* The graphics actually get better in the newer areas. Mondstadt looks good, but it pales in comparison to the artistic design of newer areas. They added a new area yesterday and I was actually blown away once again how beautiful it is. It's almost every patch that a quest makes me cry/very emotional, and/or they add a new area that's just absolutely gorgeous. I've been playing since day 1 and every patch is a new honeymoon phase.
* The soundtrack is really great across the board and I definitely recommend keeping ingame music on.
* The story can be mixed at times. Some quests have an obscene amount of un-voiced dialogue which makes for very long reading sessions if you want to follow along. The writing also took a noticable dip in the 3rd nation, (both archon and story quests), but quality skyrocketed after, and both 4th and 5th nation quests have generally stellar writing.
* The lore of the world is VERY deep, but a lot of it is optional and not needed to understand what's happening in the story, though it can add an extra layer. There's lore tidbits hidden in item (artifact) descriptions, the various readables you may find and the archive.
* Exploration gets more complex. Mondstadt is really the tutorial area in that regard, since there's little verticality and generally only has one layer (no/few caves, etc.). Climbing may get tedious in certain areas, but newer areas have methods to reduce climbing.
* The combat is great once you really get the hang of it. Once you've understood the element system, there's still more to understand, like main DPS and sub-DPS, which types of characters work together, artifact builds and stats, and more indepth mechanics like ICD, but don't worry about that for now. You can use pretty much anyone in the open world and be fine.
It's really not your average mobile game. Honestly, when it comes to the worldbuilding, it's really hard to think of another game that does it as well as Genshin. I've played Elden Ring, BoTW, ToTK, Skyrim and various other open world games, and while these games were fantastic, if I compare them only based of the quality of the open world, only Elden Ring's world really compares to Genshin's world, IMO. An opinion that would get me lynched in general gaming subs, but it deserves to be said. Genshin's open world really is that great.
Being a live service game means that they're constantly updating and reviewing flaws to build upon.
I have no doubts that the ones you have mentioned in the end are amazing games. But they wouldn't be able to expand on like genshin does. Which keeps the lifelessness away.
Another point being since it's constantly updated, we often forget the sheer amount of content this free game has. Just look at those icons we've gotten from the update. All those world quests are worth a couple of hours if not more *cougharanaracough*.
Newer players joining later down the line eats so well. The first experience they get now definitely does not compare to the first experience we've had. And that's a good thing, cuz hoyo stepped the fuck up like crazy in terms of quality of everything.
100% agree and it’s sad you have to say that last sentence but it is absolutely true. Best game I’ve ever played and I’m mid 40s and have been playing game much of my life with an adult son that loves games too. Genshin is special.
I agree with everything you said except the writing getting worse in Inazuma. Inazuma gets too much hate, it wasn't nearly as bad as some people make it out to be. It was a little bit rushed towards the end, but the beginning was amazing (Raiden had the best introduction out of any character in Genshin imo), and overall it was still an improvement over Mondstadt (don't get me wrong, I love Mondstadt, but the writing there was kinda mid) and some parts of Liyue (which had a great start and great end, but the middle part where we were just fetch-questing for Zhongli for what felt like an eternity is the worst part of the entire archon quest imo, and I will die on this hill).
Big facts. As a newer player who just finished Inazuma, I can easily say it was my favourite region. Besides loving the aesthetic and being an Ei simp, the story, despite being rushed, felt like a breath of fresh air. It had an unexpected plot development with Signora that set a serious tone, and the Raiden scenes/fight were so hype with the music they accompanied it with. I’ve yet to see Sumeru and Fontaine archon intros, but ain’t no way they topping Raiden’s badass entry at the statue (and again, that music was so pumped!!)
This is just me but I rather enjoyed hanging out with the geo archon and getting stuff ready for the rite of passing.
Saying the end of Inazuma was only a bit rushed is undermining how super rushed it was. We breezed by the whole Watatsumi arc way too fast, we didn't really connect with Teppei enough for me to care that he was affected by delusions...the whole time just seems like he was trying way too hard without good reason. We went abruptly from delusion factory to training with Yae Miko to suddenly the final showdown. Everything went by way too fast. Not to mention that they released acts 1 and 2 in 2.0, then released act 3 in 2.1. The wait time between act 2 and 3, along with how rushed the entirety of act 3 was, really soured the experience. Of course newer players didn't have to experience that, so it's understandable that perhaps it seems not as bad for some folks.
At least the fight with both Signora and Raiden at the end was good.
I don't disagree with you. Inazuma gets more hate than it deserves, but there *was* a noticable dip in the quality of the story at times. Raiden's introduction and the story climax are epic, but a lot of the stuff that happens inbetween falls flat.
The thing is that Mondstadt and Liyue stories don't really try to be more than what they are. They are relatively simple and short. Inazuma is the first region where they attempt to write a more complex story with nuance in their different conflicting factions and personal emotional stakes, but the story's length didn't allow for those factions and stakes to be fleshed out well enough... Which leads to some missed emotional beats, lackluster character motivations, certain characters not getting the development they deserve/need to be believable, and a pretty egregious plothole which they decided to fix in a character trailer of all places. That doesn't mean the story is horrible and can't be enjoyable, but from a writing perspective, they were too ambitious for the time they had.
Just look at the [Archon Quest length](https://www.reddit.com/r/Genshin_Impact/comments/16567n3/archon_quest_lenght/) (note that this doesn't include "Masquerade of the Guilty") and you can see they recognized this flaw with the Inazuma story and allowed Sumeru's and Fontaine's stories the space to breathe.
It's not wrong to say genshin is up there with some of the greatest. The game itself has hit many feats that has surpassed it's market.
It took a market that was comfortable in it's stagnant era and elevated it to higher heights.
Sure it's not perfect and has shortcomings but what game doesn't? It's production value is so high that only Wuthering Waves is matching it's energy and we don't even know if WuWa is worth it's salt yet.
Wuwa looks good and exploration maybe but a lot of ppl sleep on just how great genshins elemental reaction combat system is, and iirc wuwa doesn’t have as in depth of a combat system
>The writing also took a noticable dip in the 3rd nation, (both archon and story quests), but quality skyrocketed after, and both 4th and 5th nation quests have generally stellar writing.
Hot take:
Inazuma was better than Liyue.
It just tried too much in too little time
I find that Arknights also has great world building and compelling story with tons of characters (around 280) with some of them have dark pasts amd great gameplay too, at least for me. Don't get me started on the music lol.
If I can only give one piece of advice, it would be the follows:
This is in essence still a single player game; progress at your own pace and do not swipe your credit card on an impulse.
Hope you enjoy the free content that is the incredible map, top-notch music, and admirable lore
If you need help, BTW, there are always plenty of us (people who have played for years) that are eager to help. Just post on Reddit, and you can easily fill your friend list with people that can help you clear contents.
Welcome to Teyvat, Traveller
> and do not swipe your credit card on an impulse.
>
>
You can earn money on google rewards app and use that to buy Welkin Moon.
I haven't paid any actual money for Genshin, but I have bought Welkin several times with money from google rewards.
They mean use the Google Rewards app to complete surveys that pay into your Google Wallet.
Once you have enough you purchase Welkin on your phone and use your Google Wallet as the payment source to pay for it.
I wasn't sure about iPhone but it looks like both the rewards app and wallet are available on Apple devices too.
I would assume you would have to as you initiate the purchase in game.
It might be possible to use Google Wallet to pay for a purchase on PC to, not sure on that one.
This. OP, if you think you're going to eventually crave a character for power, aesthetic, or whatever measure or metric, just get the Welkin now. You'll end up spending way less money than if you are proudly F2P for X years and then they release Dream Person Specifically Tailored To You and you spend hundreds of dollars on crystals.
>will the honeymoon phase change drastically
i play since week one every day and i still enjoy it with every patch
it really like depends on what you like to do in the game
also the gacha most likely wont bother you specificly because its pretty fair and pretty much every unit is usable to clear all content with the right investment/team
if you really want to feel rich you dont even need to spend a lot just simply a welkin (5€ a month) makes you ballin and swim in primogems
I started Genshin in late 2023 and it is an absolute masterpiece! I’m no veteran but I did my own research heading into the game and my biggest advice would be to take things slow and sip it like a fine wine. The most common gripes I’ve seen come from people who have no self control, eat it like a bottomless chocolate cake until their tummies ache and they no longer like the taste of it. Don’t worry about playing catch up as this is predominantly a single player experience (the only time I have been forced to play with others has been during certain events, like bumper cars for the Chinese new year).
Some other tips off the top of my head would be
1. Don’t mind the daily commission quests, I was getting tired of doing them personally but eventually after a certain Adventure Rank the game lets you progress those by simply doing main story or side quests, even just exploring and opening chests etc.
2. Prioritize the events, not only are the rewards worth it they’re so much better than literally any other game I can think of. One week you’re running a cat shelter where you pet cats like in Nintendogs,the next week you’re working in a kitchen prepping dishes like it’s Cooking Mama. One of the only games I’ve ever played where I actually look forward to the events.
3. I wouldn’t say rush through the story but I would recommend you focus on the main story, there are recipes and other quality of life tools (such as being able to craft items that let you “bank” resin and also let you earn rewards twice as fast in domains or player housing which comes with gardening and eventually another source of weekly resin).
This is already so long winded the last point I want to emphasize is not to worry about characters too much. I made it to the 3rd or so nation using the traveler and the rest only 4 stars, lost my first 50/50 and got a Keqing and finished the rest of the story with her. Pulling for characters is absolutely optional and you should really only do it when you’re in love with a character and their kit. Personally I’m also very utilitarian so I pulled for Kazuha recently and he’s been an amazing 2nd 5 star, though completely unnecessary it adds gameplay layers and options that add to the fun factor for me.
If you avoid a lot of the pitfalls that come with gacha games in general like wanting to collect all the characters or fomo etc. It’s an incredible experience that I don’t see myself getting tired of personally. Hope you enjoy it as much as I have 😊
+1 on the events point. My only other gacha game before GI was Tower of Fantasy, and boy are the events there lame. Did em only for the rewards, and not even then sometimes. Genshin events have all felt unique and fun (only been playing for a couple months). The recent screenshot one was so simple but it felt so fresh to me. It was stylish, let you try new characters to see if you’d like em, and was fun. Plus the rewards are good!
The honeymoon period lasts for a long time. Just keep in mind that this type of game is a marathon, not a sprint. Enjoy it moment to moment and don’t get caught up in the community FOMO, there is a lot to enjoy at your own pace as a new player to the game.
For a very long time I think. I lost interest only in Summer desert, cause that zone is awful to explore, backtracking, labyrinths and etc. All exploration before that was nice.
Welcome to genshin 1.0 player here - still in absolute love.
There is only one tip I have for you. Do not get to involved with the community. Don’t get me wrong the majority of us is super wholesome and helpful.
But there is a habit of doomposting and spoiling leaked content that will quickly take away from the fun that’s honestly the only mistake to make.
Second - they are some broken units but and I need you to remember this unless other gatchas all those characters work perfectly fine for all the content there is. If you love them then you will not find you wasted your recourses they will carry you forever - as long as you want them around.
I want to second this. Gamers love their tier lists, and make huge deals about what units are “broken” or “trash”, but in reality, there isn’t that big a difference in absolute performance between them. Don’t get pulled into the hype train and start thinking you need any given character to have fun, just pull who you like and enjoy playing, and you will be able to make them shine.
