Which Limited 5 Star Selector to Pick (7.1)

As part of its 6th anniversary, Genshin Impact's Patch 7.1 will include a selector for players to pick a copy of 1 out of 6 different Limited 5 star characters. This guide will cover all you need to know about their meta capacity and overall strength, who you should pick depending on your situation and why.

Overview

The characters that are part of the selector are:

• Tartaglia
• Nilou
• Baizhu
• Chiori
• Clorinde
• Varesa

None of them are part of the top meta echelon, but many of them can useful for various purposes, and newer accounts will especially benefit from an additional 5 star character. Note that access to the selector, as far as we currently understand, is locked behind completing both Acts (3 and 4) of the new Archon Quest in 7.1. Beyond that, there is no other condition to either the selector or any of the individual characters.

Meta Ability and Character Introduction

Tartaglia

Childe, 11th of the Fatui Harbingers, is an on-field Hydro DPS with a unique stance-changing mechanic. Despite being a bow character, by using his Elemental Skill he becomes a melee-range DPS with exceptional Hydro Application. Unfortunately, his damage is quite lackluster by modern standards, and on-field Hydro Application is not a particularly desirable quality for most strong modern teams. His Elemental Burst also has a slight change of function in his ranged vs melee stances.

Tartaglia is a difficult character to use optimally, but even when used optimally, he will rarely find much success. Typically, his best teams nowadays will be either a Durin + Nicole team with Dark Mode Durin being the team's main damage dealer, or a Lunar-Charged team with Columbina and Ineffa where he is mostly carried. His old teams, such as the well known International with Xiangling, Bennett and either Kaedehara Kazuha or Sucrose has fallen off significantly. If you don't already know how to play it, it is not worth learning right now (unless you are simply looking to enjoy yourself).

Another thing of note is Childe's Constellations being amongst the worst DPS Constellations in the game. They hardly increase his damage or his team's damage in most endgame scenarios, although they can make him a little easier to play.

Nilou

Formerly the namesake of the Bloom archetype, Nilou is a character mostly used as an alternative Hydro option for Nefer teams, although she can be a very viable slot-in for Columbina DPS teams. Regardless, she is reliant on Lunar-Bloom units to function well in current endgame. Nilou powers up the Bloom Reaction if the entire team consists of Dendro and Hydro character, making the seeds generated by it explode faster and deal more damage. This function doesn't do anything in Nefer teams, as Nefer locks the Bloom seeds, but it does matter in other teams.

Nilou is also part of the 'Temper Thyself and Journey Far' Event, wherein you can pick a Constellation for a 5 star character you already own, from a specific pool. If you already own Nilou at C0 and haven't picked up her C1 from that event, or if you already own her C1 from that event (or generally), you have the option to choose her from this selector and unlock her powerful C2. Her C2 reduces the Hydro and Dendro RES of enemies hit by Bloom or Lunar-Bloom DMG by 35%. This makes her one of the best 4th slots for Nefer teams and certainly the best for Columbina DPS teams.

Baizhu

Baizhu is a Dendro shielder, healer and support. He can provide small buffs to the team's Dendro Reaction damage through his passives, unconditionally, as well as heal the team through his Elemental Skill and Elemental Burst. His Elemental Burst has the additional effect of giving constantly refreshing small Dendro shields.

He is a unit with little function in most modern teams, even Dendro ones. Nefer teams far prefer to run non-sustain options for damage purposes, but there are better sustain options for them regardless; Baizhu's buffs are nigh negligible. Additionally, without his C2, Baizhu is not even able to hold a strong support set consistently. He needs to use his Burst to be able to hit enemies off-field, which has a 20 second cooldown. This is longer than Nefer's roughly 17.5-18 second rotations.

With his C2, Baizhu does become an alright sustain option for the above teams, but hardly a strong option in general. The rest of his Constellations are very bad with the exception of his C4, which is merely bad.

Chiori

One of two Geo Sub-DPS units in the game alongside Albedo and formerly strictly better than him, Chiori finds few use-cases outside of Imaginarium Theater runs. Chiori provides no buffs to her team at any investment level, with her entire contribution to the team being off-field Geo DMG and Geo Elemental Application.

Her damage is quite mediocre without multiple Constellations, and even with a few of them she will never become the strongest option for any modern team until her C6. Her strongest uses are found in Navia teams and Lunar-Crystallize teams without Zibai, and she is almost never the strongest option for any of them either.

She is part of the 'Temper Thyself and Journey Far' Event and has Constellations useful to herself, so if looking to invest into her, there are arguments to be made in her favor.

Clorinde

Clorinde is a flexible Electro on-field DPS with relatively short field-time and less teammate reliance than most. She has a soft-cap on how useful ATK buffs are for her, access to a lot of Elemental DMG Bonus through Fragment of Harmonic Whimsy, and self Crit Rate buffing through her passive. Due to all of this, Clorinde can be said to be relatively self-sufficient and able to use many strong teammates, including but not limited to Iansan and Chevreuse, Hexerei characters like Nicole, Fischl and Durin, Dendro characters like Emilie and even Lunar-Charged teammates like Columbina or Stellar-Conduct teammates like Odette.

Despite this flexibility, she will typically be outdone by either Flins or Cyno. However, Clorinde is also part of the 'Temper Thyself and Journey Far' event and has relatively good early Constellations. Both her C1 and C2 can be a personal DPS increase of 20-25%, so a Clorinde that can get to C2 through this selector will gain a lot of power. Although not necessarily able to match the above, she does become much stronger.

Without already owning her, Clorinde will only be able to get to her C1. At that level of investment, she will occassionally be useful for endgame clearing, but rarely a fantastic option. This is especially true if you already have either Flins or Cyno and some of their teammates. She is also in direct competition with the other Electro on-field DPS in this selector, Varesa, although who is better is arguable.

