|OT| Genshin Impact - Breath of the Elements

Dandy

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Well, Furina kit leaks are out on the usual places, and dang her kit sounds really unique and strong.

But first, it's Neuvillette time on Wednesday.
I'm on a Genshin break, but Neuvillette and Furina both make me want to play again.
 

spindoctor

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It's an interesting discussion and I kind of see both perspectives. Having good 4-stars definitely increases the 'value' of a banner and like Line said, having good 4-stars is quite important for newer players. The first and most obvious reason is that primogem income is slow even if you are getting all the one time bonuses from doing the story and exploration. It'll take several weeks to accumulate enough to get one 5-star and twice as long to guarantee a character. Keep in mind, new players usually do not have access to events or possibly can't complete them if they do. And then, even when you do scrounge together enough wishes, you won't know who to pull for. The guides you watch on Youtube will mention characters that might be weeks or months away from coming back. So for the most part, you are getting through the game with 4-stars along with whatever lucky 5-stars you happen to get along the way. The second reason is that we know that elemental reactions are mandatory, not optional to succeed in combat. I'm not even sure you can get past Mondstadt without figuring that out. I'm sure it is possible to get through everything with just Amber/Kaeya/Lisa/Traveler but I imagine it would be quite unpleasant unless you're also quite skilled. Having good 4-stars that work well with each other will make life better for sure. Sometimes even having good 4-stars isn't enough. In my case, I've had Bennett for a long time and I tried to make him work but I don't think he's that useful early on in the game. When you're still using blue relics with barely any sensible stats, you won't have the energy regen to get his burst up often enough. Being able to use his burst once every two fights maybe and then him being fairly useless for the rest of the time makes him feel like a wasted slot. Or who knows, maybe I didn't understand the character well enough and he actually is immediately fantastic from the first moment.

I know I've complained a whole lot about the world tier shenanigans that happen at AR30 but in retrospect it could have been a lot worse. In my case, I was quite fortunate that I pulled Dehya and Tighnari in my first 5 ever pulls. I love Dehya because she was my tank in the early game and her AOE fire combined with Tighnari's AOE dendro did a lot of heavy lifting in terms of damage output. The real special thing was getting access to dendro that early on which opens the door to so many important reactions. New players will not get access to dendro until they complete Mondstadt/Liyue/Inazuma unless someone tells them to run to Sumeru and convert their Traveler. But even with this luck I've had to lock my game at AR35 for several weeks. In theory, I probably have enough 4-star characters to make a proper 4-star team work and I can unlock the next world tier but I'm so comfortable with this team that I'm willing to accept the downsides of playing at a low world tier (slower material farming) while I make my way through the game.

That all said, I still instinctively do not think I'd want to pull for 4-stars on a banner where I don't want the 5-star. The mathematical odds are just against you if you do unless there's a very specific situation in play. Like for example if you desperately want/need all of the 4-star rate up characters. Then you're guaranteed to get any one of them in 20 pulls max and that could be worth it depending on how much you want any of the characters. And of course, you're always counting down your primogems when you're pulling on a banner.

It's kind of interesting that my opinion on this is a bit fluid because I play both Star Rail and Genshin. Both have identical gacha systems but I'm at such different places in terms of game progression. In Star Rail I've played almost every day and I've done almost everything in the game which means I have a lot of resources and a fairly powerful account. In that game I've wanted to level up Qingque because I like the character and her combat style seems interesting. However, you apparently want to get her to eidolon 6 to fully unlock her power and bring her to comparable levels to Seele for example. She has appeared as a rate-up 4-star in at least 2 banners but those were banners I where I didn't want the 5-star so I held off from pulling just for her. She did however appear in the starglitter shop this month and because I have a lot of that currency I instantly bought her for an eidolon because she was easily worth the 6 pulls worth of currency I had to spend. In another instance, the other day I pulled for Fu Xuan and got her and then continued to pull on the banner for Lynx. I got her as well in the next 10 pull but technically that does count as pulling for a 4-star when the banner has basically lost it's value.

Meanwhile the situation in Genshin is so different. I'm only half way through the story right now. There are more than 50 characters in the game, half of whom I've not even met and most of whom I have no idea how good they are or what they even do. So I'm completely dependent on external advice for how to go about things and because I only have one single limited 5-star character so far, those decisions have a lot more impact. Xingqiu is in the starglitter equivalent shop this month and I've read that he's supposed to be really, really good but I only have enough of that currency to get 2 characters. So I've been wondering if I should buy him from there. What I've read online is that you should save that currency and use it to buy standard banner character constellations of those characters you like because it is nearly impossible to get them from the banner itself due to how diluted the pool is. And that makes sense. I like Lisa a lot so I'd like to get her constellations so I should maybe save for that. But then who knows when I'd be able to get Xingqiu otherwise.

I find it mildly amusing tbh. Two different games. Same gacha system. Different decision making based on how advanced my account is or isn't.

Anyway moving on... I really liked this new Fontaine event. Just wander around taking photos of the scenery. I did it on the last day so everything was unlocked all at once. Didn't need to use an external guide. Just the ingame markers and a bit of sightseeing. Lots of primogems as a reward. The previous event where you had to fight those enemies wasn't too bad either (I did it on a low difficulty anyway) but once in a while it's nice to have a non combat event right?