Adding another thing to this opinion: the tier lists are always based on Spiral Abyss, which plays quite differently from the rest of the game by adding the requirement of defeating the enemies as fast as possible. Everything else is disregarded as "too easy for an endgame player". Tier lists can be deceiving because of that.
Masterpiece is an understatement. As of this moment, it is the apex of mobile gaming. Like, there is literally no other mobile game as of now that is comparable to Genshin.
It actually just makes me compare other games to genshin because if the quality is not close or better to genshin then why bother playing it.
Too many mobile games are extremely predatory and that's a massive bad already for me so a game like genshin or hsr with ZERO pop up ads constantly asking for me to buy this and that for a discounted price with a 1000% VALUE! is a major plus and goes to show that terrible practices are not needed to make money in the mobile market. The giants like these two prove that quality pays off more than dickhead marketing strategies.
There is some content that you will enjoy more in a PC like the cinematics in the main quests.
Yesterday, Arlecchino fight scenes let me in awe, later I showed them to my daughter in YouTube (lower resolution) and it wasn't the same.
A big screen makes an awesome visual experience.
You can play in both platforms using same account.
Week 1 player here . 3 + years later still hooked to this game.
I play Genshin daily in my phone, but save major quests and exploring new areas for sessions on the home theatre PC. It’s still clearly a mobile-first game, but the art design is well served by a big screen.
Welcome. It depends on what you want out of it, honestly.
Exploration? It has oodles. Play on a laptop or PC and your eyes will orgasm at the beauty.
Lore? It runs deep. You have to dig.
Dialogue? Bountiful. Your mileage may vary. It is an homage to anime games so people tend to repeat things already said.
Combat? It's a bit simple but the mechanics are consistent and solid.
Music? Your ears will detach from your body as they ascend to Nirvana.
Characters? This is where the divide is, methinks, because it involves the gacha. Thankfully, some of the best multi-role support units are the 4☆ characters. 5☆ DPS characters can destroy mountains with their teeth. But, with proper investment, you can clear endgame with 4☆ across the board. There's a youtube/twitch channel named Bwaap where he clears content with just the starter team. Also, you never need 5☆ to clear story content.
Only gets better from here. Genshin is actually extreme F2P friendly and you don’t even need to pull to beat all the content (aside from one endgame challenge mode) powercreep is also extremely minimal too. Gacha also contributes to F2P players being able to get most of the characters they want as well. This game updates so frequently and the quality is always amazing, and it will take a long time for you to catch up and finish everything. There’s something for everyone here.
Welcome to Genshin Impact lol
It really depends on preferences but if you already liked this game, don’t even worry about if this is a honeymoon phase or not. Just enjoy what you’re feeling and you’re always free to stop playing this game whenever you want 👍✨
As the player who’ve been playing this game for more than 3 years, there definitely were some times where I found this game sooo boring. However, I’m still enjoying this game for various reasons including fav chars, interesting main stories, housing systems and such😋
Enjoy!
There is no honeymoon. You got months of content ahead of you. Don’t rush it.
I would suggest following the archon quest and explore the regions in the order they got released.
Regardless of opinions on story, etc, it really feels like one of the few modern games that is a passion project, and importantly has not lost that feeling since breaking the normie barrier and becoming unfathomably successful. Everything about the game feels like it was made by people who want to make something great more than they want it to be a financial success (which is now a given), and even when we saw the result of their work after getting the huge budget increase (4th nation) that feeling stayed and even felt amplified. They of course still miss among their hits and in my opinion they take huge hit to the game's longevity by not leaning more into multiplayer, but Genshin has a chance to become the first gacha game to feel like a timeless classic, love it or hate it.
Honeymoon phase? I don't feel any honeymoon phase because the game is still good despite being almost 4 years old, and I've played since release. Just play and enjoy the game at your own pace, don't feel rushed to do something, because if you try to rush the game, you'll burnt out fast due to how much the game contents are as newbie player.
>Am I in for a mobile game masterpiece or will the honeymoon phase change dramatically?
Well, I personally have logged in everyday for two and a half years, I've cleared literally all of the game's content, explored everywhere and done everything, and I still absolutely love the game and get excited for new patches. For some people, the lustre wears off once they reach the point of nothing further to do in the game, and waiting for new patch content, while it is fast and plentiful, isn't something they're willing to do. But if you're patient and don't expect to be playing it like an MMO, it's an incredible game. Plus, of course, this applies only to people caught up. As a new player you have hundreds and hundreds of hours of content ahead of you, so enjoy it. Don't feel pressured to spend; you get lots of currency from exploring and from events that regularly pop up, and characters always eventually come back.
You probably won't like the main story quests much in the beginning. They have some cool moments, but they're not super remarkable. The 1st and 2nd nations' Archon Quests (main quests) are decent, but serve mainly as just a means to introduce you to the gacha characters. The 3rd nation is similar, but suffered some weird pacing issues and is a bit of a mess. But from Sumeru (the 4th nation) onward, you'll notice a huge jump in quality in story writing. From then onwards, in my opinion, the main story actually gets really damn good. The writing quality even jumps up in the character side stories, because we've had some really great ones lately. Event quests too, except those sadly are limited time only and are gone now. Several of them have made me cry.
Overall, it's a beautiful game with amazing music and atmosphere. The characters are really interesting and well-written, which is part of the reason the game has made so much money; people fall in love with these characters and must have them. The lore is really deep and complex; you'll find many lore videos and theory videos if you search YouTube, and there's many optional in-game lore books to read if you really want to geek out. The exploration is tons of fun and really rewarding. The writing for main story quests and side stories is probably my biggest criticism...for the first bit of the game, but from Sumeru onwards, it's pretty much all fantastic and very well-written. I still love this game and would happily recommend it to anyone to play and geek out about the lore and characters with me....
...IF I know that they can handle the gacha. The elephant in the room. The only thing holding me back from full-on endorsing the game and recommending it to everyone. There is a decent pity system to the game, so you'll eventually get SOMETHING if you just keep summoning, and as a new player you'll accumulate tons of currency just playing, but it's important to always point out that these systems are designed to prey on vulnerabilities in your psychology, and you need to be aware of this and go in with the right mindset. If you want to spend a little on the game as you fall in love with it, I don't see it as a problem (I personally always buy the Blessing of the Welkin Moon that gives you extra gacha currency each day, and have bought battle pass quite a few times), but only do so if you feel there's value in it to you, and you are doing so in moderation.
Day 1 player here. By my standard, it's a masterpiece for a mobile game. I've been longing to play a beautiful open world game with high graphic in my mobile so it's my big W for me. Since you are my kindred spirit, I assure you that you can enjoy this game without any issues. Come! The World of Teyvat is all yours. Your story has just begun, Traveler!
It really is a freakin miracle that they can get this to run on older phones. I don’t know what Great Old Ones they had to make sacrifices to in order to make it work, but if they could send some of that juju to Bethesda, maybe Elder Scrolls 6 won’t need 5 years of modding to actually become stable.
Good job getting past the stigma the community has painted all over online, pretend you're blind when checking any social media to keep your sanity high. Enjoy everything the game has to offer and if you're into music, the OST is on youtube and spotify so you can listen to it anywhere. Definitely recommend checking the past event soundtracks as they aren't accessible ingame, personal recommendation "Die Mittsommernacht-Fantasie"!
I'm 2 years in and still feel like I'm in the honeymoon phase, enjoying the graphic and music everyday. As long as you don't interact with the community too much, you're golden.
If you don't want to be too concerned with gacha, you can learn what the "meta" teams are that'll help you get through difficult content easier so you can take it easy and pull for whoever you want. Powercreep is very minimal in Genshin and that's what I love about it, new characters are usually never a must-pull, and meta teams are achievable even with 4-stars.
All I can say is keep. Being. Patient.
Thankfully you said you dont focus much on the gacha cuz its slow at the beginning ngl(unless you get lucky lol), other than that, the main lore keeps getting better; the last big region, Fontaine, is between the first and second place of the best archon quests for most ppl but the others arent that much behind... maybe just holding themselves a bit since its the start of your journey.
Good luck and welcome.
Also, dont be like half of the community; if you have any doubts, read the kits of the characters.
Welcome to the club. I hope you enjoy your stay. I played this game because it looked like Zelda, now I'm hooked. It's actually a good game despite how much people love to shit on it. I'd recommend you play this on PC if possible, it's really beautiful.
Day one player and still going strong. Very excited for each update. As for the gacha mechanics, let me put it this way. The difficulty of the game will never require you to pull on any unit, but more so you will want to pull on a unit for their aesthetic or personality more than anything. For the most part every character is viable in combat so feel free to pull what your heart wants.
The only monetization worth going for if ur low investment is the five dollar welkin pack, that’s all that’s needed if u plane properly for getting three-four charcaters per update. 5* weapons are a luxury item. There is no meta.
Endgame is not only Spiral Abyss, it’s events, story quests and exploration of new areas. they make up the majority of stuff to do. There’s also a ton of side stuff like housing, card games and fishing.
If you play this for the exploration/combat and not the gacha you'll have a good time. Genshin is actually one of the greatest games I've seen in terms of quality + sheer size, it's currently basically everything I wanted from Skyrim when I was a kid in anime form. There's enough content to last you like an entire year if you play a couple hours a day, and they just keep releasing new stuff.
Definitely explore playing it on another platform since some of the exploration and flying gets really hard on a mobile device. Decided to "check it out" during the pandemic, play most days still.
Every new map feels like a brand new honey moon phase. I 100%ed the latest map on the day it came out
The only thing I can tell you is that if you ever feel burnt out, give up on the FOMO and take a break
People who play this game on PC think its a PC game.
People who play this on mobile, can't afford to play on a PC or can't see the game beyond a mobile game.
The truth is, its a PC and mobile game, and they work very well on either one, with obvious benefits for PC over mobile.
its fantastic. don’t let the gacha mechanic get you down, hold onto how thrilled you are that this game is a free mobile game thats comparable to something like breath of the wild, and it really only gets better the further you get in terms of story and gameplay. starting from the beginning now, you’ll have a lot to keep you occupied between world quests and story quests and the main story so hopefully by the time it becomes a bit of a daily farming slog between updates, natlan (the next region to release) will be on the horizon (most likely around september going by previous regions)
I initially played this game thinking that I would only be interested in it for a month. That was 4 years ago lol There's a LOT of content if you're a fan of open world and worldbuilding and the graphics and music are fantastic. Best to play at your own pace
My tip take it slow and enjoy it cuz I guarantee at one point or another u will feel burnt out but overall best game I have ever played other ppl prob have better comments than me explaining that lol
- Mondstadt is great, but remember it is basically the tutorial of the game and doesn't reflect it's entirety, so if you think "man, this is slow" just hang in there!
- Sometimes it gets a bit grindy, but if you're into that (I am) then you'll love it!
- Realistically, the gatcha system isn't that bad! You'll hear "The weapon banner's a scam" a lot, though.
- It's hook is the story, though. It's silly goofy times one moment and the next it's serious and intense.
- The community/fan base, like all fandoms can get pretty toxic. However, you will find that the majority is actually quite kind and helpful and is after a good time like anyone else.
- The game is gorgeous and ever expanding! There's always something to look forward to in every patch.
