|OT| Genshin Impact - Breath of the Elements

texhnolyze

Child at heart
Oct 19, 2018
3,581
8,584
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Indonesia


About
Official Website: Genshin Impact – Step into a Vast Magical World for Adventure
Developer: Mihoyo
Publisher: Mihoyo
PC Release Date: September 28th, 2020
Platforms: PC, PS4, Android, iOS

Genshin impact is a free-to-play, story-driven pen-world action role-playing game developed by miHoYo and release for PS4, Nintendo Switch, Microsoft Windows, Android, and iOS. You can play the game alone or with optional drop-in co-op. Though the game is not an MMO, it will require an always-online connection to be played.

You start as one of the siblings as the main character, and you will recruit more party members along the way, whether it's from storyline or wish (gacha). While you basically have a party with you all the time, you can only control one character at a time. However, you can easily switch between them to unleash devastating elemental combos, which is the bread and butter of combat in this game.


Elements and Elemental Reactions
Elements are the building of the world and the source of many miraculous. We have seven different elements in Teyvat, Pyro, Hydro, Anemo, Electro, Dendro, Cryo, and Geo. All sorts of things happen when elements interact. Adventurers, travelers, and warriors all use elemental reaction to get things done at a fraction of the effort it might otherwise take. For example, When Pyro meets Dendro, burning occurs, burning deals continuous Pyro DMG.






Weapons
Currently, there are 5 different types of weapons and each character is only able to wield one weapon type. They are Swords, Claymores (slowest attacks but dealing with Slime's shields and Geo objects, ores), Bows, Poleams (fastest attacks), and Catalysts (attacks considered as elemental damage).

Weapons can be enhanced by consuming other weapons or charms. When the weapon reaches the cap, the upper limit of the weapon level and weapon states can be increased through the weapon ascension (The first ascension increases the max level by 20, and 10 for the following each ascension). At the same time, travelers need to reach a certain level of adventure before they can carry out weapon ascension.




Characters
Currently there are 24 playable characters from 2 different regions which are Mondstadt and Liyue. Characters' enhancement and ascension are similar to weapons'. Each character has six constellations. Activating constellations can enhance character's talent. By rolling for a dupe character, travelers can get the item for that character to activate constellation. MC's constellation material comes from souvenir shop and main quest reword. Travelers can complete the talent upgrade by consuming the corresponding materials. Additional talent unlocks by character ascension.




What’s a day like in Genshin ?
When you boot up the game, depending on the time you have available, you’ll be doing different things. But here is the recommended order for those of you who don’t have much time :
  • Daily Commissions : Because that will be your main income of Primogems, that resets each day.
  • Resin Spending : As said before, it is important to spend this resource that refills with time, as it directly converts to Experience points.
  • Battle Pass Completion : Take special care in completing daily BP quests. They don’t take up much time, and more or less work in adequation with Resin spending.
  • Main Story and Quests : Gotta raise that Adventure Rank eventually, right ? The higher is your Adventure Rank, the higher your rewards will be overall, so better do that sooner rather than later.
  • The Adventure Notebook : This thing is packed with Experience Points and rewards, as well as objectives that will give you a general direction of what to do to progress.
  • Exploration/Collectibles : Last but not least, the rewards for exploration. This world of Teyvat is filled up with Chests, puzzles and collectibles that will return Experience Points and valuable resources. Whenever you have the time to do so, set your sights on clearing a region of the map.

Media













Launch Events






FAQs
Some FAQs courtesy of Era:
What is Genshin Impact?
Genshin Impact is an online open world RPG developed my Mihoyo(the developers of Honkai Impact 3 and Gun Girlz). It's not an MMO. You have your own open world to explore and play. You need internet connection to play the game, it's not offline.

Is this an MMO?
No, this is a singleplayer focused experience with co-op features to invite a couple of friends to your game world.

Do I need to be online all the time?
Yes, you will need to stay in constant contact with Mihoyo's servers.

Does this feature cross play, even on PS4?
Yes, it does feature cross play on all platforms.

Will this also release on Xbox One or Xbox Series X?
No, there are so far no plans for Genshin Impact to release on any of those platforms.

Is this really F2P? It looks to good to be true.
Yes, it is F2P. Crazy, right?

So, how is this monetized?
The game is monetized by a character and weapon gacha system.

Hah, I knew it! Will playing this game in the long run cost me an arm and a leg?
No, it is very F2P friendly. The gacha system can be mostly ignored, but even by just playing the game you will earn currency to get into some gacha action and maybe get some of the additional characters that you have set your eyes on.

How does the gacha exactly work?
Playing the game, or purchasing them in the game shop, you earn a rare currency called primogems, these primogems you can exchange in the game shop for acquaint and intertwined fates. Those fates are used to wish aka pull for characters and weapons. Characters and weapons share the same pool. Characters are a lot rarer than weapons, there is a piti system in place in case you have incredibly bad luck pulling characters.
It is also noteworthy that not all characters are obtained just by gacha. Some you can also obtain by purchasing them with game currency in the game shop or by completing game events.

