Gacha games like Honkai Star Rail commonly introduce new content like characters and weapons through Banners. You’ll have to hope the RNG works in your favor when you pull (or Warp, as it’s called in-game). Thankfully, there are mechanics in place to help out a bit. Here’s an explanation of the Honkai Star Rail Pity System.
What is the Pity System in Honkai Star Rail?
Pity is a common phrase you’ll hear in gacha game-related discussions, and it refers to systems that make the RNG aspect more forgiving. If event banners stuck exclusively to static pull rates with RNG, you’d receive rare rewards less often.
This is where a Pity System comes into play. After a certain number of failed Banner pulls to unlock a high-rarity reward, the odds of getting a high-rarity reward will begin to increase until it becomes a guarantee. The counter in place for a specific character/item rarity will reset once a you’ve received it.
How Does the Pity System Work in Honkai Star Rail?
For those that have played Genshin Impact before, the Pity System in Honkai Star Rail works very similarly. It accounts for both 4-star and 5-star rewards across the different Banners. Each one of these is separate, meaning that the counter for a 4-star guarantee won’t be affected by a 5-star it shares a Banner with or anything else from other Banners.
Soft Pity
Soft Pity is a hidden mechanic that refers to the number of pulls needed before the odds begin to improve. This number isn’t provided, but due to how similar the system is to Genshin Impact and from some of our early experiences, many are assuming it also starts around the 75th pull for 5-star characters.
Hard Pity
Screenshot by GameSkinny
Hard Pity has much more concrete proof in that it’s stated on the front of each Banner and specified further when viewing their details under Warp Rate. For 4-star rewards, you’re guaranteed to receive one by your 10th pull on a specific Banner. The maximum number of pulls needed for a 5-star reward differs depending on the Banner, with each one outlined below:
- Departure Warp: 50 pulls
- Character Event Warp: 90 pulls
- Light Cone Event Warp: 80 pulls
- Stellar Warp: 90 pulls
What is 50/50 in Honkai Star Rail?
Screenshot by GameSkinny
Another aspect of Pity is the 50/50 system, which can be seen on Banner details under Boosted Rate. Whenever the RNG provides you with a 4-star or 5-star reward, there’s a 50% chance that it will be a featured character on the Banner. If it’s not a featured character, that means the next one will be. The same idea applies to the featured 4-star characters.
For example, the first Character Event Warp has Seele as the featured 5-star character. If I pull a 5-star character and it’s Himeko, the next time I pull a 5-star character, it’s guaranteed to be Seele.
Any Light Cone Event Warp follows the same principle, although with different percentages. With those Banners, you have a 75% chance to pull the featured Light Cones and a guarantee to pull them next time if you pulled something else.
Does Pity Carry Over?
There’s no need to worry about the counter being reset once a limited-time event Banner finishes. Your pity during the Character Event Warp or Light Cone Event Warp will carry over to the one that follows it.
To use an extreme example, if I made 89 pulls trying for a 5-star character during Seele’s banner and never received one, the pity will carry over, and my first pull on the next character event Banner will be a 5-star.
Hopefully, that puts into perspective how the Pity System works in Honkai Star Rail. If you’re still confused about how the mechanics of the Warp system and Banners, please check out our guide on those. For all other space-faring content, our growing collection of Honkai Star Rail guides can help.
Featured image by GameSkinny.
