Genshin Impact: The Untold Truth Of Ganyu
The award-winning Genshin Impact's character Ganyu is a damage-dealing Cryo archer with a ton of history – she's literally thousands of years old. The half-qilin, half-human has lived and worked in Liyue for centuries, and most players have seen her (or spent money for her) as a five-star banner character.
At Adventure Rank 40, players can unlock her story quest line after doing Daily Commissions and see what Ganyu is all about. However, considering the time it takes to get to AR 40, not everyone has seen Ganyu in action. One user in a GameFAQs forum says he's invested 250 hours into the game to get to AR 42! The dog-loving secretary to Ningguang has a lot of unique qualities to her that shine in her voice lines. Her story is also compelling, and it's much more emotionally involved than other story quests in the game, such as Xiangling's.
Because she's practically a workaholic, Ganyu acts a bit distant toward other people in Liyue. If you don't look into her spoken lines carefully or if you rush through her story quests, then you might miss out on some main parts of her character.
Ganyu's loneliness stems from her immortality
Despite living with humans for years, Ganyu still questions her place in one of her voice lines. She's half-human and half-qilin, making her immortal. She doesn't seem to know if, or how, she belongs in Liyue Harbor.
In one of the official videos from Genshin Impact's YouTube channel, the narrator describes this same issue. He says that Ganyu's loneliness directly comes from her immortal self living in a mortal realm. According to the narrator, Ganyu felt a sense of purpose in Liyue when the geo archon, Morax, was alive. Now, loneliness threatens to overwhelm her. The only way players can really see this in-game is her utter devotion to Rex Lapis (also called Morax) in her voice lines and her story quests.
Her story quest that you can unlock at AR level 40 also discusses her loneliness. YouTuber bwaap shows the main cutscenes from the quest, and the Cloud Retainer says that Ganyu seemed to be lonely outside of the human world. Ganyu replies that, "Liyue Harbor feels lonelier." She doesn't seem to belong anywhere she goes, but the player can help her with her struggle in Ganyu's story quest.
Ganyu means "Sweet Rain"
According to Reddit user eruku2105, Ganyu's name in Chinese means "Sweet Rain." If you play as Ganyu, then you can see how her abilities reflect her name. If you haven't had a chance to try Ganyu out, then you can see Ganyu's abilities in her official video from Genshin Impact's YouTube page. She mimics rain while she fights as her abilities, and charged up basic attack, deal Cryo damage on her enemies. Even her elemental burst ability is an actual orb that "rains down shards of ice."
Even the narrator in the ability video mentions that "when a qilin is brought to fight, the sun will lose its light" while showing Ganyu standing in the rain. This is a direct reference to her name's meaning. The "sweet" part of Ganyu's name could just be referencing her personality, especially considering that she's not hostile and is generally a very friendly character.
Ganyu is really into her image
Despite investing so much of her time in work, Ganyu is actually really into her appearance. One of the main ways you can see this in the game is with her "weight" struggles. Many of her voice lines go into detail about what she will and won't eat. While some of that is tied back to being half-qilin according to the Cloud Retainer, Ganyu seems to have other reasons. She even goes so far as to try and avoid Xiangling's restaurant because she can't control herself around the food. Even the scent of it from across the road leads her to indulging too much in the vegetarian meals.
In her story quest, the Cloud Retainer gives players a possible reason for Ganyu's image obsession. The Cloud Retainer mentions that Ganyu used to be a chubby child, and Ganyu gets pretty embarrassed. (After all, who wouldn't?)