Varesa

A Nightsoul Electro on-field Plunge DPS, Varesa is a character with fairly unique gameplay but is less flexible than one would expect. Varesa is not necessarily the cream of the crop and is quite reliant on having strong 4* teammates like Iansan and Chevreuse, both of which get significantly better with their Constellations. Although typically found on her banners, picking Varesa from this selector will not grant you either of them. Varesa also really wants strong Pyro options like Mavuika and Durin, with the easier to acquire options like Traveler (Pyro) and Xiangling not being enough to make her a strong endgame character.

Unlike Clorinde, Varesa loses a lot of effectiveness outside of her Overload teams. She is able to play in teams like Lunar-Charged and Stellar-Conduct, but she has little self-buffing. She is much more geared to be a Hypercarry, and she's not the strongest one.

Varesa's C1 is mediocre, and she is not in 'Temper Thyself'. Unless you're planning to get her C2 in the future, which is a fantastic Constellation and makes her significantly stronger, her C1 on its own will only result in a roughly 8-10% personal damage increase and a 5-7% team DPS increase.

The strongest pick in terms of meta is entirely dependent on your account, the units you currently own, your goals for them, goals for future units you plan to get, future investment, etc. None of these units are particularly like to significantly alter your account and its ability to clear difficult content, but there are use cases for them that will might make your life and endgame ability much easier.

Strongest Picks and Meta Use Cases

The best overall picks for most accounts are going to be Clorinde and Varesa. They're both decent Electro on-field DPS with some amount of flexibility, especially Clorinde. A C1Clorinde is about as good as a C0 Varesa in their best teams, and Clorinde has more teams that she is strong in.

• If you happen to have Iansan and Chevreuse Constellations, don't have someone to use them with and don't have other strong teammates for Electro carries. they will both work.
• If you're planning to invest into Varesa through her C2 or her Signature Weapon, she has much stronger vertical scaling than Clorinde does and she will end up much more powerful. However, if your Varesa is already at C0R0 and you have no such plans, her C1 is unlikely to make her much stronger.
• If you already own Clorinde, you will be able to get her to C2 through this selector and the 'Temper Thyself' event. Clorinde at C2 is comfortably stronger than Varesa at C0 or C1, and will be able to tackle difficult endgame content easier and with a more varied suite of teammates.
• If your account is new and you have little/none of the above, Clorinde C1 and Varesa C0 are going to be about as good. That said, Varesa is a character that is much stronger in the overworld and a great unit for exploration. It is possible that this is a strong use case for you, as neither of them are very likely to improve your endgame clearing capacity more than the other.

Nilou is another strong pick for accounts that already own her and have Lunar-Bloom units. If you have just Lauma, Nilou's Constellation 2 will make her Bloom teams quite a bit stronger. If you have Lauma and Nefer, Nilou at C2 can be your strongest Hydro option if you don't own Columbina. If you do own Columbina and both of LauFer, Nilou at C2 will become either (one of) the strongest 4th slots alongside them. If you own Lauma and Columbina but not Nefer, Nilou at C2 will be a strong upgrade to Columbina's DPS teams. This is particularly the case if you also own Key of Khaj-Nisut.

If you don't already own Nilou or her weapon, there is little use for her. Nilou at C1 is not a particularly powerful option for any of them, although she is An option.

Mediocre Picks

Tartaglia, Baizhu and Chiori are all very unlikely to improve your account's ability to clear the Spiral Abyss or Stygian Onslaught if you don't already own them. The only exceptions are for new and returning players with mildly synergistic units and few of their supports.

• For example, Navia without Xilonen or Albedo might find a team upgrade in a C1 or C2 Chiori. This is unlikely to push her over any edge in Stygian Onslaught, but might be useful for some Spiral Abyss floors.
• Baizhu will be a worse stand-in for Nahida for Lunar-Bloom teams, but can be...alright, at C2. Sucrose will always be significantly stronger in terms of damage, but will leave you sustainless. If you're not keen on playing Nefer without a sustain and don't own Ineffa, Baizhu might be about as strong as Xingqiu for a 4th slot with sustain. However, for a Lunar-Bloom team upgrade, Nilou is likely to be stronger.
• Tartaglia will essentially never be your best or a good pick for any team. Even as a Durin driver and Vaporize enabler, Xingqiu or Yelan or any unit with sufficient Hydro Application will do the work. A team with Tartaglia driving Durin is unlikely to even be better than simply on-fielding Durin in an Overlad team.

There is a stage where these character can be genuinely useful for, however:

the Imaginarium Theater

If your account's Elemental makeup is lacking any of the above Elements, having an additional character for them will be a decent use case. Even as mediocre units, the clearing requirements for IT are generally quite low, whereas the entry requirements can be quite strict. An additional Hydro on-fielder, a Dendro reaction enabler or a Geo Sub-DPS can also be strong in IT in their own ways.

Considering their current position in the meta, it is unlikely for any of the above to make your account a whole lot stronger if you don't already own them. If you do, there are investment paths that they can make much easier, or they can reach higher Constellation levels and become useful for modern teams.

Future Considerations

With buffs for Liyue characters likely to be around the corner, there is always the possibility that Baizhu and/or Tartaglia receive buffs. There is also the case to be made for the presently IT-exclusive Rimegrass reaction to make it into the game in the near future, and Baizhu could be made to be part of it. That said, there is no official information on any of the above, and this is pure speculation. If you have a stronger pick than them, then it is likely to stay in the present and pick them. A similar case could be made for Chiori and Inazuma buffs in a version in a year or two.