Is this game grindy?
That depends on your objective in this game. If you want to just follow the main story, sidequests and explore every nook and cranny of the game world, then you can get by without any grinding. If your objective is to earn enough currency to pull all the characters and to max out them, their weapons and equipment, then prepare to grind a lot.

Is this game very anime, like Xenoblade Chronicles 2 anime, if you know what I mean?
I think I do know what you mean. Let me put it this way: The game is very anime in style, but in terms of character design, tropes and pandering it is much closer to the original Xenoblade Chronicles than to its sequel. Genshin Impact in general avoids much of the cringier aspects of anime.

Is this a cheap Breath of the Wild rip-off?
No. It's openess, world exploration and traversal are closely inspired by BotW, everything else, like its world, its lore, its story, its characters and its combat system are its very own thing. This game's production value is also anything but cheap.
 
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Alextended

Segata's Disciple
Jan 28, 2019
5,461
8,524
113
Their last game had good elements but was overall meh to me. It must have made bank if they're jumping to something of this scope now! Looks Tales-like.
 

Ascheroth

Chilling in the Megastructure
Nov 12, 2018
5,119
11,978
113
Well, sign me up for this.
I only hope the translation will be good, Honkai Impact's was so bad that it made me drop the game.
 

Kvik

Crossbell City Councillor
Dec 6, 2018
4,149
10,267
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Downunder.
I won't sign up for the beta, but I'll be watching this with interest. Also, the website's music is really soothing.
 
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Ascheroth

Chilling in the Megastructure
Nov 12, 2018
5,119
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I'm surprisingly hyped for this. :blob_hype:
Hopefully the gacha aspect doesn't kill it for me, but I'll try being hopeful until proven otherwise 😅
 

Parsnip

Riskbreaker
Sep 11, 2018
3,028
6,665
113
Finland
I wish it came to steam even with its own launcher layer, but that seems extremely unlikely.

Still, I pre-registered just to see how it is.
 

Ascheroth

Chilling in the Megastructure
Nov 12, 2018
5,119
11,978
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I did some investigationing regarding the "free" non-gacha characters you get at the beginning/during the story.

Male MC


or Female MC


Amber


Kaeya


Lisa


Xiangling


Pics taken from here (the other confirmed characters are listed nicely as well).

Noelle (in the Beginner Banner guaranteed with 10 pulls, and you get 20 to start out with).
 
OP
texhnolyze

texhnolyze

Child at heart
Oct 19, 2018
3,581
8,584
113
Indonesia
Yeah, it's quite generous overall. They're also giving away free gacha pulls from pre-registration campaigns.

The free characters are more than enough, actually, as they already covered every element in the game. You can use elements to exploits enemy weaknesses and perform elemental combos with other players or surrounding. For example if you perform a hurricane skill on top of a burned ground, it'll transform to a firestorm. Pretty cool, actually.

You can completely ignore the gacha element in the game by just playing the game and story.
 

Line

meh
Dec 21, 2018
1,543
2,608
113
The starting male PC shows more skin than the female one?
Woah.
 
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texhnolyze

texhnolyze

Child at heart
Oct 19, 2018
3,581
8,584
113
Indonesia
The starting male PC shows more skin than the female one?
Woah.
The game has more or less the same amount of pandering for both camps.

It's supposed to have the same amount of male & female characters at launch too.
 

Ascheroth

Chilling in the Megastructure
Nov 12, 2018
5,119
11,978
113
The game has more or less the same amount of pandering for both camps.

It's supposed to have the same amount of male & female characters at launch too.
I'm counting an 8/14 ratio in favor of female characters in the pic above, so right now they'll have to at least introduce another 6 male characters then.
 

Prodigy

Sleeper must awaken
Dec 9, 2018
927
1,999
93
I'm hyped for this, gameplay videos have been very good, with such a beautiful world to explore. I just hope the gacha angle doesn't become terrible later on.
 
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texhnolyze

texhnolyze

Child at heart
Oct 19, 2018
3,581
8,584
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Indonesia
System requirements are out:

>>>Recommended configuration<<<
Operating system: Windows 7 SP1 64-bit, Windows 8.1 64-bit, or Windows 10 64-bit
Processor: Intel Core i7 equivalent or higher
Memory: 16 GB RAM
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6 GB and higher
DirectX version: 11
Storage: Please reserve 30 GB of space

>>>Minimum configuration<<<
Operating system: Windows 7 SP1 64-bit, Windows 8.1 64-bit or Windows 10 64-bit
Processor: Intel Core i5 or equivalent
Memory: 8 GB RAM
Graphics card: NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 1030 and higher
DirectX version: 11
Storage: Please reserve 30 GB of space

Android is 3GB RAM and Android 7.0 above for the minimum.
 
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texhnolyze

texhnolyze

Child at heart
Oct 19, 2018
3,581
8,584
113
Indonesia
There's another pre-launch event going on starting today.

Basically, you have one try each day to play with the cards. There are 9 cards to open and you only get one of them at the end. You can also get additional 8 tries by completing social media "tasks" (like visiting their pages, sharing, etc). At the end of the event, you can pick up 16 items to your inventory that you can bring to the game.


