Genshin Impact 1.3 update notes hint at Hu Tao's arrival?
We're a day away from Genshin Impact's 1.3 update, and while some might be waiting to unleash all their saved primogems on the emo yaksha adeptus Xiao, one small line from the update notes released on Monday (1 Feb) has raised some eyebrows.
Most Genshin fans who watched the livestream a week ago were somewhat disappointed when the rate-up banners for 1.3 were revealed to be Xiao and... Keqing, the lightning queen of the Qixing. While Xiao is entirely new (closed beta aside), Keqing was, for the most part, a character already available from the standard banner.
Besides that, the Pyro polearm user Hu Tao, the boss of the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor in Liyue, was already leaked, and one of the new weapons seemed designed to maximise the potential of this character.
However, eagle-eyed fans noted that the time period for each banner was two weeks instead of the usual three, and that meant either of two things - Genshin Impact was going from a six-week patch cycle to four-week, or there was another surprise waiting to be sprung.
And in the 1.3 patch notes, there it was, right after the updates of Xiao's and Keqing's banners. "More character event wishes to follow during Version 1.3."
Does this mean that our favourite Geo daddy's boss is coming in 1.3? That's not a certainty, given that developers miHoYo could easily rerun Zhongli's (or any other 5* character) banner and it would still fulfil the one liner they promised in the patch notes.
However, given the fact that most whale-class (those who spend above $100 a month) Genshin Impact players and above may have already pulled Keqing, and likely also maxed out the constellations on their 4* characters, miHoYo's profits are likely to dampen a little during that period.
And, if the character rate-up banner after were another rerun, it would stretch that period to four weeks, which may put enough of a dent in earnings for the first quarter of 2021 and at the same time frustrate fans who might have skipped on wishing for Xiao.
Also, releasing Hu Tao in this manner would help miHoYo gauge a number of things, including the current playerbase's appetite for the standard banner 5* characters (trying to get constellation 6 on a standard banner character is reserved for only the most leviathanest of leviathans, or Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos).
All in all, while not confirmation that Hu Tao is definitely coming, the signs are pointing in the right direction.
GellyPanda is a casual gamer who occasionally dabbles into gatcha games.
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