Genshin Impact 2.8 update has a new character from Inazuma — Shikanoin Heizou. And for a 4-star character, he gets a lot of love from the community. After his release, many videos appeared showing his enormous damage. Overall, his character is a step in the right direction in terms of the combat variety of the game.
Heizou from Genshin Impact is an Anemo Catalyst user. He is the first male character to use Catalyst in combat, although his playing style is very different from past Catalyst characters. That’s because he’s a martial artist, unlike the rest of the Catalyst users who are spellcasters.
Shikanoin Heizou from Genshin Impact
Heizo is a Genshin Impact character from Inazuma and the best detective of the Tenryu Commission. After the release of the demo of his character, many Genshin Impact players were happy to try him out, as the video demonstrated a new type of game style. Even though he was using Catalyst, Heizo’s attack pattern consisted of a flurry of kicks and punches in quick succession.
When Genshin Impact version 2.8 finally came out, players quickly reached for Heizou, bringing it to a game state. And many consider him a viable DPS, which is surprising considering that he is 4 stars. It attacks much faster than traditional Catalyst users. In addition, his Elemental Skill can cause huge damage with proper formation and timing.
Of course, Hazow is far from an ideal character. His attacks are fast, but they tend to repel enemies, forcing the player to rush after them. And although his Elemental Skill is powerful, all four stacks are required for the greatest damage. Otherwise, it’s not so useful. He is also a 4-star character, which means that his stats simply won’t scale as well compared to the 5-star characters in Genshin Impact.
The problem with Genshin Impact Catalysts
However, Heizou is a breath of fresh air for Genshin Impact’s character roster, especially for the Catalyst lineup. Catalyst users in Genshin Impact are often considered the least attractive, primarily because of their traditional style of play. The attack system is clumsy at best because players don’t have the ability to target a specific enemy. The same problem can be said about bow users, but at least these types of characters have directed charged attacks. In addition, their animation of a normal attack is not as slow as that of Catalyst users.
Catalyst users are also drawing a lot of criticism for their costly charged attacks. Most require a colossal endurance of 50, which is huge compared to other types of weapons. And given the clumsy guidance system, the attacks may not hit. This is dull compared to Claymore’s usual charged attacks, for example, which use 40 stamina per second, but deal decent damage to any nearby enemies.
However, Genshin Impact Heizou gets around all these issues because he is essentially a melee character labeled as a Catalyst. His charged attack also costs a lot less at 20 stamina. Overall, this is a step in the right direction for Genshin Impact. Heizou is probably a preliminary test for HoYoverse to assess how fans will react to a dramatic change in the style of play. And given its positive reception, the community can probably expect more characters that push the boundaries of weapon types and traditional play styles.
This is especially interesting now, when many future characters have already been teased. Perhaps Genshin Impact 3.0 characters will have alternative play styles. In the future, the harbingers of Fatua may also have completely different attack patterns. In general, Heizou can be the beginning of a new tradition.
Genshin Impact is now available on mobile devices, PC, PS4 and PS5. The Switch version is under development, the release date has not been confirmed.
