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Genshin Impact players will be able to summon for two new characters when the second phase of the 3.1 update arrives in just a few days. When the new phase begins, fans will be able to summon from the featured banners that will include some powerful 5-star characters.
The new 5-star Hydro Sword character Nilou will be making her first appearance during this banner rotation, alongside a rerun of the 5-star Geo Sword character Albedo. Both of these characters have unique niches that they fill, and picking the best one out of the two can be tricky. Genshin Impact payers can find out more about Nilou and Albedo here to help them figure out which one is better for their teams.
Genshin Impact 3.1: Should players summon for Nilou or Albedo?
Genshin Impact 3.1 is set to begin its second phase soon, bringing two new 5-star characters to the featured banner. Both of these characters have very unique kits and drastically different playstyles, so choosing between them can be tough.
Nilou is a 5-star Hydro character who can do incredible damage with the Dendro Element's Bloom reaction, but her team compositions are very restrictive. On the other hand, Albedo is a 5-star Geo character who doesn't really need a specific team to be played, but he finds it hard to shine as a main unit. Here's what players will need to know about them.
Reasons to pull Nilou
Nilou is Genshin Impact's newest 4-star character, and although she is easy to build thanks to her reliance on HP% artifacts, her teams can be quite difficult to form. This is due to Nilou's reliance on the Bloom reaction, which can only be triggered when Hydro and Dendro combine on a target. Thanks to Nilou's unique passive ability, she can create special Bloom reactions that will deal additional damage, hit a larger radius, and deal significantly more damage based on her Max HP.
However, to activate this passive ability, Nilou's teams must only contain units from the Dendro and Hydro elements. This limits her teams significantly, removing options like resistance shred from Anemo, shields from characters like Zhongli, Freeze reactions from Cryo, and most importantly, cuts out a large portion of the healers that Nilou would strongly benefit from. This makes Nilou an incredibly situational character who can be very strong with the right teams, but she can only truly shine inside those teams.
Still, even without taking advantage of the Bloom reaction, Nilou can be a useful character thanks to her ability to create an off-field Hydro ring around characters with her Elemental Skill.
If Genshin Impact players are planning to take advantage of Dendro reactions in the future (especially Bloom reactions), they may want to consider picking Nilou up from this upcoming banner. One of her best teammates will also likely be the Dendro Archon Nahida, so fans can plan to summon both to create an incredible team.
Reasons to pull Albedo
Albedo is the rerun banner that will run alongside Nilou's banner during the Genshin Impact 3.1 update, and he remains an overall solid unit with some caveats. Albedo can deal great off-field damage and building him is very easy, but there are some important things players should consider before wishing for him.
He is an incredibly simple character to slot into any team with an empty fourth position thanks to his skill having 100% uptime and his on-field time being incredibly low, along with his Elemental Burst generally not being necessary in battle (which reduces his on-field time even more).
Albedo does provide a sizable buff to Elemental Mastery after casting his burst, which can help his teams out with Elemental Reactions, and he can be an excellent flex character in many team compositions. However, Genshin Impact players likely shouldn't summon him for these reasons alone, unless they have a ton of Primogems to spend.
Instead, Albedo's best role is as part of a Geo team, meaning players who utilize characters like Gorou, Arataki Itto, or Noelle will definitely benefit from having him in the party. He provides tons of extra Geo damage and can generate particles that keep Elemental Bursts up more often. He also benefits greatly from things like Geo Resonance or the resistance shred that Zhongli offers, and all of these bonuses can add up to Albedo contributing a lot of easy damage to a team.
One thing that players should definitely keep in mind when thinking about summoning Albedo is that his best in slot weapon is likely no longer obtainable. The Cinnabar Spindle is a 4-star sword that's tailor-made to boost Albedo's damage, and it makes him deal a significantly increased amount of damage with his Elemental Skill.
If fans do have the sword but are yet to acquire Albedo, it may be worth summoning him to utilize the unique weapon. However, if they do not have the Cinnabar Spindle, they may want to overlook him during this rerun.
Genshin Impact's newest banners will bring two powerful 5-stars for players to choose from, and picking between them will be tough.
