Should you pull for Alhaitham or Xiao in Genshin Impact?

Genshin Impact’s newest big update Version 3.4 features the highly-anticipated arrivals of Alhaitham and Yaoyao. The duo is featured for the first half of the Version update with the five-star Dendro Sword character Alhaitham getting his debut featured banner run at the same time as the five-star Anemo Polearm character Xiao is receiving yet another featured banner rerun.

The arrival of two more Dendro characters has the Genshin community extremely excited since Dendro is still a very new playable element with just three playable characters plus the Dendro Traveler available so far. Alhaitham and Yaoyao have now added two more to make a grand total of six including the Dendro Traveler.

Related: Genshin Impact Version 3.5 leaks: New characters, banners, events, and details so far

In the past, phases of Genshin updates have featured just one five-star character or even three five-star characters at once. MiHoYo seems to now stick to an always consistent schedule of two featured five-star banners for each phase of an update with at least one new four-star character also running sometime during the Version update.

While two featured five-star characters are certainly easier to choose from than three five-star characters, it is always still quite difficult to know which characters are worth spending precious Primogems on. This is largely due to how unique and powerful every Genshin character is.

The Version 3.4 update has officially introduced the first-ever five-star Dendro Sword character into the world of Teyvat. Alhaitham’s debut banner run will occur alongside a rerun of the five-star Anemo Polearm character Xiao which, means that all players will need to consider the duo carefully to decide who they should pull for during the update or if they should instead save their Primogems and not wish for either character.

Comparing Genshin characters is never an exact science and the answer to who players should wish on will always ultimately come down to their own desires and their personal play style. But any Traveler seeking advice on the matter can at least carefully consider all factors before deciding what action to take.

Is Alhaitham worth pulling for in Genshin Impact?

The support for Alhaitham has had quite a rocky road since the character was first discovered during a massive Sumeru cast leak in July 2022. He was first met with extreme excitement that remained for quite a long time before early leaks of his skillset then worried fans into believing that he was just a Dendro version of the five-star Electro Sword character Keqing.

Now, the excitement for Alhaitham sits somewhere in the middle as the Genshin community has come to truly understand his skillset. Alhaitham is a character not quite worthy of the initial excitement he garnered but is also certainly better than Keqing who is one of the staple banner characters on the permanent “Wanderlust Invocation” wish banner.

The Dendro character is a primary damage-dealing unit and is built only for this role, which means that players will only want to utilize him as the character dealing most of the damage on any given team. Alhaitham is certainly a powerful Dendro force, but he is not a versatile one like Nahida.

Alhaitham has the special “Chisel-Light Mirror” ability that falls under his elemental skill and can stack to make his skillset behave differently. Chisel-Light Mirrors can cause normal, charged, and plunging attacks to be infused with Dendro and will also change his elemental burst depending on how many stacks of the Chisel-Light Mirrors are present.

His elemental skill is called “Universality: An Elaboration on Form” and regularly dishes out Dendro damage but can also be held to target a location and teleport to it to deal targeted Dendro damage. The Dendro characters’ elemental burst “Particular Field: Fetters of Phenomena” creates a special field that then dishes out many instances of area of effect Dendro damage. More instances of damage dealt can be added when more Chisel-Light Mirrors are present.

Alhaitham’s abilities require him to remain on the battlefield for the majority of the time for him to dish out Dendro damage. Thus, players should only pull for Alhaitham if they are seeking a primary damage dealer. Otherwise, he is skippable since he cannot function well in a support or secondary damage-dealing role.

Is Xiao worth pulling for in Genshin Impact?

The five-star Anemo Polearm character Xiao has been around since February 2021, which makes him one of Genshin’s oldest characters. Xiao hails from Liyue and functions as an Anemo primary damage dealer.

The Anemo character is capable of dishing out quick and efficient damage and thus functions well as a consistent damage-dealing force. His elemental burst allows him to fly up into the air and crash down on enemies repeatedly, causing him to excel at dealing brutal damage.

