Genshin Impact (PC/PS5/PS4/NSW/iOS) - Open-World Action RPG - 2020

[Vaspinne]

As of now I have yet to hit a "you gotta pay to keep playing" wall. It's setup in a way (as far as I can see atm, someone correct me if I'm wrong) where you only pay if you want to pull on better gear or new playable characters more then they already let you through just playing the game. I've also been able to do over 50 pulls in 3 days of playing and gotten some new characters and a couple 4 star weapons so far, no 5 star though.

Story for what I've done so far is pretty typical for a fantasy/magic world based RPG. And up until rank 21 the grind has been minimal but I've also been doing tons of exploring and sidequests and a couple dungeon runs too outside of the main story.

Also the game is totally free. Like, haven't even asked me for a payment option. Just check it out if you have the time and if you like it, you like it lol

[Karbuncle]

I'm 90% sure I've done at LEAST 80 pulls. When I hit rank 20 and unlocked the BP, I Had the "Wish 50 times" Achievement already done, and I know I've done at least 2-3 More pulls since then. Kinda getting peeved, my next pull should be a 5* I think... or theres a separate pity for Basic summon and Banner summon, in which case RIP

[Lucavi]

Does gear exist outside of paying? If I go in a dungeon and open a chest or beat a boss, what do I get? Is the only way to progress in strength to pull a slot machine?

[Karbuncle]

I've gotten weapons as world drops, and you can craft up to 4 Stars I know that, I have not seen any 5* weapons in the world yet.

Artifacts, however, which make up 5 of the 6 Equipment slots (the 6th being a weapon) are only obtained as World drops, from dungeons or bosses. The vast majority of your gear progress is from content.

[Lucavi]

Gotcha.

[Vaspinne]

Yeah tons of gear drops from enemies and chests in the world.

All gear also has a level up system too, artifacts just straight level up for stronger affects. Weapons can level up, but also be refined (which is basically taking multiple copies of the same weapon and combining them together)

[Andalusian girls]

Just check it out if you have the time and if you like it, you like it lol

free time is a bigger barrier to entry than $$$$$$$ but yuh sounds promising i'll give er a go

[Takiwaki]

I like this, but have some gripes that I hope they patch. Ranking up takes way too fucking long as you get past 20. Also there is no reason to group, you invite someone to your party and they get no chests rewards and cant share quests. It would be great if I can party up with someone and grind out rank since this is the most boring part. At the moment that is not a thing. I am pretty sure later on harder fights and challenges will be worth grouping as it def makes fights much easier. Also its a shame you cannot group for spiral

[Katlan]

nvm. woops!

[Kachiko]

So a few things to address, from the last few comments:

• Playing the game earns you Primo gems, which can be redeamed on any banner, called a Wish. There are also items that let you pull wishes on certain banners, called Fates. Interwined Fates are used on rate up banners, like Venit's, and the Acquaint Fate are used on the Standard Banner. The Rate up banner has a 90 pull pity rate, but as soon as you pull a 5*, that counter resets. This "pity" counter doesn't exist on the Standard banner, so that's why pulling on the Standard Banner, is not recommended.
• When you purchase currency, you get something called Genesis Crystals, which can be used to buy certain weekly/monthly bundles, and convert 1=1 to Primo gems, and is how you buy wishes.
• There are weapons in the banners, but the game lets you craft 4* weapons, though there's a heavy grind for those. 3* equipment rains down and is just fine, by and large.
• Your main source of power is artifacts, and those are avaialble mostly as drops and sometings 4* quest rewards, and is your main grind to get more power. You cannont purchase these.
• The only pay-wall you may run into is Abyss Spiral, which rests monthly and gives you Primo gems for how far you can clear + other goodies. This is where the hard content starts showing up, but nothing in it is required to experience the game, and where paying money will show some real difference. The game gives you the 8 characters you need, to participate in Abyss, and playing long enough, you'll get strong enough to eventually clear it.

This is by and large a single player game. You can team up to fight the elite bosses, regular domains (dungeons) and if you spend your stamina, you'll get rewards, based on your worlds AR level, but you're not going to get any random/puzzle/challenge chests unless your in your world. Feel free to grab other players resources though. >__>

[Malithar]

Still progressing, but having a good time. Got lucky with the free 10 pulls they gave today for 10 mil players and pulled my first 5* character, Mona. I dunno about other 5*s, but she brings a lot of utility. Her dash is an invulnerable state where she (incorrect, can still be hit, but guess your hit box is just on the ground, so easier to dodge) turns into water and skirts along the ground at a higher speed than normal dashing. Can get hung up on random objects on the ground, but you can't go flying off an edge when dashing either. It pulls double duty and lets you sprint along water too, but I've drowned a couple of times pushing that too far, since you pop out of sprint and instant drown due to no stamina. XD Combat wise, she's hella nice for AoE clearing stuff and playing off of other AoE element attacks.

Few minor complaints:

-Prolly base PS4 showing it's age, but frame rate has been iffy sometimes. There's a big delay with grabbing stuff off the ground. I'll have to sit there for 1-2 seconds sometimes before the prompt to pick up even shows. Had my first hard crash a bit ago, but that was like 15~ hours in.

-Won't be an issue at higher levels as stamina boosts kick in, but stamina drain when sprinting feels like it goes by way too quick. You can scale a mountain with ease, but you're lucky to make it 30 yards sprinting.

-I really wish they'd allow you to have an 8 person party. Early on when you get guest characters, they have the UI setup to swap to a 5th, and space for 3 more. It's annoying to have a party of 4 setup, then you come across an elemental flower or enemy that needs the element you don't have set.

-I feel like the tutorial/UI tips are lacking in some areas. There's some stuff that you aren't told, such as the different map markers, some stats like friendship levels, etc.

