What is the difference between soft pity and hard pity?

Soft pity raises the rate gradually before the ceiling, so late pulls are much more likely to hit. Hard pity is the ceiling where the rate becomes 100%. Most modern gacha games combine both.

How many pulls do I need to guarantee a featured character?

On a 50/50 banner the theoretical worst case is two hard pities: 180 pulls for a 90-pull ceiling, or 160 for an 80-pull ceiling. If you already lost the last 50/50, one hard pity is enough.

Does pity carry over between banners?

In most games the pity counter is shared across banners of the same type and does carry over. Limited-time banners sometimes use a separate counter — check the in-game banner details.

Why did the calculator show 100% before hard pity?

Because with soft pity the rate climbs steeply and reaches certainty at the ceiling. If your budget is at or beyond hard pity, the chance of at least one 5-star is exactly 100%.

Are the game presets official?

No. They are best-effort approximations from public announcements and community tracking. Use the custom fields with your game's published numbers if you want precision.

Gacha Pity Calculator — Soft Pity, Hard Pity & 50/50 Odds

How pity actually works

Pity is the mechanic that stops a bad streak from running forever. There are two flavours, and confusing them is why most players misjudge their odds.

Hard pity

A ceiling. On the pull that reaches the ceiling, the 5-star chance becomes 100%. In Genshin, Honkai: Star Rail and Zenless Zone Zero that is pull 90; in Wuthering Waves it is pull 80. You cannot go past it.

Soft pity

A ramp that starts before the ceiling. From a set pull number onward, every additional pull adds a fixed amount to the base rate:

rate(n) = base + (n − soft_start + 1) × step

With a 0.6% base, soft pity from pull 74 and a 6 percentage point step, pull 75 sits at 6.6%, pull 80 at 36.6%, and pull 89 at 90.6%. This is why the last twenty pulls feel so much better than the first twenty — they genuinely are.

Why the flat formula fails: 90 pulls at a flat 0.6% gives a 41.8% chance. With soft pity and a hard floor, the same 90 pulls give 100%. The two models are not close, and only one of them is right.

What the 50/50 really costs

On a character banner you have a 50% chance the 5-star is the featured one. If you lose, the next 5-star is guaranteed. That turns the expected cost for one copy into roughly one and a half pities:

Scenario	Expected pulls	Worst case
Won the 50/50	≈ 62	90
Lost it, then guaranteed	≈ 124	180
Blended average	≈ 93	180

That is why saving "180 pulls" is the standard advice for a guaranteed character, and why 90 is only a coin flip in disguise.

Preset assumptions

Presets are compiled from official announcements and community-tracked data as of late 2026. Treat them as close approximations, not gospel — publishers adjust rates, and regional versions can differ.

Game	Base	Soft pity	Hard pity
Genshin Impact	0.6%	74	90
Honkai: Star Rail	0.6%	74	90
Wuthering Waves	0.8%	66	80
Zenless Zone Zero	0.6%	74	90
Fate/Grand Order	0.8%*	—	330

*FGO's 0.8% is the rate for the featured servant specifically, and its ceiling guarantees the featured servant directly rather than a 50/50. The calculator handles that difference internally.

Three things players get wrong

Pity carries over — usually. On most banners the counter is shared between banners of the same type, so pulls are never wasted. Check the banner notes before assuming.
Weapon banners are different. Weapon pity is lower (often 80) with a higher base rate, so character-banner numbers do not apply.
Guarantee is a state, not a number. Losing a 50/50 does not add pulls to your counter; it flips a flag that the next 5-star is featured. Set the dropdown accordingly.