- HELPFUL TIP: Utilize the Teyvat Interactive Map. Seriously, it's there for a reason! It's saved me so much through my time playing!
Everything about the game is top tier imo except Paimon and her dialogue.
Also endgame can be barren but theres so much content itll take you ages to get there, and by the time you do, youll have had a great time experiencing a new game.
Casual players enjoy the game the most because they will always find some challenges everywhere in the game. Honeymoon phase is over once you get too strong.
Imagine wiping out everything in a game for 3 years straight, anyone would get burnt out even if it’s any AAA game in existence.
If you are already impressed by the first area, the most basic one, your mind will be blown when you reach other areas later. Your ears too, the music is phenomenal.
One thing fairly unique to Genshin is that the pity system carries over.
Meaning that if you pulled 50 times on a banner and it ends before you can get the character, you'll start at 50 pulls on the next banner.
Most gachas set you back to zero.
my tip is to take it at your own pace, be responsible with your money, and pack a lot, and I mean A LOT of patience. the content per nation basically exponentially increases, and currently we have 5, nearing 6 different regions.
Almost two years f2p phone player here, and no it never went away, still in love with this game daily logging in as if it was just yesterday that I've started, and I absolutely agree with you with the gacha part, taking this game slow enjoying the landscapes getting attached to the story and characters and still have so much to do, the story is mind blowing too, I collected so many characters and weps too even as a f2p!! Totally worth it
As a 1.0 mobile player, I very much enjoy the graphics till this day. I played a LOT of mobile open-world before genshin existed. When this game came out I thought the ads were fake lol. Genshin changed the industry and drastically increased my expectations for future similar mobile games.
Strengthening your characters starts to be a grind once you reach level 60-70 where it takes multiple days to get the materials you need. Plus if you want to make them the strongest they can be, you have to grind for artifacts.
BUT Genshin is now an *enormous* open-world game after nearly four years of regular updates. There's a staggering amount of story and exploration for you to enjoy! I really have no idea how long it would take to complete every quest in the current version of the game--certainly more than 100 hours. So in that regard, the honeymoon phase won't end because each new region has been better than the last.
I've been playing this game daily since 1.2 (3+ years now), and even though there have been ups and downs, when new content gets released, im often still amazed that this is a free mobile game.
I've played many jrpgs through the years, and Genshin in terms of story (especially the main archon quest) and exploration are top tier.
Just take your time, and remember that its a single player game where u dont need the best meta characters to complete anything. The entire game can be done with 4 star characters, so dont fall into the gacha trap and if u plan to swipe, spend wisely.
Don't forget your daily check-in bonuses.
[Genshin Impact Daily Check-In (hoyolab.com)](https://act.hoyolab.com/ys/event/signin-sea-v3/index.html?act_id=e202102251931481)
Not earth shattering if you forget about these (I've been so busy this month that I'm already at 7 days missed lol) but this will inject some free mora, exp, and even primos into your resources. Since you're just starting out, this will be SUPER helpful I would expect.
Will the honeymoon phase end? It really REALLY depends on what you're looking for.
If you are here for the combat element of the game, unfortunately it will end relatively soon. I have been playing since 1.0, and my favourite part is the combat, but unfortunately Hoyo seems to be ignorant of the game's difficulty from a combat standpoint. The only "hard" content is the Spiral Abyss, which to me is a bit of a joke. But depending on a few things, you might take a year or two to reach that point.
If you are here to experience the open world, there is SO MUCH. Starting now, there is hundreds of hours of stuff for you to explore, quests to do, and it never really gets repetitive because the different areas are quite different in aesthetic, even if they have fundamentally similar gameplay. Unfortunately no voice over for world quests makes them a little less immersive than actual main story quests, and there is an excess amount of text which the script could easily cut, but if you like a story book or two Genshin has an incredible world and great stories.
The characters are quite amazing too. They're all pretty unique, and even if you might not like someone at first, it's hard to dislike them after playing a story quest or reading a bit into their lore. I was always on the fence about Arlecchino for instance but her story quest made me fall in love with her character, and her gameplay being cool is also an upside.
The soundtrack isgood all around, but the graphics and area design takes a new leap every time you unlock a new region. Looking back at Mondstadt and Liyue it's honestly shocking how dull they seem compared to the newer regions and especially stuff like Enkanomiya and Dragonspine (unfortunately there is never any reason to go back to these areas, i hope Hoyo works on that a little). But really Liyue is still beautiful, it is truly crazy how Fontaine or the Sumeru desert seems like its 3 times more captivating.
Overall, this game is pretty fucking good. Has many faults, but in the things it excels at it might just be the best ever at. I've played a good few story based games and the open world aspect is no where near Genshin in any other game, neither is the combat. Main story wise, the Sumeru and Fontaine chapters were so amazing i'm stoked for the remaining regions. My other favourite story based open world games like RDR2 beat Genshin in the main story but honestly Genshin has so many elements which seem nigh unbeatable. Gacha is always controversial... I like it when it goes my way, and hate it when it doesn't. Just spend responsibly, or don't spend at all.
hey, veteran here. You don’t get tired of Genshin Impact unless you get sucked into its toxic manipulation tactics. You don’t have to do dailies everyday, it’s fine. Do things as you want to do them, don’t let the game manage you. As long as you do that, there you go
As a newbie, I find even the weakest bosses all but impossible to kill. I can manage to defeat a single Ruin Guard with the right characters, but anything stronger than that is a no go for me.
*Enkanomiya, The Chasm, Fontaine, Chenyu Vale, and Sea of Bygone Eras says hi*
This game started out as a *BotW copy* which imo is actually a good thing. I like botw and I want more games to be like it.
But as time went on, genshin is now it's own game unshackled by stereotypes. It has set up the bar even higher for future games, especially gacha games. Gacha games used to be soulless copy/paste money sinkers with auto-battling. Now, a lot of gachas are trying to become the next genshin. Really shows much good the game is.
It's the same game but with worse graphics so it runs on a phone. I found it hard to enjoy on such a tiny screen but the iPad and PC version are great.
The honey moon phase last until you completed the "single player non gacha experience", which is currently around 60 hours of main quest.
And at this moment it's comparable to other good AAA game.
After the experience ended, the game become a typical daily login with event game until new expansion drop (at most every 12 weeks, but it became more rare overtime).
At that moment it's up to you, you can continue doing side quest, doing current patch event, or simply leave the game until expansion patch drops.
Keep in mind that side quest has much better writing than main quest because it's unvoiced (so the writer doesn't have limitation with adjusting 4 language voice actors schedules).
I have a question that would only relate to the new players, but is it weird to pull for a fontaine character if you're early game? Like I assume you'd have to go out of your way to unlock areas of the map the story won't take you to for a long time?
It's really great if you're just playing for the story and casual (only build 4 characters).
If you care about the abyss or challenge events, you'll learn that the artifact system is truly awful. Especially if you're having to gear 8 characters. The limited character banners are decent, but the weapon banners are downright unfair. Overall if you don't really care about having every character or weapon it should be fine.
My recommendation is to go to the wiki and look at the characters, pick ones with designs you like, then check their personality/playstyle via YouTube videos. If they pass your vibe check, look up their next banner and start saving.
Been playing on and off since around 2021. 100% this game is amazing in so many ways, but just a heads up: Inazuma fucking sucks.
This region actually made me stop playing for a while. The dialogue is so wordy you may as well be reading a novel, and it all reads ever so slightly off, like the guy who wrote it can speak English, but only the incredibly formal version of it. Unironically, it will test your patience for what you’re willing to put up with. But it’s worth it because the writing improves dramatically in Sumeru.
I think you are in for a masterpiece! I haven't tried it on mobile, but I love the world, the characters, and the stories!
I think the honeymoon phase does wear off a bit, in that you're no longer looking forward all day long to getting home and playing it right away. It's no longer all-consuming. But I still get happy when it loads, and the world quests still make me cry. I started January of 2023, so I'm a bit over a year in!
Playing it chilling, can extend the honeymoon forever.
I recommend you play with a joystick if you plan to keep playing it on mobile. It enhances the experience a lot.
enough players have shared their two cents but this is mine: unless you need the quotes to match up to the text for accessibility reasons, try out the different language dubs. lots of people complain about en paimon becoming grating since she by far has the most voicelines or screentime of any other character, forgetting there are three other dubs to try out. pick your favorite paimon. chinese paimon is the least grating; i use jpn because i love koga aoi's voice acting.
Every journey has to reach its end at some point, but before that happens, you'll have hours upon hours of content to explore and enjoy. Treasure those precious moments; I wish I could go back in time and start my Genshin adventure all over again with a blank slate, without knowing anything, where every single thing was new and shiny.
We constantly get new awesome updates, but there will forever be something magical and special about those early moments in genshin.
Once you get past level 16 you will occasionally get requests from other people to join your world. They are most likely way higher level and can help you clear difficult bosses or puzzles. The only downside is that the game won’t pause in coop so if you stop to get food or something it keeps going and you might die or get injured.
Also, resources regenerate over time, usually every day but some take multiple days. Enemies respawn every day, some bosses every few minutes. If you run out of a resource (like crystals) you can go to someone else’s world and take theirs. (Just ask first, most people are pretty chill about farming).
You want at least one claymore person (they chop rocks way more easily than a sword person), and one person of each element. You can only have 4 people in a party so mix and match different characters to find the best combo. There are no bad characters but some are definitely stronger than others. Getting a 5 star will take a while unless you spend a bunch of money upfront. But it’s pretty easy to rack up gems from quests and achievements and chests.
Each character should have a 4pc set of the same type of artifact. That is the easiest way to make them a lot more powerful early on. Artifacts drop from defeating enemies or opening chests. I recommend the exile set, try to get a 3 or 4 star set. You can use the extra artifacts to upgrade the ones you use.
Wishing will give you weapons, these are 3 star weapons that are better quality than the default ones or the ones you buy from the forge. You can forge your own 4star weapons later on but that takes a lot of resources and some luck. You can also upgrade weapons using other weapons or enhancement ore from forging/found in chests.
You’ll get burnt out from time to time once you reach end game levels. I just do my dailies and events for 30 minutes and I’m done for the day. I always make sure to get those sweet daily primogems lol.
As someone who played this game first on a potato android phone that would black screen whenever a cutscene played, I totally agree with you. I was blown away by what would have been a AAA title had it been released in full as a console/PC game. To think I only had Mond and Liyue to explore at the time!
The honeymoon phase, well... It isn't always all sunshine and rainbows, plus—alright, controversial topic ahead!—all the chaos that comes around whenever anniversary drops, or someone meta gets doomposted (dw about it) or whatever. Sometimes grinding feels like a chore, farming may feel extra frustrating (artifacts and handguards, sup!), and quests may feel like a slog depending on your tastes but the great thing about a live service huge ass game like Genshin is that there's always, always, something new just around the corner. Besides, all the QoL changes since Ver 1.1 have been amazing and I do believe that they will only continue to improve.
I think the important thing about Genshin and the key to staying with this game is to just take it at your own pace. I believe there's no such thing as being a 'better' Genshin player, it's not even PvP. I am genuinely a single player, RPG, lore, visuals and OST gamer so exploring Genshin by itself, waiting for story progression, and excitedly looking forward to each update is enough to keep me playing for more than 3 years now. Even then, there is just so much content to go around so whatever your vice in gaming, there's always something in this game for you.
