Genshin Impact 7.2 Pull Budget: Welkin Moon vs Battle Pass vs Genesis Crystals, Real Cost Per Wish (October 2026)
Welkin Moon is the cheapest Genshin Impact wish at about US$0.27. First-purchase Genesis Crystals packs, whose double bonus reset with Version 7.1 on 2026-09-23, cost about US$1.21–1.33 per wish; regular packs cost US$1.98–2.64. For Mitya in Version 7.2 (2026-11-04), bank every free Primogem first, then pay only for the gap.
Author: Sarah Mitchell Publish at: 2026/10/24 14 min read
Welkin Moon is the cheapest Genshin Impact wish at about US$0.27. First-purchase Genesis Crystals packs, whose double bonus reset with Version 7.1 on 2026-09-23, cost about US$1.21–1.33 per wish; regular packs cost US$1.98–2.64. For Mitya in Version 7.2 (2026-11-04), bank every free Primogem first, then pay only for the gap.
Prices are US PC-direct prices from the Genshin Impact Wiki, fetched 2026-10-24. Always check the in-game shop or the official Top-Up Center before buying.
TL;DR
Question
Short answer
What is live right now?
Version 7.1 "A Rekviem for the Underworld". Skirk and Escoffier banners run until 2026-11-03 14:59 (UTC+8).
When is 7.2?
Version 7.2 "Hour of Ruin" launches Wednesday 2026-11-04. The maintenance time has not been officially confirmed yet.
Who is on the 7.2 banners?
Phase 1: Mitya (new 5★ Electro Catalyst) and a Furina rerun, plus the 4★ Valeriy. Phase 2: Zibai and Linnea reruns and a Natlan Chronicled Wish.
Cheapest wish?
Welkin Moon: US$0.266 per wish, but it's time-gated to 18.75 wishes per 30 days.
Best one-off pack?
The 1,980-crystal pack on its first purchase: US$1.212 per wish.
Has the first top-up double reset?
Yes. It reset on 2026-09-23 06:00 (UTC+8) with the 7.1 update.
Average cost of a featured 5★ from 0 pity
About 90.3 wishes (14,453 Primogems). That's roughly US$109 using first-purchase packs or US$199 using regular 980 packs. Worst case is 180 wishes.
Free Primogems you can still claim
Livestream codes worth 300 (until 2026-10-26 12:00 UTC+8). The official 7.2 calendar lists 2,370, plus 560 (Archon Quest) and 400 (new area).
Version 7.2 "Hour of Ruin" key visual. Source: HoYoverse / Genshin Impact, official news post, 2026-10-23.
-11%Blessing of the Welkin MoonUSD 5.03USD 5.68Buy Now
What 7.2 "Hour of Ruin" Brings, and Why Your Budget Matters Now
HoYoverse's official press release (2026-10-23) and the 7.2 Special Program confirmed a 2026-11-04 launch. The Archon Quest gathers representatives of all seven nations in Snezhnaya, and a new area opens in eastern Snezhnaya that includes the underground mining city of Novokitezhgrad. If you want the full patch rundown, our Genshin Impact next update overview covers it. This page sticks to the money and the Primogems.
The banners are why the timing matters. Per the livestream, Phase 1 pairs the debut of Mitya (5★ Electro Catalyst, built around Stellar-Conduct) with a Furina rerun. Phase 1 also boosts the 4★ Valeriy and adds the new 5★ Catalyst "Starsealed Edict" on the weapon banner. Phase 2 brings Zibai and Linnea reruns, plus a Chronicled Wish with Varesa, Chasca, Xilonen, Mualani and Kinich. HoYoverse hasn't posted exact banner start and end times yet. Its Event Wishes notice usually goes up about two days before the update.
Mitya's name card in the official 7.2 trailer (02:11–02:17). Source: Genshin Impact / HoYoverse, official YouTube, 2026-10-23.
Start with the official trailer if you haven't seen it yet:
Real Cost Per Wish: Every Pack, First-Time vs Repeat vs Welkin
One wish costs 160 Primogems, and Genesis Crystals convert to Primogems 1:1. I took the wiki's US prices and worked out what one wish really costs on each option. A first purchase doubles the base crystals and replaces the regular bonus, so the double is worth +100% on the 60 pack but only +60.4% on the 6,480 pack.
