": "Arknights in-game Headhunting rules text",
      "url": "https://www.arknights.global",
      "publisher": "Yostar / Hypergryph",
      "accessed": "2026-07-09",
      "note": "Documents the +2% per pull escalation after 50 pulls."
    }
  ],
  "related": [
    "spark",
    "fifty-fifty",
    "off-banner",
    "gacha-probability",
    "banner",
    "rate-up"
  ],
  "markdown": "A pity system is any mechanic that bounds how unlucky a gacha player can get. Without one, a low base rate has a long tail: at 0.6% per pull, about 1 player in 200 would see nothing in 500 pulls. Pity systems exist to cut off that tail, and their design details drive most cross-game cost comparisons.\n\n## Forms\n\nHard pity guarantees a top-rarity result at a fixed count. [Genshin Impact](/wiki/genshin-impact) and [Honkai: Star Rail](/wiki/honkai-star-rail) guarantee a 5-star within 90 pulls on character banners, which is why both publish a \"consolidated\" rate of 1.6% alongside the 0.6% base rate. [[1]](#ref-1)\n\nSoft pity raises the rate before the hard wall. In HoYoverse games the ramp is real but unpublished: community statistical projects consistently measure a sharp increase from roughly pull 74, and those figures are community-documented estimates, not official numbers. [Arknights](/wiki/arknights) instead publishes its escalation openly: the 2% rate rises by 2 percentage points per pull after 50 pulls without a 6-star, reaching 100% by pull 99. [[2]](#ref-2)\n\nExchange ceilings guarantee a chosen item after a fixed number of pulls; that family has its own name, the [spark](/wiki/spark).\n\n## Carry-over\n\nWhether the counter survives the end of a banner matters as much as its size. HoYoverse pity carries across banners of the same type indefinitely. Fate/Grand Order's 330-roll guarantee resets when a banner ends. Most sparks expire with their banner; NIKKE's mileage is a notable exception. The [comparison table](/compare/pity-systems) tracks carry-over per game.\n\nThe industry shifted decisively toward pity in the 2020s: [Fate/Grand Order](/wiki/fate-grand-order) operated with no safety net from 2015 until January 2022, a design that would be commercially unusual to launch today.",
  "license": {
    "name": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
    "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
  }
}