Which Liyue free character should you choose in Genshin Impact’s Lantern Rite event?

Genshin Impact’s Patch 4.4 is adding a lot of new content to discover across many features in the game. In addition to new quests and characters, it’s celebrating the Lunar New Year with a bang.

Developer HoYoverse is usually generous during these events, and this year is no exception. In 2024, players are celebrating the start of the Year of the Dragon, which is harbinger of success.

With the update, a new area was added to bridge the Fontaine and Liyue regions, as well as two new characters from Liyue to celebrate the region themed after Chinese mythology: Gaming and Xianyun. You can get the former for free with the traditional four-star Liyue character gift as part of the Lantern Rite event. This is a generous gift, so you have to choose wisely.

Here are some tips to select the four-star Liyue character you want to claim for the event.

Best Liyue four-star character to choose in Genshin Impact‘s Lantern Rite event

While Gaming is a new addition, Yaoyao has gone from the selection, so you still have 10 characters to choose from. Of course, which character is best depends on what your account is like. You’ll get the most of certain characters depending on their synergy with those you’ve geared up, and choosing a duplicate to gain a Constellation level can also be a great idea.

The best characters in the meta: Xiangling and Xingqiu

Generally, Genshin Impact allows players to clear content with the team of their choice, as long as their team has decent synergy (including a main DPS and a support, as well as some Elemental reactions that make sense). It means every character can be good in a team, even to clear the highest floors of Spiral Abyss.

That said, some characters are easier to include in compositions without needing high optimization due to their more versatile builds or strong abilities. They’re generally considered high-tier characters, and there are a couple in the Liyue selection.

These characters are Xiangling (the Pyro lancer) and Xingqiu (the Hydro sword-user). Xiangling is quite effective due to her abilities: She can trigger Pyro reactions multiple times with her flame-throwing bear, and deals off-field damage using her Burst, which creates a ring of fire around whichever character is currently active.

Xingqiu, on the other side, brings strong Hydro support. His Rain Sword creates many Hydro elemental reactions, more than other efficient characters like Mona, as well as healing.

The strongest Constellations

If you already own most of those characters or don’t really want new ones to level and gear up, Constellations are the way to go.

They’re unlocked by getting duplicate characters, improving them with various bonuses. Some of those improvements are just not worth it, though. Here is a breakdown on those character’s Constellations and which milestones are worth the free pick.

• Gaming: The new four-star character can be very strong when you unlock his Constellations. The strongest cap you’ll notice is his C3, however, which upgrades his Elemental Skill by three levels. It’s his most important skill.
• Xiangling: C4 is the strongest, lengthening the duration of her Elemental Burst by 40 percent. C3 is also strong due to its damage boost.
• Ningguang: She has a strong C2, improving her Elemental Burst in terms of damage and Energy.
• Beidou: She gains a shield with C1, and zaps more enemies with C2’s buff.
• Chongyun: His C1 grants more Cryo damage (but it isn’t very strong due to the character being mainly used as a sub-DPS/for utility), and C2 provides useful cooldown reduction.
• Yun Jin: C2 is strong when she’s used as utility in a Geo-focused team, granting an attack boost to all nearby allies.
• Yanfei: C1 is great when she’s used as a main DPS, granting a boost to her Charged Attacks.