How Many Pulls to Guarantee an S-Rank in NTE? The Math Explained
If you have ever played a gacha game, you know the question that haunts every banner: how many pulls do I actually need? In Neverness to Everness, the answer is refreshingly straightforward — but the math beneath the surface reveals a lot more nuance than a single number can capture. Let's break it all down so you can plan your Annulith spending with confidence before NTE launches on April 29, 2026.
The Guaranteed Answer: 90 Pulls Maximum
Here is the headline: you will always get the featured S-rank character within 90 pulls. No exceptions.
Unlike many other gacha RPGs, Neverness to Everness does not use a 50/50 system. There is no coin flip when you hit pity. When the guaranteed trigger fires, you receive the featured character on the banner — period. This is a massive difference from games where you might need up to 180 pulls (losing one 50/50 and then hitting pity a second time) to secure the unit you want.
Hard pity in NTE sits at 90 pulls. But the reality is that most players will never reach that number. The base rate for pulling an S-rank character is approximately 1.88% per pull before any pity mechanics come into play. That means on any given pull from pull 1 through pull 69, you have roughly a 1-in-53 shot at walking away with the featured character. Those odds are not terrible, and they compound quickly over dozens of attempts.
The real magic, though, happens once soft pity kicks in. More on that shortly.
Expected Pulls by Probability
Because gacha pulls follow a geometric probability distribution (modified by soft pity), we can calculate exactly how many pulls it takes for various percentages of the player base to land their S-rank. At a 1.88% base rate with soft pity activating at pull 70, the numbers look like this:
- 25% of players get their S-rank by approximately pull 15
- 50% of players get their S-rank by approximately pull 37
- 75% of players get their S-rank by approximately pull 62
- 90% of players get their S-rank by approximately pull 75 (most land in the soft pity range)
- 100% of players are guaranteed by pull 90
That median of 37 pulls is the number you should keep in your head for planning purposes. If you are budgeting resources for a banner, assume you will need around 37 pulls. If you are saving for a worst-case scenario, save for 90. The truth will almost always fall somewhere in between.
Here is the full probability table broken down by pull range:
| Pull Range | Cumulative Chance | What's Happening | |------------|-------------------|------------------| | 1-10 | ~17% | Base rate, lucky pulls | | 11-30 | ~35% | Still base rate territory | | 31-50 | ~55% | Over half of players get it here | | 51-69 | ~73% | Approaching soft pity | | 70-80 | ~93% | Soft pity active, ~19.59% rate per pull | | 81-90 | 100% | Hard pity guarantee |
The takeaway: roughly three out of four players will have their S-rank before soft pity even begins. And once soft pity fires, it cleans up almost everyone else within about ten pulls.
Soft Pity Math (Pull 70+)
NTE's gacha system uses the Scarborough Fair board mechanic, and at pull 70, the board transforms. The density of S-rank tiles increases dramatically, which translates to a massive jump in your effective pull rate.
Your per-pull probability leaps from the base 1.88% all the way up to approximately 19.59% — more than a tenfold increase. This is not a subtle nudge; it is an aggressive ramp designed to close out the pity cycle quickly.
Once soft pity triggers, the expected number of additional pulls to land your S-rank is only about 5 to 6 more pulls. That means the real "soft guarantee" point — the pull count where the vast majority of players will have their character — sits around pull 75 or 76.
Here is the part that might surprise you: only about 7% of players actually need to go all the way to pull 90. Hard pity exists as a safety net, but the soft pity ramp is so steep that it resolves the overwhelming majority of pulls well before the cap. If you find yourself at pull 85 or higher, you are genuinely in rare territory.
This design is player-friendly. It means the "worst case" almost never happens, and your average cost per character is significantly lower than the hard pity price tag would suggest.
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What Does 90 Pulls Cost in Annulith?
Now let's talk real numbers. Each pull on the Scarborough Fair board costs 1 Solid Die, and each Solid Die costs 160 Annulith. That gives us a clean conversion:
90 Solid Dice = 14,400 Annulith
At typical premium currency pricing tiers, 14,400 Annulith translates to roughly $150 to $200 USD depending on which purchase bundle you use and your regional pricing. That is the absolute ceiling — the maximum you would ever spend on a single featured character.
