The Genshin Impact pity system determines when you’re guaranteed to receive a 5-star character or weapon from a Wish banner. Personally, I believe this is the best pity system of any gacha game. I’ve played thousands of hours of gacha games, and many don’t even have a pity system to begin with. Understanding how pity works is important because it allows you to plan your Primogems better and know when you’re close to getting a guaranteed reward.
The Character Event Wish banner has a 5-star guarantee once you reach a certain number of wishes without receiving one. This is known as pity, and it resets whenever you obtain a 5-star character. If you receive a 5-star before reaching the guarantee, your pity count starts over from zero.
Limited character banners also use the 50/50 system. When you get a 5-star character, there is a chance it will be the featured character or a standard 5 star character instead. If you lose the 50/50 and receive a standard character, your next 5-star character from an Event Wish banner is guaranteed to be the featured character.
Your pity count carries over between banners of the same type, meaning wishes made on one character event banner will still count toward the next character event banner. This allows players to save their progress even when skipping banners to wait for a character they want.
The Weapon Event Wish banner works differently and has its own pity system. While it can be useful for players who want to maximize their favorite characters, it generally requires more Primogems and is less predictable than character banners. For most players, saving wishes for characters is usually the safer choice.