I was talking to my friend again and he was again like, you're running out of time to top up your account before the bonus resets. He said there are going to be like 5 archons in a row and I absolutely should aim to get at least 2 if not 3. Raiden (again, obviously) and also Nahida and if Furina is amazing then her too. And I'm like how exactly do you expect me to get 3 5-stars in a row outside of being stupendously lucky? He said buy gems. I said no. So this morning he sent me an Apple wallet code for 3000 rupees and said use this to buy a pack. It's super generous of him but it came with a kind of "fuck you if you're not going to buy it yourself then use this" tone so lol. That's the price of the pack that gets you 3920 primogems. So I guess I'll be buying that today.

So anyway, Qingqiu from the shop. Yes or no? I'm inclined to save for Lisa constellations but maybe that's the wrong choice here. Plus he's on the next banner...

EDIT: Just reading the Genshin subbreddit thread about the upcoming banners and virtually everyone is saying that they are amazing and actually incredible for new players. Welp, back to square one we go.
 
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Line

meh
Dec 21, 2018
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It's an interesting discussion and I kind of see both perspectives. Having good 4-stars definitely increases the 'value' of a banner and like Line said, having good 4-stars is quite important for newer players. The first and most obvious reason is that primogem income is slow even if you are getting all the one time bonuses from doing the story and exploration. It'll take several weeks to accumulate enough to get one 5-star and twice as long to guarantee a character. Keep in mind, new players usually do not have access to events or possibly can't complete them if they do. And then, even when you do scrounge together enough wishes, you won't know who to pull for. The guides you watch on Youtube will mention characters that might be weeks or months away from coming back. So for the most part, you are getting through the game with 4-stars along with whatever lucky 5-stars you happen to get along the way. The second reason is that we know that elemental reactions are mandatory, not optional to succeed in combat. I'm not even sure you can get past Mondstadt without figuring that out. I'm sure it is possible to get through everything with just Amber/Kaeya/Lisa/Traveler but I imagine it would be quite unpleasant unless you're also quite skilled. Having good 4-stars that work well with each other will make life better for sure. Sometimes even having good 4-stars isn't enough. In my case, I've had Bennett for a long time and I tried to make him work but I don't think he's that useful early on in the game. When you're still using blue relics with barely any sensible stats, you won't have the energy regen to get his burst up often enough. Being able to use his burst once every two fights maybe and then him being fairly useless for the rest of the time makes him feel like a wasted slot. Or who knows, maybe I didn't understand the character well enough and he actually is immediately fantastic from the first moment.
That's why I said I think it's a misunderstanding, because we talk about very different parts of the progression. I totally agree with Amzin once you reach the point of "good enough".
But I started the game with Razor and a physical build... he's fine at that, but not very good, even back then (and it's not like I could build a decent reaction team for him at lvl 20, and Dendro didn't exist).
And my 5* were Venti... useful but limited with most chars at the time that were lacking in AoE, and then Tartaglia. Fun char, not exactly the easiest one to play in an early game where half baked taser teams (that I used) and vape teams where all that were... and with massive gear requirements.
But then I randomly got Keqing, and her standalone kit was enough to make the entire game very easy... and later I tried Yanfei with Xingqiu, Xiangling, Bennett/Babara and that was hilariously strong and easy to play.

Some chars (including standard ones like Diluc) make the game extremely approachable and easy, some are demanding and frustrating if you don't follow a guide, I'd say Bennett fits here, as his rotation and gear needs are linked, so good luck finding the optimal way to play him early all by yourself...

That all said, I still instinctively do not think I'd want to pull for 4-stars on a banner where I don't want the 5-star. The mathematical odds are just against you if you do unless there's a very specific situation in play. Like for example if you desperately want/need all of the 4-star rate up characters. Then you're guaranteed to get any one of them in 20 pulls max and that could be worth it depending on how much you want any of the characters. And of course, you're always counting down your primogems when you're pulling on a banner.
That's a lot closer to "building pity" that definitely should never be done, like with your example in HSR for Qingque. Really frivolous, and much too likely to get a 5* when you don't expect it.
But usually, that's because you already have the 5* on the banner at this point. Or you just really don't care, and yeah, don't get chars you don't like. But the 33% to get someone you want is tempting... and you can really spend hundreds of rolls doing so, statistically, the chances of getting the one you need are worse than 0.6% :cold-sweat:

I was talking to my friend again and he was again like, you're running out of time to top up your account before the bonus resets. He said there are going to be like 5 archons in a row and I absolutely should aim to get at least 2 if not 3. Raiden (again, obviously) and also Nahida and if Furina is amazing then her too. And I'm like how exactly do you expect me to get 3 5-stars in a row outside of being stupendously lucky? He said buy gems. I said no. So this morning he sent me an Apple wallet code for 3000 rupees and said use this to buy a pack. It's super generous of him but it came with a kind of "fuck you if you're not going to buy it yourself then use this" tone so lol. That's the price of the pack that gets you 3920 primogems. So I guess I'll be buying that today.

So anyway, Qingqiu from the shop. Yes or no? I'm inclined to save for Lisa constellations but maybe that's the wrong choice here. Plus he's on the next banner...

EDIT: Just reading the Genshin subbreddit thread about the upcoming banners and virtually everyone is saying that they are amazing and actually incredible for new players. Welp, back to square one we go.
Your friend is weird :tightly-closed-eyes:
Be careful to not fall into that spending rabbit hole.

