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Genshin Impact |OT| 5.0 (Natlan) - Everything Changed When the Fire Nation Arrived

Holy shit I just beat Dire difficulty Stygian Onslaught.

I was able to beat the automaton easily with Skirk but I was struggling to beat the lava dragon and tulpa. I had given up on it but after getting C6 Iansan earlier I was finally able to do the lava dragon with Clorinde overload. Completed it at exactly 120 seconds.

Then the tulpa was a major pain in the ass, but after many tries I finally got it. I choked at the end and screwed up my combo and almost threw but I lucked out and got the killing blow with Xilonen's skill of all things. Also at exactly 120 seconds.

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*edit*
Looks pretty good on my boi Chongyun. Too bad they're temporary =/
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This update seems pretty packed and balanced. Lots of lore with a new Archon Quest, but also lighthearted minigames in the resort area. I like it. The event quest with Yelan seems interesting. Her new skin is disappointing though. I don't know what their obsession with Fontaine cosplay is.

Some teasers for Nod-Krai characters as well:

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Overall pretty satisfied with what they've shown.
 
Well shit, it looks like Citlali will be in the 1st half of the next patch. Gotta grind more primos and also win the 50/50.
  • 1st Phase: Ineffa & Citlali
  • 2nd Phase: Chasca & Mualani
Damn, If I loose the 50/50 I may be screwed.


Some teasers for Nod-Krai characters as well:

6LxGkxvMrceNOsjX.jpg




Overall pretty satisfied with what they've shown.

That child character looks pretty terrible to me, looks like a bad user made skin.
The elf character looks great though, that's actually what I imagined Ineffa would look like.
 
Damn, If I loose the 50/50 I may be screwed.
Yeah, I've got around 70 pulls right now after clearing floor 11 in Spiral Abyss and finishing the co-op event. Hoping to get ~50 more pulls by the time the Citlali banner ends. Worst case, I might have to dip into some of the crystals I've saved for a rainy day, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed for that 50/50 win! :messenger_grinning_sweat:
 
The event quest with Yelan seems interesting. Her new skin is disappointing though. I don't know what their obsession with Fontaine cosplay is.
She was the perfect case for a bunny girl in Genshin, but we all know that they would never. I need to see the front before I shit on it, but yea I'm sick of Fontaine designs.

That new deer girl with the horns looks great though.

*edit*

Just found out her English VA is the same one as Cantarella, one of my favorites from Wuthering Waves. Nice.

*edit2*

The front of Yelan's costume. Yea it kinda sucks, but at least it isn't blatantly Fontaine.
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Yeah, I've got around 70 pulls right now after clearing floor 11 in Spiral Abyss and finishing the co-op event. Hoping to get ~50 more pulls by the time the Citlali banner ends. Worst case, I might have to dip into some of the crystals I've saved for a rainy day, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed for that 50/50 win! :messenger_grinning_sweat:
I have 6 pulls.😅 I'm at 52 pity though so as long as I win the 50/50 I'm good. Otherwise I have to pray for an early 5 star after loosing.
 
Damn, I wonder how much money she spent to get all these characters to C6! 😳



Oh, and here's that classic CN luck buff in action once again.

 
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Well this is boring, Lauma and Lunar bloom just allow bloom reactions to crit. I was hoping for a quicken Chevreuse.

Sounds like Nahida C2 power creep. Hmm, wonder what happens if used together with C2 Nahida.🤔


*edit*
Beaten.
 
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Man, doing that co-op combat event makes me realize that despite all the time, the average Genshin player is still a muckbrain.

Pop up says "use melt reactions". First person picks Furina and locks it in. Dies quickly and often. We failed 1st and 3rd rounds with this team.
Pop up says "use burn reactions". First person picks Kazuha. Second person picks Furina. They lock it in. We fail 3/3 rounds. I'm looking at the damage numbers, the Aero damage I'm seeing is like 1500-2000. Furina's pets are vaporizing and putting out the burning with piss ant damage.

Thank god you get around 120~ points even if you fail. I would hate to bang my head against that mode for more than a handful of tries.
 
If Lunar reactions just end up being "X can crit now!" it'll be quite the disappointment.

Man, doing that co-op combat event makes me realize that despite all the time, the average Genshin player is still a muckbrain.
Real eye-opener, this event. People can't build the most basic teams and don't follow simple instructions.
 
Had a group on dire and we were set to beat the 3rd round boss. Then the last 30 seconds, it decided to fly around so none of us could hit it. Fun.
 
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Man, doing that co-op combat event makes me realize that despite all the time, the average Genshin player is still a muckbrain.

