The Standard Banner in Genshin Impact has stayed largely unchanged throughout the game's history in terms of 5-star character offerings. However, in the upcoming 3.1 Update, the new Dendro bow user Tighnari is being added to the Standard Banner's 5-star roster. Tighnari was featured on a rate-up banner in the first half 3.0, which ran alongside the limited-run banner for the Geo Archon Zhongli. Some players used this rate-up banner to ensure that they get Tighnari before his addition to the Standard Banner, and the surprisingly high banner sales could be a reflection of that.
Now that Tighnari is no longer going to have a rate up banner in Genshin Impact, players are going to have to rely solely on either getting him by losing the 50/50 on Limited Banners, or by getting lucky wishing on the Standard Banner. These poor odds for getting a brand-new character for the brand-new element is rough. Fans have long called for some sort of change to come to the Standard Banner, and Tighnari's introduction to the Standard Banner is the perfect opportunity to highlight the flaws in the Standard Banner in the hopes of bringing an overhaul to the system in the future.
The Issue with Standard Banner
Genshin Impact's Standard Banner (Wanderlust Invocation) uses Acquaint Fate to pull for characters, and these are handed out much more frequently and are easier to grind for compared to the Limited Banner wishes, Intertwined Fate. The Wanderlust Invocation banner will feature a grand total of 16 5-star rarity characters or weapons following Tighnari's introduction to the banner: six 5-star characters and ten 5-star weapons.
Generally speaking, there is a 0.6% chance of pulling a 5-star Genshin character or weapon with every pull, and players are guaranteed a 5-star every 90 wishes. Fans have collaborated by submitting data to show that there is a sliding scale of probability for pulling 5-stars, with increased odds from wishes 76 through 90. However, since that is not officially confirmed by HoYoverse it is purely theory, and only the 0.6% odds are officially confirmed.
The real issue with the Wanderlust Invocation banner is that there is no way to narrow down which 5-star character or weapon players will get. While the 5-star weapons are randomly featured as a potential option on the Weapon Banner, 5-star characters are not featured in a way that would allow players to guarantee that character. All 5-stars on the Wanderlust Invocation banner can be acquired by losing the 50/50 when wishing on a limited run banner, but there is no guarantee that players will get Diluc, as an example, instead of Qiqi or Keqing. Now that the Wanderlust Invocation banner is growing, and potentially will grow again in the future if HoYoverse decides to add a 5-star Geo character to that banner, there needs to be a way to guarantee specific Standard Banner characters in some way.
How to Make the Standard Banner Better
The biggest thing players want from a Standard Banner rework would be to have a way to guarantee specific 5-star characters whenever they finally do get a 5-star character on the Standard Banner. One way that this could be achieved is through an Epitomized Path function which players can see right now on the second half of the 3.0 Weapon Banner. The Epitomized Path allows players to select a specific weapon that is featured on the Weapon Banner, and after two pulls of the wrong 5-star weapon, the third pull of a 5-star will be guaranteed to be the selected weapon. While this does require players to pull up to three 5-star weapons to get their selected weapon, it is still a better solution than not having a guaranteed system at all.
Because the Wanderlust Invocation is so diluted with both 5-star characters and weapons, the Epitomized Path could perhaps be more generous than that of the Weapon Banner, but there are other, more creative options that could be taken should the Epitomized Path not be used. Perhaps a new system could be created that is more tailor-made for the Wanderlust Invocation. It could be reworked so that it operates similar to the Limited Banners, where if players do not get their desired character or weapon after the first 5-star pull, the next 5-star pull would be guaranteed to be their desired character or weapon. Either that, or just reducing the required banner Pity needed to guarantee a 5-star on the Wanderlust Invocation.
One other option could be to start featuring standard 5-star characters alongside Limited Banners. Currently, Standard Banner 5-star weapons can be featured on the Weapon Banner, like how Amos' Bow is featured right now, even though it is on the Standard Banner's offerings. For example, during a Limited Run banner, like Cyno's banner in 3.1, it could feature one of the Standard Banner 5-star characters (like Keqing), and players could set an Epitomized Path for Keqing instead of Cyno.
While this would burn Intertwined Fate instead of the Acquaint Fate to get the character, it would be a way to 100% guarantee that specific Standard Banner character. The question for this method would then be whether the odds of getting the featured 5-star character change to be like the Weapon Banner, or if they would stay the same. Regardless of the potential rework, though, something should be done to make the Standard Banner more forgiving to those who are trying to seek out specific 5-stars, especially if the banner will continue to expand as the game goes on.
With 16 potential offerings of 5-stars, it is a brutal experience to try to obtain specific characters or weapons through Wanderlust Invocation. For those who did not play during the first half of 3.0, it will be quite a tough experience for players to acquire Tighnari outside of some solid luck after the massive upcoming Genshin Impact 3.1 update. There is only a 0.6% chance to get a 5-star character on a pull, and from there, the player needs to get lucky and get a character instead of a weapon, and then even luckier to get their desired character out of the six offerings. It's a punishing experience, and it's time for some changes to be made to make this process at least a little more forgiving.
Genshin Impact is available now for Mobile, PC, PS4, and PS5. A Nintendo Switch version is in development.