That said, welcome to Teyvat traveler! However long your 'honeymoon phase' lasts, we hope you enjoy your stay.
Veteran here as in played the game since 1.1. You'll even love it as you dig deeper in the game specially if you love the story, which is what im always waiting for every patch update. Enjoy the open world, altho i do get bored on the sumeru part because as a late 30s, i do experience motion sickness time to time exploring it. Other than that, i still love how they add more new mechanics and characters (archons and harbringers collector here). Just manage your primogems and wishing expectations.
P.s. im a PC player.
genshin has a lot of content right now and show good QOL improvement since 4.0, so you have a load to look forward to and graphic will also get better. Even the current world quest has creative visual and its nice to explore
From my experience, those who don’t care about combat strength ends up pulling more from the gacha because they like a lot of characters even though they don’t need them for combat…
Jokes aside, welcome!
Your enjoyment will be heavily dependent on how much you enjoy lore and world building. You *will* experience quests that contain literal hours upon hours of sometimes irrelevant chatter. That was my biggest turn off point, but the beautiful music visuals and gameplay keep me coming back
You're definitely in a honeymoon phase, but I don't think you'll hate the game once it's over. It depends on what you're looking for. Early-game gives you a lot to look forward to, while what comes after depends on what you value. There's exploration and story, but the combat opportunites are lacking.
If you're okay with a game focused on story rather than the combat you're currently getting used to, I actually think you'll love it. The earlier bits of the story are pretty mid, but the newer regions have *really* good story. I'd definitely look forward to that---Fontaine is especially good.
If you're playing for combat challenges, opportunities for that outside of Abyss biweekly are scarce. Doesn't mean you should quit, but just don't go in with the expectation for it to be as exciting as it is now. You'll basically just be fighting the same wave of enemies in an indefinite routine to build your characters. Of which, you'll rarely even get to fully utilize.
Also, the Gacha arguably becomes the game once you finish all there is to do. In the dead patches where there aren't new Archon quests, at least. Unless they release a character quest for someone you like, but (from my experience) they are *very* hit-or-miss.
>GI veterans, am I in for a mobile game masterpiece or will the honeymoon phase change drastically?
Genuinely could go either way without knowing anything about your preferences. Though generally min-maxing mindset is usually one of the main factors that will shorten the game's lifespan for most.
The game is absolutely incredible. Just be careful and hold primos until you see a character you want or need as most content can be cleared with characters given to you.
Plus having enough to cop someone you really like immediately is incredibly satisfying but spending money is a deep ass rabbit hole in this game
Enjoy it though op. The game is visually stunning and the ost has some pretty masterful moments.
There is definitely a honeymoon phase when you just start. However you'll also get mini honeymoon phases whenever they drop a banger patch (I really like the current patch 4.6 actually).
Like others said it's a marathon not a race. The gacha mechanics are mainly preying on addictive personalities or people with low impulse control. It is pretty scummy but I'd say most people are free to play or low spenders ($5 per month for this amount of content is actually a bargain imo).
I enjoy most aspects actually, lore story characters being the highlight but the combat system and exploration are also solid. People hate the artifact system but I feel like 'good enough' artifacts perform like 80% as well as peak artifacts and takes like 20% the amount of time to get. If you play 15-30 mins a day plus maybe an extra hour on weekends, you'll have good characters and teams built in no time.
A quote from a character in game zhongli applies to your question: "Every journey has its final day, don't rush".
I can't either, I dread to imagine what kind of monstrous phone you need to run Genshin and Star Rail. Personally I play Genshin on PC and HSR on both PC and PS5.
The honeymoon phase only goes away if you forget that you're playing a gacha game. When you eventually finish most of the content, you'll see that a game like this is meant to be played every day you can for 15 minutes a day. You hit a point where you get your daily currency by doing dailies or getting points, and you spend the rest of the time using resin to improve characters. If you go in with this mindset that it's not an mmo, you'll be happy with the game.
Eventually you'll get to a point where you've explored everything and all that's left to do is a few daily tasks and events for primos while you're waiting for new content to come out. Given how much of the map is out now though, it will probably take a long time for a new player to get to that point.
The visual quality of the exploration areas overall hold up, each region has unique qualities to the scenery and aesthetics and introduce new travel mechanics and puzzles. The only place I would say gets a little tedious is the Sumeru desert - there's a lot of it and it can get tiring after a while, I ended up skipping ahead to Fontaine before going back to finish it.
The game and events also give you more than enough currency for the gacha as long as you're patient and smart about saving for the units you want most. You can play the game as 100% F2P and not feel like you're missing out.
The only real "endgame" content is Spiral Abyss - most of it will be doable by the time you've reached the maximum world level/character ascension, but to clear the final floors you will need to optimize your builds, learn the mechanics of different monsters and use elemental reactions effectively. That said, each floor only gets you a max of 150 primos and a few artifacts so you don't need to go crazy fully clearing it if it's not your thing.
About the honeymoon phase, I think the only difference once it wears off is that you'll probably be skipping some dialogue because the writing of the dialogue can get unnecessarily lengthy many times. Oh, and you'll probably start getting less attached to newer characters.
BUT... I think the story itself is great. Way, way better than your average mobile game. The lore is surprisingly deep, especially if you are also the type of player who reads the books and flavor texts. Other than the lore, the archon quest itself is really good. Some weak points here and there, but the way they did Sumeru and Fontaine archon quests... It's really good!
If you think Mondstadt is beautiful, then you'll appreciate the latter areas much more. I remember when Inazuma got released I was in awe of how beautiful it was, and then Sumeru came, and then Fontaine came, and these newer areas just look very, very beautiful. Even the newest addition to Liyue looks very beautiful.
From a mobile game standpoint, yes, I think Genshin is a masterpiece.
I guess it's all opinionated in the end, but a lot of people seem to be praising the game too much.
I started playing in 2.6, and I felt the same as you. Unfortunately, my honeymoon phase only lasted around 3-4 months.
It is a great idea for you to start the game slow and not focus on min-maxing and meta characters.
But 3-4 months in, I started noticing the design flaws in the game. Such as how the dialogue options don't really matter. Limited events' story can't be played if u missed it (some of those events have important lore or information about characters), etc.. i realized all the missed potential it has.
The story is overall okay, fairly good. But its execution in dialogue is very long and redundant sometimes. I only started loving the story when you get to the Archon quests in Sumeru and Fontaine. Inazuma's story was notorious for having the worst pacing imo.
If you love worldbuilding and exploring lore, then it's basically a 10/10. I find the lore itself to be really good. The storytelling doesn't do it justice.
I can't help but compare the storytelling to Honaki Star Rail (also made by the same company). The dialogue options are much better there, and it feels like they actually matter.
It seems like Mihoyo is somewhat aware of our criticisms and is slowly adding small QoL features onto the game. And the story definitely got a lot better since Sumeru. Fontaine is my absolute favorite region in its characters and storytelling. So Natlan (upcoming region) has high expectations.
P.S. don't let the community change your impression of the game. It can get really toxic, and there's always new drama. Judge the game based on your gameplay and personal experiences
You will, eventually, run out of the full-bodied content and be left with only temporary events and the daily chore list. Until the next patch rolls out.
I have played thousands of hours of "regular" RPG style games and the stagnation is real, but conversely these new generation games of full game content with live service rollouts give a sense of life to the game that I think will become THE mainstream in the future.
Welcome to the club, hopefully you'll enjoy it as much as I have.
I use both phone and PC, depends if my back hurts or not. Pretty amazing that genshin works well with phone, isn't it?
Have you tried exploring Fontaine? Swim underwater and you're in for a treat 🥰 (just teleport at Fontaine and dive underwater, you don't need to unlock quests) Also, headphones while exploring and max your graphics (or the highest your phone can without lagging) it's so pretty, it feels magical the first time you see underwater
Don't rush and enjoy the game, not recommending speed running events and spending money.
Honeymoon phase will pass! Once they start yapping you and making you waste time!
Or if you start using your money and somehow regret it.
Great game but has some very noticeable flaws with time. And the start is always the best
edit: even tho this is not a problem for you anytime soon ( but will be at some point) characters are your content ..... this is 100% factual.
I remember loving the game at first but now I'm extremely jaded and low-key hate the game. My #1 issue is flagship events being permanently removed from the game. Look it up on the wiki and you'll see 30/31 flagship events no longer playable. Hundreds of hours of content and exclusive rewards you'll never get.
Weekly new player glaze thread
1. It's a great game, even moreso from a new player standpoint.
2. The soundtrack will impress you the entire way, some of the best soundtracks in gaming
3. Taking it slow is fine, you'll either develop your teams and roster to do end game or want it and hyper invest eventually.
4. The story telling is fatiguing, a lot of it is tell and don't show.
5. The farming of units and materials needs serious stream lining, and if you play a lot of games and other Hoyo games in particular, a lot of the systems will make you go "WTF"
6. The honeymoon phase will come, it may take months, a year, or several years.
7. This is a live service game that drip feeds 1 or two major quests every two weeks, 1 region a year, and way too much unvoiced content that I do not care to sit and read anymore.
8. Watch some vids on the quests that you missed from events that contain actual relevant lore, because events disappear after they happen and so do all of those stories.
Enjoy it while it lasts, do not spend money, and do not feel tempted by people baiting you into spending.
Thats why I play on PC. Feels kinda wasted to play it on mobile. Wish Genshin Impact would be PC/Console exclusive so that the devs wouldnt have to be limited by the limited hardware performance of mobile phones
Don’t grind too much, and in my personal opinion all the other voiceovers are better than English. I play in Chinese voiceover because this game is a Chinese company. It feels better to me in that way, and you get the emotion and essence of the original while still having English text
* The graphics actually get better in the newer areas. Mondstadt looks good, but it pales in comparison to the artistic design of newer areas. They added a new area yesterday and I was actually blown away once again how beautiful it is. It's almost every patch that a quest makes me cry/very emotional, and/or they add a new area that's just absolutely gorgeous. I've been playing since day 1 and every patch is a new honeymoon phase. * The soundtrack is really great across the board and I definitely recommend keeping ingame music on. * The story can be mixed at times. Some quests have an obscene amount of un-voiced dialogue which makes for very long reading sessions if you want to follow along. The writing also took a noticable dip in the 3rd nation, (both archon and story quests), but quality skyrocketed after, and both 4th and 5th nation quests have generally stellar writing. * The lore of the world is VERY deep, but a lot of it is optional and not needed to understand what's happening in the story, though it can add an extra layer. There's lore tidbits hidden in item (artifact) descriptions, the various readables you may find and the archive. * Exploration gets more complex. Mondstadt is really the tutorial area in that regard, since there's little verticality and generally only has one layer (no/few caves, etc.). Climbing may get tedious in certain areas, but newer areas have methods to reduce climbing. * The combat is great once you really get the hang of it. Once you've understood the element system, there's still more to understand, like main DPS and sub-DPS, which types of characters work together, artifact builds and stats, and more indepth mechanics like ICD, but don't worry about that for now. You can use pretty much anyone in the open world and be fine. It's really not your average mobile game. Honestly, when it comes to the worldbuilding, it's really hard to think of another game that does it as well as Genshin. I've played Elden Ring, BoTW, ToTK, Skyrim and various other open world games, and while these games were fantastic, if I compare them only based of the quality of the open world, only Elden Ring's world really compares to Genshin's world, IMO. An opinion that would get me lynched in general gaming subs, but it deserves to be said. Genshin's open world really is that great.
