Genshin Impact - The Bear and Badger

Curtis

I'll be back on it when the new area unlocks, because the RPG exploration is my favourite part, and i am very happy i have Klee to deal with the frozen cunts that await when i hit that HR40 bump (kick in the balls).

stormyskiesahead

Honestly, I really regret completing the last world level ascension quest. I'd have happily bumbled around exploring, trying new characters, and doing the various quests/side quests at world level 3 for a while longer.

It's not just that repeatedly farming the same few things for the absurd amount of resources I need to ascend a single character is crushingly dull, but I'm at a point where any new characters I get are useless because I don't have the resources to level them.

High AR and world levels are miserable for casual play.

stormyskiesahead

The 1.2 update is go! New region, new character, new story quest, new event, and new weapons. You also get an Acquaint Fate for every character ascension, claim them from the character screen.

Full update details here, and here's the new dude:

Curtis

I had a little run around the base of the mountain. That new area is waaaay bigger than it looks from a distance. Gonna get stuck in soon.

Curtis

Bagged Diluc off the main banner after a single wish (i've not been playing recently).

Gotta be honest though, i would've preferred ANY other 5*, even a dupe. My fiery needs are covered by the wonderful Klee. Plus, I'm not a fan of Greatswords in this game.

The new region and its frozen over time mechanic are as annoying as you'd expect.

stormyskiesahead

Started playing again after a couple of months off, and I'm really enjoying it. Had to spend a few days farming XP books and ascension mats so I could survive world level 5, but it's all good right now.

Anyhoo, 1.3 dropped at the beginning of the month and it's loaded with things to do. From Xiao's story quest, to a new Geo-type boss, to the Lantern Right festival - which itself has a multi-part quest and a load of activities to take part in, including a series of helping-hand type jobs in Liyue Harbor, a treasure hunt game, and the event-specific tower defence game mode - "Theater Mechanicus". Gotta admit, this lot had my head spinning for a good while. Oh yeah, popped a few Intertwined's going for Xiao and got Jean instead. She's brilliant.

So early impressions of 1.3 are good. The Lantern Right festival is cool so far and there's more to come, the tower defence game is good fun, and there and there are some nice rewards on offer - including 10 Intertwined Fates for logging in over the next fortnight, and a 4* character to buy with currency unlocked from completing challenges in Theater Mechanicus. Think I'm gonna grab Chongyun as he's the only one there I don't have.

Still haven't started the Dragonspine quest or visited the region, and I don't think I'll have the time while this event is on.

stormyskiesahead

The Keqing rate-up banner is go! I know there's been some grumbling about 5-star characters from the standard banner having their own rate-ups, but I have no issues with it. If it means more FtP players will be able to get Keqing, and potentially other characters like Diluc and Mona later on, then I'm all for it.

I was at 56 wishes on the rate-up banner, dropped the ten fates I had on it expecting nothing more than a 4-star bow. Got crazy lucky.

ZMM

I started playing this a couple days ago, no idea what's going on yet but I'm up to adventure level 9.

It's fun but borrows a lot gameplay-wise from BotW...

stormyskiesahead

It borrows a fair bit from a whole bunch of games, but once you get beyond the main story prologue and start build-crafting and Domain grinding it settles into its own ARPG thing nicely. The really is a staggering amount of depth to the combat system thanks to the variety of characters, elemental resonance/reactions, weapons, and artifacts to experiment with.

I still feel like a complete noob, despite having put hundreds of hours in. Nowhere close to having finished the story either, and haven't even started the Dragonspine questline.

Fuck the gacha though. Horrible system. If the game wasn't so generous with the FtP stuff and primo gems I'd have sacked it off a long time ago.

ZMM

Yeah I couldn't quite yet get my head around why I would have to pay anything or what I would even be paying for. Is it to save time from grinding or for nice weapons or extra characters or what?

stormyskiesahead

Yeah, exactly that. Extra characters and weapons, many of which are very, very cool. Thankfully you can earn so much premium currency by just playing the game that it's possible to get many of the characters without spending much, or anything. Also, everything in the game can be completed with the four free characters you get from playing the prologue, and there are various events that reward you with new characters. There's one for the cryo support, Diona, running atm.

I've sunk about £30 in total through a repeatable monthly purchase, and my roster is pretty good. I mean, I'd prefer it if the characters were direct purchases or given to you for free and you paid for cosmetics, but it is what it is.

stormyskiesahead

Anyhoo, here's my current character roster:

I think I've got all of the four-stars and of my five-stars both Jean and Tartagaila are C1. 'Course, I can't afford to level 'em all up. I only have one five star weapon, and no one in my current party uses that weapon type.

stonechalice

Anyone tried the PS5 version yet? I'd be all about it but the anime cringe is too much.

stormyskiesahead

Haven't played it on PS5 but the update looks pretty good. The frame rate stutters seem to be gone and the reduced loading times should make fast travel a breeze.

ZMM

It's smooth as silk on PS5!

