As of January 12, 2021, the long-awaited Genshin Impact Adrift in the Harbor is active, adding a new character, Ganyu. Like any new five-star character added to the game since launch, you can only get her for the next few weeks. Wait too long, and there’s a chance you’ll never get another shot at adding her to your team.
So, should you pull for Ganyu? That depends. She’s absolutely worth it, but given there’s only a 0.6% chance of pulling a five-star in a banner — of which there are several others — you have to figure out the odds of you having enough primogems to get her. Here’s the chance you have of pulling Ganyu and the four-star characters included in her banner.
Genshin Impact Ganyu banner: Adrift in the Harbor rates
- Four-star rate = 5.1% (split between characters and weapons)
- Five-star rate = 0.6% (characters only)
It may be hard to understand, but by counting back through your pull history, you can reasonably predict when you’ll land your guaranteed four- or five-star pull. If you don’t get a four-star pull after nine single attempts, your next is guaranteed to be one. For five-star characters, the game actually states that this guarantee will kick in at 90 pulls, but evidence suggests the system will toss one at you around the 75 to 85 wish mark.
If, after all those pulls, your five-star character isn’t the rate-up choice (Ganyu, in this case), it’s guaranteed to be the rate-up the next time around. The same goes for four-star characters every 10 pulls, too. All in all, assuming you’re at zero pulls since your last rate-up five-star character (it doesn’t reset between limited-time banners), it’ll take a maximum of 180 pulls to guarantee a Ganyu pull — unless you luck out before then.
Is the Genshin Impact Ganyu character worth it?
So, should you pull for Ganyu? In a nutshell, yes. Early leaked footage didn’t exactly play to her strengths. Her bow attacks painted her as a simple Cryo take on the starting character Amber. Her attacks are similar, but she’s received a noticeable buff prior to launch, making her damage potential quite frankly outstanding.
She’s broken, in fact. Not to a point where MiHoYo has acknowledged it and warned of future nerfs, but to the point where Ganyu sits atop many tier lists, etching out a new SS rank for how drastically she outpaces previous greats like Diluc and Klee.
If you don’t like bow users for their somewhat lackluster gameplay, you might want to avoid her for that reason alone, but if you’re looking to get as far ahead in the game as you possibly can, it’s hard to say no to who is essentially the best character in the game right now.
Are the Ganyu banner four-star characters worth it?
Pulling in a limited-time banner means pulling a load of four-star characters in the process. Thankfully, just like how Fischl and Bennett were worth picking up in the last banner, two of the three four-star rate-up characters in the Ganyu banner are well worth grabbing if you have them already.
Xiangling was an easy pull at launch and has since been available for free through both events and the in-game shop more than once, so if you’re close to maxing out her constellations, the Ganyu banner is worth it for more than one reason. Similarly, Xingqui and Noelle have both been readily available before, making this banner a good chance to max them out.
On the tier list, Xingqui still sits very high thanks to his impressive DPS output and is well worth picking up and building out. As for Noelle, her ability to both shield and heal the team makes her great for squads lacking in survivability. She’s not as exciting as the other two, but at max Constellation, she can certainly help get you through some challenges, like the weekly Childe fight or the latter floors of the Spiral Abyss.
Is the Ganyu banner bait?
One question remains, though: Is the Ganyu banner just bait? We’re never meant to have an advanced look at characters on the horizon, but Genshin Impact 1.3 leaks have made us aware of both the Anemo-attuned Xiao and Pyro-attuned Hu Tao.
Neither element is particularly hard to come by, and while they’re sure to shake up the game in their own way, Ganyu rocketing to the top of the tier list probably isn’t a strike of lightning we should expect to happen twice. Unless MiHoYo are cranking the power creep lever way up for the future, the Ganyu banner is not bait.
Is Ganyu worth it, then? Yes. If you have enough primogems over the next couple of weeks to hit your guaranteed five-star pull, Ganyu is absolutely worth using them on. Her damage is through the roof, her accompanying four-star characters all complement her playstyle, and the fact that she can apply Freeze virtually nonstop will make many high-level fights noticeably easier.
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