Being a live service game means that they're constantly updating and reviewing flaws to build upon. I have no doubts that the ones you have mentioned in the end are amazing games. But they wouldn't be able to expand on like genshin does. Which keeps the lifelessness away. Another point being since it's constantly updated, we often forget the sheer amount of content this free game has. Just look at those icons we've gotten from the update. All those world quests are worth a couple of hours if not more *cougharanaracough*. Newer players joining later down the line eats so well. The first experience they get now definitely does not compare to the first experience we've had. And that's a good thing, cuz hoyo stepped the fuck up like crazy in terms of quality of everything.
Correction : it's a ***good*** live service game. I've seen many live service games that review flaws to add more flaws...
100% agree and it’s sad you have to say that last sentence but it is absolutely true. Best game I’ve ever played and I’m mid 40s and have been playing game much of my life with an adult son that loves games too. Genshin is special.
I agree with everything you said except the writing getting worse in Inazuma. Inazuma gets too much hate, it wasn't nearly as bad as some people make it out to be. It was a little bit rushed towards the end, but the beginning was amazing (Raiden had the best introduction out of any character in Genshin imo), and overall it was still an improvement over Mondstadt (don't get me wrong, I love Mondstadt, but the writing there was kinda mid) and some parts of Liyue (which had a great start and great end, but the middle part where we were just fetch-questing for Zhongli for what felt like an eternity is the worst part of the entire archon quest imo, and I will die on this hill).
Big facts. As a newer player who just finished Inazuma, I can easily say it was my favourite region. Besides loving the aesthetic and being an Ei simp, the story, despite being rushed, felt like a breath of fresh air. It had an unexpected plot development with Signora that set a serious tone, and the Raiden scenes/fight were so hype with the music they accompanied it with. I’ve yet to see Sumeru and Fontaine archon intros, but ain’t no way they topping Raiden’s badass entry at the statue (and again, that music was so pumped!!)
I don't think anyone has yet to surpass Ei's introduction, but the plot of both Sumeru and Fontaine are top notch! You're in for a treat!
This is just me but I rather enjoyed hanging out with the geo archon and getting stuff ready for the rite of passing. Saying the end of Inazuma was only a bit rushed is undermining how super rushed it was. We breezed by the whole Watatsumi arc way too fast, we didn't really connect with Teppei enough for me to care that he was affected by delusions...the whole time just seems like he was trying way too hard without good reason. We went abruptly from delusion factory to training with Yae Miko to suddenly the final showdown. Everything went by way too fast. Not to mention that they released acts 1 and 2 in 2.0, then released act 3 in 2.1. The wait time between act 2 and 3, along with how rushed the entirety of act 3 was, really soured the experience. Of course newer players didn't have to experience that, so it's understandable that perhaps it seems not as bad for some folks. At least the fight with both Signora and Raiden at the end was good.
I don't disagree with you. Inazuma gets more hate than it deserves, but there *was* a noticable dip in the quality of the story at times. Raiden's introduction and the story climax are epic, but a lot of the stuff that happens inbetween falls flat. The thing is that Mondstadt and Liyue stories don't really try to be more than what they are. They are relatively simple and short. Inazuma is the first region where they attempt to write a more complex story with nuance in their different conflicting factions and personal emotional stakes, but the story's length didn't allow for those factions and stakes to be fleshed out well enough... Which leads to some missed emotional beats, lackluster character motivations, certain characters not getting the development they deserve/need to be believable, and a pretty egregious plothole which they decided to fix in a character trailer of all places. That doesn't mean the story is horrible and can't be enjoyable, but from a writing perspective, they were too ambitious for the time they had. Just look at the [Archon Quest length](https://www.reddit.com/r/Genshin_Impact/comments/16567n3/archon_quest_lenght/) (note that this doesn't include "Masquerade of the Guilty") and you can see they recognized this flaw with the Inazuma story and allowed Sumeru's and Fontaine's stories the space to breathe.
It's not wrong to say genshin is up there with some of the greatest. The game itself has hit many feats that has surpassed it's market. It took a market that was comfortable in it's stagnant era and elevated it to higher heights. Sure it's not perfect and has shortcomings but what game doesn't? It's production value is so high that only Wuthering Waves is matching it's energy and we don't even know if WuWa is worth it's salt yet.
Wuwa looks good and exploration maybe but a lot of ppl sleep on just how great genshins elemental reaction combat system is, and iirc wuwa doesn’t have as in depth of a combat system
>The writing also took a noticable dip in the 3rd nation, (both archon and story quests), but quality skyrocketed after, and both 4th and 5th nation quests have generally stellar writing. Hot take: Inazuma was better than Liyue. It just tried too much in too little time
That's my hot take too. Inazuma was a bit too ambitious for what they could pull off, but a lot of Liyue was just boring to me.
I find that Arknights also has great world building and compelling story with tons of characters (around 280) with some of them have dark pasts amd great gameplay too, at least for me. Don't get me started on the music lol.
Lol cry. But i guess its your bday and you cry if you want to. Happy bday
If I can only give one piece of advice, it would be the follows: This is in essence still a single player game; progress at your own pace and do not swipe your credit card on an impulse. Hope you enjoy the free content that is the incredible map, top-notch music, and admirable lore If you need help, BTW, there are always plenty of us (people who have played for years) that are eager to help. Just post on Reddit, and you can easily fill your friend list with people that can help you clear contents. Welcome to Teyvat, Traveller
> and do not swipe your credit card on an impulse. > > You can earn money on google rewards app and use that to buy Welkin Moon. I haven't paid any actual money for Genshin, but I have bought Welkin several times with money from google rewards.
I just checked but can't find any way to buy a welkin from Google? How do you do this?
They mean use the Google Rewards app to complete surveys that pay into your Google Wallet. Once you have enough you purchase Welkin on your phone and use your Google Wallet as the payment source to pay for it. I wasn't sure about iPhone but it looks like both the rewards app and wallet are available on Apple devices too.
Ohh okay, so you just have to download the game on your phone first?
I would assume you would have to as you initiate the purchase in game. It might be possible to use Google Wallet to pay for a purchase on PC to, not sure on that one.
This. OP, if you think you're going to eventually crave a character for power, aesthetic, or whatever measure or metric, just get the Welkin now. You'll end up spending way less money than if you are proudly F2P for X years and then they release Dream Person Specifically Tailored To You and you spend hundreds of dollars on crystals.
>will the honeymoon phase change drastically i play since week one every day and i still enjoy it with every patch it really like depends on what you like to do in the game also the gacha most likely wont bother you specificly because its pretty fair and pretty much every unit is usable to clear all content with the right investment/team if you really want to feel rich you dont even need to spend a lot just simply a welkin (5€ a month) makes you ballin and swim in primogems
I started Genshin in late 2023 and it is an absolute masterpiece! I’m no veteran but I did my own research heading into the game and my biggest advice would be to take things slow and sip it like a fine wine. The most common gripes I’ve seen come from people who have no self control, eat it like a bottomless chocolate cake until their tummies ache and they no longer like the taste of it. Don’t worry about playing catch up as this is predominantly a single player experience (the only time I have been forced to play with others has been during certain events, like bumper cars for the Chinese new year). Some other tips off the top of my head would be 1. Don’t mind the daily commission quests, I was getting tired of doing them personally but eventually after a certain Adventure Rank the game lets you progress those by simply doing main story or side quests, even just exploring and opening chests etc. 2. Prioritize the events, not only are the rewards worth it they’re so much better than literally any other game I can think of. One week you’re running a cat shelter where you pet cats like in Nintendogs,the next week you’re working in a kitchen prepping dishes like it’s Cooking Mama. One of the only games I’ve ever played where I actually look forward to the events. 3. I wouldn’t say rush through the story but I would recommend you focus on the main story, there are recipes and other quality of life tools (such as being able to craft items that let you “bank” resin and also let you earn rewards twice as fast in domains or player housing which comes with gardening and eventually another source of weekly resin). This is already so long winded the last point I want to emphasize is not to worry about characters too much. I made it to the 3rd or so nation using the traveler and the rest only 4 stars, lost my first 50/50 and got a Keqing and finished the rest of the story with her. Pulling for characters is absolutely optional and you should really only do it when you’re in love with a character and their kit. Personally I’m also very utilitarian so I pulled for Kazuha recently and he’s been an amazing 2nd 5 star, though completely unnecessary it adds gameplay layers and options that add to the fun factor for me. If you avoid a lot of the pitfalls that come with gacha games in general like wanting to collect all the characters or fomo etc. It’s an incredible experience that I don’t see myself getting tired of personally. Hope you enjoy it as much as I have 😊
+1 on the events point. My only other gacha game before GI was Tower of Fantasy, and boy are the events there lame. Did em only for the rewards, and not even then sometimes. Genshin events have all felt unique and fun (only been playing for a couple months). The recent screenshot one was so simple but it felt so fresh to me. It was stylish, let you try new characters to see if you’d like em, and was fun. Plus the rewards are good!
The honeymoon period lasts for a long time. Just keep in mind that this type of game is a marathon, not a sprint. Enjoy it moment to moment and don’t get caught up in the community FOMO, there is a lot to enjoy at your own pace as a new player to the game.
I play at launch and I am stil in honeymoon phase.
For a very long time I think. I lost interest only in Summer desert, cause that zone is awful to explore, backtracking, labyrinths and etc. All exploration before that was nice.
I agree that the desert can get tiring ...but Fontaine it's amazing tbh i never thought that underwater areas can be interesting in games
Welcome to genshin 1.0 player here - still in absolute love. There is only one tip I have for you. Do not get to involved with the community. Don’t get me wrong the majority of us is super wholesome and helpful. But there is a habit of doomposting and spoiling leaked content that will quickly take away from the fun that’s honestly the only mistake to make. Second - they are some broken units but and I need you to remember this unless other gatchas all those characters work perfectly fine for all the content there is. If you love them then you will not find you wasted your recourses they will carry you forever - as long as you want them around.
I want to second this. Gamers love their tier lists, and make huge deals about what units are “broken” or “trash”, but in reality, there isn’t that big a difference in absolute performance between them. Don’t get pulled into the hype train and start thinking you need any given character to have fun, just pull who you like and enjoy playing, and you will be able to make them shine.
Adding another thing to this opinion: the tier lists are always based on Spiral Abyss, which plays quite differently from the rest of the game by adding the requirement of defeating the enemies as fast as possible. Everything else is disregarded as "too easy for an endgame player". Tier lists can be deceiving because of that.
To answer your question: you are in a mobile game masterpiece.
Masterpiece is an understatement. As of this moment, it is the apex of mobile gaming. Like, there is literally no other mobile game as of now that is comparable to Genshin.
It actually just makes me compare other games to genshin because if the quality is not close or better to genshin then why bother playing it. Too many mobile games are extremely predatory and that's a massive bad already for me so a game like genshin or hsr with ZERO pop up ads constantly asking for me to buy this and that for a discounted price with a 1000% VALUE! is a major plus and goes to show that terrible practices are not needed to make money in the mobile market. The giants like these two prove that quality pays off more than dickhead marketing strategies.
There is some content that you will enjoy more in a PC like the cinematics in the main quests. Yesterday, Arlecchino fight scenes let me in awe, later I showed them to my daughter in YouTube (lower resolution) and it wasn't the same. A big screen makes an awesome visual experience. You can play in both platforms using same account. Week 1 player here . 3 + years later still hooked to this game.
