Genshin Impact: How many Primogems are needed to unlock Zhongli from the character banner?

For another week and a half, Genshin Impact players can wish from the character event banner to possibly obtain the top-tier support character, Zhongli.

The Geo Archon is a useful addition to just about any player’s roster, but as a five-star unit, players can only obtain him by playing the gacha system. And that of course means spending Primogems.

To help players decide whether pulling Zhongli in the current banner is still feasible, this article breaks down how to calculate the Primogems needed to guarantee that he joins the team.

---

How many Primogems are needed to get Zhongli in Genshin Impact, with and without help from the pity system?

Animation for getting a five-star wish (image via Genshin Impact)

When calculating how many Primogems a player needs to ensure they obtain Zhongli, they first need to know about their status in the pity system. There are several features of Genshin Impact’s pity system that are necessary to learn the Primogem requirements for ensuring Zhongli.

Firstly, players are guaranteed to receive a five-star character at least once every 90 wishes from the character event banner. Every wish made since the last five-star pull can be quantified as “one pity.” So, players who have saved up 89 pity on the banner have a 100% chance to get a five-star on their next pull.

Also, players whose last five-star character was the featured character on the banner have just a 50/50 chance at receiving the featured character on their next five-star wish. If a player ‘loses’ a 50/50 and doesn’t receive the featured character, their next five-star pull is guaranteed to be the one who’s featured.

Pity does carry over when the character event banner changes, so players can always simply click the ‘History’ button on the banner to see how many wishes have gone by since their last five-star pull.

Amount of Primogems needed to guarantee Zhongli from Genshin Impact’s current character banner

Exchanging Primogems to wish on the character event banner (image via Genshin Impact)

A wish on any banner costs 160 Primogems, so at zero pity, these are the currency requirements for getting Zhongli:

Players whose next five-star is a 50/50 will need at most 28,800 Primogems to get Zhongli. Meanwhile, players without a 50/50 need at most 14,400 Primogems to get him.

It’s likely the case that players won’t need all of these Primogems to get Zhongli, since there’s something called “soft pity,” which refers to the high chance of getting a five-star once pity reaches the high 70s. Essentially, this makes it unlikely that players will have to make all ninety pulls to get a five-star character.

So, If players get lucky with soft pity and pull a five-star in 70 wishes, they may only need 12,200 Primogems to get Zhongli. Or, if they miss a 50/50, they’ll need around 24,400 with soft pity.

There are also a few ways for players to save a bit on Primogems. Players can also buy wishes from Paimon’s Bargains using Stardust and Starglitter, although players should first check to see if there are better deals in the Starglitter Exchange.