Option
Price (US$)
Regular: crystals
Regular: US$/wish
First purchase: crystals
First purchase: US$/wish
First vs regular
60 Genesis Crystals
0.99
60
2.640
120
1.320
+100%
300 Genesis Crystals
4.99
330
2.419
600
1.331
+81.8%
980 Genesis Crystals
14.99
1,090
2.200
1,960
1.224
+79.8%
1,980 Genesis Crystals
29.99
2,240
2.142
3,960
1.212
+76.8%
3,280 Genesis Crystals
49.99
3,880
2.061
6,560
1.219
+69.1%
6,480 Genesis Crystals
99.99
8,080
1.980
12,960
1.234
+60.4%
Blessing of the Welkin Moon (30 days, log in daily)
Calculation: crystals ÷ 160 = wishes, and price ÷ wishes = US$/wish. Prices come from the Genshin Impact Wiki (fetched 2026-10-24). I couldn't read prices from the official Top-Up Center page, so verify them in-game. Prices also vary by region and platform.
Primogems per US$1 by purchase option. Source: BitTopup calculation from Genshin Impact Wiki pricing (Genesis Crystal, Welkin Moon and Battle Pass pages), fetched 2026-10-24.
Welkin Moon vs Battle Pass vs raw crystals, head to head
Welkin Moon
Gnostic Hymn (Battle Pass)
First-purchase packs
Regular packs
US$ per wish
0.266
1.211 (wish items only)
1.212–1.331
1.980–2.640
Wishes per purchase
18.75 per 30 days
8.25
0.75–81
0.38–50.5
Catch
You must log in every day; about 4.8 months to fund one average 5★
Full Primogem value needs BP level 50 (third-party note); the rest of the value is materials and a weapon
Once per tier until the next reset
No catch, just poor value
Buy if…
You play daily. Always buy this first.
You want the BP weapon or materials anyway
You need wishes before a banner ends
The first-purchase tiers are used up and you still need wishes
One correction to a popular YouTube take: the "Welkin gives 4,800 Primogems" claim counts the 1,800 Daily Commission Primogems you'd get anyway. Welkin's own value is 3,000 per 30 days.
Capturing Radiance Explained Correctly, and What It Saves You
HoYoverse's official notice (posted 2024-08-16, updated 2025-02-10) says three things about Capturing Radiance:
Capturing Radiance has a base trigger rate of 0.018%.
When you aren't on a guarantee, the consolidated probability that a 5★ is the featured character is 55.000%. That's 55% for a featured 5★, not a better coin flip on every pull.
If you lose the 50/50 three times in a row, Capturing Radiance is guaranteed to trigger on the next one.
The 0.6% base 5★ rate, hard pity at 90, and the guarantee after a loss are unchanged. "Soft pity" around pull 74 is a community term based on player testing, not an official number. If you see the special animation, you won a 50/50 you would have lost. Your next 5★ is back on the 50/50, not guaranteed. One YouTube video claims a 50% → 75/25 → 100% ladder, but that's a community simulation HoYoverse hasn't confirmed.
Your banner state
Average wishes
Median
Unlucky (90th percentile)
Hard maximum
Guaranteed (you lost your last 50/50)
62.3
76
80
90
50/50 at the old 50% rate
93.4
80
155
180
50/50 with Capturing Radiance (55%)
90.3
79
155
180
Own model: an exact probability calculation using the wiki's per-pull rates (0.6% through pull 73, +6% per pull from pull 74, 100% at pull 90). It reproduces the wiki's figure of about 62.5 wishes per 5★. Because the ramp is community-derived, treat these as estimates.
The upshot: Capturing Radiance saves about 3.1 wishes (roughly 500 Primogems) on average. That's nice, but you should still budget for 180.
Cost of one featured 5★ from 0 pity (average 90 / unlucky 155 / worst 180 wishes). Source: BitTopup calculation from Genshin Impact Wiki "Wish" and pricing pages (fetched 2026-10-24) and the HoYoverse Capturing Radiance notice (updated 2025-02-10).
In dollars: one featured 5★ from 0 pity
Paid with
Average (90.3 wishes)
Unlucky (155)
Worst case (180)
Already guaranteed, average (62.3)
Regular 980 packs
$198.76
$341.06
$396.07
$137.08
Regular 6,480 packs
$178.86
$306.90
$356.40
$123.35
1,980 first-purchase rate
$109.46
$187.82
$218.11
$75.49
Welkin Moon (every day claimed)
$24.04
$41.25
$47.90
$16.58
These are continuous figures: they ignore pack rounding, free income and the fact that each first-purchase bonus is one-time.
The 7.2 Free-Primogem Calendar
These are the numbers HoYoverse has actually printed. They come from the official 7.2 Event Calendar (HoYoLAB, 2026-10-23), the press release and the livestream. All dates are UTC+8.
The calendar doesn't print everything. Commissions, Spiral Abyss, Imaginarium Theater and other rewards come on top. Third-party trackers estimate 12,700–13,800 Primogems plus 7 Fates for all of 7.2 (GuruGamer, 2026-10-24). That's a community estimate, so allow ±10%.