So to get the primogems, it's a bit hard to tell since you don't get every single one of them, but there's roughly 65 rolls given for free every patch, if you do all events (and the Spiral Abyss... but that's a fairly small gain, that one). Except this is Genshin's anniversary, so you'll get 1600 extra primos in the mail, 10 fates as connection bonus, in general you can expect 100 rolls or so during 4.1. Plus you still have lots to do all around, I assume.

So for Qingqiu, if you really want him and think you'll benefit? Buy him in the shop. But if you reeeeally like Lisa and intend to make her a dedicated team, I'd keep my glitter for her. Getting her otherwise is literally a 1 in 62 chances to get her on the standard banner since she will never be on a limited one. And that chance decreases every time another 4* is added to it.

And in a way, that also affects your future rolls: Lisa really wants Dendro characters, so Nahida is even higher on the priority list. Which is not a bad thing, because I'd say that Nahida is easily the best archon, and arguably the strongest support in the game anyway. But she's also MIA, we have no idea when she comes back, and it's probably not that soon.
So... wait for her return, but you have time to get primos in the meantime? The rumors have her at a "maybe in 4.5" at the earliest.

Raiden Shogun is almost guaranteed to come next patch. I would roll for her honestly, she is very, very good, and ultra flexible.
But as you say, in the meantime, 4.1 is here, and that first banner is maybe the best ever, both for characters and weapons (don't roll for that though)... so... I can only tell you to try the characters and see if you like them or not.
I personally do not like using Hu Tao at all, but she sure is strong (if Xingqiu dependent to a large margin, that could also influence how you spend your glitter). Neuvillette seems strong, but we'll see.
Venti I wouldn't go for at this point with your account, if you don't really want him. You're missing much more direct damage options than a mobber like him, I'd say.

So... Furina in 4.2? Her kit is unique, and covers a very wide variety of slots, but it's too early to tell where she fits in the meta. She's Hydro, and there's lots of competition. But like we've talked about before about role consolidation, if she indeed can do off field damage, and healing, and buff DMG+healing, and pneuma and ousia damage on demand, and her skill is longer than its CD (seems like the only constant for archons, heh)... I can't imagine her being bad, ever?
 

Amzin

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Furina is definitely looking like an Archon. Team-wide damage buff, off field hydro application + damage, can theoretically make Maurecchassesese Hunter BiS artifacts for any dps on her team (I think?) which confirms it as kind of the new Emblem... ish. Already sort of was since seemingly every Fontaine character is using it.

After all the reruns and then not being keen on Lynney (he's super duper strong but just does not appeal to me), it kinda feels like I'm gonna be summoning for all the new 5 stars coming out. I for sure want Nuev and Rizzly, probably Furina, Navia and Clorinde for their character if nothing else (I really hope Navia adds some Geo power since Geo used to be my favorite element)
 

Ascheroth

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And in a way, that also affects your future rolls: Lisa really wants Dendro characters, so Nahida is even higher on the priority list. Which is not a bad thing, because I'd say that Nahida is easily the best archon, and arguably the strongest support in the game anyway. But she's also MIA, we have no idea when she comes back, and it's probably not that soon.
So... wait for her return, but you have time to get primos in the meantime? The rumors have her at a "maybe in 4.5" at the earliest.

Raiden Shogun is almost guaranteed to come next patch. I would roll for her honestly, she is very, very good, and ultra flexible.
So far they have always ran one Archon per patch without a break once they started.
So with Zhongli being 4.0, Venti 4.1 and Furina 4.2, Raiden and Nahida will be in 4.3 and 4.4 but we don't know in which order.
Though obviously no one is stopping them from doing things differently.

After all the reruns and then not being keen on Lynney (he's super duper strong but just does not appeal to me), it kinda feels like I'm gonna be summoning for all the new 5 stars coming out. I for sure want Nuev and Rizzly, probably Furina, Navia and Clorinde for their character if nothing else (I really hope Navia adds some Geo power since Geo used to be my favorite element)
I'm probably gonna be pulling for one char every patch starting from 4.1 with Neuvillette, lol. Furina, Clorinde, Navia and Arlecchino are all must gets for now. And who knows what other characters they are gonna pull out of their hat...
Rizzlebee is cool, but since he hasn't appeared at all in the game yet I don't really care for him, while Neuvillette's story parts have made him one of my faves.
I guess this could change by the time his banner appears... but at that point I will have already pulled Neuvillette and 2 chars in a single patch is too much for me even with how loaded my primo stash is currently :cold-sweat:
 

Dandy

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I want Neuvillette, Furina and Clorinde, but I'll be lucky if I have enough Primos to get even one of them! I think I have around 110 pulls saved up right now. I really wanted Lynney for his design and performer antics, but I don't like bow users in Genshin.
 

Amzin

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I'm probably gonna be pulling for one char every patch starting from 4.1 with Neuvillette, lol. Furina, Clorinde, Navia and Arlecchino are all must gets for now. And who knows what other characters they are gonna pull out of their hat...
Rizzlebee is cool, but since he hasn't appeared at all in the game yet I don't really care for him, while Neuvillette's story parts have made him one of my faves.
I guess this could change by the time his banner appears... but at that point I will have already pulled Neuvillette and 2 chars in a single patch is too much for me even with how loaded my primo stash is currently :cold-sweat:
Given my history of 50/50 luck, I just assume every character I want will cost 160 pulls, but even so with how much I've saved (also being a loyal Welkin enthusiast), I think I could get all but 1 of the known Fontaine 5 stars guaranteed, even better if I don't go to 160/160 on every one (but I probably will). Furina looks kinda interesting but have to see what kind of new / refined teams she enables, and I'm not committed to Arelcchino myself.

