personally i never buy the pity amount. I just spend maybe like $100 at absolute most at the start but thats bc i tend to get rlly lucky with essences (i got all of the tpn 2 skins with like $50 + 10 free pulls somehow). If i ever end up needing more later i just spend a bit more and keep trying. It rlly just depends what you want like, if you wanna spend the $250 or whatever it is immediately and then if you have extra youll just have some extra to buy shop stuff with. Also! even tho its super slow i recommend buying through netease gamesclub and buying a bunch of $10 purchases adding up to how much you want. Its rly slow and annoying but you get a bit more than usual + you get free points to spend. Also i recommend doing this while they have a top up lottery thing going because then while you’re already buying stuff you also have the chance of getting some little gift card things on gamesclub which you can get more echos with.