While Xiao boasts a very powerful and consistent skillset, he also comes with a complex luring curve. Xiao’s skillset is rather tricky to manage because he comes with a health-draining elemental burst, similar to another Liyue native the five-star Pyro Polearm character Hu Tao, that drains health to boost his damage output.

The Anemo character’s abilities are certainly powerful, but other characters can do just about everything that Xiao can without the complex health-draining drawback.

Most Anemo characters possess special skills that make them some of the best exploration characters to utilize and Xiao is no exception. His elemental skills can be used at many locations across Teyvat to glide over gaps or dodge unwanted fights.

If aspects like storyline and appearance are of importance to you then Xiao is likely a character you’ll want to pull for based on these details alone. He boasts one of the most unique and intriguing looks in all of Teyvat thanks to his adeptus status and has a complex backstory to go with it.

Another important factor to consider with Xiao is that he seems to be one of miHoYo’s favorites because he is one of the most frequently rerun characters. This means that players who miss out on him this time probably won’t have to wait too long before the Anemo character returns once again since he seems to reappear quite regularly.

Should you wish for Alhaitham or Xiao in Genshin Impact?

Choosing between two powerful five-star characters is always a tough task because of how unique every Genshin character is. This task is often made even more difficult by the two featured five-star characters being completely different character types.

In the case of Alhaitham and Xiao, however, the choice is made somewhat easier by them both being primary damage-dealing forces. Both of their skillsets are still extremely unique to them as individual playable characters, but they are alike in the role that they are meant to play on a team and may thus be compared by this.

If you’re looking to judge these characters simply by which is overall the better damage-dealing unit of the two, then the answer is Alhaitham. Both Alhaitham and Xiao are primary damage-dealing forces, but Alhaitham comes with no special restrictions or drawbacks while Xiao requires a delicate and precise balance due to his complex health-draining features.

Dendro is also currently one of the rarest playable elements in Genshin while Anemo is playable in abundance. More Dendro characters are sure to arrive in the future, with the owner of Bubu Pharmacy in Liyue Baizhu and architect Kaveh from Sumeru likely among the next ones to be released, but for now, Dendro is quite exclusive which makes Alhaitham that much more appealing for any player seeking to add this element to their team.

While Alhaitham has an overall edge over Xiao, the Anemo character is certainly better for those seeking a character that will help them in Teyvat exploration. Alhaitham, however, does also possess a useful exploration ability since he can target a location and teleport to that location so it may simply come down to which exploration skill players believe that they will find more useful. Xiao might also be better for players who find that an Anemo primary damage dealer fits into their roster better than a Dendro one due to the other characters that they possess.

Alhaitham requires team compositions that are entirely built around his unique skillset and Dendro elemental reactions. Xiao is much more flexible and forgiving, which means that he will function well within most team lineups and especially when a healer is present on the team to negate his health-draining abilities.

Another factor that may cause players to lean more toward Xiao over Alhaitham or vice versa is their unique play styles. Xiao’s Anemo skillset can be rather fun to play as no other character can plunge up and down through the air quite like he can while Alhaitham’s skills will function differently depending on how many stacks are present and he also comes with a unique targeting skillset somewhat reminiscent of the abilities of the five-star Dendo Catalyst character Nahida. Both characters are quite fun to play but players may find that one play style sounds more appealing to them than the other.

While both Alhaitham and Xiao are excellent recruits for a Genshin team, it’s also important to consider that you might not need either of them. If you already have a strong damage dealer on your team, you are probably better off skipping both banners and saving your Primogems for the next one.

Alhaitham’s featured “Caution in Confidence” banner and Xiao’s featured “Invitation to Mundane Life” banner will be live for about three weeks once Version 3.4 launches. Their banners are live from Jan. 18 to Feb. 9 at which point they will then be replaced by reruns of the five-star Hydro Bow character Yelan’s “Discerner of Enigmas” banner and the five-star Pyro Polearm character Hu Tao’s “Moment of Bloom” banner for the second half of the Version 3.4 update.