Why Genshin Impact’s Newest Character Has the Community Up in Arms

Since her announcement in January, fans of HoyoVerse’s open world RPG Genshin Impact have eagerly awaited Dehya, the game’s latest playable character. Unfortunately, though, she hasn’t quite lived up to players’ expectations.

Yesterday, Dehya made her debut as a playable character with the release of Genshin’s Version 3.5, and players were quick to notice her seemingly underpowered skillset. Despite her 5-star status, Pyro Claymore wielder Dehya has some of the lowest attack stats in the game (even lower than many of her 4-star counterparts), and requires a pretty specific build and team composition to succeed.

At the end of the game’s current version, Dehya will also become obtainable at all times (unlike most of the game’s 5-star characters, who are often only available for three weeks at a time). This also means that players who wish for limited characters regularly will likely get stuck with Dehya instead, leading the community to push for improvements to her skillset.

Of course, Genshin Impact’s community has taken this to heart — Dehya’s dedicated Subreddit is now filled with many players emailing HoyoVerse to ask for a better skillset and others offering build advice to hopefully make Dehya worthwhile. Some players who main other characters with imbalanced kits have even offered their condolences and shown solidarity.

Before Dehya’s unfortunate introduction to the world of Teyvat, we gave Genshin Impact a 9 in our 2020 review, praising its jam-packed open world and element-based combat. Since the game’s launch, Genshin Impact and its community have seen a lot of changes, including the introduction of a long-awaited element, plans for an anime adaptation and the Player’s Voice Award at the Game Awards 2022. Keep up with Genshin Impact’s latest events with IGN’s 3.5 event guide, and learn more about Deyha with her new story quest.

Amelia Zollner is a freelance writer at IGN who loves all things indie and Nintendo. Outside of IGN, they’ve contributed to sites like Polygon and Rock Paper Shotgun. Find them on Twitter: @ameliazollner.