I mainly want Writhosleyey because he's an unarmed character and I'm a sucker for that. Heizou is my most invested 4 star by a lot and actually more built up than most of my 5 stars. Boxing style not my favorite but I'll take what I can get
 
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Ascheroth

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Watched the Hoyofair and fan concert.
God dang, there are so many insanely talented folks in this community, it's crazy.

The Inazuma section in the concert with the added vocals to all the songs went hard.
 
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Ascheroth

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Otterman acquired! Took 60 pulls, still just about 60k primos left. Fontaine pulling is off to a good start.
His trial was fun, but it's gonna take a minute to properly level him :cold-sweat:
 
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Dandy

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I am definitely not playing Genshin, but I just did the Nuevillette trial... and I want him.

Edit: 80 pulls and I got him, so I still have 6000 primos set aside for Furina. I managed to C6 Fischl(from C4), C3 Xingqiu(from C1), C2 Diona(new), and got Tighnari when I lost the 50/50 early on. All in all, I'd say I got lucky! Now I'm going to have to play Genshin so I'll have enough primos for Furina though.
 
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Line

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I really, really like how Neuvillette plays.
Rolled for him, won the 50/50 around 80 rolls, neat.

And for the first time I actually splurged on the weapon banner... don't do that when you don't have the primos, guys.
On my third 10 rolls, I got this:


Hi Candace :blobcheer:
Nice of you to bring the cool new claymore (and the new sword right before) and wet daddy's new toy.
 
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Dandy

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The last, and only time, I rolled on the weapon banner was traumatizing.

Anyway, I think I'm playing Genshin again now?

I finally finished the Sumeru main quest! It took longer than expected, because of the stupid "this character is busy" quest thing, so I was ping-ponging between 3 different quests to get Nilou and Tighnari to be available. The worst part about it was that I would do 1 step on say Nilou, and then it would be locked out and I'd have to do one step on the main quest, then it would be locked out... etc. So frustrating.

But I'm in Fontaine now! Maybe I'll actually be caught up in Genshin for once!

Here's my blessing link from the web event, if anyone needs it:

Happy 3rd Anniversary to Genshin Impact! I've sent out Blessings of Elegance. Click on the link to claim it~ First come, first served! Genshin Impact: A Journey Together Through the World
 

Ascheroth

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Here's my link (Justice): Genshin Impact: A Journey Together Through the World

The worst part about it was that I would do 1 step on say Nilou, and then it would be locked out and I'd have to do one step on the main quest, then it would be locked out... etc. So frustrating.
At least that's going to be a thing of the past starting with the 4.1 quests. Took a long time though, and here's hoping they'll add it to previous quests over time too.
 
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Line

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Yeah it seems like the quest locks are a thing of the past now, you can choose when to suspend conflicting quests, even.

On the subject of QOL, the changes to dailies... are pretty worthless. You can avoid doing commissions, and instead open chests/find oculi/complete quests... so there's a limited amount of them, and they will likely take longer than commissions.
Why?!
Why doesn't it work like H3rd or HSR, spending resin, or killing things, or whatever else? This makes no sense!
I mean at least now you can check the achievement granting commission, and if it's not the right version for some, you can wait until tomorrow without losing primos... I think? Not like I've tried yet.

Weirdly, this is the second time this year where I see a game revamp dailies and fail miserably, Guild Wars 2 did it with the last expansion...
 
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Ascheroth

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Yeah it seems like the quest locks are a thing of the past now, you can choose when to suspend conflicting quests, even.

On the subject of QOL, the changes to dailies... are pretty worthless. You can avoid doing commissions, and instead open chests/find oculi/complete quests... so there's a limited amount of them, and they will likely take longer than commissions.
Why?!
Why doesn't it work like H3rd or HSR, spending resin, or killing things, or whatever else? This makes no sense!
I mean at least now you can check the achievement granting commission, and if it's not the right version for some, you can wait until tomorrow without losing primos... I think? Not like I've tried yet.

Weirdly, this is the second time this year where I see a game revamp dailies and fail miserably, Guild Wars 2 did it with the last expansion...
I... actually like the daily changes. They could go further (but I kinda doubt they will for a good while at least), but even in it's limited form it's absolutely an improvement, especially for whenever new content drops and you can just focus on the game. Only once you're done you'll have to go back to the commission mines, but since there's almost always going to be an event of some kind, you'll be able to take care of part of it by just doing event stuff you'd do anyway cause primos.
Like, doing one stage of the new jellyfish diving event that takes 30s is worth 2 commissions. Unfortunately repeating the stage doesn't count though.
 

Line

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Yes I supposed it helps when there's ongoing events, but I like dailies to be easy, relaxing content, and having to skip mandatory even quests.... eh. At least the current jellyfish one is super short, unlike the inane one for the toymaker...

My Neuvillette is nowhere close to ready but he already pulls his weight, he's so strong and fun to play, I love him. Not sure what team I'm going to use to explore though, I'm keeping Lynette for friendship, but beyond that? :thinking-face:
 

Amzin

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Yea I didn't even realize events counted but that makes sense, and is an actual time saver if you do daily events (probably the like domain overflow etc. ones don't count but maybe). For now only commissions I'll bother doing are the ones that give drops I want like the meka ones.

