Notes on Version 2.4, the 2nd Lantern Rite in Genshin's history.
What does the USA media define as a good update? It is no surprise the USA media has favoritism and bias towards certain units. Any update that promotes its proxies and favorites while downplaying other units is a good update to them. You can tell something is written by the USA CIA or influenced by their water army shills just by reading the headline of the article, video, or whatever trash they are trying to spew. The fundamental issue is the zero sum mentality of certain USA elites and how they abuse the media to spread lies and pull wool over their own people.
Also beware the USA shills acting like whopperflowers during Albedo's quest. They like to imitate and take the form of other people and things online. These cybermobs are fake identities that endanger people around the world. Any whopperflower needs to be weeded out and exterminated on sight.
December 31, 2021
Genshin released the banners for the entire cycle in advance, which is a precedent. Looking at the banners, it seems Genshin is trying to balance the two halves of the update with their selection of 4 stars. The 1st half with Shenhe and Xiao will feature Chongyun, Ningguang, and the new 4 star Yun Jin. The 2nd half with Zhongli and Ganyu will feature Yanfei, Beidou, and Xingqiu (no new 4 stars).
Ganyu is not worth pulling for F2P. She has no team, no supports, a garbage weapon, the current abyss does not favor her at all, she is horrible on mobile. Skip ganyu. None of her banner characters synergize with her anyways.
On the other hand, for Beidou and Xingqiu (which have appeared together on the Eula and Kokomi banners), by this point in Genshin's history, many people probably have multiple copies of both characters (even C6). For the 1st banner, Ningguang is getting her new skin, and Yun Jin is a new character, and both are getting hangout events.
As a sidenote, both Xiao and Chongyun share the same CN VA (kinsen), while Beidou and Xingqiu share the same CN VA (Tang Yajing).
As for why Genshin decided to release all banner info at the same time, it is probably so that all of the 2.4 characters are equally affected by the 2.5 drip marketing (Yae Miko).
One last thing, Shenhe is 1 million times hotter than ganyu, god damn. Literally melting here.
December 31, 2021
The CQ will soon release as Shenhe's personalized weapon. The passive for CQ is similar to PJWS but it doubles when the character is off field, so this weapon is not really the best for Xiao. It does have high attack. But Xiao would rather prefer PJWS or Homa which gives CRIT as well as ATK.
December 27, 2021
In Genshin Impact, the hide and seek game was used in Chongyun's hangout event in Version 1.4. It then appeared again in Version 1.5 in the form of the Windtrace event. To this day, the USA media loves the Windtrace event, and it's all thanks to Chongyun pioneering it.
It is totally not because the USA media is biased to what certain simps in the fandom say. USA is the most xenophobic and racist society. They only want people of a certain surname or people who simp for certain characters within their elites and leadership. They will try to purge everybody else. What a stupid system, this USA.
December 26, 2021
The actual banner is Shenhe Xiao 1st half with Zhongli Ganyu 2nd half. Looks like zhongli is sticking with old granny ganyu, whereas Xiao gets the new hot girl again. It says a lot about the characters' social lives.
As for the weapon banner, it is certain the 1st half will run the Calamity Queller (CQ), a new polearm designed for Shenhe. The question is whether PJWS will run alongside as well. If PJWS is run then the 1st weapon banner will have 2 polearms featured, which would be a precedent in Genshin history. Other speculations are that it will not be the PJWS but rather another non-polearm weapon (like a WGS for example). If PJWS is not run alongside Xiao's banner, that would be unfair to Xiao no? If Shenhe gets her new weapon, Ganyu gets Amos, and Zhongli Vortex Vanquisher, doesn't Xiao deserve his PJWS too? It is not clear Shenhe's weapon can outcompete PJWS or Homa for Xiao. But either way, the weapon banners of 2.4 do not look too promising compared to last year's 1.3 banners. An Amos-VV banner is a pretty meh banner, considering Amos is a shoddy weapon and VV is not even that good on Zhongli.
Finally why run Xiao with Shenhe? And Zhongli with Ganyu? If you look at sales per unit time (not total sales, but total sales divided by time of banner), then Xiao is one of the most popular debut banners to date, more popular than Zhongli and Ganyu, and only beat by banners like Venti or Raiden. Even though Xiao's initial 1.3 banner had a shorter time than the usual 3 weeks, the density of sales was higher than most other characters. So Genshin probably thought pairing Xiao with Shenhe would maximize Xiao's sales based on past history. This is Zhongli's 2nd rerun, so it will not necessarily do better than his previous 2 runs. But Zhongli's 1st rerun did not do that well (Eula's debut did better). And judging how Childe's 2nd rerun did not do that well, it is not clear Zhongli's 2nd rerun will outperform his 1st rerun. It is possible that reruns can do better than debut, as was seen for Hu Tao and Albedo/Eula. And Xiao is still a very popular character.
So the banners are Xiao + a new character Shenhe and Ganyu with Zhongli getting a 2nd rerun. Genshin probably wanted to balance things. If they did Xiao + Ganyu and Shenhe + Zhongli instead, it is probably clear that Xiao + Ganyu would perform significantly better in sales.
Also the people who like both Ganyu and Zhongli are a small portion of the population: they are either CIA agents or their nepotistic proxies. Xiao will always find a new girl. Meanwhile granny is stuck with her grandpa. Ganyu is unworthy for the god adeptus Xiao. Ganyu is only dragging down Xiao. Xiao deserves a new woman: Shenhe.
December 24, 2021
There are a lot of rumors and lies floating around in the biased USA media regarding the version 2.4 banners. It is speculated that Version 2.4 will run Shenhe, Yunjin, Zhongli, Xiao, and Ganyu. It is highly likely we will get Shenhe, Xiao, and Ganyu as Shenhe was teased a month ago and Xiao and Ganyu are due for their reruns. And with double banners introduced in 2.3, the chances of Xiao and Ganyu rerunning are quite high. The question is whether if and where Zhongli will appear. If we assume Zhongli is running in 2.4, some have speculated he would run with Shenhe in the first half.
There is one final reason why Zhongli 1st half and Xiao and Ganyu 2nd half:
Genshin seems like the kind of game that would rerun Xiao and Ganyu together.
On the other hand, the USA media's motive is to create as much inequality in the world. They are one of the most hostile forces disrupting world peace, and they must be stopped.