The music is so utterly gorgeous it's sublime, makes such a difference.

stormyskiesahead

The soundtrack really is exceptional. The various Liyue battle themes and the Qingyun peak themes do funny things to me.

stormyskiesahead

Finally managed to get enough Cor Lapis to level my new Zhongli for support duties and holy shit! I know this suave fucker's supposedly the best character in the game since his buff, but experiencing it for myself by going into a usually tough Domain and taking zero damage thanks to his shield is kinda mind-blowing. Can't wait to see what he's like with decent (and levelled) artifacts.

Plus his Burst animation is very cool.

hunk

Great game, quite impressed with the quality of it.
For a free to play from a chinese startup, the game is quite polished. Runs well on pc, even on older hardware.

ZMM

The summer event is just lovely, the music alone is reason enough to get in your waverider and coast the endless blue, looking for seashells. This game is really quite special!

Curtis

I've just logged in for the first time in 2-3 months and pulled Mona on a freebie wish.

Guess its time to start playing again.

I contemplated restarting it on PS5 but it took me so long to assemble the team i have, and i've been really lucky with my 5* drops considering its a F2P account.

stormyskiesahead

Nice going with the Mona! I should probably put some resources into building her...

Did the second of the summer event quests this morning, and I gotta say, this event is far more than I expected. Gonna spend the next couple of hours exploring, solving puzzles, playing mini-games, and just sailing around the islands.

Genuinely gutted this is a limited time area.

stormyskiesahead

Damn, some of these shells are in devious locations.

stormyskiesahead

The Version 2.0 livestream took place earlier today, with info on the new region, Inazuma, the new story quest, and the new characters. Here's the trailer, and here's a link to the full livestream.

Fingers crossed for a similar level of creativity to the Golden Apple Archipeligo, but on a much larger scale. The update should drop on July 21st.

Anyhoo, these are the codes from the reveal, they should be good for the rest of the day.

LS6T4L9ZZ7TH – x100 Primogems, x50,000 Mora
GBNA9J5H9Y4H – x100 Primogems, x10 Hero's Wit
AS6BQKLY9GLD - x100 Primogems, x10 Mystic Enhancement Ore

I'm saving all my primo's for Ayaka.

Oh, and as far as I know these codes should also still work.

GENSHINGIFT – x50 Primogems and x3 Hero’s Wit
GenshinEpic – x10000 Mora, x3 Squirrelfish, x3 Apple Stew, x10 Adventurer Exp, x5 Fine Ores
GenshinGalaxy – x10000 Mora, x3 Hash Browns, x3, Smoked Chicken, x10 Adventurer EXP and x5 Fine Ores

EvilRedEye

Apparently they're adding cross-save to PlayStation for this update. Should be cool, would be nice to try the phone version on the bus if things ever get back to normal.

Curtis

Are they adding PC to PS5 cross-save, because i'd love that!

stormyskiesahead

Yeah, it seems really weirdly implemented though. This is from Gamesradar;

If you haven't played Genshin on PlayStation and you'd like to, you can link the email tied to your current MiHoYo account to your PlayStation account, but you'll need to do so before actually starting the game on console for the first time.

"The pop-up window prompting you to link your accounts only appears when your account for PSN enters the game for the first time, after you agree to the Terms of Service," MiHoYo explains. "You can only link an existing MiHoYo account from this pop-up window. If you skip the pop-up, your account for PSN will log in to the game and register a MiHoYo account, after which it can no longer be linked to an email address that is already associated with a separate MiHoYo account."

So... if you're a PC or mobile user looking to play on PS4/PS5 be sure to use the email tied to your MiHoYo account at the pop-up screen described above the very first time you open the game on your console.

Curtis

Aah crap! I've already played Genshin on my PS5. Maybe i could log into PSN on one of my second accounts and start afresh. You don't need a sub cause its F2P.

I'll figure it out before 2.0 drops.

stormyskiesahead

So Inazuma is AR 30 locked and requires you to complete the existing Archon questline before you can access it. I'm up to speed (the Dainsleif stuff was great), but it's worth cracking on if you've been stalling and just doing domains or dailies. No need to do Dragonspine though if you wanna straight-line it, that was a side thing.

Also, I've just remembered that Ayaka has a Mona-style dash and now I'm unsure about rolling for her, as I really don't like how that mechanic feels. S'pose I could put some time into her trial and see if I can get used to it.

stormyskiesahead

Hmm. Trialled Ayaka half a dozen times and I really don't think she's for me. Her damage and reactions are fine but she seems very straightforward beyond that and her dash is just horrible. I honestly think I'd prefer to carry on using Keqing. Such a shame, as Ayaka looks so damn cool. Haven't set sail for Inazuma yet, will save that for the weekend.

I'm regretting not rolling for Kazuha now. That guy's playstyle was so much fun, and more swirl is always a good thing.

Fucking gacha games and their bullshit.

ZMM

Yeah what's her dash all about? Having to hold the button down?

I do like Inazuma, though, very nice turquoise grass.

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