After a disappointing update, Genshin Impact pulls out the big guns: a new cat girl

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Dendro cat girl Kirara has been announced for update 3.7

Genshin Impact 3.7
(Image credit: Hoyoverse)

After the disappointing release of Dehya and Mika in update 3.5, Genshin Impact is returning to Inazuma and pulling out the big guns with a new Dendro cat girl named Kirara for update 3.7. 

Kirara was announced out of nowhere this morning. New playable characters are often teased ahead of time through story missions, cutscenes, or at least lore trailers, but to my embarrassingly extensive Genshin knowledge, we'd never seen a trace of Kirara until now, making her a total surprise.

Unlike honorary Genshin cat girls like Keqing and Dehya, Kirara has actual cat tails and even paw padded feet (though those may just be her shoes, not unlike Diona's). "She's an adorable little nekomata," an accompanying blurb says of her character. "Just whisper 'the parcel delivery is gonna be late' in her ear while she's asleep, and she'll spring right up and start dashing faster than General Gorou does on the battlefield." The ears may be human, people, but we've got a bonafide cat girl on the premises. 

Kirara will be the first Dendro character hailing from Inazuma, but that's about all we know of her abilities for now. We can't even be sure of her rarity at this point. No other characters have been announced for update 3.7, which could suggest she's a solo five-star meant to carry the patch. 

That said, update 3.7 is coming at the tail end of the current regional arc, which is right around the time Genshin throws out a bunch of reruns with one new four-star to tide everyone over. We saw this in update 2.8 with the release of Heizou in a rerun-only patch preceding Sumeru, so I wouldn't be surprised if Kirara is a four-star too. 

Regardless of her rarity, Kirara will almost certainly be better than Dehya and Mika, if only because Dendro is an inherently top-tier element. After the upcoming release of Baizhu and Kaveh in 3.6, Kirara's debut will put us at three new Dendro characters in a row, already pushing the brand-new element's roster above that of the unpopular Geo element which has been in Genshin Impact since launch – and left untouched since the release of Yun Jin over a year ago. 

Check out our Genshin Impact tier list for a breakdown of the best characters in the game. 

Austin Wood
Austin Wood
Senior writer

Austin has been a game journalist for 12 years, having freelanced for the likes of PC Gamer, Eurogamer, IGN, Sports Illustrated, and more while finishing his journalism degree. He's been with GamesRadar+ since 2019. They've yet to realize his position is a cover for his career-spanning Destiny column, and he's kept the ruse going with a lot of news and the occasional feature, all while playing as many roguelikes as possible.