u/KyrrithK

Been seeing a lot of discussions about pull counts and how 'stingy' Genshin devs have been recently, so I thought I'd do some maths to see if that's accurate.

Thanks of course to Genshin Bookkeeping by SectoidFodder et al. for the data:

F2P Pulls per Patch	Avg F2P Total	Avg Endgame	Avg F2P -Endgame	Avg Permanent
Overall	79.4	12.7	65.1	12.9
1.X	80.6	12.5	64.8	11.5
2.X	76.5	10.9	65.5	11.2
3.X	74.2	9.8	64.5	15.2
4.X	76.7	10.8	65.9	13.8
5.X	80.2	14.4	65.8	12.4
6.X (+6.6 est.)	83.5	18.3	65.2	12.9
6.X (+sus 6.7 est†)	86.4	18.3	64.1	12.7

† - the Permanent content part of the 6.7 estimate is kinda low for a region expansion imo, even 6.5 was ~15 pulls worth, the sheet says 6.7 is 11.8. Guessing it was calculated using the Hoyolab percentage. I wouldn't have included it, but I need the numbers later.

Now, this kinda disproves the narrative that Endgame has slowly been stealing primos from non-endgame content, with Stygian replacing an event and Theatre getting better over time. The amount of F2P primos from outside of endgame content hasn't changed at all over the years, consistently averaging just over 65 pulls per patch. (Except Sumeru which lost 3 weeks)

Of course, that does mean that the pull income hasn't really changed at all over the years, which some people argue is a problem of it's own. It's gone up slightly, but only for those clearing endgame, and has otherwise stayed the same for 'casual' players that don't touch endgame. And the Permanent content pulls has fluctuated, being better recently than 1.X-2.X, but worse than 3.X-4.X, with more primos put into the 'earlybird' rewards for finishing quests/exploration on release.

Total New Characters	New 5-stars	New 4-stars (+Free units)
Launch (Standards)	6	14
1.X (incl Venti and Klee)	10	4
2.X	9	7 (8 if we include Aloy)
3.X (incl Tigh & Dehya)	8	9
4.X	11	6
5.X (incl Mizuki)	11	6
6.X (incl 6.7*)	10 (11 if we include the hidden silhouette as a 5*)	4 (6 if we include Manekins)

So as we can see here, for the last 3 years it's been pretty consistent how many units we get per patch, eleven 5-stars and six 4-stars/free units. Which does mean that objectively, ever since Fontaine we've been getting less pulls per 5-star, and Sumeru was truly the Golden Age. (Especially if you don't count the standards). And Nod Krai being 1 patch shorter but having the same amount of 5-stars (we assume) does mean we're cut a bit short on the total amount per 5-star, even if the average per patch is similar:

Pulls per 5-star release	No Endgame	With Endgame
1.X (not incl Standards)	44.2	55.4
2.X	65.5	78.9
3.X (-Tigh & Dehya)	72.5 (96.7)	86.6 (115.5)
4.X	54.0	65.0
5.X (-Mizuki)	53.8 (59.2)	68.0 (74.9)
6.X (incl sus 6.7 est†)	46.6	62.5
6.X (if 6.7† has no 5-star)	50.3	69.0

Edit†: Of course I managed to screw up something... edited the last two rows based on the newer 6.6 estimate. Still worse than before, but not quite AS bad. And if by some miracle the last character ISN'T a 5-star, it's actually on-par, with Endgame at least.

So yeah, if you're someone that ignores endgame entirely, income per patch hasn't changed, but 5-stars per patch have increased, leading to less pulls per 5-star. If you DO endgame, income per patch has increased slightly, but is still lower than previous peaks and still less per 5-star release. You used to be able to guarantee 2/3 new 5-stars per patch (assuming 100 avg before 5.0, and 90 avg after), now it's 1/2 for 6.X. And of course, every pull that you spend on a weapon or constellation or some character you missed previously means one less of the new characters. So as always, you just need to be careful about picking what you actually want to pull.

And for those that'll complain that endgame difficulty has made them unable to clear; if you've gone from clearing all endgame in 5.X down to missing out on Abyss F12 (200) and Lunar Theatre (200) through all of 6.X (11 months, so -4400 primos or -27.5 pulls), dropping from 68 pulls per 5-star to ~60† in a year feels like a bigger drop. Though in reality, and the difference between you with 60† and 62.5† for those that 'kept up' really isn't much, only 2.5 less pulls per character, so it's not like you're the only ones feeling the drop. And as always pulling a character just for endgame primos makes zero sense, except for your pride and feeling of accomplishment for 'beating the game'.

Anyway, only did this to figure out the actual numbers for reference. Hopefully I didn't mess anything up, or use too confusing metrics. TLDR: Actual income hasn't changed or has even increased, but pulls per new 5-star have decreased. So it does feel worse.

So I can understand the complaints from people. But please, complain productively via Player Surveys, or vote with your wallets/playtime. Flooding Reddit with complaints doesn't really do anything except make people upset at YOU, not Hoyo.