Revision history: Spark

A spark is an exchange ceiling: every pull on a banner grants one token, and a fixed number of tokens can be exchanged for an item of the player's choice from the banner's list, usually including the featured character. Unlike probabilistic pity, a spark is deterministic. It converts "you will probably get it eventually" into "you will get it at N pulls, at the latest".

The name comes from Granblue Fantasy's cerulean sparks, introduced on March 10, 2016 after the Anchira incident, in which a player documented spending about 700,000 yen in a day chasing a rate-up character with no safety net. [2] Cygames set the exchange at 300 draws, about 90,000 yen if fully paid, and the number stuck: "to spark" a character means to bank 300 pulls for them. [1] Japanese players call the same mechanic tenjou, "ceiling".

Later games tuned the number down and varied persistence:

Game	Spark cost	Carries between banners?
Granblue Fantasy	300 draws	no
Arknights (limited banners)	300 pulls	no
Blue Archive	200 recruits	no
Umamusume: Pretty Derby	200 pulls	no
NIKKE	200 pulls	yes, mileage never expires
Fate/Grand Order	330 rolls (auto-granted)	no

Whether tokens expire is the sharp edge of the mechanic: a non-persistent spark only protects players who can commit the full amount inside one banner window, which shapes saving behavior across the whole player base. See the pity comparison for current values with sources.