With the recent release of Natlan in Genshin Impact, and the subsequent outrage of the character designs, there is also discussion about whether or not players should pull for the Natlan characters. In this case, players are wondering if they should pull for Mualani. Mualani is a limited five star character that uses the element of Hydro. She also introduces a new way to traverse and explore Teyvat by riding on her shark. As the shark has its own stamina bar, this allows for players to traverse longer distances faster.
Mualani is a Hydro Catalyst DPS, which means that she is the damage dealer of the group. Holding her elemental skill allows her to ride her shark like a surfboard and will mark enemies that she comes into contact with. She can gather up to three stacks by attacking marked enemies, which causes her attack to change into a more powerful attack that can deal major damage. This same skill can be used to explore the world, as she can travel on her shark outside of battle. Her elemental burst is an exploding AOE Hydro attack. One of Mualani’s talents also allows her to detect the native specialties of Natlan.

There are two main arguments when it comes to whether or not a player should pull for Mualani. There are players that are participating in the boycott that believe that other players shouldn’t pull for the Natlan characters at all, to show that they’re not selling. Then there are the players that believe that Mualani should be pulled, as she is one of the Natlan characters with darker skin and it would show Hoyoverse that diverse skin tones do sell.
The first argument is that players shouldn’t pull for any Natlan characters. This focuses on making Hoyoverse reevaluate how they currently design their characters by making their sales drop. The Natlan banners doing awful could be an awakening for the company. Mualani, as the first five star limited Natlan character, would also be skipped due to this. This stance encourages players to continue to avoid wishing on any Natlan banners until a change is made. Since Hoyoverse is a business, the idea is that the lack of sales on the Natlan Banners would make them create more dark skinned characters and take players seriously. A drop in sales should be enough for Hoyoverse to take players feedback into consideration.
The second argument focuses on proving to Hoyoverse that darker skinned characters do sell and will do well. This means that players should pull for Mualani, just preferably without spending any money to do so. Hoyoverse is a decently sized company, with multiple games and money to spend. They care more about the numbers and statistics of how well a character does. If Mualani, one of the very few darker skinned characters in game, does not sell well then they would not make characters with diverse skin tones in the future. Considering that Mualani has a good kit and is a powerful DPS, they would attribute her lack of sales to her darker skin tone.

These are just two arguments to keep in mind while deciding whether or not to wish for Mualani. Personally, I’ll be using my saved up wishes and any primogems given during the update to wish for Mualani. Her gameplay is a lot of fun and my hope is that Hoyoverse will see that players like Mualani and will create more characters with diverse skin tones. Once again, pull for whatever character you’d like for whatever reason you prefer.
What do you think? Should people wish for Mualani? Or should they boycott all of the Natlan Banners? Or should people just pull for whoever they’d like? Let us know in the comments below or join the Boss Rush Discord to continue the conversation!
Featured Image Credits: Hoyoverse
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