Genshin Impact's 2.4 Special Program aired just a couple of days ago right after Christmas, confirming several highly anticipated rumors discovered by leakers. On January 5, Genshin Impact will launch two new characters, the five-star Cryo user Shenhe, who fans have been ogling over since images of her have surfaced, and the four-star Geo user Yun Jin, who's inspired by traditional Chinese opera and even has separate VA done by a professional Chinese opera singer, and both are polearm wielders. Of course, players can also expect many new events such as rebuilding the Jade Chamber, The Great Gatherings where players will sail across the Stone Forest, and more.
But among those exciting offers, Genshin Impact will finally have a re-run of Xiao's banner Invitation to a Mundane Life. When Xiao was first rumored, he was one of the most hyped characters at the time, with players enamored by his design but also excited to finally have another formidable five-star Anemo character alongside Jean. Unfortunately for players on a budget, Xiao has proven to not be the best character when playing Genshin Impact free-to-play, or F2P. This is mostly because of his weapon, though, which means providing him with better F2P weapons could easily solve this, and could result in more players pulling on his upcoming 2.4 banner re-run in Genshin Impact.
Xiao As a F2P Character
Xiao's release came prior to Zhongli's, meaning it was before miHoYo began making more of an effort to ensure its five-star characters weren't only powerful at Constellation 6. Because it takes so much money to even pull a C0 five-star character, it's disappointing to then find that, after spending all that cash, they are only powerful if they've been pulled successfully several times over.
But of course, F2P players aren't spending any (or much) cash on Genshin Impact and aren't whaling on any five-stars that release. Instead, they choose to grind and save their Primogems that they earn in-game for specific five-star characters that interest them, and probably can't wish on every single banner that comes out with a guarantee that they'll get its five-star.
And because F2P players are saving their Primogems for the banners they want to pull on, they likely aren't spending any Primogems on the weapon banners either and are missing out on five-star weapons. Oftentimes, five-star weapons are made to work well with a specific five-star character. For example, Eula's signature weapon is the claymore Song of Broken Pines and the upcoming Shenhe is rumored to get a dedicated polearm called the Calamity Queller, though players are always welcome to mix and match weapons, characters, and artifacts however they'd like to experiment with builds. Most five-star Genshin Impact characters have a four-star weapon that works well as a substitute, but Xiao is a bit controversial in this way.
Many players feel that Xiao doesn't have a great F2P weapon that works well with his stats, and it can be difficult to make him powerful until higher levels. Some feel that Blackcliff Polearm is fine with Xiao, however, it can only be bought with Starglitter through Paimon's Bargains when available rather than crafted at the Blacksmith, so it's still a bit difficult to obtain, though not as hard as wishing for five-star weapons on the banner.
It would also be great to see Xiao get a better four-star weapon because of power creep. Power creep is an often "natural" occurrence in long-running video games like Genshin Impact and League of Legends where updates and expansions introduce weapons or characters that are more powerful than previously released ones. It's a common issue among gacha games, and though it might be too early to judge if this is a problem with Genshin Impact, introducing new weapons that suit older characters could help this, especially if miHoYo continues to release banner re-runs.
Genshin Impact is out now for Mobile, PC, PS4, and PS5 and is currently in development for Switch.