Epitomized Path & Fate Points on Genshin's Weapon Banner: How to Guarantee Your 5★ Weapon

The Weapon Event Wish (commonly "weapon banner," formerly called Epitome Invocation) is a separate Wish counter that runs alongside the character banner, each run lasting roughly 3 weeks and featuring 2 rate-up 5★ weapons plus 5 rate-up 4★ weapons at once. A few core differences from the character banner:

• 5★ base rate = 0.7% per pull — higher than the character/standard banner's 0.6%.
• Soft pity kicks in earlier, around wish 63-65; hard pity guarantees at wish 80 (character banner is 90).
• It doesn't use the simple 50/50 rule like the character banner — instead it runs the Epitomized Path mechanic that lets you pre-select the exact weapon you want, covered in the section below.

The Wish Banner is only 1 of 4 ways to get 5★/4★ weapons in-game (alongside crafting at the Blacksmith, event/quest rewards, and treasure chests) — but it's the ONLY way to get a limited banner-exclusive 5★ weapon. See the full weapon list and how to obtain each one on our Genshin weapons page.

The root problem: every 5★ pull on the weapon banner only has a 75% chance of being one of the 2 featured weapons (split roughly 37.5% each), with a 25% chance of landing an off-banner standard 5★ weapon instead. Left unchecked, that randomness means you could land the exact weapon you want, the other featured weapon, or an unrelated standard weapon entirely — arguably worse odds than "losing the 50/50" on the character banner.

Epitomized Path (introduced in version 2.0, July 21, 2021) exists to patch that gap: before pulling, you open the banner's settings and pre-select exactly 1 of the 2 featured 5★ weapons — known as "charting a course." From there, the system tracks a separate counter called a Fate Point that steers you toward that exact weapon, independent of the regular pull-count pity.

Earning points is straightforward: every 5★ pull on the weapon banner that ISN'T your chosen weapon (whether it's the other featured weapon or a standard weapon that slipped in) earns you 1 Fate Point. The number needed for the guarantee has changed over time:

• Before version 5.0 (from 2.0 through all of 4.x): you needed a full 2 Fate Points before the guarantee kicked in — meaning worst case you could pull three 5★s total (2 misses + 1 guaranteed) before landing the weapon you wanted.
• Since version 5.0 (August 28, 2024): just 1 Fate Point is enough — miss once on your first weapon-banner 5★, and the VERY NEXT 5★ is 100% guaranteed to be your chosen weapon, no waiting for a third pull.

This is one of HoYoverse's clearest quality-of-life improvements across the whole Wish system, cutting the worst-case cost from 240 down to 160 pulls (roughly a third) compared to the old rules.

This is where most weapon-banner pullers get burned — Fate Points are NOT as durable as regular pull-count pity. They reset to 0 in these cases:

• You've already received the exact weapon you chose (the "job" is done, points clear so a new cycle can start if you want).
• The banner rotates to a new featured weapon pair (each ~3-week run ends) — even if you haven't used your points yet, Fate Points are wiped clean.
• You open the settings and change or cancel your chosen weapon mid-run — this clears Fate Points instantly, with no warning or grace period.

What DOESN'T change: your underlying pull-count pity (the number of pulls counted toward soft/hard 5★ pity) carries over fully across different weapon banner runs — only the Fate Points/path selection reset. It's the one true exception in Genshin's entire pity system where two separate counters coexist like this.

Combine the two reset layers above, and the true practical worst case for guaranteeing your exact weapon is: hit the 80-pull hard pity and get the weapon you DIDN'T want (earning 1 Fate Point), then either the banner rotates or you wait for the next run and hit another 80-pull hard pity to finally lock in the guarantee — up to 160 pulls total. Each pull costs 160 Primogems, so the absolute worst-case cost is 25,600 Primogems (real-money conversion varies by region and current top-up promotions).

In practice, most players never hit this true worst case because: (1) most 5★s land inside the soft-pity window well before pull 80, and (2) missing just once already earns a Fate Point, so the odds of grinding through two full 80-pull cycles back to back are fairly low. Still, budget your Primogems/Intertwined Fates around the worst-case number if you're chasing one specific weapon your team really needs — check the Genshin codes page for extra free Primogems.

Since version 5.0, the CHARACTER banner gained Capturing Radiance: right at the moment you'd "lose" the 50/50, there's a small extra chance to auto-convert that into a win. Because both mechanics (Capturing Radiance and the Epitomized Path update) landed/changed around version 5.0 and both relate to "boosting your luck toward what you want," a lot of players wrongly assume the two stack on the weapon banner. In reality: Capturing Radiance ONLY triggers on the character banners (Character Event Wish/Wish-2) — it does not appear on the weapon banner, the standard banner, or the beginner banner.

In other words, on the weapon banner the ONLY thing improving your odds of landing your exact weapon is the Epitomized Path/Fate Point system described above — there's no extra "bonus luck" layer on top. For a full breakdown of how Capturing Radiance works on the character banner, see our Genshin pity system overview page.

Alongside the 2 featured 5★ weapons, the weapon banner always carries 5 rate-up 4★ weapons. The 4★ pity layer runs separately from the 5★ Epitomized Path:

• A 4★ (or higher) is guaranteed every 10 pulls if the 9 pulls before it produced nothing 4★+ (same as every other banner).
• Your first 4★ has a 75% chance of being one of the 5 rate-up weapons; miss that (get an off-banner standard 4★ instead), and the very next 4★ is 100% guaranteed to be one of the 5 rate-up weapons.
• So at most 20 pulls guarantees at least one of the 5 rate-up 4★ weapons (you can't target one specific 4★ the way you can a 5★ — just that it lands in that pool of 5).

Note: most rate-up 4★ weapons on the weapon banner are craftable at the Blacksmith or easy to farm elsewhere — so weigh that carefully before treating this as your main reason to pull. Check individual weapons on our Genshin weapons page.

Since Primogems are always limited, most F2P/light spenders prioritize the character banner first — a new limited character usually reshapes your whole playstyle/team, while a 5★ weapon just boosts stats in one equipment slot. Consider pulling the weapon banner when:

• The featured weapon is a signature weapon (purpose-built) for a character you already own and use as a core DPS/support — the damage gap versus a 4★/F2P weapon is often huge.
• You have leftover Primogems after already securing the limited character you wanted on the same patch's character banner.
• You fully understand the Epitomized Path rules above and accept the up-to-160-pull risk if you want a 100% guarantee.

On a tighter budget, most 4★ or craftable weapons are perfectly fine for regular teams (outside pushing full-star Spiral Abyss at the hardest difficulty). See our full Primogem-spending strategy on the Genshin F2P guide page, and check which characters are worth investing in first on the Genshin tier list page.