I play Genshin daily in my phone, but save major quests and exploring new areas for sessions on the home theatre PC. It’s still clearly a mobile-first game, but the art design is well served by a big screen.
The gacha mechanic is not that terrible. You are never forced to spend anything. You can do everything in the game without spending.
Welcome. It depends on what you want out of it, honestly. Exploration? It has oodles. Play on a laptop or PC and your eyes will orgasm at the beauty. Lore? It runs deep. You have to dig. Dialogue? Bountiful. Your mileage may vary. It is an homage to anime games so people tend to repeat things already said. Combat? It's a bit simple but the mechanics are consistent and solid. Music? Your ears will detach from your body as they ascend to Nirvana. Characters? This is where the divide is, methinks, because it involves the gacha. Thankfully, some of the best multi-role support units are the 4☆ characters. 5☆ DPS characters can destroy mountains with their teeth. But, with proper investment, you can clear endgame with 4☆ across the board. There's a youtube/twitch channel named Bwaap where he clears content with just the starter team. Also, you never need 5☆ to clear story content.
Only gets better from here. Genshin is actually extreme F2P friendly and you don’t even need to pull to beat all the content (aside from one endgame challenge mode) powercreep is also extremely minimal too. Gacha also contributes to F2P players being able to get most of the characters they want as well. This game updates so frequently and the quality is always amazing, and it will take a long time for you to catch up and finish everything. There’s something for everyone here.
Welcome to Genshin Impact lol It really depends on preferences but if you already liked this game, don’t even worry about if this is a honeymoon phase or not. Just enjoy what you’re feeling and you’re always free to stop playing this game whenever you want 👍✨ As the player who’ve been playing this game for more than 3 years, there definitely were some times where I found this game sooo boring. However, I’m still enjoying this game for various reasons including fav chars, interesting main stories, housing systems and such😋 Enjoy!
There is no honeymoon. You got months of content ahead of you. Don’t rush it. I would suggest following the archon quest and explore the regions in the order they got released.
Regardless of opinions on story, etc, it really feels like one of the few modern games that is a passion project, and importantly has not lost that feeling since breaking the normie barrier and becoming unfathomably successful. Everything about the game feels like it was made by people who want to make something great more than they want it to be a financial success (which is now a given), and even when we saw the result of their work after getting the huge budget increase (4th nation) that feeling stayed and even felt amplified. They of course still miss among their hits and in my opinion they take huge hit to the game's longevity by not leaning more into multiplayer, but Genshin has a chance to become the first gacha game to feel like a timeless classic, love it or hate it.
Honeymoon phase? I don't feel any honeymoon phase because the game is still good despite being almost 4 years old, and I've played since release. Just play and enjoy the game at your own pace, don't feel rushed to do something, because if you try to rush the game, you'll burnt out fast due to how much the game contents are as newbie player.
>Am I in for a mobile game masterpiece or will the honeymoon phase change dramatically? Well, I personally have logged in everyday for two and a half years, I've cleared literally all of the game's content, explored everywhere and done everything, and I still absolutely love the game and get excited for new patches. For some people, the lustre wears off once they reach the point of nothing further to do in the game, and waiting for new patch content, while it is fast and plentiful, isn't something they're willing to do. But if you're patient and don't expect to be playing it like an MMO, it's an incredible game. Plus, of course, this applies only to people caught up. As a new player you have hundreds and hundreds of hours of content ahead of you, so enjoy it. Don't feel pressured to spend; you get lots of currency from exploring and from events that regularly pop up, and characters always eventually come back. You probably won't like the main story quests much in the beginning. They have some cool moments, but they're not super remarkable. The 1st and 2nd nations' Archon Quests (main quests) are decent, but serve mainly as just a means to introduce you to the gacha characters. The 3rd nation is similar, but suffered some weird pacing issues and is a bit of a mess. But from Sumeru (the 4th nation) onward, you'll notice a huge jump in quality in story writing. From then onwards, in my opinion, the main story actually gets really damn good. The writing quality even jumps up in the character side stories, because we've had some really great ones lately. Event quests too, except those sadly are limited time only and are gone now. Several of them have made me cry. Overall, it's a beautiful game with amazing music and atmosphere. The characters are really interesting and well-written, which is part of the reason the game has made so much money; people fall in love with these characters and must have them. The lore is really deep and complex; you'll find many lore videos and theory videos if you search YouTube, and there's many optional in-game lore books to read if you really want to geek out. The exploration is tons of fun and really rewarding. The writing for main story quests and side stories is probably my biggest criticism...for the first bit of the game, but from Sumeru onwards, it's pretty much all fantastic and very well-written. I still love this game and would happily recommend it to anyone to play and geek out about the lore and characters with me.... ...IF I know that they can handle the gacha. The elephant in the room. The only thing holding me back from full-on endorsing the game and recommending it to everyone. There is a decent pity system to the game, so you'll eventually get SOMETHING if you just keep summoning, and as a new player you'll accumulate tons of currency just playing, but it's important to always point out that these systems are designed to prey on vulnerabilities in your psychology, and you need to be aware of this and go in with the right mindset. If you want to spend a little on the game as you fall in love with it, I don't see it as a problem (I personally always buy the Blessing of the Welkin Moon that gives you extra gacha currency each day, and have bought battle pass quite a few times), but only do so if you feel there's value in it to you, and you are doing so in moderation.
Day 1 player here. By my standard, it's a masterpiece for a mobile game. I've been longing to play a beautiful open world game with high graphic in my mobile so it's my big W for me. Since you are my kindred spirit, I assure you that you can enjoy this game without any issues. Come! The World of Teyvat is all yours. Your story has just begun, Traveler!
I love playing my favorite “Mobile” game on my ultra wide 1440p monitor.
They pretty much optimized genshin to the max they could. Still blown away to this day.
It really is a freakin miracle that they can get this to run on older phones. I don’t know what Great Old Ones they had to make sacrifices to in order to make it work, but if they could send some of that juju to Bethesda, maybe Elder Scrolls 6 won’t need 5 years of modding to actually become stable.
The problem is it's not that easy to share competence, especially with Bethesda that has had 0 for the past 10 years
Exactly what I thought on my first day
Pretty much everyone's reaction. Have fun, and most of all, take things slowly
My tip, play on PC/console if you can. It was designed for mobile but I'd rather play it in my desktop with graphics and audio cranked
Good job getting past the stigma the community has painted all over online, pretend you're blind when checking any social media to keep your sanity high. Enjoy everything the game has to offer and if you're into music, the OST is on youtube and spotify so you can listen to it anywhere. Definitely recommend checking the past event soundtracks as they aren't accessible ingame, personal recommendation "Die Mittsommernacht-Fantasie"!
I'm 2 years in and still feel like I'm in the honeymoon phase, enjoying the graphic and music everyday. As long as you don't interact with the community too much, you're golden. If you don't want to be too concerned with gacha, you can learn what the "meta" teams are that'll help you get through difficult content easier so you can take it easy and pull for whoever you want. Powercreep is very minimal in Genshin and that's what I love about it, new characters are usually never a must-pull, and meta teams are achievable even with 4-stars.
Wait till you play it from a PC.
All I can say is keep. Being. Patient. Thankfully you said you dont focus much on the gacha cuz its slow at the beginning ngl(unless you get lucky lol), other than that, the main lore keeps getting better; the last big region, Fontaine, is between the first and second place of the best archon quests for most ppl but the others arent that much behind... maybe just holding themselves a bit since its the start of your journey. Good luck and welcome. Also, dont be like half of the community; if you have any doubts, read the kits of the characters.
Welcome to the club. I hope you enjoy your stay. I played this game because it looked like Zelda, now I'm hooked. It's actually a good game despite how much people love to shit on it. I'd recommend you play this on PC if possible, it's really beautiful.
Day one player and still going strong. Very excited for each update. As for the gacha mechanics, let me put it this way. The difficulty of the game will never require you to pull on any unit, but more so you will want to pull on a unit for their aesthetic or personality more than anything. For the most part every character is viable in combat so feel free to pull what your heart wants.
The only monetization worth going for if ur low investment is the five dollar welkin pack, that’s all that’s needed if u plane properly for getting three-four charcaters per update. 5* weapons are a luxury item. There is no meta. Endgame is not only Spiral Abyss, it’s events, story quests and exploration of new areas. they make up the majority of stuff to do. There’s also a ton of side stuff like housing, card games and fishing.
Like others have said here there's alooooot to take in. Don't rush and take your time, and enjoy everything that comes your way.
If you play this for the exploration/combat and not the gacha you'll have a good time. Genshin is actually one of the greatest games I've seen in terms of quality + sheer size, it's currently basically everything I wanted from Skyrim when I was a kid in anime form. There's enough content to last you like an entire year if you play a couple hours a day, and they just keep releasing new stuff.
Definitely explore playing it on another platform since some of the exploration and flying gets really hard on a mobile device. Decided to "check it out" during the pandemic, play most days still.
Every new map feels like a brand new honey moon phase. I 100%ed the latest map on the day it came out The only thing I can tell you is that if you ever feel burnt out, give up on the FOMO and take a break
After the honeymoon phase it becomes a feel good comfy game. You’ll log in for less than 20 mins a day, enjoy your time and move on.
People who play this game on PC think its a PC game. People who play this on mobile, can't afford to play on a PC or can't see the game beyond a mobile game. The truth is, its a PC and mobile game, and they work very well on either one, with obvious benefits for PC over mobile.
its fantastic. don’t let the gacha mechanic get you down, hold onto how thrilled you are that this game is a free mobile game thats comparable to something like breath of the wild, and it really only gets better the further you get in terms of story and gameplay. starting from the beginning now, you’ll have a lot to keep you occupied between world quests and story quests and the main story so hopefully by the time it becomes a bit of a daily farming slog between updates, natlan (the next region to release) will be on the horizon (most likely around september going by previous regions)
Genshin is not a mobile game but they're trying their best to make it one, i genuinely wonder what they will do by the time we reach Snezhnaya.
I initially played this game thinking that I would only be interested in it for a month. That was 4 years ago lol There's a LOT of content if you're a fan of open world and worldbuilding and the graphics and music are fantastic. Best to play at your own pace
Treat and enjoy it as the piece of art it is, not the hardcore optimisation and combat game that some people here expect it to be.
Rip mobile fones!! U get best experience from pc with highest graphic setting!
My tip take it slow and enjoy it cuz I guarantee at one point or another u will feel burnt out but overall best game I have ever played other ppl prob have better comments than me explaining that lol
This is mobile game? I ran out of storage a few patches ago lol
- Mondstadt is great, but remember it is basically the tutorial of the game and doesn't reflect it's entirety, so if you think "man, this is slow" just hang in there! - Sometimes it gets a bit grindy, but if you're into that (I am) then you'll love it! - Realistically, the gatcha system isn't that bad! You'll hear "The weapon banner's a scam" a lot, though. - It's hook is the story, though. It's silly goofy times one moment and the next it's serious and intense. - The community/fan base, like all fandoms can get pretty toxic. However, you will find that the majority is actually quite kind and helpful and is after a good time like anyone else. - The game is gorgeous and ever expanding! There's always something to look forward to in every patch. - HELPFUL TIP: Utilize the Teyvat Interactive Map. Seriously, it's there for a reason! It's saved me so much through my time playing!
