Genshin Impact 3.4 Review
First and foremost, Happy Lantern Rite! If you’re new to Genshin Impact or a veteran, I hope you all enjoy the ten whole Intertwine Fates! With that out of the way, let’s get down to the nitty-gritty.
Genshin Impact 3.4
The third annual Lantern Rite returns in 3.4 from January 19th until February 6th. So not only do we get primogems and fun new games like paper theaters, and a parkour-inspired game called Radiant Sparks; but we also get sailing challenges and combat challenges! A new login event called May Fortune Find You runs alongside the Lantern Rite, and this will give you 10 Intertwined Fates! And that’s not the only login event: from February 6th to February 9th, if you log in during those days miHoYo will give you Intertwined Fates, Fragile Resin, and other rewards via in-game mail.
Lantern Rite doesn’t stop there either. The entire event is in Liyue, so we get Liyue characters in the limited-time banners. Like last year, we also get a 4-star of our choice that’s from Liyue.
Second Blooming will run from January 31st until February 13th. You’ll form tag teams, almost like in the Spiral Abyss; but unlike in the Spiral Abyss, a chosen character from the previous team can appear in the next round. Characters can be set as “Linked” and gain damage bonuses as well as Elemental Energy bonuses. So think carefully about who you choose to be your “Linked” character. From this event, we will be able to get Lisa’s new Sumeru-inspired outfit for free.
Warrior’s Spirit is an Inazuman event that will run from February 9th until February 20th. In this event, you’re set up in a tournament, but you won’t be able to use elemental abilities. You’re not allowed to use elemental skills, this event will give you a parry system. Time it right and you’ll take a huge chunk of your opponent’s health. There is also a new thing called “Spirit”, so instead of popping your ultimate after your energy has recharged it, you’ll accumulate Spirit and deal damage. But since this event doesn’t allow any elements, anyone can show up to test their metal against yours, and use the same Spirit to attack.
Now, if you’re saving for Hu Tao or Yelan, there are more events to come. Almighty Arataki Extraordinary and Exhilarating Extreme Beetle Brawl will be like Genshin Impact’s very own Street Fighter but with Onikabuto! You’ll be able to control your own Onikabuto by making them attack their opponent or dodge to avoid damage. There is a stamina bar though, so don’t just smash buttons! This event will last from February 16th until February 27th.
And finally, as a last-minute surprise, miHoYo will throw an Overflowing Mastery event on February 20th until February 27th. Like the Overflowing Leylines in 3.3, we’ll get double the drops in talent level-up domains.
It’s not just events that come out though, Genius Invokation TCG got a card update and a new game mode. Klee and Beidou character cards are added through the Cat’s Tail duel board. The new game mode is called Heated Battle Mode; in this game mode you’ll no longer be rolling for Elemental Dice, instead, you’ll get 8 Omni Dice directly.
Thoughts on 3.4
I’ll start with phase 1 banners: When I first heard Alhaitham was going to be released, I was excited with everyone else. Then, I got to play him. I hate to go down the line of everyone’s jokes, but he’s Dendro Keqing, but male, has a green vision and is from Sumeru. Sure, he’s good in Nilou/Aggravate/Burgeon teams, but I already have Tighnari in my roster. I don’t feel as if he’s going to do too much more Dendro damage than him; if it is its niche. So, I wasn’t too keen on pulling for him. I set my sights on Xiao because I missed him too many times already and had his weapon from a 50/50 I had lost.
Now onto the rate-up 4-stars. We’ll go down the line and start with Xinyan. Let me tell you my eyes twinkled at the thought of a C6 Xinyan, but that’s because I have her built as a main physical DPS. Not everyone goes down that route because of her defense/attack split. So I understand why a lot of people were not happy when they saw she got a rate up instead of Chongyun.
Next is Yun Jin. Great support for newly added Ayato players from the last patch. If you want your Ayato to have more attack speed, get a Yun Jin on your team. Easy to build, a great buffer, and she’s a decent shielder.
