"Pity roll"

So this term was given to me by chat gpt and it stood out in this wall of text that really was a bunch of nothing.

But this was said, by the gpt, that it corresponds with loot boxes originally.

Here’s **ELI5 “pity roll”** — the simplest, cleanest explanation possible:

---

# ⭐ ELI5: What is a Pity Roll?

Imagine you are drawing toys out of a mystery box.

* Most of the time you get **common toys**.
* Rarely, you get a **super special toy**.
* You might pull and pull and keep getting common toys… and that feels bad.

So the store adds a rule:

> **If the kid pulls the box a certain number of times without getting a super special toy…
> the next pull is GUARANTEED to be a super special toy.**

That rule = **pity roll**.

It’s called “pity” because the system **feels bad for you** after so many unlucky tries and gives you the good thing automatically.

---

# ⭐ How It Works (Ultra Simple)

1. Every time you try, a counter goes up:
**1… 2… 3… 4…**

2. If you hit the rare item, the counter resets to 0.

3. If you reach the magic number (like 50 tries):
👉 **The game gives you the rare item automatically.**

---

# ⭐ Real-World Comparison

It’s like a punch card at a pizza place:

* Buy 9 slices
* The 10th one is **free**

Even if you never got lucky and won a prize early, the system **forces** a win at the end.

---

# ⭐ Why it exists

* Prevents players from feeling unlucky forever
* Guarantees everyone eventually gets the rare thing
* Makes spending feel fairer
* Keeps people playing because they know a reward is coming soon

---

If you want, I can also explain:

* **Soft pity** (chance goes up each roll)
* **Hard pity** (guaranteed at X rolls)
* **How casinos/patents implement this secretly**
* **How video games (Genshin, Honkai, lotteries, etc.) code it**

Which one do you want next?


SO i asked it again if it could find a corresponding patent that was functionally similar to loot box pit rolls

and it gave me this one

"Slot machine performing payout of a predetermined amount of credits when the number of games reaches a predetermined number"
https://patents.google.com/patent/US20090082093A1/en

There's no pity rolls for video poker players when they go over 100,000 spins without a Royal.

Quote: ChumpChange

There's no pity rolls for video poker players when they go over 100,000 spins without a Royal.
link to original post

maybe they didnt have their players card in?

For slots, I find that when I lose 300x bet then all sorts of good things happen to get me back to RTP.
Ie. Screen shakes and I get a Great line hit or a bonus round.
Or lots of moderate wins in a short time.

Unfortunately for the bonus round the pity roll doesn't carry over there. Sometimes I get lousy bonuses

Another example of the lack of "pity rolls":

Every year, for the Gen Con gaming convention in Indianapolis, there is a random draw to determine the order for being able to select an affordable hotel room within walking distance - and every year, without fail, there is somebody who whines that this is the 8th or so year in a row that they did not get a downtown room, and there should be some sort of handicapping system to give them priority next year.

i guess i should say to everyone that this is techinically an ARUZE gaming patent... maybe it might happen specifically on their machines is what i was eventually and now getting at

The ARUZE connection is interesting because that patent makes the mechanic explicit and regulatorily documented, whereas a lot of manufacturers implement functionally similar things without it being as clean and disclosed. The must-hit-by progressive is essentially a hard pity mechanic in plain sight — everyone can see the meter ceiling, so it's not hidden. What's murkier is when manufacturers implement soft pity (increasing probability after a dry streak) inside video bonus games or coin-fill mechanics without disclosing it. From an advantage play perspective, the must-hit-by version is actually the one that creates opportunity because the threshold is observable. The hidden soft pity stuff, if it exists, mostly just makes the game feel better without giving the player actionable information.