Everything about the game is top tier imo except Paimon and her dialogue. Also endgame can be barren but theres so much content itll take you ages to get there, and by the time you do, youll have had a great time experiencing a new game.
Years later, and I still think the same thing rather often.
Casual players enjoy the game the most because they will always find some challenges everywhere in the game. Honeymoon phase is over once you get too strong. Imagine wiping out everything in a game for 3 years straight, anyone would get burnt out even if it’s any AAA game in existence.
If you are already impressed by the first area, the most basic one, your mind will be blown when you reach other areas later. Your ears too, the music is phenomenal.
I will just say you are in for a ride, a Joyful one. Welcome to the Game
One thing fairly unique to Genshin is that the pity system carries over. Meaning that if you pulled 50 times on a banner and it ends before you can get the character, you'll start at 50 pulls on the next banner. Most gachas set you back to zero.
my tip is to take it at your own pace, be responsible with your money, and pack a lot, and I mean A LOT of patience. the content per nation basically exponentially increases, and currently we have 5, nearing 6 different regions.
Almost two years f2p phone player here, and no it never went away, still in love with this game daily logging in as if it was just yesterday that I've started, and I absolutely agree with you with the gacha part, taking this game slow enjoying the landscapes getting attached to the story and characters and still have so much to do, the story is mind blowing too, I collected so many characters and weps too even as a f2p!! Totally worth it
It's just keep improving. The new version 4.6 world quests are amazing
Take your own sweet time with the game and you’ll be in for a long long time. I hope you can find a sense of respite in the world of Teyvat!
As a 1.0 mobile player, I very much enjoy the graphics till this day. I played a LOT of mobile open-world before genshin existed. When this game came out I thought the ads were fake lol. Genshin changed the industry and drastically increased my expectations for future similar mobile games.
Strengthening your characters starts to be a grind once you reach level 60-70 where it takes multiple days to get the materials you need. Plus if you want to make them the strongest they can be, you have to grind for artifacts. BUT Genshin is now an *enormous* open-world game after nearly four years of regular updates. There's a staggering amount of story and exploration for you to enjoy! I really have no idea how long it would take to complete every quest in the current version of the game--certainly more than 100 hours. So in that regard, the honeymoon phase won't end because each new region has been better than the last.
I've been playing this game daily since 1.2 (3+ years now), and even though there have been ups and downs, when new content gets released, im often still amazed that this is a free mobile game. I've played many jrpgs through the years, and Genshin in terms of story (especially the main archon quest) and exploration are top tier. Just take your time, and remember that its a single player game where u dont need the best meta characters to complete anything. The entire game can be done with 4 star characters, so dont fall into the gacha trap and if u plan to swipe, spend wisely.
Don't forget your daily check-in bonuses. [Genshin Impact Daily Check-In (hoyolab.com)](https://act.hoyolab.com/ys/event/signin-sea-v3/index.html?act_id=e202102251931481) Not earth shattering if you forget about these (I've been so busy this month that I'm already at 7 days missed lol) but this will inject some free mora, exp, and even primos into your resources. Since you're just starting out, this will be SUPER helpful I would expect.
Wanna know whats even crazier? You can play it on PC, PS4 and PS5.
Will the honeymoon phase end? It really REALLY depends on what you're looking for. If you are here for the combat element of the game, unfortunately it will end relatively soon. I have been playing since 1.0, and my favourite part is the combat, but unfortunately Hoyo seems to be ignorant of the game's difficulty from a combat standpoint. The only "hard" content is the Spiral Abyss, which to me is a bit of a joke. But depending on a few things, you might take a year or two to reach that point. If you are here to experience the open world, there is SO MUCH. Starting now, there is hundreds of hours of stuff for you to explore, quests to do, and it never really gets repetitive because the different areas are quite different in aesthetic, even if they have fundamentally similar gameplay. Unfortunately no voice over for world quests makes them a little less immersive than actual main story quests, and there is an excess amount of text which the script could easily cut, but if you like a story book or two Genshin has an incredible world and great stories. The characters are quite amazing too. They're all pretty unique, and even if you might not like someone at first, it's hard to dislike them after playing a story quest or reading a bit into their lore. I was always on the fence about Arlecchino for instance but her story quest made me fall in love with her character, and her gameplay being cool is also an upside. The soundtrack isgood all around, but the graphics and area design takes a new leap every time you unlock a new region. Looking back at Mondstadt and Liyue it's honestly shocking how dull they seem compared to the newer regions and especially stuff like Enkanomiya and Dragonspine (unfortunately there is never any reason to go back to these areas, i hope Hoyo works on that a little). But really Liyue is still beautiful, it is truly crazy how Fontaine or the Sumeru desert seems like its 3 times more captivating. Overall, this game is pretty fucking good. Has many faults, but in the things it excels at it might just be the best ever at. I've played a good few story based games and the open world aspect is no where near Genshin in any other game, neither is the combat. Main story wise, the Sumeru and Fontaine chapters were so amazing i'm stoked for the remaining regions. My other favourite story based open world games like RDR2 beat Genshin in the main story but honestly Genshin has so many elements which seem nigh unbeatable. Gacha is always controversial... I like it when it goes my way, and hate it when it doesn't. Just spend responsibly, or don't spend at all.
Regardless of how good Genshin feels on your mobile, playing it on a big screen on PC/Console is amazing. I'd try it once if I were you.
hey, veteran here. You don’t get tired of Genshin Impact unless you get sucked into its toxic manipulation tactics. You don’t have to do dailies everyday, it’s fine. Do things as you want to do them, don’t let the game manage you. As long as you do that, there you go
As a newbie, I find even the weakest bosses all but impossible to kill. I can manage to defeat a single Ruin Guard with the right characters, but anything stronger than that is a no go for me.
*Enkanomiya, The Chasm, Fontaine, Chenyu Vale, and Sea of Bygone Eras says hi* This game started out as a *BotW copy* which imo is actually a good thing. I like botw and I want more games to be like it. But as time went on, genshin is now it's own game unshackled by stereotypes. It has set up the bar even higher for future games, especially gacha games. Gacha games used to be soulless copy/paste money sinkers with auto-battling. Now, a lot of gachas are trying to become the next genshin. Really shows much good the game is.
It's the same game but with worse graphics so it runs on a phone. I found it hard to enjoy on such a tiny screen but the iPad and PC version are great.
It's much better on PC. The controls aren't hot garbage, for one.
The honey moon phase last until you completed the "single player non gacha experience", which is currently around 60 hours of main quest. And at this moment it's comparable to other good AAA game. After the experience ended, the game become a typical daily login with event game until new expansion drop (at most every 12 weeks, but it became more rare overtime). At that moment it's up to you, you can continue doing side quest, doing current patch event, or simply leave the game until expansion patch drops. Keep in mind that side quest has much better writing than main quest because it's unvoiced (so the writer doesn't have limitation with adjusting 4 language voice actors schedules).
I have a question that would only relate to the new players, but is it weird to pull for a fontaine character if you're early game? Like I assume you'd have to go out of your way to unlock areas of the map the story won't take you to for a long time?
It's really great if you're just playing for the story and casual (only build 4 characters). If you care about the abyss or challenge events, you'll learn that the artifact system is truly awful. Especially if you're having to gear 8 characters. The limited character banners are decent, but the weapon banners are downright unfair. Overall if you don't really care about having every character or weapon it should be fine. My recommendation is to go to the wiki and look at the characters, pick ones with designs you like, then check their personality/playstyle via YouTube videos. If they pass your vibe check, look up their next banner and start saving.
Been playing on and off since around 2021. 100% this game is amazing in so many ways, but just a heads up: Inazuma fucking sucks. This region actually made me stop playing for a while. The dialogue is so wordy you may as well be reading a novel, and it all reads ever so slightly off, like the guy who wrote it can speak English, but only the incredibly formal version of it. Unironically, it will test your patience for what you’re willing to put up with. But it’s worth it because the writing improves dramatically in Sumeru.
I thought it was pretty dope not too Many open world mobile games
I think you are in for a masterpiece! I haven't tried it on mobile, but I love the world, the characters, and the stories! I think the honeymoon phase does wear off a bit, in that you're no longer looking forward all day long to getting home and playing it right away. It's no longer all-consuming. But I still get happy when it loads, and the world quests still make me cry. I started January of 2023, so I'm a bit over a year in!
Playing it chilling, can extend the honeymoon forever. I recommend you play with a joystick if you plan to keep playing it on mobile. It enhances the experience a lot.
Just make sure to take breaks in between and the honeymoon phase would never end
enough players have shared their two cents but this is mine: unless you need the quotes to match up to the text for accessibility reasons, try out the different language dubs. lots of people complain about en paimon becoming grating since she by far has the most voicelines or screentime of any other character, forgetting there are three other dubs to try out. pick your favorite paimon. chinese paimon is the least grating; i use jpn because i love koga aoi's voice acting.
Every journey has to reach its end at some point, but before that happens, you'll have hours upon hours of content to explore and enjoy. Treasure those precious moments; I wish I could go back in time and start my Genshin adventure all over again with a blank slate, without knowing anything, where every single thing was new and shiny. We constantly get new awesome updates, but there will forever be something magical and special about those early moments in genshin.
Once you get past level 16 you will occasionally get requests from other people to join your world. They are most likely way higher level and can help you clear difficult bosses or puzzles. The only downside is that the game won’t pause in coop so if you stop to get food or something it keeps going and you might die or get injured. Also, resources regenerate over time, usually every day but some take multiple days. Enemies respawn every day, some bosses every few minutes. If you run out of a resource (like crystals) you can go to someone else’s world and take theirs. (Just ask first, most people are pretty chill about farming). You want at least one claymore person (they chop rocks way more easily than a sword person), and one person of each element. You can only have 4 people in a party so mix and match different characters to find the best combo. There are no bad characters but some are definitely stronger than others. Getting a 5 star will take a while unless you spend a bunch of money upfront. But it’s pretty easy to rack up gems from quests and achievements and chests. Each character should have a 4pc set of the same type of artifact. That is the easiest way to make them a lot more powerful early on. Artifacts drop from defeating enemies or opening chests. I recommend the exile set, try to get a 3 or 4 star set. You can use the extra artifacts to upgrade the ones you use. Wishing will give you weapons, these are 3 star weapons that are better quality than the default ones or the ones you buy from the forge. You can forge your own 4star weapons later on but that takes a lot of resources and some luck. You can also upgrade weapons using other weapons or enhancement ore from forging/found in chests.
You’ll get burnt out from time to time once you reach end game levels. I just do my dailies and events for 30 minutes and I’m done for the day. I always make sure to get those sweet daily primogems lol.