HoYoverse's two-minute events overview walks through the same lineup:
Snezhnaya's railway in the official 7.2 trailer (00:27–00:33). Source: Genshin Impact / HoYoverse, official YouTube, 2026-10-23.
Your 7.2 Pull Budget, Step by Step (With the Arithmetic)
Count what you have. Wishes in hand = (Primogems + any Genesis Crystals you'll convert) ÷ 160 + Intertwined Fates.
Know your worst case. On a 50/50 with pity p, the worst case is 180 − p wishes. On a guarantee it's 90 − p. Note that 7.1's Character Event Wish and Wish-2 share the same guarantee count (official banner notice).
Bank what's left in 7.1 (2026-10-24 → 11-03): codes 300, Carefree Snowball Fight 420 (ends 11-02 03:59), Stygian Onslaught 450 (ends 11-03 03:59), and 11 days of Commissions at 60 per day = 660. That's 1,830, or 11.4 wishes. Welkin owners add 11 × 90 = 990, for 2,820 (17.6 wishes). Subtract anything you've already claimed.
Add what 7.2 gives early: the Archon Quest (560) and new-area exploration (400) are worth 960, and both are available from 11/04. HoYoverse hasn't said how much of The Grand Defense's 920 unlocks on day one.
Pay for the gap only, cheapest first: Welkin, then unused first-purchase tiers (smallest that covers the gap), then regular packs.
Worked example A: Welkin player, 60 wishes saved, 0 pity, on the 50/50
Gap to the 90.3-wish average: 6.7 wishes (about 1,070 Primogems). An unused 980 first purchase (1,960 crystals, $14.99) covers it, taking you to 95.9 wishes.
Gap to a fully guaranteed Mitya (180): 96.4 wishes = 15,420. The cheapest cover with unused first-purchase tiers is 6,480 + 980 + 300 = 15,520 crystals for $119.97. Using regular packs instead costs far more.
Worked example B: F2P, 50 wishes saved, guaranteed, 20 pity
8,000 + 1,830 + 960 = 10,790 = 67.4 wishes. The worst case is 90 − 20 = 70 wishes, so you're 2.6 short of certainty.
One unused 300 first purchase (600 crystals, $4.99) gets you to 71.2 wishes, so Mitya is guaranteed. Or skip it and accept a tiny risk, since the average from a guarantee is about 62 wishes.
Mitya's energy effects in the official 7.2 trailer (02:24–02:29). Source: Genshin Impact / HoYoverse, official YouTube, 2026-10-23.
What to Buy by Player Type
You are…
Spend
Plan for 7.2
F2P
$0
Redeem the codes before 10-26 12:00, finish the Snowball and Stygian events, claim the free 5★ before 11-03 14:59, and consider skipping Escoffier unless you're committed to Cryo (a third-party planner's view).
Light spender (about $5 a month)
Welkin only
18.75 wishes per 30 days at $0.266 each. Nothing else comes close.
Around $15 a month
Welkin + Gnostic Hymn
Buy the BP only if you'll reach level 50 and want its weapon or materials. Its wish value per dollar matches a first-purchase pack.
"I must get Mitya"
Welkin + first-purchase tiers
Use the step-5 arithmetic. Buy the smallest unused first-purchase tier that closes your gap.
Heavy spender (first-purchase tiers used)
Regular 6,480
At $1.98 per wish it's the best regular rate. Wait for the next first-purchase reset only if one is announced (none has been as of 2026-10-24).
The Free 5★ Selector and the Last-Week 7.1 Decisions
The 7.1 Tabletop Troupe event lets you invite one limited 5★: Tartaglia, Nilou, Baizhu, Chiori, Clorinde or Varesa. You need AR 18+ and Archon Quest Chapter VII Act IV completed, and the deadline is 2026-11-03 14:59 (UTC+8). A separate event gives one standard 5★ from Wanderlust Invocation on the same deadline. Most guides miss one detail: Varesa is in 7.2's Phase 2 Chronicled Wish, but Clorinde isn't on any announced 7.2 banner.
Your situation
Pick / do
Why (and who says so)
You want the strongest pick and won't pull on Chronicled
Varesa
Some creators say C0 Varesa is the top pick (e.g. Genshin Filter on YouTube). This is opinion, not official.
You already own Clorinde
Clorinde for C1, or C2 if you can
Mobalytics rates C1 Clorinde about equal to C0 Varesa, and C2 Clorinde above C0/C1 Varesa.
You might wish on the 7.2 Chronicled Wish anyway
Take a character who isn't on it (e.g. Clorinde)
Varesa can be pulled again in Phase 2. Clorinde has no announced 7.2 banner.
You run Arlecchino
Consider Clorinde
A highly upvoted Reddit reply notes they share an artifact set. That's a community point.
