# Pity system

> 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.

- Canonical URL: https://gachawiki.com/wiki/pity-system
- Type: term
- Verification status: verified (facts checked 2026-07-09)
- Last updated: 2026-07-09
- License: CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Attribution: "Pity system", GachaWiki, https://gachawiki.com/wiki/pity-system

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.

## Forms

Hard 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)

Soft 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 In HoYoverse games the ramp is real but unpublished: community statistical projects consistently measure a sharp increase from roughly pull 74, and those figures are community-documented estimates, not official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)

Exchange ceilings guarantee a chosen item after a fixed number of pulls; that family has its own name, the [spark](/wiki/spark).

## Carry-over

Whether 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.

The 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.

## References

1. Genshin Impact in-game Wish Details rate disclosure (HoYoverse): https://genshin.hoyoverse.com/en/home (accessed 2026-07-09)
2. Arknights in-game Headhunting rules text (Yostar / Hypergryph): https://www.arknights.global (accessed 2026-07-09)