The Genshin Impact four-star pity system makes sure that players obtain a four-star character or item after every 10 pulls, but fans have pointed out that even banner four-stars are never fully guaranteed. While this isn’t always an issue, it’s true that you could pull on a banner 90 times – enough to secure one five-star character – and still never get the four-star that you were hoping to add to your party.
This discourse is likely happening again because Genshin Impact version 3.6 has just entered its second phase. This means that Baizhu and Ganyu, the five-star banner characters, are now available alongside the new banner four-star, Kaveh.
Not every player has enough Primogems – or real-world money, if they choose to spend – to pull beyond their one shot at getting the five-star banner character. That’s 90 pulls or less. And if they don’t manage to get Kaveh, or whichever other four-star character they wanted, they’re out of luck. That seems a bit backward, given that Baizhu and Ganyu are rarer.
To HoYoverse’s credit, you do get a banner four-star character if your last pull didn’t give you one, but the issue is that it can be any one of the three four-stars on the banner. Looking at the current Genshin Impact banners, you could get a random off-banner four-star item every other 10-pull, then receive Candace five times, completely missing out on Fischl and Kaveh.
Redditor HereForGames created a thread, opening up a pity system discussion that brought the community together.
“This is a terrible design decision, one that has afflicted a few friends of mine as well and caused one to quit,” one player, ‘HereForGames’ says. “One-hundred attempts should ensure any featured supporting character, but would require community demand for it.”
The replies are now full of shared experiences, with one player saying that it took them 140 pulls to get Candace, and another sharing that they needed to make 172 pulls before receiving Gorou on a previous banner.
Other players make suggestions when it comes to the flawed system. “I doubt they’d add a similar 4-star pity, but what they COULD do is have a ‘pick your 4-star’ event in regions other than Liyue,” a Genshin Impact fan, ‘Mieremov’ says. “I don’t think it’d ruin their budget so much to have one per region scattered throughout the year.”
It would be nice to choose which four-star we get, just like the weapon banners, but that doesn’t seem very likely at this point.
However, if you’re unsure of which characters to pull for, be sure to check out our Genshin Impact tier list, and use the currently available Primogem codes to give yourself more chances.