The Version 3.5 update of Genshin Impact brought four banners to Teyvat for players to wish on. The first half of the update featured the debut banner of the five-star Pyro Claymore mercenary Dehya alongside a rerun of the five-star Electro Polearm General Mahamatra Cyno, and the second half of this Version will allow players to choose between the five-star Cryo Sword character Kamisato Ayaka and the five-star Cryo Polearm character Shenhe.
Wishing is one of the most important gameplay features in all of Genshin because it is the only way players can obtain new recruits beyond the first few early on in the story. As might be expected with the game’s gacha system, all of the best characters are those that appear on limited-time featured banners which means that players may struggle to obtain all the ones they desire.
Related: Six Genshin Impact characters that have gone the longest without a rerun banner
Because of how complex the wishing system is, players will always want to consider their choices carefully before spending their Primogems and Wishes. Sometimes, selecting between the simultaneously featured banners may seem easy, but for the most part, players will have a very tough decision to make every time.
Every playable Teyvat character has their own unique skillset. This makes comparing them rather difficult, but there are certainly a select few factors that players can take into account to make the choice easier.
When it comes to choosing between Kamisato Ayaka and Shenhe, players have one of the toughest choices yet. This decision is especially difficult as other banners might not even both worth wishing on at all, while both of these Cryo recruits are impressive units that will immensely bolster any Genshin player’s lineup.
Is Kamisato Ayaka worth pulling for in Genshin Impact?
The five-star Cryo Sword member of the Kamisato Clan is one of Genshin’s best damage dealers and best characters overall. She is immensely consistent and powerful at Cryo application which makes dealing damage a breeze.
While Kamisato Ayaka is certainly a powerful asset, players will want to keep in mind that she is not as versatile as the five-star Electro Polearm Archon Raiden Shogun or the five-star Dendro Catalyst Archon Nahida.
Some characters like them can excel in a variety of roles, but others like Kamisato Ayaka will only live up to their true potential when they are built to fulfill the role that they are made for. In Kamisato Ayaka’s case, this means that she should be the primary damage dealer that spends most of her time active on the battlefield taking on foes.
Because she is meant to function as a primary damage dealer, all of Kamisato Ayaka’s abilities are centered around either amplifying her own skillset or increasing her damage output. This is why she will never function well in any role besides as a primary damage-dealing unit and why she also requires the rest of the team to be built around her skillset.
Kamisato Ayaka is also one of only two recruits, the other being the five-star Hydro Catalyst character Mona, who comes with a special alternate sprint. This sprint allows her to enter a unique cloaked state. In this state, she rapidly moves around while shrouded in frozen fog and can even effortlessly glide right over any body of water.
This sprint is one of the most useful and powerful assets that players can have both for general Teyvat exploration and during intense battles. The Cryo character will not only allow players to traverse the world more efficiently but also makes it exceptionally easy to dodge foes or navigate out of tough situations.
Is Shenhe worth pulling for in Genshin Impact?
While Kamisato Ayaka and Shenhe are quite different in most ways, they both wield the Cryo element, which essentially means that they harness icy powers. Shenhe’s skillset makes her a powerful support unit that excels at bolstering her allies and applying Cryo wherever needed.
Shenhe grants powerful support buffs in a variety of ways. The first is her elemental burst which deals area of effect Cryo damage and creates a special Talisman Spirit field. Any foes that enter this field then have their Cryo and physical resistance decreased while also regularly having Cryo damage dealt against them by the field.
The Cryo character’s other support buffs come from her first and fourth Ascension passive skills. Her first ascension passive ability grants the other recruits within the field created by her elemental burst a 15 percent Cryo damage increase. Shenhe’s fourth Ascension passive skill will grant her party members one of two unique buffs after using her elemental skill.
- If her elemental skill is pressed, then elemental skill and elemental burst damage are raised by 15 percent for 10 seconds.
- If her elemental skill is held, then normal, charged, and plunging attack damage are increased by 15 percent for 15 seconds.
While Shenhe’s skillset is quite powerful, she does have some restrictions that make her more difficult to deal with. The full benefits of her skillset can only be enjoyed by a team composed of mostly Cryo characters because one of her abilities is specific for other recruits of this element type.
Should you wish for Kamisato Ayaka or Shenhe in Genshin Impact?
Directly comparing two Genshin characters is generally an impossible task since every individual comes with a unique skillset. However, because there are so many to choose from and players will have to make choices between them at some point, there are a few different ways that Teyvat’s playable characters can be compared.
If you are seeking whichever recruit of the two is best overall, you should wish on Kamisato Ayaka. Her immense capability to dish out powerful damage, combined with her unique sprinting ability, makes her one of the most agile and brutal damage dealers in all of Genshin.
Shenhe is certainly among Genshin’s top-tier characters, but because she comes with drawbacks and specific team requirements, she is certainly more difficult to utilize and can her potential can only truly be maximized by players who create an entire Cryo team or a mostly Cryo team. This makes Kamisato Ayaka a generally better recruit based simply on which recruit is more versatile and usable overall.
If you do want to take other gameplay factors into account when making this choice, the most important one to consider is whether you need a primary damage dealer or a supporting character. Taking this into account can make the decision between Kamisato Ayaka and Shenhe easier since you are focusing on what will best suit the other characters that you already have. Every Teyvat recruit will vary in power and performance depending on the team lineup that exists around them, so carefully choosing who to wish on based on the recruits you already have is essential.
Generally, it is more likely that players will need a strong five-star damage dealer because there are quite a few solid four-star support characters to work with: however, most supporting units can also be more versatile and fit within more teams than a primary damage dealer can. While this is true of most Genshin characters, Shenhe might be the exception.
Shenhe does lack some of the versatility that other support characters have, but she can still be an immensely powerful asset within many team compositions as long as they are built around her unique skillset. Kamisato Ayaka excels as a damage dealer but also requires players to carefully construct a team around her skillset since she is only really suited to teams that focus on keeping enemies trapped with the Frozen elemental reaction.
Both individuals certainly come with drawbacks, but both of them are also among Genshin’s best characters and have far more benefits than they do weaknesses.
Neither Kamisato Ayaka nor Shenhe is versatile outside of the one role that they are made to fulfill, but both are immensely powerful recruits. This is why this banner lineup might be one of the toughest banner rerun decisions that players have had to face in Genshin so far.
Both are really strong Cryo recruits which means that players cannot go wrong with picking either one. This set of banner reruns is a rare instance that places two of Genshin’s strongest recruits against each other, which means that every player who has the means to wish on these banners will want to do so.
Kamisato Ayaka’s “The Heron’s Court” featured banner and Shenhe’s “The Transcendent One Returns” featured banner will be live from March 21 onward across the period of about three weeks. Both Cryo characters will be available with an increased drop rate during this period which means that players have a solid chance of obtaining them if they are on their pity or win the 50/50.
If players do not obtain either Kamisato Ayaka or Shenhe while their banners are live, it will likely be quite a while before they are available to obtain once again: based on Genshin’s usual patterns, players can expect to wait—and likely longer.