I'm not looking forward to scouring for those starfish again when they respawn, really thought he would use an existing resource for some reason. I need to keep my eye out for those meka bugs too for Wriozzly, it's a couple weeks but that's only like 4 respawns of the stupid things if I'm not grabbing all of them.

I haven't even used Neuv that much so far but I'm almost thinking about breaking my 5 star constellation seal for him because it makes his team building more flexible which is more what I care about than actual strength. Plus then I could do goober things like Ayato + Neuv for the maximum amount of rain in a fight. Also because I still have almost 400 wishes right now and not even sure I want Furina, or Knave. I think that'd leave me with just Navia and Clorinde (probably) for the rest of 4.x which is quite a while to get wishes again for Natlan.
 

Ascheroth

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I'm not looking forward to scouring for those starfish again when they respawn, really thought he would use an existing resource for some reason. I need to keep my eye out for those meka bugs too for Wriozzly, it's a couple weeks but that's only like 4 respawns of the stupid things if I'm not grabbing all of them.
I don't know why they are regressing on this while everything else seems to be getting streamlined. It's awful, lol.
I remember times where they released a region with new materials and bosses first and only released the character needing that stuff in the 2nd half or even a full patch later.
Or with Raiden it was the same day, but at least the mats were easy to collect and there were a lot of them.
 

spindoctor

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Happened to see a tweet about a hidden chest in the new area unlocked in Fontaine


Someone in the replies shared a clip of the exact location as well.
 

Amzin

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I'm glad I decided to start collecting the Subdetection units today because I think I got all the ones that aren't blocked by quests or diving around and exploring bigger areas and it's only 39, so I probably will be just short for Wrizzles 80/90 when he comes out at this rate. Also I need to wait an extra day to run around grabbing starfish because I accidentally did some on day 2 and I don't want to stagger their spawns (and cover the ground twice)
 

Line

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Done with the Archon quest.

Yeah so the part 3 in the fortress... it's hours I'll never see again. Just an incredible way to deliver a story, with an endless amount of backtracking in an ugly, empty area, with no exploration or new things happening beside the endless babbling of NPCs that literally don't matter one bit as only the very last minutes are actually relevant.
Easily the worst quest in the entire game, and one of the worst I've had the displeasure to ever read? What went wrong here? Because this quest alone dropped Fontaine to Inazuma level for me.

Part 4... is flaccid. There's some meat on it, but not much is happening either, and the Traveler is just... not really concerned?
Not the worst, at least it's not hours long, but it's not good either, and ultimately, the entire patch is "things will happens into the future". We genuinely got more lore in the character trailers (that ended up spoiling all that was important).

I had hopes with 4.0, and suddenly, I'm much more worried about the entirety of Fontaine. If 4.2 does end the story (and since nothing happened, an awful lot better appear now) and is on the same level?
This is so bad I would seriously think about stopping playing entirely.
Considering HSR sank even lower than that even faster, and H3rd story has been completely lost for years at this point... Hoyoverse better keep to gameplay and stop trying to tell stories...
 
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Ascheroth

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Act 3 has a strong start and then falls off a cliff. I get the idea and intent, but the execution just isn't there. The locations you visit in Meropide during it just aren't really visually interesting enough to support the length of time you spend there and the layout makes the back and forth more annoying then it should be.
Though I really liked Act 4 and imo it also made me appreciate what Act 3 was going for more in retrospect (The hidden rules and investigations are kinda silly, but they actually made me like Siegewinne and Wrizzlebee a lot when they got explained in Act 4)

Still very hyped for 4.2, one bad act isn't enough to make me dislike Fontaine, especially considering the main story beats are still strong and the Meropide section doesn't do lasting damage to them or any of the playable characters, unlike Inazuma.
 

spindoctor

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Minor progress update;

Was running around doing my dailies in Mondstadt and found a chest that got me to 100% region completion, which was nice.



I guess it's time to shift the dailies to Liyue so I can start gathering (the many) missed chests over there. Still stuck at the same place in the Inazuma story though but I did finish Starfield last night so I'm thinking it's time to continue the story now.
 
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Line

meh
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Wait till you try to get all the secret daily achievements in a region to see true horror :eek:
 

Line

meh
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Some commissions have achievements tied to them. Some are just completing them once, but for others that will be completing all options (over multiple days and that can be RNG), or successfully doing secret objectives during them.
HoYoLAB - Official Community (maybe not exhaustive)

Technically, there's a point where a region is "done" once you have all those achievements.
But this is a straight up nightmare, and you can spend literal years trying to get the one you need, so I'm not recommending staying in Mondstadt! Just do the dailies wherever you need ressources, really.

That's just one of the layers of secrets in Genshin that can be frustrating and almost impossible to know by yourself.
 

spindoctor

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Well I had a look at that link for Mondstadt and I have some of the achievements but I've also missed some of them. Can't be bothered to try and farm the ones that might still be incomplete for me so I'll move on to Liyue for dailies now. I found out yesterday that the region has more than 1100 chests and I've found about 480 of them so there's lots to discover.

Unfortunately, the thing I was apprehensive about happened. When I went back to Inazuma I had forgotten everything. Had to go and read the completed quests log to remember the story and things like what the Tenryou commission is or who Yoimiya is and even why Raiden is angry with us. That was still okay. I landed to on Watatsumi Island and it's just gorgeous. Just fabulous artwork. But I'm running along there and I can't remember how to solve any of the puzzles :(. All of the techniques to solve puzzles have disappeared from my mind. I did come across one puzzle with the blocks you have to hit to align their glowing sides and thought I'd try that. 10 minutes later I can't make head or tails of the hint so I check online and turns out it's some sudoku puzzle and I never had a chance.