Pop up says "use melt reactions". First person picks Furina and locks it in. Dies quickly and often. We failed 1st and 3rd rounds with this team.
Pop up says "use burn reactions". First person picks Kazuha. Second person picks Furina. They lock it in. We fail 3/3 rounds. I'm looking at the damage numbers, the Aero damage I'm seeing is like 1500-2000. Furina's pets are vaporizing and putting out the burning with piss ant damage.

Thank god you get around 120~ points even if you fail. I would hate to bang my head against that mode for more than a handful of tries.
So I'm on the EU server and managed to finish the co-op event a few days ago and overall it was smooth sailing. Only in my last game we had a russian player who insta locked Furina when the pop-up said to pick electro/pyro, but my two other teammates immediately started to name call him, lol, which was pretty funny. I just chilled and did my part with Raiden.
 
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It's a hell of a promo, but it didn't have the "impact" (lol) on me that I expected, for such a list of high expectation characters. I hate Varka's design, he's like dollar store Aventurine from HSR. He should have been older and more rough looking. A small beauty scar doesn't quite fit the idea of him that I had in my head. Nicole is more boring than I expected. Nefer, Lauma, Flins, and of course Alice are my highlights. If Flins didn't have the stupid rat tail, I'd consider him the best male character design in the game. I'm sure Nicole and Columbina will be super meta strong though since they're literally 2 of the moons, so I'll probably go for them too. Sandrone is a wait until we find out if the character is the girl or the puppet.
 
It's a hell of a promo, but it didn't have the "impact" (lol) on me that I expected, for such a list of high expectation characters. I hate Varka's design, he's like dollar store Aventurine from HSR. He should have been older and more rough looking. A small beauty scar doesn't quite fit the idea of him that I had in my head.
He's more masculine than I expected. From what was teased I thought he'd be more like Childe but he looks significantly more buff than that. Baby steps for this game, but still an improvement. Seen some rumors that he might be the standard 5-star for 6.X. I can sense a storm's a brewin'.

Nicole is more boring than I expected. Nefer, Lauma, Flins, and of course Alice are my highlights. If Flins didn't have the stupid rat tail, I'd consider him the best male character design in the game. I'm sure Nicole and Columbina will be super meta strong though since they're literally 2 of the moons, so I'll probably go for them too. Sandrone is a wait until we find out if the character is the girl or the puppet.
I don't like Alice's not-quite-hat. It looks like a random mess on her head. Nefer is probably my favorite, followed by Columbina and Jahoda. Nicole is a bit vanilla compared to the rest, but I don't mind that. Sandrone has great potential, but I just know they'll butcher the execution. If Lauma can't even be in her centaur form all the time, there's no way they're animating this giant hulking robot. If she's just running around as a normal girl, what's the point? It's rumored they won't even be playable in 6.X though.

Overall I'm feeling mildly positive, but I'm a bit worried about character rarity and meta. There's so many big names in here that I assume many of my favorites will be 4-stars. It's also said Durin is going to be a 5-star Bennett/Xiangling replacement and is meant to be a meta staple going forward. If that happens I'm gonna be screwed. With how power creep's been going in this game, I fear I'll be struggling in the future.

Just put together a quick compilation of reactions from JP to the newest PV. It looks like everyone is hyped for the 6.x characters!
Of course everyone's spurging out about Durin and Wanderer, the two lamest characters in the promo.
 
He's more masculine than I expected. From what was teased I thought he'd be more like Childe but he looks significantly more buff than that. Baby steps for this game, but still an improvement. Seen some rumors that he might be the standard 5-star for 6.X. I can sense a storm's a brewin'.
Yea it's not as bad as it could have been, for sure. Just not what I had hoped I guess, and I'm a bit let down by it. I was kinda hoping we finally got a 5* Geo in the standard banner, not another Anemo. I don't know why we need another Anemo male DPS to begin with. Seems like a heavily saturated niche. He's pretty obviously Claymore since he's canon wielding a Wolf's Gravestone in the video. So either he's going to be off-field Anemo or imbue, neither of which is that exciting. It'll be fun bullying Xiao mains for the 13290th time at least, I guess. He won't even have lunar reactions because he's from Mondstadt and Hydro is a mandatory element for Lunar reactions, supposedly.
I don't like Alice's not-quite-hat. It looks like a random mess on her head. Nefer is probably my favorite, followed by Columbina and Jahoda. Nicole is a bit vanilla compared to the rest, but I don't mind that. Sandrone has great potential, but I just know they'll butcher the execution. If Lauma can't even be in her centaur form all the time, there's no way they're animating this giant hulking robot. If she's just running around as a normal girl, what's the point? It's rumored they won't even be playable in 6.X though.
Yea, Alice's hat sucks but it's not enough to ruin the rest for me. I like classic 'sexy witch' design, so she's up my alley. I am genuinely curious how they handle Sandrone. If they wanna do it the cheap way, they'll have us whoop her and she'll get a new 'playable friendly' form like Hat Guy. I already read a leak that explains what they're doing with Il Doctore, but I didn't want to link it for heavy story spoilers, some of which I wish I hadn't read. Basically the playable version will be one of his clones that his persona was never uploaded into. Sounds too similar to Scaramouche to me, but HoYo has never been afraid of reusing plot points with minor changes.
Overall I'm feeling mildly positive, but I'm a bit worried about character rarity and meta. There's so many big names in here that I assume many of my favorites will be 4-stars. It's also said Durin is going to be a 5-star Bennett/Xiangling replacement and is meant to be a meta staple going forward. If that happens I'm gonna be screwed. With how power creep's been going in this game, I fear I'll be struggling in the future.
Looks like Jahoda is 4* and Aino is our free 4* to enable us to use Lunar reactions as f2p. Assuming she's Hydro. That's actually great though, we needed more decent 4* Hydro, it was previously a very premium element outside of Waterboi.
Of course everyone's spurging out about Durin and Wanderer, the two lamest characters in the promo.
Patches for me to skip and save, sounds fine on my end. I actually like Durin's story, and don't hate his design. We'll see how it goes with him. I still don't get what people like about Scara though.