But remember, most players hit well before 90. The average cost paints a much friendlier picture:
| Scenario | Pulls | Annulith | Approx. USD | |----------|-------|----------|-------------| | Lucky (25th percentile) | 15 | 2,400 | ~$25 | | Average (50th percentile) | 37 | 5,920 | ~$65 | | Unlucky (90th percentile) | 75 | 12,000 | ~$140 | | Hard pity (worst case) | 90 | 14,400 | ~$175 |
The average player is looking at around 5,920 Annulith or roughly $60 to $80 USD equivalent per featured character. That is a very reasonable number by gacha standards, especially when you factor in the free Annulith you earn through gameplay.
This is the absolute maximum — most players spend far less because soft pity exists. If you are planning your budget, the 50th percentile column is your best friend. Save for the worst case, hope for the average, and enjoy it when you get lucky.
Skin Pity Costs
Characters are not the only thing you can pull for in NTE. The game also features cosmetic skins on their own pity tracks. Here is what each skin type costs at hard pity:
- Glider skin: 50 pulls = 8,000 Annulith
- Car skin: 120 pulls = 19,200 Annulith
- Character skin: 200 pulls = 32,000 Annulith
If you want absolutely everything a single banner has to offer — the featured character plus all three skin types — the worst-case total comes to 460 pulls or 73,600 Annulith. That is a staggering amount of premium currency, and it illustrates an important point about resource management in NTE.
This is why skin pity tracking matters. Most players will only aim for the featured character and maybe one skin per banner. Trying to collect everything on every banner is a whale-tier commitment. Knowing exactly where your pity sits across each track lets you make informed decisions about which skins are worth chasing and which ones you should skip.
Prioritize the character first. Then evaluate skins based on your remaining resources and how close you are to pity on each track.
How Many Pulls Can F2P Players Get Per Patch?
Understanding the income side of the equation is just as important as knowing the costs. Here is a realistic breakdown of what a free-to-play player can expect to earn each patch cycle.
NTE operates on an approximately 6-week (42-day) patch cycle. During that window, your Annulith sources look roughly like this:
- Daily missions: ~60 Annulith per day x 42 days = 2,520 Annulith
- Weekly content: ~350 Annulith per week x 6 weeks = 2,100 Annulith
- Patch events: approximately 2,000 to 3,000 Annulith depending on event scope
- Maintenance compensation: roughly 300 to 500 Annulith across the patch
Total per patch: approximately 7,000 to 8,000 Annulith, which translates to about 44 to 50 pulls.
What does that mean in practical terms? At the average pull count of 37, a F2P player can reasonably expect to secure a featured character roughly every patch if they have decent luck. In a worst-case scenario, you are looking at one guaranteed character every two patches — save for one, pull on the next.
Enough for about one guaranteed character every two patches for pure F2P, or one per patch with good luck. This is a comfortable cadence if you are selective about which banners you pull on. Skip one, save the overflow, and you will enter the next must-pull banner with a healthy cushion.
The key is tracking your resources and pity count so you always know exactly where you stand. Walking into a banner blind — not knowing your current pity or how much Annulith you can realistically earn before the banner ends — is the fastest way to overspend or miss out on a character you wanted.
Plan Smarter, Not Harder
The math in NTE's gacha system is ultimately on your side. No 50/50 means your pulls are never wasted on an off-banner loss. Soft pity at pull 70 means the real expected cost is far below the 90-pull ceiling. And the Annulith economy gives F2P players a realistic path to collecting the characters they care about most.
But doing all of this math by hand every time a new banner drops is tedious. You need to factor in your current pity count, your Annulith reserves, your expected income before the banner ends, and your priorities across character and skin tracks.
Stop doing this math by hand. NTETracker's pull calculator gives you instant answers based on your exact pity count and resource balance. Join the waitlist — it's free.