Genshin Impact: Hoyoverse teases Yaoyao release with new official art
Developers from Genshin Impact love to mess with the community with small crumbles and teases. Some may remember from how fans went crazy from hearing Ayato’s voice for the first time in the Itto trailer. Well, Hoyoverse is up at it again, now teasing the Yaoyao release in the game as they have been doing for almost two years by now.
Yaoyao is an unreleased character from Liyue who’s mentioned in a few character’s voicelines, and was believed by many to be the first Dendro character to be made playable in the game. Some rumors went as far as saying she would be given for free, but that honor fell to Collei.
Although she hasn’t made an official appearance in-game yet, her model was included in one of the game’s most famous leak images. That image dates from the 1.0 patch and revealed the first designs for many future characters, including Shenhe and Yun Jin who wouldn’t be released until 1 year and a half later.
But Yaoyao was also “leaked” by Hoyoverse themselves. She was featured in official art alongside Qiqi in 2020 right after the game’s official release, giving players fuel to start theorizing about her coming.
READ MORE: Genshin Impact Faruzan: Leaks and release date of Scaramouche’s rumored support
Hoyoverse teases Yaoyao release once again
Once again, Yaoyao is featured with Qiqi in official media. These arts are meant to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival, a popular celebration in Chinese culture. As you can imagine, the Moonchase Festival event from 2.1 was also inspired by this real-life event.
The festival doesn’t have a set date in the Gregorian Calendar, and happens between September 8th and October 7th. The arts featuring her and Qiqi were released on October 1st during 2020 and September 10th in 2022, the official dates for the festival in the respective years.
Now that we have the Dendro element in game, the Yaoyao release may be closer than we think, and Hoyoverse wants players to be hyped about it. Since she still looks pretty much the same in this new art, it’s safe to assume she won’t go through any major design changes like Kokomi and Shenhe did.
According to the character’s voice lines, Yaoyao studied under Madame Ping alongside Xiangling, suggesting she may also use a Polearm despite rumors being for her being a Catalyst user. She also loves to play in Beidou’s ship so much to the point that Ganyu was personally assigned to keep her away from sneaking into The Crux before they sail.
But aside from some occasional NPC dialogues and crumbles here and there, there’s almost no presence for her currently in-game. Some suggest her to be the first Dendro healer, but that may be simply the “small girl character = healer” stereotype broken only by Klee and, possibly, the Dendro Archon Kusanali.
READ MORE: Genshin Impact Mini Seelie: What is its purpose?
When is the Yaoyao release date?
As there are no leaks nor official announcements from the company yet, there’s no set date for the Yaoyao release. They just want us to remember she exists, but won’t spill the beans. She’s in the same boat as Baizhu, who still hasn’t received any information on his release.
Based on previous leaks and predictions, both should be released from version 3.4 onwards, as characters up until 3.3 are supposedly already set in stone. Until then, they’ll keep on throwing those small teases at us until they are finally released.
Are you excited for Yaoyao to finally become playable? Or are you also in the Baizhu waiting room?