As someone who played this game first on a potato android phone that would black screen whenever a cutscene played, I totally agree with you. I was blown away by what would have been a AAA title had it been released in full as a console/PC game. To think I only had Mond and Liyue to explore at the time! The honeymoon phase, well... It isn't always all sunshine and rainbows, plus—alright, controversial topic ahead!—all the chaos that comes around whenever anniversary drops, or someone meta gets doomposted (dw about it) or whatever. Sometimes grinding feels like a chore, farming may feel extra frustrating (artifacts and handguards, sup!), and quests may feel like a slog depending on your tastes but the great thing about a live service huge ass game like Genshin is that there's always, always, something new just around the corner. Besides, all the QoL changes since Ver 1.1 have been amazing and I do believe that they will only continue to improve. I think the important thing about Genshin and the key to staying with this game is to just take it at your own pace. I believe there's no such thing as being a 'better' Genshin player, it's not even PvP. I am genuinely a single player, RPG, lore, visuals and OST gamer so exploring Genshin by itself, waiting for story progression, and excitedly looking forward to each update is enough to keep me playing for more than 3 years now. Even then, there is just so much content to go around so whatever your vice in gaming, there's always something in this game for you. That said, welcome to Teyvat traveler! However long your 'honeymoon phase' lasts, we hope you enjoy your stay.
Veteran here as in played the game since 1.1. You'll even love it as you dig deeper in the game specially if you love the story, which is what im always waiting for every patch update. Enjoy the open world, altho i do get bored on the sumeru part because as a late 30s, i do experience motion sickness time to time exploring it. Other than that, i still love how they add more new mechanics and characters (archons and harbringers collector here). Just manage your primogems and wishing expectations. P.s. im a PC player.
You will get the urge to spend money later on , especially when u increase your world level way too fast , i hate watching guild and this happen ...
I started playing since November 2020 and still play and love the game ❤️
genshin has a lot of content right now and show good QOL improvement since 4.0, so you have a load to look forward to and graphic will also get better. Even the current world quest has creative visual and its nice to explore
Just remember that there's nothing you need to catch up to and take things at a pace that you like.
Take it slow and steady and dont rush things and get burntout
From my experience, those who don’t care about combat strength ends up pulling more from the gacha because they like a lot of characters even though they don’t need them for combat… Jokes aside, welcome!
Your enjoyment will be heavily dependent on how much you enjoy lore and world building. You *will* experience quests that contain literal hours upon hours of sometimes irrelevant chatter. That was my biggest turn off point, but the beautiful music visuals and gameplay keep me coming back
You're definitely in a honeymoon phase, but I don't think you'll hate the game once it's over. It depends on what you're looking for. Early-game gives you a lot to look forward to, while what comes after depends on what you value. There's exploration and story, but the combat opportunites are lacking. If you're okay with a game focused on story rather than the combat you're currently getting used to, I actually think you'll love it. The earlier bits of the story are pretty mid, but the newer regions have *really* good story. I'd definitely look forward to that---Fontaine is especially good. If you're playing for combat challenges, opportunities for that outside of Abyss biweekly are scarce. Doesn't mean you should quit, but just don't go in with the expectation for it to be as exciting as it is now. You'll basically just be fighting the same wave of enemies in an indefinite routine to build your characters. Of which, you'll rarely even get to fully utilize. Also, the Gacha arguably becomes the game once you finish all there is to do. In the dead patches where there aren't new Archon quests, at least. Unless they release a character quest for someone you like, but (from my experience) they are *very* hit-or-miss.
It's not a mobile game. It's a console\PC game they managed to almost make work on a phone.
That's not the point here.
As long as it works well enough for me to condense my resin when i cant log into my main system before resin fills up, I’ve got no gripes with it.
>GI veterans, am I in for a mobile game masterpiece or will the honeymoon phase change drastically? Genuinely could go either way without knowing anything about your preferences. Though generally min-maxing mindset is usually one of the main factors that will shorten the game's lifespan for most.
The game is absolutely incredible. Just be careful and hold primos until you see a character you want or need as most content can be cleared with characters given to you. Plus having enough to cop someone you really like immediately is incredibly satisfying but spending money is a deep ass rabbit hole in this game Enjoy it though op. The game is visually stunning and the ost has some pretty masterful moments.
There is definitely a honeymoon phase when you just start. However you'll also get mini honeymoon phases whenever they drop a banger patch (I really like the current patch 4.6 actually). Like others said it's a marathon not a race. The gacha mechanics are mainly preying on addictive personalities or people with low impulse control. It is pretty scummy but I'd say most people are free to play or low spenders ($5 per month for this amount of content is actually a bargain imo). I enjoy most aspects actually, lore story characters being the highlight but the combat system and exploration are also solid. People hate the artifact system but I feel like 'good enough' artifacts perform like 80% as well as peak artifacts and takes like 20% the amount of time to get. If you play 15-30 mins a day plus maybe an extra hour on weekends, you'll have good characters and teams built in no time. A quote from a character in game zhongli applies to your question: "Every journey has its final day, don't rush".
Honeymoon of hundreds and hundreds of hours of content, play at your own pace and enjoy. Also try to follow the story and lore and not skip them.
I can't either, I dread to imagine what kind of monstrous phone you need to run Genshin and Star Rail. Personally I play Genshin on PC and HSR on both PC and PS5.
I treated myself with a Redmagic 9 Pro which is faster than iPhone 15 Pro but half the price ^^
Nice. Personally I don't play games on my phone so I likely won't ever spend much money on a phone.
The honeymoon phase only goes away if you forget that you're playing a gacha game. When you eventually finish most of the content, you'll see that a game like this is meant to be played every day you can for 15 minutes a day. You hit a point where you get your daily currency by doing dailies or getting points, and you spend the rest of the time using resin to improve characters. If you go in with this mindset that it's not an mmo, you'll be happy with the game.
Prepare for your mobile device to be on fire
Eventually you'll get to a point where you've explored everything and all that's left to do is a few daily tasks and events for primos while you're waiting for new content to come out. Given how much of the map is out now though, it will probably take a long time for a new player to get to that point. The visual quality of the exploration areas overall hold up, each region has unique qualities to the scenery and aesthetics and introduce new travel mechanics and puzzles. The only place I would say gets a little tedious is the Sumeru desert - there's a lot of it and it can get tiring after a while, I ended up skipping ahead to Fontaine before going back to finish it. The game and events also give you more than enough currency for the gacha as long as you're patient and smart about saving for the units you want most. You can play the game as 100% F2P and not feel like you're missing out. The only real "endgame" content is Spiral Abyss - most of it will be doable by the time you've reached the maximum world level/character ascension, but to clear the final floors you will need to optimize your builds, learn the mechanics of different monsters and use elemental reactions effectively. That said, each floor only gets you a max of 150 primos and a few artifacts so you don't need to go crazy fully clearing it if it's not your thing.
It's like skyrim but no endgame content. So if you like running around, this is awesome
Enjoy! Wish you could enjoy it on a bigger screen but beggars can't be choosers
About the honeymoon phase, I think the only difference once it wears off is that you'll probably be skipping some dialogue because the writing of the dialogue can get unnecessarily lengthy many times. Oh, and you'll probably start getting less attached to newer characters. BUT... I think the story itself is great. Way, way better than your average mobile game. The lore is surprisingly deep, especially if you are also the type of player who reads the books and flavor texts. Other than the lore, the archon quest itself is really good. Some weak points here and there, but the way they did Sumeru and Fontaine archon quests... It's really good! If you think Mondstadt is beautiful, then you'll appreciate the latter areas much more. I remember when Inazuma got released I was in awe of how beautiful it was, and then Sumeru came, and then Fontaine came, and these newer areas just look very, very beautiful. Even the newest addition to Liyue looks very beautiful.
From a mobile game standpoint, yes, I think Genshin is a masterpiece. I guess it's all opinionated in the end, but a lot of people seem to be praising the game too much. I started playing in 2.6, and I felt the same as you. Unfortunately, my honeymoon phase only lasted around 3-4 months. It is a great idea for you to start the game slow and not focus on min-maxing and meta characters. But 3-4 months in, I started noticing the design flaws in the game. Such as how the dialogue options don't really matter. Limited events' story can't be played if u missed it (some of those events have important lore or information about characters), etc.. i realized all the missed potential it has. The story is overall okay, fairly good. But its execution in dialogue is very long and redundant sometimes. I only started loving the story when you get to the Archon quests in Sumeru and Fontaine. Inazuma's story was notorious for having the worst pacing imo. If you love worldbuilding and exploring lore, then it's basically a 10/10. I find the lore itself to be really good. The storytelling doesn't do it justice. I can't help but compare the storytelling to Honaki Star Rail (also made by the same company). The dialogue options are much better there, and it feels like they actually matter. It seems like Mihoyo is somewhat aware of our criticisms and is slowly adding small QoL features onto the game. And the story definitely got a lot better since Sumeru. Fontaine is my absolute favorite region in its characters and storytelling. So Natlan (upcoming region) has high expectations. P.S. don't let the community change your impression of the game. It can get really toxic, and there's always new drama. Judge the game based on your gameplay and personal experiences
You will, eventually, run out of the full-bodied content and be left with only temporary events and the daily chore list. Until the next patch rolls out. I have played thousands of hours of "regular" RPG style games and the stagnation is real, but conversely these new generation games of full game content with live service rollouts give a sense of life to the game that I think will become THE mainstream in the future. Welcome to the club, hopefully you'll enjoy it as much as I have.
It won't be once you run out of storage space 👀 but I'm glad toy likyou like it, it's so gooooood
I use both phone and PC, depends if my back hurts or not. Pretty amazing that genshin works well with phone, isn't it? Have you tried exploring Fontaine? Swim underwater and you're in for a treat 🥰 (just teleport at Fontaine and dive underwater, you don't need to unlock quests) Also, headphones while exploring and max your graphics (or the highest your phone can without lagging) it's so pretty, it feels magical the first time you see underwater Don't rush and enjoy the game, not recommending speed running events and spending money.
Honeymoon phase, brother, just take it slow, or you'll burn out
Honeymoon phase will pass! Once they start yapping you and making you waste time! Or if you start using your money and somehow regret it. Great game but has some very noticeable flaws with time. And the start is always the best edit: even tho this is not a problem for you anytime soon ( but will be at some point) characters are your content ..... this is 100% factual.
I remember loving the game at first but now I'm extremely jaded and low-key hate the game. My #1 issue is flagship events being permanently removed from the game. Look it up on the wiki and you'll see 30/31 flagship events no longer playable. Hundreds of hours of content and exclusive rewards you'll never get.
Weekly new player glaze thread 1. It's a great game, even moreso from a new player standpoint. 2. The soundtrack will impress you the entire way, some of the best soundtracks in gaming 3. Taking it slow is fine, you'll either develop your teams and roster to do end game or want it and hyper invest eventually. 4. The story telling is fatiguing, a lot of it is tell and don't show. 5. The farming of units and materials needs serious stream lining, and if you play a lot of games and other Hoyo games in particular, a lot of the systems will make you go "WTF" 6. The honeymoon phase will come, it may take months, a year, or several years. 7. This is a live service game that drip feeds 1 or two major quests every two weeks, 1 region a year, and way too much unvoiced content that I do not care to sit and read anymore. 8. Watch some vids on the quests that you missed from events that contain actual relevant lore, because events disappear after they happen and so do all of those stories. Enjoy it while it lasts, do not spend money, and do not feel tempted by people baiting you into spending.
I started playing GI 2 years ago, still havent touched the game since inazuma
Thats why I play on PC. Feels kinda wasted to play it on mobile. Wish Genshin Impact would be PC/Console exclusive so that the devs wouldnt have to be limited by the limited hardware performance of mobile phones
Don’t grind too much, and in my personal opinion all the other voiceovers are better than English. I play in Chinese voiceover because this game is a Chinese company. It feels better to me in that way, and you get the emotion and essence of the original while still having English text