Here's some clarifications on the leaks and some new info:
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Huh, if this were true wouldn't we need Aino for Lunar Charged with Ineffa as well???
I take it to mean that you need A) A Hydro character and B) A Nod Krai character. Both don't need to be the same character.

*edit*

This leak with Ineffa shows that she's doing lunar shit with just Furina/Sige as the Hydro applier.
 
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I take it to mean that you need A) A Hydro character and B) A Nod Krai character. Both don't need to be the same character.

*edit*

This leak with Ineffa shows that she's doing lunar shit with just Furina/Sige as the Hydro applier.

That's not what it's says though. It says specifically that until Columbina releases, you must have Aino on the team to trigger Lunar Reactions.
But we already know that's not true because Ineffa doesn't need a Nod-Krai hydro to trigger Lunar Charged.

Maybe it's a translation thing I guess.
 
Yea it's not as bad as it could have been, for sure. Just not what I had hoped I guess, and I'm a bit let down by it. I was kinda hoping we finally got a 5* Geo in the standard banner, not another Anemo. I don't know why we need another Anemo male DPS to begin with. Seems like a heavily saturated niche. He's pretty obviously Claymore since he's canon wielding a Wolf's Gravestone in the video. So either he's going to be off-field Anemo or imbue, neither of which is that exciting. It'll be fun bullying Xiao mains for the 13290th time at least, I guess. He won't even have lunar reactions because he's from Mondstadt and Hydro is a mandatory element for Lunar reactions, supposedly.
I find that rumor hard to believe. Varka must be considered a highly anticipated character, no? They've been teasing him for 5 years. I don't see how it makes sense to dump him on Standard. In the trailer he says he's in Nod-Krai for the moon. Maybe he gains a lunar blessing or something.

Yea, Alice's hat sucks but it's not enough to ruin the rest for me. I like classic 'sexy witch' design, so she's up my alley. I am genuinely curious how they handle Sandrone. If they wanna do it the cheap way, they'll have us whoop her and she'll get a new 'playable friendly' form like Hat Guy. I already read a leak that explains what they're doing with Il Doctore, but I didn't want to link it for heavy story spoilers, some of which I wish I hadn't read. Basically the playable version will be one of his clones that his persona was never uploaded into. Sounds too similar to Scaramouche to me, but HoYo has never been afraid of reusing plot points with minor changes.
Her entire characterization resolves around the marionette, so if you remove that there's nothing left to her. I just want them to lean into what makes these characters stand out from the crowd. It's why I'm so disappointed that Lauma can only be a centaur temporarily. She should always be in that form. I read that about Dottore too, but I think that's a pretty old rumor, no? Do people even care about him still? I'd just kill him off quickly and move on to more interesting characters.

Looks like Jahoda is 4* and Aino is our free 4* to enable us to use Lunar reactions as f2p. Assuming she's Hydro. That's actually great though, we needed more decent 4* Hydro, it was previously a very premium element outside of Waterboi.
I'm skeptical because I assume Aino will be similar to Lynette and Kachina; Given away for free and forgotten soon after. She also has a bunch of hearts on her coat so she's probably a healer. I doubt they'll make her very strong/meta. Jahoda is theorized to be a vape buffer akin to Chevreuse/Escoffier, but they'll probably put her on Durin's banner.

Here's some clarifications on the leaks and some new info:
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How is Nicole Cryo though? She looks Geo to me. And man that's so few 4-stars. It's a weird line-up IMO.

