Let’s be real. Gacha games are basically a psychological tug-of-war between your wallet and your desire for a specific waifu. You've probably been there. You save up for weeks, dump everything into a banner, and come out with nothing but a pile of three-star junk. It’s brutal. Sunborn’s Girls' Frontline 2: Exilium doesn't exactly reinvent the wheel here, but it does play by a very specific set of rules that you need to understand if you don't want to waste your pulls.
The Girls Frontline 2 pity system is the only thing standing between you and absolute despair. It’s a safety net. Without it, you’re just gambling in a digital abyss. But how generous is it really? Honestly, it’s a bit of a mixed bag compared to the original GFL, which was much more "crafting" focused. Exilium leans hard into the modern 3D gacha standard, meaning if you’ve played Genshin Impact or Honkai: Star Rail, parts of this will feel eerily familiar.
The Hard Truth About the 80-Pull Guarantee
The magic number is 80. In the standard and limited character banners, 80 pulls is the hard pity. That’s it. If you haven't seen an Elite (orange/5-star) Doll by your 80th pull, the game basically sighs and hands you one. It sounds high, but you’ll rarely actually hit 80. Why? Because of the soft pity.
Most players start seeing their odds spike significantly around the 55 to 60 pull mark. It’s a curve. The base rate for an Elite Doll is a measly 0.6%, which, let's face it, is terrifyingly low. You could go 50 pulls and see absolutely nothing but purple flashes. However, once you cross that invisible threshold in the late 50s, the game’s internal math starts aggressively pushing that percentage up. If you're lucky, you're looking at an average of 62-65 pulls per SSR. If you're not? Well, 80 is your hard stop.
The 50/50 Coin Flip
Getting an Elite Doll is only half the battle. If you’re pulling on a limited-time rate-up banner, you have a 50% chance of getting the featured character. The other 50%? You get "spooked" by a standard pool Elite. We’ve all been there. It’s a gut punch.
But here is the silver lining: the Girls Frontline 2 pity system includes a guarantee for your next big pull. If you lose that 50/50 and get a standard character, your next Elite Doll is 100% guaranteed to be the featured rate-up character. This "guaranteed" status carries over. If the banner ends and you haven't used your guarantee, it waits for you. It stays there, lurking in the code, until the next banner you decide to go all-in on. That’s a massive relief for F2P players who have to plan their resources months in advance.
Weapon Banners and the Different Rules
Weapons are a whole different beast. In Exilium, characters and weapons are separated, which is a blessing for your inventory but a curse for your currency. The pity for weapons is actually lower than the character banners.
Typically, you’re looking at a 60-pull hard pity for Elite weapons.
The rate-up is also slightly better. Instead of a 50/50, it’s often a 75/25 split in favor of the featured weapon. This makes sense because, while a character is the "soul" of your squad, the weapon is just a stat stick—albeit a very shiny, necessary stat stick. If you miss that 75% chance, the next Elite weapon you pull on that banner is guaranteed to be the featured one.
The Currency Grind: What It Actually Costs
Let's do some quick math. Each pull costs 160 Collapse Crystals (or one Access Permit).
To hit a full 80-pull pity, you need 12,800 Crystals.
To guarantee a character (assuming you lose the 50/50), you’re looking at 160 pulls, or 25,600 Crystals.
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That is a lot. For a casual player, scraping together 25k Crystals takes time. It’s not something you do every week. You have to be picky. You have to look at the roadmap and decide if that new Sentinel is really worth your stash or if you should keep saving for the next firepower-heavy Doll. The game isn't as "collect-them-all" friendly as the first Girls' Frontline. It’s a tactical resource management sim even before you get onto the battlefield.
Duplicate Shards and the "Growth" Pity
What happens when you pull a duplicate? In many games, a dupe is just a wasted pull. In Exilium, duplicates are converted into "Neural Fragments" or shards. These are used to unlock "Convolutions"—basically the constellation or eidolon system from other games.
Each duplicate gives you a specific amount of shards.
- Elite duplicates provide enough to move through the progression tree significantly.
- Rare (purple) duplicates provide a smaller amount.
- Even the "trash" blue pulls give you a secondary currency you can spend in the shop.
The shop is actually a vital part of the Girls Frontline 2 pity system ecosystem. You can trade in that "trash" currency for monthly Access Permits (pull tickets). It’s a cycle. You pull, you get junk, you trade junk for more pulls, and eventually, those pulls trigger the pity. It’s the circle of gacha life.
Common Misconceptions About Banner Carry-Over
I see this all the time on Reddit and Discord: people think different types of banners share pity. They don't.
If you pull 40 times on the "Standard" permanent banner, those 40 pulls do not count toward the "Limited" character banner. They are separate buckets.
- Standard Targeted Banner: Uses its own count.
- Limited Character Banner: Shares pity with future limited character banners only.
- Weapon Banner: Shares pity with future weapon banners only.
Don't make the mistake of "building pity" on a banner you don't care about. "Building pity" is a meme that usually ends in you accidentally pulling a character you didn't want and resetting your counter to zero. If you want a specific Doll, wait. The system is patient; you should be too.
Strategic Tips for Beating the Odds
You can't change the 0.6% base rate, but you can play smarter. First, always keep a "pity tracker" mentally or on a spreadsheet. Knowing you’re at 55 pulls means you should probably stop doing 10-pulls and start doing singles. Why? Because if you hit the Elite on pull 56, you’ve saved 9 tickets for the next banner. If you do a 10-pull, those extra 9 are gone, and while they count toward your next pity, you’ve lost the flexibility of choice.
Secondly, prioritize characters over weapons. A 4-star (SR) weapon at high refinement/level is often "good enough" for most of the game's tactical content. A character, however, brings unique skills and movement options that a weapon just can't replace.
The Girls Frontline 2 pity system is designed to be predictable. That predictability is your greatest weapon. It’s not about luck; it’s about math. If you go into a banner with 160 pulls, luck doesn't matter. You own that character. If you go in with 40, you’re just asking for heartbreak.
Summary of Actionable Insights
- Track your count: Always know your distance from 55 (soft pity) and 80 (hard pity).
- The 50/50 Rule: If you lose the 50/50 on a limited banner, stop and think. Your next Elite is a 100% guarantee. Save that for a character that is truly meta-defining.
- Single pulls near pity: Switch to single pulls once you hit 55-60 to maximize resource efficiency.
- Currency Management: Treat 25,600 Crystals as the "true cost" of a character. Anything less is a gamble; anything more is a surplus.
- Ignore the Standard Banner: Never spend Crystals on the standard banner. Use only the free tickets the game gives you through weekly tasks and login rewards. Save every single Crystal for limited rotations.
The shift from the original game's resource-based production to this pull-based system is jarring for veterans. It feels less like a factory and more like a casino. But by understanding the internal logic of the Girls Frontline 2 pity system, you can remove the "casino" element and replace it with a calculated acquisition strategy. Manage your pulls, respect the 50/50, and don't chase weapons until your roster is solid.