Finally, we have the newest Liyue 4-star, Yaoyao. MiHoYo teased her way back in 1.3 during the very first Lantern Rite. Boy, we were all severely disappointed when she didn’t debut with the rest of the Liyue team.
Yaoyao at first feels like a greedy healer: having to be on the field to do any healing. But when I played with her a little bit: she heals people off the field during her Elemental Burst. Her Elemental Skill is where the majority of her healing will go, but if you’re in a co-op party, don’t expect her to heal you to full. Think of her as a combination of Kokomi and Bennett: Kokomi will heal everyone in the party upon Burst, but she needs to be on the field. For Bennett, he stops healing around 70% of your health, giving an attack bonus instead. (Instead of an attack bonus, Yuegui the bunny will do Dendro damage.)
The one downside that I have with Yaoyao is that it seems like her kit is split, but not like a Xinyan or Bennett split. At C6 Yaoyao gains a 75% increase in Dendro damage based on her attack. Sounds good on paper, if you want her as a Dendro DPS. However, if you want her as a healer, she scales off of HP. She also has Energy Recharge issues, so everything that I had previously said gets thrown out the window if your ER is too low to proc her Elemental Burst.
Overall, she’s very cute, I love her animations as the first small character with a polearm.
Before I get to the new quests and the map, there are some new fun discoveries I found. Not only were the teleports updated to let us know if they were underground or not, but we also got new emotes! I spent a little too long scrolling through each of them, giddy over the new Layla ones.
With characters out of the way and fun new small updates, onto the map. I already completed act 1 of Sumeru’s desert quest with Jeht; all I had to do was jump on over to the new area. I loved the desert in 3.1, but I love this place more. It’s fractured and raw with many fissures cracking the land. However, my excitement came to a halt: this map is possibly connected to one of the longest, most tedious, questlines. I had a sneaking inclination that 90% of the map would be locked behind that world quest. But, I ignored my feelings and ran for the new boss.
This boss is by far the most annoying one yet. It spends at least 80 years of its life underground (like the Ruined Serpent in the Chasm), and you can’t smack it. It has 60% Anemo resistance, so don’t be like me and bring Xiao or Wanderer.
You’ll be able to do the most damage to it once it starts ascending into the air. The boss will have many Anemo bullets that will attempt to attack you, but you can swirl them to knock the enemy out of the sky. If you swirl with these bullets, you’ll also obtain the new achievement He Who Controls the Spice… and net 5 primogems.
Setekh Wenut drops ascension materials for Alhaitham and most likely future Sumeru characters.
A whole new map means more chests and new puzzles. Do you know what that means? More Dendro Sigils. We can finally upgrade our Tree of Dreams from 30 to 40. A new map also means more Dendroculi, but from the looks of things, we’ll only be able to level up the Statue of the Seven to 9. Both of these suggest we have one more area of Sumeru to go before we can fully ascend the statue and the tree. The new puzzles make me dizzy though; I know Sumeru is the land of Wisdom, but I didn’t think I’d be having to join the Akademiya to solve these.
To wrap things up and without spoiling too much, so far the world quest “The Dirge of Bilqis” feels like the quest prior. Going back and forth from temple to temple, getting lost, and delving deeper into the sands; finding out more about Jeht and King Deshret. We do meet a hot new NPC named Babel though, so all is not lost.
In Alhaitham’s new story questline, we’re following him around during an investigation. He single-handedly was able to knock Paimon down several pegs while also figuring out the mystery the moment we spoke to him. His heartbreaking story quest is one of my favorites, right up there with Nahida’s and Ei’s. Overall, his personality and interactions with Kaveh made me laugh.
That’s everything to tell about 3.4; Genshin Impact’s most exciting update to date. See you all in 3.5!
This was a good read and glad I sat with you during the event to see it live and reading through everything just narrowed it down as a good update. Great job!