The Weapon Event Wish (Epitome Invocation) is the most expensive and most misunderstood banner in Genshin. There is no 50/50 like on the character banner — it runs a 75/25 split, hard pity drops from 90 to 80 pulls, and the thing that actually decides whether you get that one weapon is the Epitomized Path. Here is the whole system, cleanly.
They are easy to confuse because both guarantee via accumulated wish count, but the rules are different. Side by side:
| Item | Character Event Wish | Weapon Event Wish |
|---|---|---|
| Hard pity | 90 pulls | 80 pulls |
| Soft pity starts | ~pull 74 | ~pull 62–65 |
| Base 5★ rate | 0.6% | 0.7% |
| Rate-up system | 50/50 + Capturing Radiance | 75/25 + Epitomized Path |
| Worst case | 180 pulls | 160 pulls |
| Guarantee carries over | Yes | Yes (except Fate Points) |
In short: every 5★ on the weapon banner is a 75/25, so you can land the other featured weapon or a standard one — and the Epitomized Path turns that “other featured weapon” into “the next 5★ is guaranteed.”
Key nuance: only pulling the other featured weapon grants a Fate Point. Pulling a standard 5★ weapon from the 25% pool leaves your Fate Point count unchanged — it neither adds nor resets. Many players assume “any off-target gives a point”; only the featured off-target does.
| State | Fate Points | Next 5★ result |
|---|---|---|
| No course charted | — | Not tracked, no guarantee |
| Pulled the other featured weapon | 1 | 100% your chosen weapon |
| Pulled a standard 5★ weapon | 0 (unchanged) | Not locked; pity keeps counting |
| Obtained your chosen weapon | Reset to 0 | Start over |
| Changed or cancelled the course | Reset to 0 | Start over |
| Banner ends | Reset to 0 | Next weapon banner starts at 0 |
These are two separate counters:
That is how you end up with “pity intact, Fate Points gone”: you bank 1 Fate Point on banner A but run out of pulls, the banner rotates, the point is wiped, yet your accumulated pity stays. It is the weapon banner’s biggest trap — banking a Fate Point you can’t finish is a straight loss.
| Scenario | Pulls | Primogems |
|---|---|---|
| Worst case: two hard pities (off-path, then guaranteed) | 160 | 25,600 |
| Typical: two soft pities (~65 × 2) | ~130 | ~20,800 |
| Already 1 Fate Point in, one 5★ left | ≤80 | ≤12,800 |
Compare and it is obvious why it is called the most expensive banner: 160 pulls is roughly a full guaranteed character (180 pulls).
Rule of thumb: a signature weapon is typically a single-digit to low-teens percentage total damage gain over a free 4★, at roughly the cost of a full character. Characters always come before weapons.
Weekly character builds and version guides, no spam.