Overall, minor complaints at best. Game is fun, and unlike a lot of other F2P games, it's not up your ass asking you to open your wallet.

[Karbuncle]

I like this, but have some gripes that I hope they patch. Ranking up takes way too fucking long as you get past 20. Also there is no reason to group, you invite someone to your party and they get no chests rewards and cant share quests. It would be great if I can party up with someone and grind out rank since this is the most boring part. At the moment that is not a thing. I am pretty sure later on harder fights and challenges will be worth grouping as it def makes fights much easier. Also its a shame you cannot group for spiral

My biggest gripe right now is the Drop-In CoOP experience as well. For what its worth, you can grind adventure rank together, but only by farming Bosses/Leylines/Anything that uses your ResinStamina. I want so very much for them to add some form of co-op quest progressions, just so I can play with my damn friend group without feeling wholely useless. This is easily balanced by you only getting quest rewards one time, so if you're done with the quest you're just helping but if you both have it active you can both complete it, easy as pie.

Now, honestly, I understand to some extent why collecting chests and shit aint a thing, theoretically you could just create sock accounts, drop in their world, loot all the chests and shit, and bam easy farming... Thats my guess on why you can't loot other players chests and don't get rewards from it. Other avenues, however, I wish they'd fix up when it comes to CoOp, mostly what I mentioned above. Group progression would be tops, maybe lock it behind Rank 25 or something so by that point you've done most of your map progression and theres no cheesey shit, idc, but just make it happen.

Regardless a lot of the Co-Op experience is in the dungeons afaik, or anything with Resin-Based Stamina costs. We just haven't got there yet.

And finally, I second the "Ranking up takes too damn long" sentiment. Its downright tedious, but I assume thats because there is no "Real" endgame right now and this gives them time to put that shit together, rather thats right or wrong is whatever, but I get it.

[Gokulo]

FPS is wonky even on PC, but I think I saw someone mention the game was made in Unity, so that would explain it

And yeah, I also agree with party size or at least some shortcut to switching parties - my usual setup doesn't have geo in it and it's needed from time to time, either for puzzles or mining harder ores (since my geo is the maid with big club)

[Drai]

Finally finished getting all the Anemoculus and Geoculus, did that Nine Pillar quest also and got the 5* Artifact, shame it's a flower and not a feather or something with %ATK on it, but it'll do.

AR28 right now, gotta grind a bit more then do the next set of Archon quests D: been awhile since I actually LIKED grinding in a game lol

[Gulkeeva]

Haven't had any FPS issues/crashes on PC, runs pretty smooth at 4K/max/HDR

Each character has a special trait, the ice sword guy you can get reduces sprint stamina usage and amber fire archer reduces gliding stamina for example.

[Karbuncle]

[*]Playing the game earns you Primo gems, which can be redeamed on any banner, called a Wish. There are also items that let you pull wishes on certain banners, called Fates. Interwined Fates are used on rate up banners, like Venit's, and the Acquaint Fate are used on the Standard Banner. The Rate up banner has a 90 pull pity rate, but as soon as you pull a 5*, that counter resets. This "pity" counter doesn't exist on the Standard banner, so that's why pulling on the Standard Banner, is not recommended.

IF you hit "Details" on the generic Banner, it still has the 90-pull Guarantee text clause in it though? I'll read it more carefully

Edit: I just went to double check, the Wanderlust Invocation (Generic Banner) has the 90 pull guarantee text in it. You sure pity don't exist for standard?

Feel free to grab other players resources though. >__>

My friend dropped in on me, ecstatic he could mine my Crystals and White Iron lol. He needed them badly for crafting.

[Prothescar]

FPS is wonky even on PC, but I think I saw someone mention the game was made in Unity, so that would explain it

And yeah, I also agree with party size or at least some shortcut to switching parties - my usual setup doesn't have geo in it and it's needed from time to time, either for puzzles or mining harder ores (since my geo is the maid with big club)

They are adding a hotswap hot key for parties in 1.1. In fact they're adding a lot of things that improve the game in 1.1 (tentatively, some of this might change before release which is expected before the end of October) :

"minor" changes
-hot key to swap between party presets outside of combat
-when you reach level 9 on a God statue, remaining oculi will be marked on your map
-new daily sources of energy for dungeons and leylines (can get some from the adventurer guild every day at 12pm and 6pm)
-can disable climbing transparency if you confirm you're over 18 to view waifu pantsu

"major" changes
-3rd continent, Inazuma. Need to be rank 35 to finish the current storyline and move on.
-gacha is getting reworked. This is the most likely part to see adjustment before the pioneer test ends though. Current plan is to pull the pity timer down to 50 (from 90) and fundamentally change how pulls work from there. Every 10 pull will guarantee a 4* unit selector (so you can choose any 4* you want) and a 4* weapon. Every 50 pulls (pity) will guarantee a 5* unit selector and a 5* weapon. These 5* selectors may only be used on banner units and expire with the banner you pulled them from so only pull if you really want the current units.
-as a result of these changes, the current plan is to send every player a number of 4* and 5* selectors equal to the number they would have pulled by now if these systems were in the game. So if you have pulled 150 times you will get 15 4* selectors and 3 5* selectors. Again, this can all change during the pioneer test.

[Karbuncle]

I remember reading about some fake 1.1 Leaks on the reddit a few days ago, man I hope those aren't it cause those sound nice.

[Prothescar]

Could be fake, could not be. Well know in a week or so when we get the English pioneer notes

[Malithar]

Maybe I've played FFBE too long, but I'm left wondering what's the catch with those notes. I'm waiting for the abusive turn that makes the game hard P2W.