Genshin Impact: Should You Pull for Neuvillette or Hu Tao in 4.1?

New character banners are here with Genshin Impact 4.1, and they’re spicy. Neuvillette and Hu Tao, both 5-star characters, could make for a fantastic addition to your current team or a new one if you’re more of a veteran. Both phase one limited characters are also main DPS options, so if any of your current choices are sub-par, you might find your next best damage dealer. Perhaps even more valuable are the 4-star characters on offer, especially one in particular.

Related: Genshin Impact: How to Reroll

Should You Pull for Neuvillette in Genshin Impact?

Neuvillette is a new character in Genshin Impact, unique to the Fontaine region. The Chief Justice of the Court of Fontaine is a Hydro main DPS character specializing in using and boosting his Charged normal attacks at the cost of his health. His kit revolves around using his Charge, Skill, and Burst to make the charge instantaneous and ensure he receives the healing he needs to maintain it.

• By default, Neuvillette’s charge attack takes five seconds to activate, but by collecting Sourcewater Droplets — made by his Burst and Skill — heals some of the HP, his charge attack drains and drastically reduces the charge itself. Stack enough Sourcewater, and he can activate the Charge instantly and maintain it for up to three seconds. The HP drain only triggers if he’s above 50% health.
• Neuvillette’s Elemental Skill is one of his primary sources of Sourcwater Droplets, as it generates three of them in an area around any opponent it hits. The number of enemies Neuvillette’s Skill can affect depends on his maximum HP and has a cooldown of 11 seconds, making intelligent use of it essential.
• His Elementa Burst is fairly straightforward: it creates a large waterfall that deals AoE damage based on his maximum HP, then creates two smaller waterfalls shortly after. The attack generates 6 Sourcewater Droplets when used, though that number cannot be increased.

The rest of Neuvillette’s kit helps him deal more damage, primarily based on the number of Elemental Reactions his party members create (to a maximum of 160% damage at 3 stacks) for 30 seconds. He can also gain an up to 30% damage boost per percentage point of health he is above 30%.

Neuvillette is incredibly versatile for a main DPS, largely thanks to his Hydro element and the lingering nature of his Charged Attack. Hydro enables so many elemental reactions, and while Neuvillette doesn’t do much to help the team when he’s not the active character, setting him up for success takes numerous forms, making him a great free-to-play choice.

Should You Pull for Hu Tao in Genshin Impact?

Hu Tao, the 77th Director of the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor, is one of the best Pyro main DPS characters in Genshin Impact, but that title comes with a caveat. To get the most out of her abilities, you need to be able to manage and micromanage her HP, ability cooldowns, and her Stamina on top of your team rotations. She’s an incredibly technical character that, at a minimum, requires you to animation cancel. There is even more advanced tech to absolutely maximize her output. While it’s not necessary unless you want the most optimal damage possible, Hu Tao needs a specific playstyle to get the most out of her kit.

• Playing Hu Tao revolves around her Charged Attack after it’s been empowered by her ELemental Skill. It has plenty of power on its own, but if you want her damage to reach its average heights, you’ll need to learn to cancel the charge with either a dash or a jump. Is it necessary? No, and her damage is still incredible normally.
• Hu Tao’s Elemental Skill puts her in a combat state called Paramita Papilio, changing all her attack damage to Pyro. Additionally, her Charged Attacks now apply the Blood Blossom debuff, and affected foes will take additional Pyro damage, treated as Elemental Skill damage, every four seconds. Enemies can only be effected by one Blood Blossom at a time, and only Hu Tao can reapply the debuff.
• Her Elemetal Burst creates an AoE of Pyro damage that also restores some of her HP based on how many enemies she hit, stacking up to five times. If her HP is below 50% when she uses her burst, both the damage and healing increase.

The remainder of Hu Tao’s kit increases her Pyro damage when under 50% health by 33% and increases her party’s Crit Rate by 12% for eight seconds when her combat state ends. If all that seems like it’s a lot to keep track of in the chaos of a Genshin Impact fight, that’s because it is. Execution-based characters are often advantageous to play at their best, but you’ll be working overtime to do so until you have the proper muscle memory in place.

How Are the 4-Star Characters in Genshin Impact 4.1 Phase I?

The three 4-star offerings in Genshin Impact 4.1 are some of the best in a while. The least of them, Diona, is still a solid healer who can also provide shielding. Cryo supports aren’t terribly common, either, and though Diona can’t do nearly as much as, say, Bennett, she’s a much better pickup than Barbara ever could be.

The real treats in this banner phase are Fischl and especially Xingqui. Fischl’s crow Oz lets her provide top-notch off-field Electro damage for use in Electro-charge and Hyperbloom teams. Xingiu, on the other hand, does a little bit of everything. Fantastic Hydro application, good damage on his own, a bit of healing — you name it, the kid’s probably got it. If you don’t have him yet or are looking for more constellations for him, now’s a great time.

Final Conclusions: Neuvillette

• Pull for Neuvillette if you want a fun to play and unique Hydro main DPS that has some interesting gimmicks but doesn’t take a ton of thought to play well.
• Don’t pull for Neuvillette if you already have tons of Hydro damage dealers or you don’t like the idea of managing his HP in higher-tier content.

Final Conclusions: Hu Tao

• Pull for Hu Tao if you want some of the highest potential Pyro damage in the game paired with heavy execution to get there.
• Don’t pull for Hu Tao if you don’t want to deal with micromanaging almost every part of her kit or already have a Pyro damage dealer you like.

You can also not pull for either of them if you’re low on Primogems or want to save for Venti, who’s coming in phase two of update 4.1.