Genshin Impact’s Albedo Will Feature In Winter Event, Say Leaks

Hey, it’s me: the Kotaku staffer who explains why a random Genshin Impact character is trending on Twitter. Today, several notable Genshin Impact leakers stated that the geo element swordsman Albedo will be making an event appearance in the 2.3 update.

Tangzhu is a Genshin Impact leaker who was banned from Bilibili this year (a Chinese video site similar to YouTube). On Wednesday, they tweeted that Albedo would be receiving new story content in the next update. Zluet (another prominent leaker) stated that the 2.3 update will include a free sword for Albedo. In previous events, a free character specific weapon usually accompanied a limited event banner of that character. The information has since been reposted all over Twitter, with Genshin players expressing excitement about the possibility of spending premium currency on rolling for Albedo.

While beta and datamined leaks are never set in stone, players have a pretty good reason to believe that Albedo would return to the game. This researcher-knight first appeared in “The Chalk Prince and the Dragon” event last December. His story left on a massive cliffhanger, where he hinted that he might eventually destroy the city-state of Mondstadt. Albedo’s destructive secret sharply contrasts with his gentle and thoughtful personality, hence the anticipation about his storyline.

For Genshin players who care about the gameplay meta, an Albedo re-release is extremely timely. The geo elemental meta has become even more relevant ever since miHoYo announced that other geo characters such as Arataki Itto and Gorou would be available as playable characters. Since they’re both geo characters, the entire party obtains powerful synergy boosts. Albedo is also a geo-element character, but more notably, Albedo has some party support abilities. It’s possible, players are theorizing based on these leaks, that Albedo might be able to crank up damage even further when put in a party with the geo duo. So depending on how the new characters work, Albedo’s abilities could make them even more powerful.

Genshin Impact has always struggled with leakers who post restricted content ahead of formal announcements, but miHoYo recently cracked down on leakers by suing Bilibili this September. Several leakers quit leaking after facing official pressure, or they were deplatformed like in the case of Tangzhu.

The developers already confirmed that 2.3 would be arriving on November 24, so it won’t be too long before the community knows the accuracy of these leaks.