I think I might just stick with the archon and world quests and finish off this region. Then I'll watch a YouTube video to do the chests later or something.
 

Line

meh
Dec 21, 2018
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Oh, Watatsumi is the crown jewel of Inazuma (hilarious considering the whole story there and how it's based on the Ryukyu Kingdom that was overtaken and formally dissolved by Japan in 1879).
The sudoku puzzles are no joke, but there's a book in front of them giving you hints, if you want.

Now once you're done with Chapter 2 Act 1, go back to Watatsumi and complete the quest The still water's flow. Not spoiling, but you'll see the very, very big secret of the island. As in, important secret, not just a line of lore.
:detectiveblob:
 

Amzin

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I think I might just stick with the archon and world quests and finish off this region. Then I'll watch a YouTube video to do the chests later or something.
The unofficial interactive map is excellent for that sort of thing - I just leave it open in my browser and when I grab stuff I mark it complete, and then if I get truly stuck I can just click on the icon and basically all puzzles (and tricky oculi / other) have people giving screenshot or video solutions. It's really hard to mark stuff retroactively obviously but I also pretty much just use it for the puzzles and oculi myself, not the thousands of regular chests that the region compasses will find.

It's also great for hunting down material you need for certain characters, even day 1 it had the location for Neuvillette's starfishy things which I was never going to find half of on my own

Edit: Although I will say, I use it to mark stuff as I go and refer back to if I can't 100% a region on my own, I think it's probably a lot less fun to just follow the map around and check things off compared to exploring more naturally, but that's up to the individual.
 

spindoctor

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I finished off the archon story last night. That was very rushed and ended kind of abruptly. They spent several chapters of the story on the Vision Hunt decree and building up the civil war but at the end you find out it was a Fatui plot all along and the whole thing gets resolved in like 3 quests. Somewhat anti-climactic. Also the boss fights against Signora and Raiden Shogun were nowhere near as good as the ones in Mondstadt or Liyue or even Childe's fight. I also kind of liked the idea that Raiden Shogun was a villain but they went and gave her a redemption arc at the end.

Anyway there are still loads of things left to do in Inazuma. I have about 25 world quests left to find and I still haven't done anything on Serai island so I need to go there too.

The unofficial interactive map is excellent for that sort of thing - I just leave it open in my browser and when I grab stuff I mark it complete, and then if I get truly stuck I can just click on the icon and basically all puzzles (and tricky oculi / other) have people giving screenshot or video solutions. It's really hard to mark stuff retroactively obviously but I also pretty much just use it for the puzzles and oculi myself, not the thousands of regular chests that the region compasses will find.

It's also great for hunting down material you need for certain characters, even day 1 it had the location for Neuvillette's starfishy things which I was never going to find half of on my own

Edit: Although I will say, I use it to mark stuff as I go and refer back to if I can't 100% a region on my own, I think it's probably a lot less fun to just follow the map around and check things off compared to exploring more naturally, but that's up to the individual.
Yeah I am aware of interactive maps but I personally find the idea of using them a bit too cumbersome. I don't have a second screen so I'd have to keep alt tabbing out whenever I found a chest, solved a puzzle or found an oculus thing or whatever. One would have to do this hundreds of times. Also, like you mentioned, you'd have to do it from the start and be diligent about it all the way through.

I've used video guides thrice in the game now for the oculus things in Mondstadt, Liyue and the equivalent in Dragonspine. I find that it's not as tedious as one would think. Mostly because it goes by way faster than you'd imagine. Each oculus for example takes a minute at most and sometimes less, especially if you've already gathered it through regular exploration. Even if it would take 2-3 hours to get through a video, you can just split it across a few days as long as you're not in a rush to get it over with.

When I mentioned I might use a guide for Inazuma chests, it's not because I care that much about exploration completion percentage or the gems I'd get. It's more because I cannot for the life of me remember how to solve most of the electro puzzles on these islands. I've either forgotten or just never understood the puzzles well enough to begin with. And it seems some of them are really hard as well. I finished Mondstadt, Dragonspine, Liyue and the Chasm with approximately 65-75% completion with just normal exploration. With the Inazuma story finished I'm currently at about 20-25% exploration. That's how poorly Inazuma puzzles have gone for me and why I think I might use a guide for it.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to finishing up Inazuma in the next few days and then moving on to Sumeru. It seems like a much nicer environment and also I'll finally be able to light up the whole map. It bothers me more than it should that the map has been in fog of war for so long.

EDIT: Also want to mention that I did the character trials and I found Hu Tao to be quite fun to play. Got me thinking that the reason I was hesitant to pull for her is because I saw a couple of videos where they said she was a bit complicated to play. I'm not sure if that's a good reason not to pull for a character honestly. So what if she's a bit more complicated?

Still don't really think I'll pull for her but she did seem fun to play.
 
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Line

meh
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Inazuma is still the bottom of my list for all those reasons. Story, regular puzzles that are not very fun (the electrograna shield one being just a grind was a low bar), almost every single island being timegated for exploration, and a complete mismatch in how important some elements were... and how they were used. Even dailies don't happen on most islands so you never even come back to them. Hell, I think Seirai Island never even had any event content.

