Boss Rush Banter: Should Players Pull For Constellations or Five-Star Weapons in Genshin Impact?

As players enter the new region of Fontaine, its early stages of development will likely have a lot of rerun characters from previous regions. In the 4.0 update, the three rerun characters alongside the new Fontanian characters were Yelan, Zhongli, and Tartaglia (or Childe).

Some players don’t have these characters, and thus, this question may not apply to them. It’s usually better to pull for a character rather than for a weapon because of the drastic differences new characters can bring to team compositions and overall combat experience.

Screenshot of Character Banners side by side

However, many players do have the rerun characters. Now, the current five-stars being rerun are Childe and Zhongli starring the new four-star character Freminet. The weapon banner features five-star bow Polar Star and five-star spear Vortex Vanquisher.

So the question is, should players pull for the character constellations or pull for the five-star weapons run alongside them?

I personally dealt with the first-half of this question this rerun seeing as I made the rather risky decision to pull for Freminet, something I would not recommend to new players or players who are saving to pull for certain characters. Now, I had to decide whether I would prefer to have a C1 Zhongli or a C1 Childe (meaning one constellation unlocked).

Zhongli has great constellations that can make him a better damage dealing character as well as a better support character for both single player and co-op mode. His first constellation increases the number of pillars he can create to two, meaning they can both resonate with one another and deal area-of-effect Geo damage. This meant I would not have to run another Geo character like Geo Traveler or Albedo who have Geo constructs that resonate with Zhongli’s pillar.

Childe also has great constellations that increase his damage output as well as fix problems with his skill’s cool down. Childe is notorious for having a long cool down that needs to be meticulously planned out to get the best results and maintain his damage. His first constellation decreases his skill’s cooldown by 20% meaning his cool down of 6 – 45 seconds will instead be 4.5 – 33.75 seconds.

As with many characters, the number of constellations increases a character’s damage output as well as their gameplay. With some characters, their C6 (max constellation number) makes them capable of defeating bosses completely alone with ease. Due to this reason, I personally recommend for players to pull for constellations rather than for weapons.

However, for some five-star weapons, this is a little different. The main reason I state this is because of banners like the current one and the different ways players utilize combat in the game.

If players are looking for the biggest damage output, I would suggest getting the character’s five-star weapon before gaining the constellations. For Childe, Polar Star is his best in slot weapon. It will overall increase his damage output without as much necessary set up in comparison to his constellations.

Another reason to pull for the weapon rather than the constellation is if players do not have a five-star weapon for the character. It is immediately noticeable how much more damage a five star weapon provides for a character over a constellation. In many cases, the first constellation is more fixing an issue with the character’s kit as the case with Childe making the five-star weapon a much better choice in order to have a better damage dealing character.

For Zhongli, Vortex Vanquisher is not his best in slot weapon but it does have a great passive that helps his kit of increasing his shield strength and increasing the Attack bonus of other party members. It’s a good weapon that also boosts his own Attack percent to make him into a better Burst Support character. However, his best in slot weapons are much better for his kit and even include a three-star weapon, Black Tassel, when purely built for Shield Support.

Overall, I suggest players pull for a character’s constellation rather than for the character’s weapon. Issues with the character’s kit are typically remedied through the constellations, and often there is a noticeable damage boost for either the character or for other party members.

Furthermore, the pity system of the weapon banner is much more finicky compared to the character banner. For more information about that, feel free to check out this art i cle which explains the pity system for the weapon banner.

Would you prefer to pull for a character’s constellation or for a five-star weapon? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below or in the Boss Rush Discord!

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