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Alright, Voyagers, it is time to join a new gacha adventure, albeit one different from the ones we’re used to. XD brings a gacha game heavily inspired by Final Fantasy Tactics and Tactics Ogre into a new live service experience everyone must try at least once. However, while it has some tactical greatness in it, there’s also one thing that might confuse players: the gacha system. But don’t worry. Learning about it isn’t as hard as pulling off some high-stakes tactical moves during a stage. To help you get the hang of this feature, we’ll explain how the pity system works in Sword of Convallaria.
How Pity and Banners Work in Sword of Convallaria
Before we delve into the pity system of Sword of Convallaria, let’s go over its banners which players will find three of the Standard One, the Single Rate-Up Character banner, and the Double Rate-Up Character banner. Since the last two might be a bit confusing, let us explain further. Also, this guide includes information we’ve gathered from the game as well as Reddit user Yevamelankolia, who did a great job at breaking down the system.
| Banner | Explanation |
|---|---|
| Standard Banner | The usual gacha banner that contains all the 5-star, or in the case of SoC, SSR characters and will always be in the game. This is the permanent banner if we speak in terms of other gacha games. |
| Single Rate-Up Character Banner | This is the usual “premium banner,” and it will rotate as time goes by. Whenever a new character releases, it’ll go here, stay there for a few weeks, and once it’s gone, that character moves on to the Standard Banner. |
| Double Rate-Up Character Banner | The last banner features two SSR characters you can get when pulling. This banner includes two SSR characters that have been released previously and are in the Standard Banner. This is a good way to aim to get one specific character that is only in the evergrowing Standard pool of units. However, there’s a 75% chance of obtaining one of the two. |
| Beginner Banner | Available during the launch period only. You can get an SSR unit after 30 pulls. |
To explain the pity system of Sword of Convallaria better, we’ll focus on the first three banners only, as the Beginner one won’t be around forever.
The 100/180 Pity Rule
Contrary to other gacha games like Wuthering Waves or Zenless Zone Zero, Sword of Convallaria has a pity system that does not follow the 50/50 rule. This means that even if you don’t get the featured character, your next pulls won’t guarantee the featured character. To make more sense of it, here’s the breakdown of the Single Rate-Up Character Banner:
- All banners work on a 100/180 pity.
- The universal pity is 100. This means that at 100 pulls, you’ll get an SSR unit regardless of the banner.
- In these 100 pulls, there’s no guarantee of obtaining the featured characters.
- The only way you can guarantee the featured SSR character is by reaching 180 pulls.
- In short, you might get the featured character between pulls 1 to 179, but it is only guaranteed to be that one on pull 180.
On paper, it sounds like a bad pity system, but it isn’t. On the contrary, SoC is quite friendly when it comes to giving away SSR units. Sword of Convallaria doesn’t guarantee SR (4-star) characters every 10 pulls. Instead, your chances of obtaining an SSR (5-star) character go up 2% with every 10 pulls, contrary to the 0.5%-0.6% in HoYoverse games. This means that you might get your featured character faster if you’re lucky enough. If not, you might get a bunch of SSR units and then eventually get the featured one at 180 pulls.
The same applies to the Double Rate-Up Character banner. The only difference is that once you reach pull 180, you’ll have a 75% chance of obtaining one of the two units. Thankfully, this banner prioritizes characters you haven’t obtained in this banner. You can still get duplicated, but only if you obtained a character on another banner that wasn’t this. Lastly, the Standard banner doesn’t matter that much because the pity always hits at 100 pulls, which is when you get an SSR unit.
Which Banner Should You Focus On?
In the end, the only question is: “Where should our pulls go?” The rule of thumb is always as follows: always pull on the Debut Banner, in other words, the Single Rate-Up Character Banner. This is the one that’ll always have the newest units. If you don’t like the character, go for the Double Rate-Up Character Banner, but only if there’s a unit you really want. Never use your currency for the Standard Banner.
Also, it remains to see how generous SoC will be in giving us currency. While the pity system of Sword of Convallaria isn’t bad, we don’t know how fast we can pull on its banners. If the game is too grindy, it might not be worth it. But if currency comes fast, that will be a win for all Voyagers.