But now finish Watatsumi and see :cat-pizza-blob:

As for Hu Tao, problem is you want to charge attack constantly, but that costs stamina... and C1 removes that cost.
And you really want to bunny hop after each attack to minimize movement and reorient the camera to attack back in, and it's just extremely frustrating to play, on top of being the perfect example of creating a problem to sell you a solution.
 

Ascheroth

Chilling in the Megastructure
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I second the notion of going back to Watatsumi and doing the The still water's flow quest.

I would also recommend doing Raiden's story quests, they are effectively the epilogue to the Archon quest and kinda wash away some of the bad taste of the main story arc.
 

Dandy

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Inazuma was probably my least favorite area. It felt... hostile most of the time. And I really disliked the puzzles. I will go back to it someday, I suppose. But I still have most of Liyue and Sumeru to clear.
 
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spindoctor

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I second the notion of going back to Watatsumi and doing the The still water's flow quest.

I would also recommend doing Raiden's story quests, they are effectively the epilogue to the Archon quest and kinda wash away some of the bad taste of the main story arc.
I haven't come across the quest you guys have mentioned on Watatsumi yet. I'm going through others right now and they all seem like quest chains so maybe it comes later.

Raiden's story quests are all AR locked for me unfortunately.

I started a quest chain last night that was on a whole new island (Tsurumi island which had fog all over it). Fairly long and involved quest and it ended with a 'come back later' thing so I guess it's a time gated one.

I'm curious about one thing... How was Inazuma received in general when it first came out?
 
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Amzin

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Summoning for Wrzzleby was by far my luckiest summons to date (still in the lower 10% for 50/50 luck and lower 40% for 5* luck according to the wish tracker though), won 50/50, got Mona con in next 10 pull, then C1 Wrio in next 30 (first limited I decided to C1).

Had the stuff to ascend him day 1, and get his NA to at least 8, but man my artifacts are hot garbage. I've farmed nothing but that domain since Fontaine released and I barely have a HP set for Nuev, I have nothing for ATK Wrio, I'm probably going to have to use 2pc/2pc for a while.

And I don't mean "oh barely over 30 CV" pieces, I mean "barely over 10 CV" pieces are the best I have on-set. :cryblob:
 

Line

meh
Dec 21, 2018
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Rizzley is pretty fun, I like brawlers like him.
But his severe reliance on C1 does not really make me want to roll for him, maybe another time.

I'm also in the artifacts mines right now, and it's just as miserable as ever... :crying-face:

Also, spindoctor Inazuma was a bit of a mixed bag on release. People loved 2.0 since it was the first big expansion, and it was very chunky and different than the rest, plus a lot of people were mega excited for Ayaka. The difficulty jump I know from experience was not liked at all.
The subsequent story beats and the content delivery with separate islands was less popular, and not all characters were liked that much at first. Raiden Shogun leaked early and was called a fake because many thought she looked lame and wouldn't have a place in the meta (how wrong they were).

In other news, I really like the new poetry event, and even before that, the fish blasting with Klee was a fun minigame (not sure why they had voice acting for it, though) even if very short.
As for Fontaine... the side content is miles better than the Archon quest... even the fortress has cool side quests like the coaching one, why wasn't any of that in the main one instead of those awful fetch quests?
Really baffling decisions in 4.1 to me.
 

spindoctor

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I've been doing world quests in Inazuma. Finished as many as I could. Quite a few are locked behind daily commissions which, obviously, are random. Another design decision I'm not a fan of.

Unlocked Enkanomiya but I somehow don't feel like doing it immediately. There's still exploration left in Inazuma and stuff to do in the Chasm as well. Is it safe to assume Enkanomiya is a mostly standalone story that can be left for later or is it something really good that I should push through with immediately? To be honest I'd like to get to Sumeru and start that region off but at the same time that map is massive and will take ages to get through. If I skip Enkanomiya now I don't think I'm coming back for months.

I've enjoyed the events they're doing as well. The easy ones in Fontaine where you just take pictures or swim around were great. The poetry one was a little verbose but the event story was nice and the mini games were okay. I liked the fish bombing one a lot too.

I pulled a 5-star weapon from the standard banner;

I have 2 bow users. Yelan who currently has the Favonius warbow and needs it for the energy regen. Tighnari is currently using the Stringless which boosts skill and burst damage. I guess this bow should go to him but he's the squishiest character in my party as of now and I don't use him for anything other than dendro application. Increasing his weapon damage doesn't seem that great when he can't really stay on field during fights that much. I'll try it out on him anyway. Kind of wish I had gotten a character instead.

Have more than 200 wishes now. Still no idea who to pull for. Don't feel like getting any of the current characters so I'll continue waiting more.
 

Line

meh
Dec 21, 2018
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Enkanomiya is mostly stand alone.. but less so with every Fontaine patch, actually. But then, that also applies to Sumeru's oasis that you'll reach in about 100h of game time :crystalblob:
But if you want to go to Sumeru, go for it, it's not like you lose on anything before Fontaine which does really benefit from having done some of the older content... a lot of things are starting to fit into place right now.

Skyward Harp is a great bow for Tighnari. And the generic weapon for bow users (that are not full supports), honestly all the +crit standard weapons are probably the best 5*s you can get from it, in the end.
They will never lose value (plus they are easier to get up to speed, too) and are a huge power spike for any DPS.
Still waiting to use my Primordial Jade Winged Spear on someone else than Candace... so many spear users, so many whacky characters that are zero fun to play or 0% normal attacks... and it doesn't seem like this is going to change anytime soon.
 

spindoctor

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Does anyone else get the feeling that Monday is chore day where you're doing all the weekly stuff like bounties and cooking and boss fights and all and it takes away from actually playing the game? I don't know why I cannot make myself enjoy the GAAS stuff in this game.

