Genshin Impact adding Alhaitham and Yaoyao as playable characters

Hoyoverse secretly announced two new playable characters Genshin ImpactThe Game Awards 2022 took place last night. First was Yaoyao, a young girl. The second was Alhaitham, a rational academic. The scholar has played an extremely active role in player’s journeys in the new Sumeru region so far, and so now fans are celebrating his official announcement as a playable character at long last.

Genshin Impactis in its current 3.3 patch. The devious villain Scaramouche (now known as the Wanderer) has also joined the story following a fight in which he defeated him in the patch 3.2. Since late August, the main story has been set in Sumeru. Alhaitham is an allies of the Traveler since that time. He’s been with us pretty much every step of the way in the region and because of this, some fans speculated he would become playable in an earlier patch. But, he wasn’t there until Hoyoverse surprises-revealed him.

He was also joined by Yaoyao who was teased in prior artHowever, it seemed that they came on a much slower pace than anticipated.

Fans are more than excited about the arrival of Alhaitham though, since he’s been a fan favorite throughout the Sumeru story. He’s made a name for himself being an ornery but well-intentioned nerd who pursues the truth no matter the cost to him. As always, with Genshin Impact fans, it doesn’t hurt that he’s buff and and hot too. As fans post memes and fan art about him, they have filled Twitter with excitement since the announcement.

Of course it’s not all jokes. After the announcement, fans also submitted art. I’ve collected some here for you to look at, respectfully.

We don’t have confirmed release dates for Alhaitham or Yaoyao yet. But, they are likely to be available now because of the lackluster marketing. Genshin Impact’s 3.4 patch. This patch doesn’t have a release date yet either, but we can expect it to be released sometime mid-January, if the developers stick to the usual timeline.