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Huh, if this were true wouldn't we need Aino for Lunar Charged with Ineffa as well???
Most leaked reactions (Electro-charged, Blooms, Vape) require Hydro to work so maybe Lunar Hydro has some inherent benefit that's too good to pass on? Perhaps because of an artifact set or some kind of buff/debuff or effect that places it well above other Hydro options in Lunar teams. Best I can come up with.
 
Not surprised, those people must be desperate by now. No male 5-stars since Neuvillette, which is like a year and a half ago or something? Kind of insane.
 
I personally thought Columbina would easily make it into the top 3, but I guess the male drought is just too strong, lol. Also, it seems Columbina's EN VA is Emi Lo, who also voices Ruan Mei. My interest in pulling for her has def increased again since I like both her EN (Emi Lo) and JP (Lynn) VAs.

Edit: Lmao, I love the gacha fandom.

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The fuck ⁉️ I didn't know you could play Genshin on an Apple Watch.


It's running quite smoothly, I wonder what resolution it's at.

Shit I don't know how people can use touch controls, much less on that miniature screen. I tried Genshin on my phone and I have to constantly stare at the controls, I can't fully focus on the gameplay.
 
It's running quite smoothly, I wonder what resolution it's at.

Shit I don't know how people can use touch controls, much less on that miniature screen. I tried Genshin on my phone and I have to constantly stare at the controls, I can't fully focus on the gameplay.
Don't forget Android (finally) has controller support now. So you can sync a Dualsense for instance and play it away from home. I took my Dualsense on my last trip and it worked great.

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Dev Q&A about Lunar Charged:
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Right when I was giving up on Genshin they release a slew of cool looking upcoming characters. After the year of crap from Natlan this is a breath of fresh air. Some really cool designs.
 
Right when I was giving up on Genshin they release a slew of cool looking upcoming characters. After the year of crap from Natlan this is a breath of fresh air. Some really cool designs.

Yeah, for a nation of war and dragons it was pretty fucking SHITE.

Luckily it looks like things are about to pick up again, WuWa is still #1 for me, but it's nice to see grandpa Genshin getting some momentum again, hopefully they deliver.
 
I didn't mind Natlan. Wasted potential for a firey hellscape for sure, but I enjoyed the mechanics and exploration. My least favorite nation was Liyue 1.0, but Fontaine outside of the underwater areas was the worst "modern" Genshin nation for me.
 
I'm weak to the Aztec/Maya and Inca theming in Natlan, so I enjoyed this nation. But I'm disappointed with the story (how is this the nation of war?) and the severe lack of Pyro. All previous countries were very obviously themed after their element, and Natlan lacks that. Instead it consists of mini Hydro, Dendro etc. nations while Pyro is completely absent apart from Mavuika herself. As a result it kind of lacks its own identity, and it's a shame we'll never have that true Pyro nation now. Missed opportunity.
 
Right when I was giving up on Genshin they release a slew of cool looking upcoming characters. After the year of crap from Natlan this is a breath of fresh air. Some really cool designs.
As a relatively new Genshin player who started back in December, the only Natlan characters I really like are Citlali and Mualani. I only pulled for Mavuika because she was an OP DPS that my newbie team, filled with Mondstadt 4* characters really needed. I'll admit though, the Natlan vistas, exploration, and music were pretty awesome.

Anyway, I can't wait to move on from Natlan and into Nod Krai!
 
As a relatively new Genshin player who started back in December, the only Natlan characters I really like are Citlali and Mualani. I only pulled for Mavuika because she was an OP DPS that my newbie team, filled with Mondstadt 4* characters really needed. I'll admit though, the Natlan vistas, exploration, and music were pretty awesome.

Anyway, I can't wait to move on from Natlan and into Nod Krai!
Been playing since around the end of Sumeru and Natlan had been my least favorite area. I'm very excited for a new place to visit.
 
I'm going to be traveling for about a week, so I wanted to get my Imaginarium done before I left. No way would I be able to do that on my phone, even with a controller. Not too bad this time until I hit that damn fire drake again. I really wish they'd stop putting him in there. Took me like 5-6 restarts with various team comps and I ended up eventually beating him with Neuvi/Furina/Childe/Kokomi. It was fucking close too, like down to the very last second. Childe surprisingly was the MVP there. Knocked the little version out of the sky twice in only a few seconds each, which gave me maximum time for Neuvi and Furina to do their thing to whittle his health down.

I really wish I'd have noticed that my Neuvi's artifacts were all level 1 before I started it...

Anyways, that's done, the canon game's done, and I've got a few weeks for Abyss, so I'm good to go now. I still haven't done the Chess Piece related story quest or the new Dain quest yet, I've been slacking in Genshin.
 
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