Anyway I had a question. A friend of mine started the game a while ago and has finally reached the AR required for co-op play. I joined her game today and we were running around exploring and grabbing chests and all but I'm wondering what meaningful stuff can I actually do to help out? She has not finished the Mondstadt story yet so the big wolf world boss and Dvalin were not available. A few of the domains were not available due to AR requirements. I helped her with the open world boss fight that gives electro character ascension material but what else can be done for co-op to be meaningful? Or is it just a case of having to wait until she has unlocked enough domains to help out in those?
 

Ascheroth

Chilling in the Megastructure
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I never do all that stuff on Monday. I do a little bit each day or do it over the weekend.

As for co-op, yeah not really much to do other than helping with bosses or domains once they are unlocked.
Or you turn your teapot into a minigame hub, lol.
 

Line

meh
Dec 21, 2018
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Usually on Monday I do the latest 2 weekly bosses; I can imagine I'll do Apep for quite a while since Dendro gems are still a struggle right now.
And a quick rank 1 Tartaglia without opening the blossom if I need the BP weekly reward.

The bounties, I do when I have a bit of time during the week... and if I don't do them, oh well. Especially later on in a patch once every region is maxed out.

And yeah, pretty limited in what you can do in coop.
It's really all the annoying crap like talent books and artifacts which I found to be much more fun in coop, comparing the terrible RNG you get. And the big baddies are actually pretty fun since they get so much more health.
 

Ascheroth

Chilling in the Megastructure
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Preliminary Furina build, I think


Should be close to 80% crit with her ascension stat + Festerning Desire's passive and almost 40k HP (which is the max for her passive).
Hopefully that's enough ER, I haven't really payed too much attention.

Also just did the Rizzlers story quest. Really enjoyed it, he's a fantastic character. The entire Fontaine cast is just really, really strong and I love it.
Outside of parts Act 3 being a bit of a miss, 4.1 content was very strong imo.

Excited for 4.2 next week and the delayed Stream this week. They've set up a lot of promising and exciting stuff. fingers crossed they'll manage to bring it all together and we'll get a climax as good or better as Sumeru.
 

Line

meh
Dec 21, 2018
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Finally, a week later, it's trailer day.


It spoils a hell of a lot more than usual! But it does look really, really great. And finally, big things are going on!
Codes:
VA97KJNF24UV
NTQP2KPEJMUH
9T96KJNE2LVM

Free Freminet in the event, that's cool, I don't have him.

Nice to see Furina and Charlotte on the same banner, I dig them both.

And that little tease of Skirk, Childe's Master...


That I don't really know about, she looks she's from Honkai, and I don't really like the hobo designs that a lot of the characters have.
It shows a lot of skin, but it's not even sexy, it just looks messy and lame.
Star Rail has had that issue for quite some time with a lot of extremely samey characters, but at least Argenti looks cool as fuck. Skirk looks... pretty eh from that tease.
 

Ascheroth

Chilling in the Megastructure
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Trailer looked insane :sweaty-blob:

And dang, patch seems to be packed to the brim with stuff.
Archon quest conclusion, 2 new areas with a big world quest each and a hell of a lot of events.
Appreciate the free Freminet and Charlotte being able to take photos in combat and domains is kinda hilarious.

Can't wait!

No real opinion on Skirk from that shot alone, need to see her full design before passing judgment.
 

Dandy

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That I don't really know about, she looks she's from Honkai, and I don't really like the hobo designs that a lot of the characters have.
It shows a lot of skin, but it's not even sexy, it just looks messy and lame.
Star Rail has had that issue for quite some time with a lot of extremely samey characters, but at least Argenti looks cool as fuck. Skirk looks... pretty eh from that tease.
It's like if Seele designed an outfit for Jingliu.

Trailer looked insane :sweaty-blob:

And dang, patch seems to be packed to the brim with stuff.
Archon quest conclusion, 2 new areas with a big world quest each and a hell of a lot of events.
Appreciate the free Freminet and Charlotte being able to take photos in combat and domains is kinda hilarious.

Can't wait!

No real opinion on Skirk from that shot alone, need to see her full design before passing judgment.
This banner is so good, and I wish I had A LOT more primos than I do. Furina is my priority, but I'd love to get Baizhu too. I also want Charlotte, and Beidou(I don't have her yet!). I even want Furina's weapon(mainly for the look, if I'm honest!), though the weapon banner is too risky. Maybe on a re-run down the line. I'll have to use the fishing pipe, or maybe the BP sword until then.
 
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Ascheroth

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I'm kind of glad the stream got delayed now, because I want to play the next archon quest ASAP :sweaty-blob:
 
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Ascheroth

Chilling in the Megastructure
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Drip marketing!





Will 100% grab Navia, Chevreuse looks cool too but I expect her to be on a different banner :/
 

Line

meh
Dec 21, 2018
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I like them well enough, but they are a bit overdesigned to my liking. Although it makes total sense for Navia to be, she's a socialite.

Funny to see Chevreuse being GUN type, but with the leaks... that's hiding who's the real pew pew.
 

Dandy

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I love Navia's design, except for the stupid ship wheels on her hips.

I don't see myself pulling for either of them though.