The Genesis Crystals Index · The Pattern Recognition ← All IndexesLlama & Griffin Substack
Llama & Griffin · The Pattern Recognition · Live Data

The Same Wish, Priced by Passport.

The pull currency behind the highest-grossing gacha franchise in history. HoYoverse prices its biggest game with the same number across three major currencies: $14.99 USD, £14.99 GBP, €14.99 EUR. The numbers are identical. The real cost is not.

Benchmark 980 Genesis Crystals, HoYoverse top-up center
Baseline United States, $14.99
FX Updated loading
Local prices: Genshin Fandom Wiki Jan 2026 · FX: daily live · Snapshots: daily 02:00 UTC

The 980 Genesis Crystal pack delivers 1,090 total in steady state (980 base + 110 bonus). This index prices the labelled 980-crystal base. First-time double bonuses are tracked separately.

Cheapest market
Most expensive market
Cheapest vs dearest spread
4
Markets tracked
Section 01

Implied Cost in US Dollars

The same purchase, in dollars, today.

The US bar at $14.99 is the line. Below it, money buys more wishes. Above it, the identical 980-crystal top-up costs more real money.

Implied USD cost of 980 Genesis Crystals by market · recalculated on page load against daily FX

Section 02

The Index

HoYoverse charges the same number in every currency. The exchange rate is the story.

Local price, converted at today's rate, measured against $14.99. Negative is a discount. Positive is a premium for the identical 980-crystal wish budget.

FX source: loading
Market Local Price (980 Crystals) Implied USD Today vs US Baseline Crystal-Implied FX Confidence

The rate at which the local 980-crystal bundle would cost exactly $14.99. UK and EU pay the same number as the US. The implied FX column shows exactly how much more that costs in real dollars.

Argentina: Most markets have local-currency Genesis Crystal pricing confirmed on the official Genshin top-up website or MidasBuy. Markets not listed are excluded until a primary source is verified.

Turkey: China (CNY): Genshin Impact in mainland China operates through a separate miHoYo platform with distinct pricing (¥98 for 980 crystals). Listed but tagged separately given the different distribution context.

Section 03

Today's Interpretation

The sentence underneath the numbers.

Loading today's data…

Section 04

Drift Over Time

Repegs are events. Everything between is drift.

Vertical jumps were HoYoverse. The flat lines between them are exchange rate drift moving against a fixed price set in each local currency. This page captures that drift daily.

Tracking started July 22, 2026
Drift data available from July 29, 2026
This index requires 7 days of daily snapshots before the drift chart is meaningful. Check back on July 29, 2026.
Context

How Genesis Crystals Compare in These Markets

Premium or discount vs US baseline for all six indexes, today.

Genesis Crystals UK (+34.4%) is the largest premium on this desk for that market. HoYoverse charges £14.99 for a pack it sells at $14.99 in the US. The numbers look identical. They are not: sterling currently buys more dollars than the price implies, so UK players pay 34% more in real terms. Meanwhile Japan (-24.4%) benefits from a weak yen across all HoYoverse titles.

CurrencyUnited KingdomJapan
Robux+20.9%
V-Bucks+4.5%
Minecoins+14.2%
Oneiric Shards+34.4%-24.4%
Valorant Points+10.2%
Genesis Crystals+34.4%-24.4%

Premium (+) or discount (-) vs US baseline · all six indexes · live FX · cost per 100 base units

So What?

What This Means for Players

The same number. Very different costs.

HoYoverse charges £14.99, €14.99, and $14.99 for the same 980 Genesis Crystals. The numbers are identical across three major currencies. The real cost is not — because sterling and euros are worth more than dollars, UK and EU players pay a structurally higher real price for every wish they pull.

A UK player spending £14.99 today is paying roughly 35% more in real dollar terms than a US player for the identical top-up. This is not FX drift. It is the design: the price was set once, in nominal terms, and the exchange rate does the rest. This page records how wide that gap runs, and how it moves when nobody is looking.

Section 05

Methodology

How this index is built.
  • US price: Roblox web store. Confirmed current. Tagged Official.
  • Regional prices: FoxReload distributor data, May 2026. Tagged Reseller-reported or Contested until direct storefront verification. India prices conflict across sources and are flagged.
  • Exchange rates: Frankfurter. Daily mid-market rates from 84 central banks, fetched on every page load. Falls back to a stamped snapshot if the fetch fails.
  • Storefront: Web store prices only. App-store purchases carry a platform commission and are excluded.
  • It does not claim Roblox is mispricing anything. Regional pricing is deliberate purchasing power adjustment.
  • Part of any gap reflects that policy working as intended, alongside app-store matrices and local tax treatment.
  • Robux cannot be transferred between regional accounts. These gaps are not a practical arbitrage route.

Since November 2024, $9.99 on the Roblox web store yields 1,000 Robux due to a 25% bonus. The 800-Robux SKU remains a distinct purchasable tier and is still the labelled bundle in most regional storefronts.

This index benchmarks the 800-Robux bundle. The distinction is intentional: the index measures the bundle price, not the effective yield after bonus.

  • Roblox-set local prices: Roblox denominates the purchase in local currency for certain markets. These appear in the main table.
  • USD-billed with local tax: Markets like Argentina are billed in USD. Local banks apply import taxes and withholding at checkout. This is tracked separately in the Argentina note, not the main table.
Benchmark bundle: 980 Genesis Crystals via HoYoverse top-up center (MidasBuy). Baseline: United States at $14.99. Source: Genshin Impact Fandom Wiki (Jan 2026).. FX: Frankfurter (api.frankfurter.dev) · daily mid-market rates from 84 central banks. Price table last audited: 17 July 2026. Verification status shown per row: Official (Roblox storefront), Confirmed (multiple independent sources), Reseller-reported (provisional, single distributor), Contested (sources diverge by 30%+ and require primary-source verification before treating as authoritative). Argentina and Turkey are excluded from the main table on structural grounds; see note in Section 01.

The Genesis Crystals Index is independent analysis by Llama & Griffin, not affiliated with or endorsed by HoYoverse, miHoYo, or Cognosphere. The Genesis Crystals name refers to the product. Nothing on this page sells, resells, or advises on acquiring Genesis Crystals.

Section 06

The Reframe

The same number. Very different costs.

HoYoverse’s pricing strategy for Genshin is uniquely legible: the same number in every currency. £14.99. €14.99. $14.99. The product is identical, the pity counter is identical, the drop rates are identical. The real cost is the exchange rate applied to a fixed number set years ago. UK players pay ∼35% more than US players for the same wish budget. They always have. Most of them have never been told. Not what 980 Genesis Crystals costs. Who is asked to pay the most for the identical banner pull, and how quietly that gap widens when the pound weakens.

This index updates daily. The read on what it means ships on The Pattern Recognition. Get the weekly close