You don't have AR 18 or haven't finished Act IV yet
Rush the Archon Quest now
The invite needs both conditions before 11-03 14:59.
You're debating Skirk or Escoffier and also want Mitya
Pull only if your budget covers both worst cases
Advice conflicts ("non-negotiable for Skirk" on Reddit vs "high skip priority" on a third-party planner). Also, the two 7.1 character banners share one guarantee count (official notice).
Version 7.1 Phase II "Void Star's Advent" banner (Skirk), live until 2026-11-03 14:59 UTC+8. This is a 7.1 banner, not 7.2. Source: HoYoverse, official news post, 2026-10-08.
Safe Top-Up Checklist
Prefer the in-game shop or the official Genshin Impact Top-Up Center, which the HoYoverse Help Center lists. HoYoverse's Terms of Service ban top-ups through channels or third parties "not endorsed or not approved by COGNOSPHERE", so check a seller's status yourself before you use it.
Check your UID and server before you pay. Players report UID prefixes of 6 for America, 7 for Europe, 8/18 for Asia and 9 for TW/HK/MO. That's community info, so confirm it in your own game.
Never share your password or log-in codes. A top-up only ever needs your UID.
Check the first-purchase markers on the in-game Crystal Top-Up page. The double bonus applies once per tier and doesn't stack, and HoYoverse hasn't announced a 7.2 reset.
If a purchase fails, HoYoverse's help article says to turn off any VPN or proxy and make sure your mobile payment method's country matches your location.
Buy only in your own account's region. Prices differ by region and platform (the wiki shows about a 2.6× spread on the 980 pack). Don't try to game it.
Avoid "too cheap" resellers and never file a chargeback. Reddit users warn that stolen cards and chargebacks can lead to bans.
Keep your receipt. The Top-Up Center lists genshin_payment@hoyoverse.com for payment issues.
New 7.2 combat and exploration footage from the official trailer (01:23–01:29). Source: Genshin Impact / HoYoverse, official YouTube, 2026-10-23.
Conflicting "Facts" You'll See Online, Sorted Out
Claim you'll see
What the sources actually say
"Version 6.8 is out"
There was no official 6.8. The 6.x run was branded Luna I–VIII, and 7.0 "Everwinter Without Mercy" launched 2026-08-12.
"Soft pity starts at 74"
That's community testing. HoYoverse publishes only 0.6%, the 90-pull cap and a 1.6% consolidated rate.
"Capturing Radiance makes it 75/25 after a loss"
This comes from a creator simulation. The official text says 55% consolidated, with a guaranteed trigger after three straight losses.
"F2P gets 150 pulls per patch"
Third-party trackers estimate about 80–90 wishes per version (±10%). Reddit answers range from 50 to 150 with no method shown.
"Spiral Abyss gives 800 twice a month"
Sources disagree: the wiki says 800 per month, while GameVika says 800 per reset.
"The 7.1 Archon Quest gave 1,030 Primogems"
HoYoverse's news says 620. The mismatch is unexplained.
"Welkin = 4,800 Primogems"
Welkin itself is 3,000. The other 1,800 comes from Commissions you'd earn anyway.
Version 7.2 Special Program announcement. It aired 2026-10-23 at 20:00 UTC+8. Source: HoYoverse, official news post, 2026-10-21.
FAQ
When does Genshin Impact 7.2 come out?
Wednesday 2026-11-04, according to HoYoverse's press release and official calendar. The exact maintenance time and compensation hadn't been posted as of 2026-10-24. In 7.1, maintenance started at 06:00 UTC+8, but don't assume 7.2 will match.
Has the Genesis Crystal first top-up bonus reset?
Yes. HoYoverse announced on 2026-09-15 that every tier reset with the 7.1 update at 2026-09-23 06:00 (UTC+8). Unused old bonuses didn't stack. No 7.2 reset has been announced.
What are the current redeem codes?
HourofRuin (100 Primogems + 10 Mystic Enhancement Ore), ExpertMitya (100 + 5 Hero's Wit) and PhotoTime (100 + 50,000 Mora). They're valid until 2026-10-26 12:00 UTC+8, per official X.
Is Welkin Moon better than the Battle Pass?
For wishes, yes, by about 4.5×: $0.266 per wish for Welkin vs $1.211 for the Gnostic Hymn. Buy the BP for its weapon and materials, not its wishes.
How many wishes do I need for a guaranteed 5★?
From 0 pity on a 50/50, you need 180 to be certain. With Capturing Radiance the average is about 90. From a guarantee it's 90 at most and about 62 on average.
How many free Primogems will 7.2 give?
The official numbers add up to 3,330: 2,370 from calendar events, 560 from the Archon Quest and 400 from the new area. Codes add 300. Full-version third-party estimates are 12,700–13,800 plus 7 Fates.
