Gacha
Also said as Banner, Pulls, Wishes, Pity timer, Soft pity
A loot box system built into the core of a game: you pay for pulls on a banner to win characters at very low odds. The word comes from Japanese capsule-toy machines called gachapon.
A pity timer caps the worst case and it is a real kindness, but the result is often that a character costs hundreds of dollars, sold one pull at a time. In Genshin Impact a five-star has a 0.6% base rate, 1.6% counting the guarantee, certain by wish 90, and a 50/50 on whether it is the banner character (about 55/45 since version 5.0). The odds are shown. The total cost, which is what matters, is left for you to add up.
Say it
“If we must ship pulls, show the running real-money total and the most it could cost on the banner itself. Pity at 50 pulls, no 50/50, and no selling to under-18s.”
Where you’ve seen it
Genshin Impact is the best-known example today. Its pity counter carries over between banners of the same type, which gives you a reason not to stop.
Not to be confused with loot box
A loot box is often a side purchase. In a gacha game, the pull is what the whole business is built on, and the characters are the content.