 

Durante

I <3 Pixels
Oct 21, 2018
3,835
18,379
113
Basically, you have one try each day to play with the cards. There are 9 cards to open and you only get one of them at the end. You can also get additional 8 tries by completing social media "tasks" (like visiting their pages, sharing, etc). At the end of the event, you can pick up 16 items to your inventory that you can bring to the game.
Now I remember why I hate F2P.
 

Cordelia

MetaMember
Jun 10, 2019
2,165
4,793
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The gacha is a form of compensation given to PC and mobile players since only PS4 get exclusive bonuses.

 
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texhnolyze

texhnolyze

Child at heart
Oct 19, 2018
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Yup.

Also, you have plenty of chances throughout the week, and the best rewards are *4 weapons which can be attainable in-game by crafting. It's just a headstart if you managed to get them. I personally won't use them even if I get them. I hate being overpowered in early game.
 
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texhnolyze

texhnolyze

Child at heart
Oct 19, 2018
3,581
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Here's an overview of the free characters you can get in-game. Don't mind her weird accent, she's Indonesian.

 
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texhnolyze

texhnolyze

Child at heart
Oct 19, 2018
3,581
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I've transformed the thread to a proper OT because I have too much free time at work.

While the global version isn't out yet in 2 weeks, people are already playing in the China server because it does have English and other language options. It's quite easy to do so. That said, bear in mind that you can't transfer your progress to the global version later. So you can treat the early China version launch as a beta/demo with progression wipe.
 
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Prodigy

Sleeper must awaken
Dec 9, 2018
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I've transformed the thread to a proper OT because I have too much free time at work.

While the global version isn't out yet in 2 weeks, people are already playing in the China server because it does have English and other language options. It's quite easy to do so. That said, bear in mind that you can't transfer your progress to the global version later. So you can treat the early China version launch as a beta/demo with progression wipe.
I thought the China version was just an open Beta, not an actual soft launch ?
 
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texhnolyze

texhnolyze

Child at heart
Oct 19, 2018
3,581
8,584
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I thought the China version was just an open Beta, not an actual soft launch ?
Yes, open beta is soft launch, at least that's how it usually works in other games. I'm really not sure about this one though. But that said, it's still an option to try the game as you probably wouldn't want to invest in the China server.

Anyway, I'm just in. and here's the PC settings (60fps cap). The game natively supports DS4 as well.

 
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Spookyfriend

Junior Member
Jan 27, 2019
115
327
63
Hmm I was hoping the PS4 has cross save. So I can redeem the Ps4 Item but it does not have :(
Guess I have to play on PC + Mobile
 
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texhnolyze

texhnolyze

Child at heart
Oct 19, 2018
3,581
8,584
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Indonesia
I guess it's time for my early impressions. From a technical standpoint, the game looks gorgeous while running like a dream at 1440p. For an open world game of this size, the loading times are pretty short too. It's only 20 seconds for the initial loading, and 5 seconds on fast travels on a HDD. The game is just so clean and crisp, it's like the ultimate form of anime game.



There's so much to do, but just exploring and finding stuff is so pleasant, I can't get enough of that. The game is also very story heavy, lots of cutscenes and voiced dialogues as well as party banters. The combat is fun with all the elemental combos, but I'm still learning the ropes. My biggest gripe is that you need to re-enable controller on every boot, but I hope it's an easy fix in the near future.
 

Ascheroth

Chilling in the Megastructure
Nov 12, 2018
5,119
11,978
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I'll wait until global release. :02sleep:
I just know I'd kick myself if I somehow pulled anything good which I'd have to abandon and potentially reroll for ages to get something comparable. So I'm instead pretending my patience will be rewarded with pulling Mona and Keqing immediately :coffee-blob:
 
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texhnolyze

texhnolyze

Child at heart
Oct 19, 2018
3,581
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New FAQs on localization, platforms, servers, cross-play, pre-load, and payment.

PC pre-load starts September 26, 2020 10:00 (GMT+8), 02:00 (UTC); September 25, 2020 19:00 (PDT) .

 

Ascheroth

Chilling in the Megastructure
Nov 12, 2018
5,119
11,978
113
Preloaded and ready, now the final waiting begins :02dead:

32 hours as of now, if I counted correctly. (Though since that is 4AM here I'll only be able to play until after work, so add a couple more).

Another free character is also always nice!
 

warp_

タコベルが大好き
Apr 18, 2019
833
1,665
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oh this is free? well shit...that changes everything! guess i'll get myself a little preload. looks a bit too anime for me but i do really like botw and i welcome every clone of it we can get.
 

Prodigy

Sleeper must awaken
Dec 9, 2018
927
1,999
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Is the preload speed super low, only going at 0,30MB/s. Taken hours for such a small download.
 

Line

meh
Dec 21, 2018
1,543
2,608
113
So, what items should I choose from their gacha event pre-release?
 
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texhnolyze

texhnolyze

Child at heart
Oct 19, 2018
3,581
8,584
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Indonesia
So, what items should I choose from their gacha event pre-release?
The artifacts (accessories), especially the red ones. It gives a damage boost in percentage. The blue ones are good for mage characters.

The 4* weapon is nice to have too.