Genshin Impact’s sixth anniversary brought players a gift they’d been waiting for so long that some had already lived through several eras of the Dendro meta: a free, limited-edition five-star character to choose from.

And then HoYoverse decided not to make things easy. Instead of a neat selection of two or three heroes, we were given six very different characters: Bai Zhu, Nila, Varesa, Tartaglia, Tiori, and Clorinda. Some were given a new lease of life thanks to the new Lunar mechanics, some still excel in their niche, and some have gradually become dust collectors. Today, I’ll analyze who makes sense to pick up in version 7.1. And yes, you can also check out my analysis of the standard banner .

What is a free five-star character for your anniversary?

Strictly speaking, this isn’t a banner in the traditional sense. You won’t have to spend Primogems, perform Prayers, or hope for a 50/50 split. Version 7.1 introduced a separate, limited-time event where you can simply invite one limited-edition five-star character from a special list. It includes:

• Tartaglia;
• Nile;
• Bai Zhu;
• Tiori;
• Clorinda;
• Varesa.

You can only choose one character. Along with this, the game grants you materials for ascending your chosen hero. You can receive this gift after completing Act IV of the new Archon quest chapter, “Requiem of the Afterlife.” The event itself is available until November 3, 2026, at 2:59 PM server time, and the adventure rank requirement is 18. To save you the trouble, here’s a meme that best describes the banner.

This is the first time in Genshin Impact’s history that players are offered a free choice of a limited-edition five-star event character. The game has previously given out standard five-star characters, but offering a free choice of characters typically obtained through temporary prayers is a new concept.

Bai Zhu

Bai Zhu is perhaps the most deceptive character on this list. Everything looks great on screen: a five-star Dendro Catalyst, AoE healing, shields, off-field Dendro Applique, and a bonus to reaction damage. He can do several things at once and requires virtually no complex controls. In this regard, Bai Zhu remains a very enjoyable character.

How to play Bai Zhu?

Modern Genshin has become so overloaded with strong characters that versatility no longer guarantees popularity. Bai Zhu can heal the entire team, maintain character health, and further increase the damage of Dendro Reactions. His value is also obvious in Niloo teams: her Buds deal damage to characters themselves, so the extra survivability is always welcome.

Modern teams often favor either stronger damage support or characters that provide significantly more value for the same amount of time on the field. Bai Zhu is clearly characterized as a character with a rather limited utility in modern teams: he’s still useful as a defensive option, but rarely changes an account’s capabilities as much as a good modern damage dealer or specialized support.

Bai Zhu Constellations

C1 Bai Zhu grants an additional charge of her elemental skill, meaning more healing and Dendro Applique. C2 allows her to automatically attack enemies when hit by the active character, and C4 temporarily increases the entire team’s Elemental Mastery. Is this powerful? Yes, quite so. But only if you already have several copies of Bai Zhu on your account, which is highly unlikely.

This hero is good for a player who doesn’t want to spend every ten seconds wondering why their entire team suddenly died. Bai Zhu comes in, heals everyone, grants a shield, and then goes off to do his own thing. But if the account is specifically lacking a strong primary damage dealer, I wouldn’t spend the free 5 on him.

Nile

For several years, Nylou’s existence was described as simply as possible: she excels at Budding, but only if you adhere to her ironclad rule—a team must consist of Hydro and Dendro characters, with no other elements. With the advent of the new Lunar Reactions, Nylou has received support for Lunar Budding. Her passives and constellations now take the new reaction into account, and modern teams with Columbine and Lauma allow for much more extensive use of her old mechanic.

How to play Nila?

Nylu still creates special Buds that explode faster than regular ones and deal more damage, and her own bonus scales with her maximum HP. To fully utilize her passive, Nylu requires approximately 74,444 HP. That’s a lot, but the good news is that she practically doesn’t care about critical damage, attack, or other attributes favored by regular damage dealers.

Nyla’s main problem remains: her teams are still very specific. You can’t just pick Nyla, throw her into a random group, and get a versatile Hydro support. Only Hydro and Dendro are needed to activate her key passive. Furthermore, her own damage from Buds creates survivability issues, so healing is usually highly recommended in such teams.

Constellations of the Nile

The first constellation extends the duration of her Hydro Aura and increases her personal damage, but the real treasure is hidden at C2. The second constellation reduces enemy Hydro and Dendro resistance by 35% when the conditions associated with Hydro and Budding are met. The modern version of the effect also takes Lunar Budding into account, resulting in a significant boost to team damage.

Nyla is worth picking if you already have a Lunar Budding team or are building one specifically. But for a new account without suitable Dendro and Hydro characters, Nyla is much less appealing.

Varesa

And here comes the simplest part of the article. Varesa is the main character in this selector for those who simply need a strong new hero on the field. She’s an Electro Catalyst and a primary damage dealer, built around powerful attacks while falling, Night Spirit mechanics, and her own unique gameplay: fast, aggressive, and quite agile. This is her main advantage: Varesa doesn’t require a long explanation for why she joined the team. She came to deal damage, and deal a lot of it.

How to play Varesa?

Modern variants allow Varesa to be played with Overcharge, Charged, and Lunar Charge, but her most effective lineups still favor combinations with strong Pyro and Electro supports. Current builds feature Mavuika, Iansan, Chevreuse, Durin, Furina, Xian Yun, and other heroes. Varesa is especially effective when teamed with Chevreuse and Iansan. But there’s a catch: you get Varesa for free, but her best partners aren’t free.

