The Genshin Impact Polar Star Bow and every other new weapon in 2.2

(Image credit: miHoYo)

The Genshin Impact Polar Star weapon could actually be the most promising thing in 2.2. Although we won’t see any new five-star characters for a while, this five-star Bow can make a great difference for your team. In the hands of a strong DPS like Childe, it will quickly become any Hilichurl’s greatest fear.

And that’s not all: Genshin Impact 2.2 also adds a bunch of new four-star weapons to the game. These weapons are very much in line with the Inazuma Burst-buffing playstyle, so perfect for your new Raiden Shogun and Kujou Sara team. Let’s take a look at the new weapon stats and abilities.

New four-star weapons in Genshin Impact 2.2

Genshin Impact 2.2 will introduce the following four-star weapons:

Mouun’s Moon. A Bow weapon with a Base Attack of 44. As its secondary stat, Mouun’s Moon offers up to 27.6% increased Attack Power.
Wavebreaker’s Fin. A Polearm weapon with a Base Attack stat of 45 and up to 13.8% increased Attack Power.
Akuoumaru. A Claymore weapon with a Base Attack of 42 and increased Attack Power of up to 41.3%.

Naturally, each of these new weapons has a passive ability as well. And to make things easy, it’s the same for all three of them: for every point in your team’s combined Energy, the Elemental Burst of the character using the weapon is increased by 0.12% (up to a maximum of 40%).

These weapons are obviously great for Elemental Burst-focused teams with high Energy counts, possibly with Raiden Shogun or Kujou Sara as party members. They would fit a wide range of characters such as Xiangling, Xongyun, Eula, Childe, or the new Genshin Impact character Thoma.

Genshin Impact Polar Star: is it good?

The Genshin Impact Polar Star weapon is the big prize in 2.2. This powerful five-star Bow has a Base Attack of 46, which makes it the second highest in the game (only surpassed by the Skyward Harp). Furthermore, it increases your character’s Critical Rate by 33.1% at maximum level.

As for its passive ability, the Polar Star increases your character’s Elemental Skill and Elemental Burst damage by 12%. If an attack (Normal/Charged/Skill/Burst) hits an opponent, you gain one stack of Byakuya Kyousei for a duration of twelve seconds. The more stacks you have, the higher your Attack increase. The maximum amount of Byakuya Kyousei is four and the max Attack increase is 48%.

All in all, it looks like the Polar Star will be a very strong weapon to have. Its biggest advantage is that it’ll work great on almost any active DPS. Just use their various attacks often enough and you’ll always have an Attack boost. Furthermore, Critical Rate is a great secondary stat to have as it allows you to focus your Artifacts more on Critical Damage.

Which Genshin Impact character should get the Polar Star?

Although we mentioned that the Polar Star works great for almost any active DPS, the perfect match would be with Childe/Tartaglia. As he uses all of his abilities a lot, he won’t have any trouble gaining enough Byakuya Kyousei stacks.

However, those of you who aren’t blessed with a Childe on their team might consider giving the Polar Star to characters like Ganyu or Venti instead. Their low cooldowns will make it easier to get the buffs.

If you only have four-star Bow characters, it seems that Fischl would be the best match. However, you would have to use her Normal and Charged Attacks to increase the Byakuya Kyousei stacks. If you currently use her as a passive sub-DPS only, you would have to alter your playstyle a bit.

How to get the Polar Star in Genshin Impact

As is usually the case for a five-star Genshin Impact weapon, the Polar Star will be obtainable through a limited-time Wish Banner. The Wish Banner, called ‘Epitome Invocation’, can be found in the ‘Wishes’ menu. The Polar Star Wish Banner starts on October 13 and lasts for three weeks.

If you get a five-star weapon, there’s a 75% chance that it’s one of the featured weapons (so either the Polar Star, or the second featured weapon). If you haven’t received a five-star weapon for 79 Wishes, the 80th Wish will always be a five-star.

Before you try your luck though, be sure to set your ‘Epitomized Path’ (left side of the Wish Banner screen) to the Polar Star. Every time you receive a five-star weapon that’s not the Polar Star bow, you’ll get a Fate Point. Once you have two Fate Points in your possession, the next Wish Banner pull on Epitomized Path will be a Polar Star, guaranteed.

Fingers crossed and good luck on the gacha!