When I first started playing Genshin Impact three years ago, I wasted months pulling on random banners without paying attention to all the extra rewards I was missing out on. I saved up for a Zhongli rerun for almost a year, only to realize I’d left hundreds of unspent Fate Points on expired banners that could have gotten me the extra pull I needed to get him. If you’re new to the game or have never paid attention to this underrated currency, you’re probably wondering how do you get fate points in genshin impact and why they matter. This guide breaks down every method to earn them, what to spend them on, and mistakes to skip so you don’t make the same errors I did.
Core Methods to Get Fate Points in Genshin Impact
The only way to earn Fate Points is by making wishes on limited-time promotional banners, including both Character Event Wish and Weapon Event Wish banners. Every single pull you make on these banners gives you 1 Fate Point, no matter if you get a 3-star weapon, a 4-star character, or a rare 5-star drop. You won’t earn any Fate Points for pulls on the permanent Wanderlust Invocation banner, even if you spend hundreds of Acquaint Fates there, so keep that in mind if you’re focused on farming points.
There are no other secret ways to earn Fate Points outside of making pulls on limited banners. You can’t get them from daily commissions, open world chests, event rewards, or battle pass tiers directly. The only indirect way to earn more points is to collect more Intertwined Fates to pull on limited banners, which we’ll cover more later. Fate Points do not carry over between banner cycles, so you will lose all unspent points when a limited banner ends. That means if you pull 30 times on a character banner that ends in two weeks, you have to spend those 30 points before the banner expires, or they’re gone forever.
It’s also worth noting that Fate Points are shared across all active limited banners during a cycle. If you pull 20 times on the first character banner and 20 times on the second character banner running at the same time, you’ll have 40 total Fate Points to spend before the cycle ends, not two separate pools of 20. That makes it easier to accumulate points even if you split your pulls between two featured characters you want.
What Can You Use Fate Points For?
Fate Points have two main uses that can help you get more of the characters and weapons you want without spending extra money. The first and most popular use is exchanging them for rewards in the Fate Point section of Paimon’s Bargains. The shop has a rotating set of rewards every banner cycle, but the permanent options are always the most valuable for most players. You can exchange 10 Fate Points for 1 Intertwined Fate at any time in Paimon's Bargains, making them a reliable way to get extra pulls for free. That means every 10 pulls you make on limited banners gives you one extra pull for free, which adds up fast over time.
The shop also sells high-tier character and weapon ascension materials, talent level-up books, and large stacks of mora for varying amounts of Fate Points. 5-star character ascension materials cost 50 Fate Points each, which is a great deal if you’re building a new limited character and don’t want to spend weeks farming domains for the materials you need. Just make sure you only spend points on these items if you have extra left after buying all the Intertwined Fates you want, since pulls are almost always a better value for most players.
The second use for Fate Points is tied directly to Weapon Event Wish banners through the Epitomized Path system. When you select a featured 5-star weapon as your target on a weapon banner, every time you get a non-featured 5-star weapon, you earn an Epitomized Fate Point. Once you earn 2 of these points, your next 5-star weapon drop is guaranteed to be the one you selected. This is a separate system from the general Fate Points you earn for all limited banner pulls, but it uses the same currency name, so a lot of new players get the two confused.
Hidden Tips to Farm Fate Points Faster
While the only way to earn Fate Points is pulling on limited banners, there are a few tricks to maximize how many you earn without spending extra real money. I use these tips myself to earn around 80 Fate Points per version update as a free-to-play player, which lets me get 8 extra Intertwined Fates every six weeks for free.
If you’re willing to spend a small amount of money, the monthly Welkin Moon pass gives you 90 Primogems a day for 30 days, which adds up to enough for around 10 extra pulls per month, plus 10 extra Fate Points. The paid battle pass also gives you four Intertwined Fates per level, which adds another four Fate Points per version update without much extra effort. Don't waste Fate Points on low-value items like common ascension materials or mora, since you can farm those easily in open world domains for no cost. It’s almost always better to save your points for Intertwined Fates or high-tier ascension materials you can’t farm quickly.
I’ve also found that planning my pulls three to six months in advance helps me earn more points without wasting Primogems. If I know a character I want is getting a rerun in three versions, I save all my Primogems for that banner instead of pulling on random banners in between. That way I get all the Fate Points from my pulls going towards a character I actually want, instead of wasting pulls on characters I don’t plan to use.
Common Fate Point Mistakes to Avoid
Even players who have been around for a few versions make easy mistakes with Fate Points that cost them hundreds of extra pulls over time. The most common mistake I see is forgetting to spend points before a banner cycle ends. I’ve had friends who lost over 100 Fate Points because they didn’t check Paimon’s Bargains before a banner expired, which would have been enough for 10 extra Intertwined Fates. Always spend all your Fate Points before a banner ends, as unspent points are permanently deleted once the cycle resets. I set a phone reminder for the day before a banner ends to check my point balance and spend any leftover points, so I never forget.
Another common mistake is pulling on random limited banners just to earn extra Fate Points. Even though you get points for every pull, you’re wasting Primogems that you could save for a character or weapon you actually want. The 1 extra Fate Point per pull is not worth wasting 160 Primogems on a banner you don’t care about, no matter how tempting a random 4-star on the banner might seem.
If you pull on weapon banners often, the biggest mistake you can make is forgetting to select your target weapon on the Epitomized Path menu before you start pulling. I made this mistake on a Raiden Shogun weapon banner a couple years ago, and I got two off-banner 5-star weapons before I realized I hadn’t selected her Engulfing Lightning as my target. I didn’t get any of the Epitomized Fate Points I would have earned to guarantee the weapon, so I had to spend extra pulls to get it. Always select your target weapon on the Epitomized Path menu before making any pulls on a weapon banner to avoid missing out on guaranteed Fate Point progress.
So, now that you know how do you get fate points in genshin impact, you can plan your pulls more efficiently to get the characters and weapons you want faster. Even free-to-play players can earn enough points to get 8-10 extra pulls per version update if they avoid the common mistakes we covered and focus their pulls on banners they actually want. I’ve used my saved Fate Points to get extra pulls for three limited 5-stars in the last year, so taking a few minutes to manage your points every banner cycle really does pay off if you’re patient. Next time you log in to pull on a new banner, take a second to check your Fate Point balance and spend any leftover points from the last cycle before you start pulling.