New Genshin Impact characters Shenhe and Yun Jin announced for update 2.4

Genshin Impact
(Image credit: MiHoYo)

Genshin Impact is getting two new characters in update 2.4: the cryo spearwoman Shenhe and the geo spearwoman Yun Jin.

As expected, the official Genshin Impact social media channels revealed these two characters ahead of the upcoming release of update 2.3. New characters have been revealed an update early for several months now, so we knew somebody was on the way, but it is a surprise to see two more never-before-seen fighters. 

A lore dump on the Genshin Impact Facebook feed describes Shenhe as a pupil of the Cloud Retainer adeptus, the crane demigod players who meet in Liyue. Unlike Ganyu, another cryo user acquainted with the Cloud Retainer, Shenhe is apparently a normal human, but her "unique constitution, immensely strong will, and great talent for adepti arts" has earned her an otherworldly reputation. 

Yun Jin, meanwhile, is the director of the Yun-Han opera troupe, well-known in Liyue's opera industry for her acting and writing. Based on her outfit and Liyue heritage, Yun Jin is based on the Chinese Peking opera, but it seems she has a love of rock music as well. 

Shenhe seems to be holding a new spear in her reveal art, but we already have a four-star cryo polearm user in Rosaria, so we can reasonably assume that she'll be a new five-star character. It's possible Yun Jin is a five-star as well, but conversely, she's pictured with the old Dragon's Bane spear, while we already have Zhongli for a five-star geo polearm, so it's more likely she'll be a four-star unit. 

If she is a four-star, Yun Jin will either appear on Shenhe's banner or the rerun banners coming in update 2.4. That would fit Genshin Impact's recent banner pattern, at least, but that's just speculation. We'll learn more about these two characters in around six weeks – right before the end of Arataki Itto's debut banner, leaving plenty of time to budget your Primogems. 

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Austin Wood

Austin freelanced for the likes of PC Gamer, Eurogamer, IGN, Sports Illustrated, and more while finishing his journalism degree, and he's been with GamesRadar+ since 2019. They've yet to realize that his position as a senior writer is just a cover up for his career-spanning Destiny column, and he's kept the ruse going with a focus on news and the occasional feature, all while playing as many roguelikes as possible.