Genshin Impact guide: What is a Wish banner? The gacha system explained

As you progress in Genshin Impact, you’ll want to expand your character roster using the Wish system.

If you want to do Wishes, you will need Intertwined Fates or Acquaint Fates, depending on which banner you want to Wish in.

Primogems, obtained from completing quests, opening treasure chests, and diving into the Spiral Abyss, can be turned into either Intertwined Fates or Acquaint Fates, at one Fate per 160 Primogems. We’ll talk about which ones to get with your Primogems in a moment.

Ever time you use a Fate you also get Masterless Stardust and Masterless Starglitter, which can be exchanged for more Fates, as well as upgrade materials for your characters.

You can also buy Genesis Crystals for real money, which can be turned into Primogems (which can then be turned into Fates).

All Wish banners guarantee a four-star or better item within 10 pulls. Wishes can be done one at a time or 10 at a time, though there is almost no difference regarding how many you do at once, apart from the time it takes. You will get the guaranteed four-star, even if you pull one at a time, so if you’re not in a rush, that’s your best bet.

Keep in mind that this is gambling and it can cost lots of money or currency to get the character you’re aiming for. (Please gamble responsibly, if you choose to!)

Explaining Character Event Wish banners (Intertwined Fates)

Image: Mihoyo via Polygon

Character Event Wish banners are the best banners for getting characters, as each five-star Wish obtained from these will be a guaranteed character (rather than a weapon).

But it should be noted that the odds of summoning a five-star character are very low, at just 0.6% per Wish. If you keep using Wishes without getting a five-star, you’ll be guaranteed to get a five-star character on your 90th Wish of a given banner, also known as the pity rate. Just be aware that the character you get as your guaranteed five-star may not be the main character of the banner (or even on the banner at all). If that happens, the next five-star character you summon is guaranteed to be the featured character on that banner.

Weapon Event Wish banner (Intertwined Fates)

Image: Mihoyo via Polygon

Weapon Event Wish banners focus on weapons. Most players will not want to roll in this banner unless they have all of the characters they want.

This banner has no five-star characters, but still can give four-star characters.

Similar to the Character Event Wish banners, these have a pity rate, though it’s slightly different here. If you do not pull a five-star weapon within 79 Wishes, your 80th Wish will be a five-star weapon, guaranteed. If the weapon obtained is not one of the featured weapons, you will get one of those on your next five-star Wish.

These banners change to feature different weapons. Pity still gets carried over.

Standard Wish banner (Acquaint Fates)

Image: Mihoyo via Polygon

The Standard Wish banner has both characters and weapons in it, making you less likely to roll characters from it. The rate to roll any five-star weapon or character is still low at 0.6% and despite the fact that the banner has two large images of characters, those characters do not have a higher rate of appearing.

Just like the Intertwined Fate banners, there is a 90-Wish guarantee to get a five-star character or weapon. Since no characters or weapons have an increased rate to appear, there is no guarantee for a specific character or item in this banner. Pity from the other banners do not apply to this banner.