Gacha terms, in plain language
Every word the planners and data pages use, explained once. Mechanics only — not whether a chase is worth taking.
Pity · Soft pity · Hard pity · 50/50 · Guaranteed · Spark · Rate-up · Banner · Base rate · Consolidated rate · Expected (average) · Copies · Overcharge · NP level
Pity
A count of how many pulls you have made since your last top-rarity result. The higher it climbs the better your odds get, and in most games it eventually guarantees one. It does not always carry between banners.
#Soft pity
The pull at which your odds stop being flat and start climbing toward the guarantee. Most top-rarity results land in this stretch, which is why the average sits far below hard pity.
#Hard pity
The pull at which the top rarity is given to you outright. Reaching it is the most a single chase can cost, and it is where the pity count resets.
#50/50
When a top-rarity result is split between the unit you want and everything else in the pool. In most games, losing it guarantees your next top-rarity result is the one you were chasing.
#Guaranteed
The point where the game stops leaving it to chance and gives you the unit. Not every game has one; where none exists, the planners here say so instead of printing a number.
#Spark
A hard ceiling on a banner: pull a set number of times and you may claim the featured unit outright, however the rolls went. The count is per banner and usually expires with it.
#Rate-up
The units a banner boosts. Easier than off-banner is not the same as guaranteed, and where a banner boosts several units, the one you want is only a share of that.
#Banner
A time-limited pool you pull from. Which units are in it, and which are boosted, changes from one banner to the next.
#Base rate
The flat chance on a single pull, before pity has done anything. The smallest number a game publishes, and the one most often mistaken for the real cost.
#Consolidated rate
A published rate that ALREADY includes pity — the long-run average, not the per-pull chance. It is far higher than the base rate, and confusing the two badly misjudges a chase.
#Expected (average)
The mean across every outcome, which is not the midpoint: a long unlucky tail drags it above the median. The most misread number in any pull calculator, which is why these pages show the 50% and 90% marks beside it.
#Copies
Pulling the same unit more than once — games stack duplicates into a power ladder under various names. Each copy is a fresh chase: the planners count the first from your current pity, the rest from zero.
#Overcharge
In Fate/Grand Order, gauge beyond what firing a Noble Phantasm costs. Some effects grow with it, on a different axis from NP level — which is why the two are listed separately.
#NP level
In Fate/Grand Order, the level of a Servant's Noble Phantasm. Duplicates of the Servant raise it, and it mainly raises the damage.
#Numbers for a specific game live on that game’s own pages — rates here are described, never quoted, so this page cannot fall out of step with the data.