If you don’t have Iansan, Chevreuse, or good Pyro characters, Varesa won’t turn into a useless pumpkin—some of her potential will just be lost. Another huge advantage is the open world. If you explore a lot and often, Varesa can greatly speed up this process.

Constellations of Vares

Her C1 itself is relatively simple—around 8-10% increase in personal damage and 5-7% in team damage. Her C2 is much more interesting, but that’s a future investment, not an anniversary gift. For a new or returning player without a strong Electro DPS, Vares is a very attractive option. And if you enjoy an active style, jumping, constant movement, and the feeling of a character who’s arrived on the battlefield to cause a local earthquake, everything is going well here.

Tartaglia

It’s all pretty clear here: Tartaglia is dead. His mechanics for switching between bow and dual wields remain one of the most interesting in the game. He can deal Hydro damage, maintains reactions well, and can function not only as a regular damage dealer but also as a team-wide damage dealer. But we’re discussing version 7.1, and here Tartaglia feels noticeably worse than the other candidates.

How to play Tartaglia?

Childe’s damage output is significantly inferior to newer heroes by modern standards, and older teams have lost some of their momentum. Even modern versions with Moon Charge often use Tartaglia more as a means of maintaining necessary reactions, while other heroes handle the main work.

Tartaglia’s constellations

There’s another problem: his constellations. C1 reduces the cooldown of his elemental skill, C2 grants energy, and C6 resets the skill’s cooldown after using Elemental Burst in melee. While convenient, none of these constellations transform Tartaglia into a fundamentally new monster.

If you adore Tartaglia, collect Harbingers, love his playstyle, or want to finally fill a long-standing gap in your collection—that’s a whole other story. If you want to play the current Genshin, then you should definitely ignore Childe.

Tiori

Theori might seem like the oddest free pick. Not because she’s bad, on the contrary: she has excellent personal damage, very comfortable mechanics, and one of the best roles for a character who barely needs to be on the field.

How to play Tiori?

Chiori is a Geo sub-DD. She deploys automatic Tamoto dolls that continue to attack opponents as long as another character is active. In normal teams, she’s best paired with another Geo character or Geo Construct to get two dolls at once and unlock her full potential. This used to make her quite unique, but now it’s more fun.

The arrival of the Moon Crystal has given Tiori a new lease of life. The totems created by this reaction are considered Geo-Constructs, meaning they can activate additional mechanics in her skill. As a result, a character who once seemed designed primarily for Geo-commands has been given a new development path through the modern Lunar meta.

Constellations of Thiori

C1 is especially worth mentioning. The first constellation allows for an additional Tamoto with another Geo character and removes some of the limitations Tiori faces at C0. C6, on the other hand, opens up a fully-fledged playstyle for her and transforms her into a much more independent damage dealer. But we’ll be living in a different economic universe until C6, to put it mildly.

Who should pick Tiori? Those with Navia, Itto, a good Geo lineup, or if you’re building a Moon Crystal. For an account that already has two or three strong Geo characters, Tiori is a very welcome free addition.

Clorinda

At first glance, Clorinda competes directly with Varesa. Both are Electro damage dealers. Both want time on the field. Both can play with multiple reaction types. And both are capable of clearing complex content without turning the fight into a 47-point accounting exercise. But their personalities are completely different.

How to play Clorinda?

Clorinda’s gameplay revolves around Life Debt and immense mobility. She can quickly enter the field, unleash a flurry of attacks, and then leave without consuming half her rotation. She also has built-in healing and a significant amount of bonus critical strike chance. Clorinda can also play with Charged, Overcharged, Lunar Charge, and various hypercarry lineups.

You can change your lineup, add Dendro, switch to Hydro, or use Chevreuse—and the character will still fulfill her role. She’s not perfect for every team, but she’s good enough to avoid feeling trapped in a specific group. But be prepared for Clorinda’s rather specific controls. Her effectiveness suffers if you don’t have a good sense of rotation or are playing with high ping.

The constellation Clorinda

C1 adds additional attacks, while C2 enhances the core mechanic of extra Electro damage and grants interrupt resistance when conditions are met. This is where the free option becomes very interesting for those who already have Clorinda, especially for the second constellation.

If you were choosing between Clorinda and Varesa, I would formulate the difference like this:

• Varesa is more about one’s own power, active play, and exploration of the world.
• Clorinda is more about the team’s versatility, short time on the field, and the ability to adapt it to an existing collection.

So for a new account, these are the two most obvious options, and for the existing Clorinda, the opportunity to reach a high constellation makes her even more interesting.

So who should you choose?

If you open the selector and see six completely unfamiliar characters in front of you, I would reason like this:

• Varesa is the most obvious choice for a player who needs a new character and wants a strong Electro DPS right away.
• Clorinda – If you still want a strong character, but you don’t like Varesa for obvious reasons.
• Nilu is a very strong investment, but only if you are willing to assemble a specific team around her.
• Tiori is a good sub-DD if the account is already focused on Geo or Moon Crystal.
• Bai Zhu is an outdated support, but he can find some use.
• Tartaglia – only if your heart leads you.

None of the six characters is versatile enough to cover every account need with a single appearance. But Clorinda and Varesa provide the most straightforward answers for players simply looking to add a modern, core damage dealer to their collection.

The main thing is, don’t just click the select button automatically. First, check which of these characters you already have, which constellations are available through free mechanics, and which teams you can realistically assemble. I haven’t figured out the selector yet, but I’m choosing between Bai Zhu and Tiori.