Genshin Impact version 4.3 second half: Should you pull for the Raiden Shogun, Yoimiya, or their signature weapons?

The second half of Genshin Impact version 4.3 is upon us, featuring a tempting double rerun banner for the Raiden Shogun and Yoimiya! If you're looking to expand your roster to better tackle the challenges lying ahead in the Traveler's journey, then this banner should be worth the Primogems.

But where do you spend your pulls? For the mighty and beautiful Raiden Shogun or the cute and plucky Yoimiya? What about their signature weapons? Read on and we'll help you decide.

Need one of the best characters in the game? Get Raiden Shogun

The Raiden Shogun is one of the best characters in all of Genshin Impact, able to strengthen the elemental burst damage of her allies, regenerate their energy, trigger Electro elemental reactions from off-field, and deal a ridiculous amount of Electro DMG while on the field by using her own powerful burst.

While the Raiden Shogun shines the brightest in a Hypercarry team alongside dedicated supports like Bennett, Kazuha, and Kujou Sara, she remains very effective in other compositions. You can go for the tried-and-tested 'National' lineup with the Raiden Shogun, Bennett, Xiangling, and either Yelan, Xingqiu, or Furina and even use her as more of a Sub DPS or support for other damage-dealers like Eula.

Of course, we can't forget the added versatility afforded to the Raiden Shogun by the release of the Dendro element, letting her use even more elemental reactions in battle.

Although she isn’t the best Electro character in an Aggravate team since her build leaves little room for Elemental Mastery, she’s perfect as a support unit to trigger Spread for your Dendro characters if you main characters like Tighnari, Dendro Traveller, or even DPS Nahida.

You can also go for her Hyperbloom build, building 4-piece Gilded Dreams or Flower of Paradise Lost sets instead and stacking as much Elemental Mastery as possible. And while that's a perfectly valid build, it's still a huge waste of her potential.

Because just like we said earlier, the Raiden Shogun is iconic in Hypercarry and mono-Electro lineups with a team geared to fully supporting her.

She also goes well in standard reactive teams like Electro-Charged or Superconduct, making her a must-have due to her consistent Electro application. Her skill can also buff your party’s bursts in accordance to their energy cost, and can battery your team with her constant production of elemental particles.

Raiden Shogun boasts a massively powerful burst, unleashing the iconic singular slash Mussou no Hitotachi that felled a god and a Fatui Harbinger easily. If you go down that route, make sure to use the 4-piece Emblem of Severed Fate artifact set and stack a healthy balance of Energy Recharge, Crit Rate/DMG, and ATK to maximise your damage output!

If you want massive burst DMG and huge damage numbers, then the Raiden Shogun is the one for you!

Need an all-around DPS? Get Yoimiya

Yoimiya is one of the most underrated DPS characters in Genshin Impact, mostly because she is often compared to the likes of Hu Tao and Xiangling who have been dominating the Pyro DPS niche before she was released.

With that said, Inazuma’s resident fireworks girl can keep up with the best of them when utilised correctly!

Yoimiya’s kit is centred on her normal attacks, which she can empower with a Pyro-infusion with her skill. Meanwhile, her burst helps her teammates by marking an enemy and causing any attacks from other party members to cause Pyro explosions.

While Yoimiya is only effective as a team's Main DPS, she can go about in multiple ways. You can either pair Yoimiya with Hydro characters like Yelan or Xingqiu to boost her damage with the Vaporize reaction or go all-in on boosting her Normal Attacks with Yun Jin or Ayato.

For a Vaporize Yoimiya team, you’ll need to run her with either Yelan or Xingqiu (or both) as well as one buffer and one shielder or healer. A sample lineup for this template can include Yoimiya, Yelan, Kazuha, and Zhongli.

If you want to go all-in on boosting Yoimiya’s normal attacks, then you’ll need to pair her with characters that provide normal attack buffs, namely Yun Jin and Ayato. You can go with either one of them or both. The fourth slot on that team can go to either another buffer or a defensive support to provide shields or healing. For example, you can then round out the Yoimiya-Yun Jin-Ayato trio with Bennett, who provides both damage buffs and healing.

Of course, you can also pair Yoimiya with the meta-defining Furina, enabling use of the Vaporize reaction on top of Furina's insane DMG buffs (just don't forget to bring a strong healer).

Yoimiya also has a straightforward build in terms of both artifacts and weapons. Her best artifact set is hands-down the 4-piece Shimenawa’s Reminiscence, which greatly boost her normal attacks and can be farmed from the most resin-efficient artifact domain in the game.

You can also go for the 4-piece Crimson Witch of Flames, though your substats will largely determine whether you go for one or the other.

So if you need a DPS that can go against any enemy the game throws at you (well, except Pyro-immune ones), then Yoimiya will be worth the Primogems. With the right build and teammates, you can just pop her skill and claim victory in a dazzling display of fireworks.

Should you get the Raiden Shogun or Yoimiya's signature weapons?

Both the Raiden Shogun and Yoimiya reach their full potential with their signature weapons — the Engulfing Lightning and Thundering Pulse, respectively — as is the case for any DPS-oriented 5-star character. Their signatures are very powerful too and could even be used by other characters in case you feel like sharing the love.

Engulfing Lightning is a generalist polearm that can be used by your polearm users who are in need of Energy Recharge. The passive increases your ATK significantly and gives you enough particles to recharge your burst. It can be used by a variety of characters like Xiangling, Rosaria, Thoma, Shenhe, Yun Jin, and Candace if you didn’t get Raiden Shogun.

Meanwhile, the Thundering Pulse gives a ton of Crit DMG, ATK, and Normal Attack DMG buffs that sync perfectly with Yoimiya's playstyle.

With that said, don't feel pressured to spend your Primogems on this weapon banner as both the Raiden Shogun and Yoimiya are still very effective even with 4-star weapons.

If you're getting the Raiden Shogun and won't be pulling for Engulfing Lightning, then I hope you've fished around Inazuma enough to acquire the refine the Catch! This amazing free-to-play weapon gives the Raiden Shogun tons of Energy Recharge and Crit Rate and Crit DMG buffs to her burst, which lets it be competitive even with her 5-star alternatives.

You can also go for the Wavebreaker's Fin, which is one of the rate-up 4-star weapons in this banner and increases the burst DMG of its wielder based on the combined maximum energy of the party — which should always be pretty high with the Raiden Shogun on the field.

Yoimiya, on the other hand, can either opt for the 4-star Rust (which is also a rate-up 4-star in this banner) or the 3-star Slingshot. Yes, you read that right, a 3-star weapon is indeed a solid option for her.

At max refinement, Rust buffs Yoimiya’s normal attack DMG by a whopping 80% at the cost of reducing her Charged Attack DMG (which you won’t be using anyway). At R5, the Rust is better than any other 5-star weapon aside from Yoimiya’s signature, so if you already have it, then it’s really not worth trying to get anything else.

Meanwhile, the Slingshot increases Yoimiya’s DMG by 60% at max refinement after hitting an enemy with a normal attack. That’s another huge buff, and while its 3-star stats are definitely worse than Rust, it’s still a competitive option if you have nothing else.

Genshin Impact is currently in the second half of version 4.3, which features the debut of the 4-star Pyro Polearm character Chevreuse as well as reruns for the 5-star characters Raiden Shogun and Yoimiya.

Version 4.4 in late January 2024 will feature two more new characters in Xianyun, aka Cloud Retainer, and Gaming.

Yan Ku is a full-time dog parent, part-time (gacha) gamer, and part-time writer.

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