Genshin Impact 4.4 release date, banners, and start time speculation

Genshin Impact 4.4 release date should land before the end of January, and we can expect it to coincide with the ever-popular Lantern Rite festival event.

As early as December we’ve started to see HoYoverse drip-market information about new characters coming to the game, and we might expect to see them be part of patch 4.4. There is plenty of speculation that Patch 4.4 will also add a new area linking Fontaine to Liyue, called the Chenyu Vale.

Since the Genshin Impact 4.4 release date will coincide with the Lantern Rite Festival, we can expect to see plenty of free Primogems and the chance to pick one of a selection of four-star characters. Now, on to the release date.

Genshin Impact 4.4 release date speculation

Genshin Impact 4.4 will release on January 31, 2024. This date has not yet been confirmed by HoYoverse, but if you look at when the current 4.3 Banner is scheduled to end, this takes us to January 30th. There is typically one day between the current Banner ending and the new patch starting, so we can speculate that this date is correct.

Thankfully, Genshin Impact follows a scheduled and guessable update pattern. We will update this page with the confirmed release date after the patch 4.4 special live stream program airs. For now, expect Genshin Impact 4.4 to release on January 31st. Each patch lasts about 40 days, which should see patch 4.4 end in early March 2024, but this is mere speculation for now.

Genshin Impact 4.4 Banners speculation – Cloud Retainer (Xianyun) and Gaming

HoYoverse has drip-marketed the characters we believe will feature in the Genshin Impact 4.4 Banners. As per the official Genshin Twitter, we’ve seen Cloud Retainer – also known as Xianyun – teased along with a brand new character called Gaming (pronounced Gah Ming, by the way). These Tweets shared information about the characters and let us know what elemental Vision they hold.

For those who don’t know, this drip marketing typically hints towards the characters who will appear in the next patch. Since these characters were revealed after patch 4.3 went live, we can safely predict that Cloud Retainer will be the newest five-star added to the roster while Gaming will be a four-star character.

Once again, this information is all speculation, but we are basing this on how previous updates have gone, further informed by the decisions HoYoverse has made in the past when it comes to patch releases. We will update this information when we get a solid confirmation from the official Genshin Impact 4.4 special program.

As for the other 4.4 Banner characters, we don’t have any information about who could be appearing. Some leaks point towards Xiao getting a re-run, since he has typically featured on the Banner during the Lantern Rite festival in the past.

Each banner usually lasts for 21 days, and while not confirmed, we should expect the Genshin Impact 4.4 Banners to go live on the following days:

• Genshin Impact 4.4 Banner phase one – January 31, 2023
• Genshin Impact 4.4 Banner phase two – February 21, 2023

Genshin Impact 4.4 Banners speculation – Cloud Retainer, Xianyun

We can safely assume that Cloud Retainer will be one of the next five-star characters to appear on the Genshin 4.4 Banners. What we can’t guess is which phase Cloud Retainer will appear during, nor the accompanying four-star Rate Up characters.

For those who have played Genshin for a long time, you will recognise Cloud Retainer as one of the important Adeptus characters in Liyue who features in the main story quest. At the moment, this is the information we have about Cloud Retainer from her drip marketing: she will have an Anemo Vision and her title is Passerine Herald.

“A new resident in the city, you say? Oh, it’s Cloud— I mean, Xianyun. Don’t be fooled by her usual manner… She’s someone you can truly rely on when the going gets tough. If you ever find yourself in trouble, just tell her — I’m sure she’d be willing to help.” — Madame Ping

• Weapon – Unknown, probably a Catalyst
• Vision – Anemo
• Rarity – Unknown, probably 5-Star.
• Title – Passerine Herald
• Constellation: Grus Serena

As it stands, we don’t know which banner Cloud Retainer will feature on, nor do we know the other five-star character who will run alongside her during patch 4.4

Genshin Impact 4.4 Banners speculation – Gaming

Gaming, known only previously as ‘Lion Boy’, is speculated to be a new four-star character, and as such we know that he will feature on either the first or second phase Banner as one of the featured four-star characters. With that said, we don’t know his rarity for sure, we can only speculate until we get an official confirmation from HoYoverse.

Very little is known about Gaming outside of what HoYo has drip-marketed, but some minorly important details about him have been confirmed, such as his Vision, name, and title.

• Weapon – Unknown.
• Vision – Pyro
• Rarity – Unknown, probably 4-Star
• Title – Leonine Vanguard
• Constellation – Leo Expergiscens

Genshin Impact 4.4 start time speculation

The Genshin Impact 4.4 start time is 4 am (BST) on Wednesday, January 31. While this has not been officially confirmed, Genshin Impact updates always go live on a Wednesday morning and this fits with the predicted schedule. Server maintenance is usually finished at this time in the UK, meaning you can play from 4am on January 31. Use this table below to see when you can expect Genshin Impact 4.4 to go live in your region.

Please note that the Genshin Impact 4.4 start time in the table above is merely speculation based on previous updates. We will change this table if anything is wrong when we get an official confirmation about patch 4.4 from the next Genshin livestream.

Now you know when we expect the Genshin Impact 4.4 release date. For more Genshin, make sure you visit our Genshin Impact codes page to get some free rewards. If you want guides, check out our Navia best builds to learn about her.