Genshin Impact came out of nowhere in 2020 as one of the most popular free-to-play RPGs of that year. What at first was somewhat brushed off as a Breath of the Wild clone quickly drew in players to its unique and addicting world. Being free, as well as available on PlayStation, PC, and even mobile devices helped Genshin Impact become one of the most popular and profitable games of that year. Despite the game featuring a gacha system some found exploitative and annoying, for the most part the reception to this bright and stylish game has been very positive.
Nearly a year later, after many smaller content additions, updates, and improvements, Genshin Impact has reached its full 2.0 release. This update is by far the most impressive the game has seen yet, with tons of new additions to sink even more time into. If you took a break from the game, or just haven’t been following the news closely, it would be hard to keep up with everything new in the game. Here’s everything new in the Genshin Impact 2.0 update you need to know about.
Further reading
- How to get started in Genshin Impact, the massive F2P open-world RPG
- How to unlock characters in Genshin Impact
- 5 ways Genshin Impact is better than Breath of the Wild
New Region: Inazuma
From the very beginning, we knew that the world of Genshin Impact was far larger than what we were given to explore. Teyvat, as it is called, has seven nations, but until this update we were only able to visit Mondstadt and Liyue. Now, with the 2.0 update, a third nation of Inazuma was added. This nation is loyal to the Electro Archon Baal, and is made up of six primary islands: Narukami Island, where the capital Inazuma City is located, Kannazuka, Yashiori Island, Seirai Island, Tsurumi Island, and Watatsumi Island.
Considering how much there was to do in the first two regions, Inazuma is a massive addition to the world. We’ll go into more on what we might do and things we can get there later, but in terms of scope, the game has essentially grown by around 50%.
Two new bosses to seek out on this area are the Perpetual Mechanical Array and the Pyro Hypostasis.
New Characters and story quests
In terms of new characters to earn, there are technically only four added. However, three are five star ranked, and the other four star, making them all well worth seeking out. Plus, as usual, we can expect plenty of more characters to join the game as the team has shown no signs of slowing down on adding them. For now, though, this update brings the total character count up to 37.
Kaedahara Kazuha is a five-star ranked sword using character, Kamisato Ayaka is a five-star Cryo sword user, Yoimiya is a five-star Pyro archer, and Sayu is the four-star Anemo claymore wielder. For now, we know that two characters will have story quest lines to play through. Kamisato Ayaka has a dedicated story quest you can dive into focusing on her being the daughter of Yashiro Commission’s Kamisato. This quest will open up once you spend the keys required upon hitting Adventure Rank 26 and reward you with a Sakura Mochi recipe, around 60 Primogems, Hero’s wits, and more.
Yoimiya likewise has a story quest you can tackle as well.
New Quests
This update marks the start of Chapter 2 of the Archon Quests for Genshin Impact, which you may have already completed the prologue for. The first act, called The Immovable God and the Eternal Euthymia will become available to anyone at or above Adventure Rank 36. Act two, called Stillness, and Sublimation of shadow, along with act three, Omnipresence Over Mortals, are expected to drop later on.
This questline will focus entirely on the lore and politics of the new Inazuma region, specifically with their relation to their Archon Baal. In total, the amount of World Quests in the game will increase to 32.
New Events
The developers of Genshin Impact have already given us a glimpse at what events, both old and new, we can look forward to in the 2.0 update. Here’s a breakdown of each event they mentioned, as well as what they are. For now, we don’t know when any of them will start, nor how long we will have to complete them.
- Thunder Sojourn: Muzhen, the Chief Technical Officer of the Alcor, needs help from experienced adventures. Players will be able to participate in traversal and combat activities like Bolt Blitz, Lightning Round, Weaving Lightning, and Automaton Front.
- Phantom Flow: Players will be tasked with defeating “all manner of powerful enemies using the world’s gentlest martial art, Shinryuu.”
- Theater Mechanicus: Stage of Wonders: Theater Mechanicus has been expanded and is making a return to Inazuma with more unique content.
- Lost Riches: Treasure-Seeking Seelie makes a return as players team up to find new treasure across the land. You need to have completed the “Ritou Escape Plan” quest prior to being able to do this event.
- Ley Line Overflow: Using Original Resin to make Blossoms of Wealth and Blossoms of Revelation and earn Mora.
Also, Inazuma is home to a one time domain, along with regular ones, called the Empty Boat of A Thousand Gates, which is puzzle focused.
The other new domains include:
- Domain of Forgery: Flowing Sand
- Domain of Mastery: Violet Court
- Domain of Blessing: momiji-Dyed Court
- Domain: Shakkei Pavilion
- Domain: Formation Estate
Gardening
For all the gathering and collecting you do in Genshin Impact, you will now have a way to grow some plants yourself using seeds you purchase in your very own Serenitea Pot. This will make collecting the especially rare ingredients a bit more reliable than hunting for them all out in the wild, as well as building up specific ascension materials. To start your own little garden, you will need to get yourself a Seed Dispensary, the specific seeds of the plant you want to grow, and the plotland of the seed. The Seed Dispensary is given to you by Madame Ping. Depending on what seeds you plant, you will need to wait a different amount of real-world time to see them grow and harvest them.
New weapons and artifacts
Here’s the fun stuff. Brand-new weapons and artifacts have arrived to experiment and make new builds with in 2.0. Takashi, a brand new blacksmith in Inazuma has new, regional specific weapons for you to craft. There are seven to start with, with two being five-star rated and the rest four star. The five stars are the Thundering Pulse, a bow, and the Mistsplitter Reforged, which is a sword.
The four-star weapons are the Hamayumi bow, Amenoma Kaguechi sword, Katsuragikiri Nagamasa claymore, Kitain Cross Spear polearm, and Hakushin Ring catalyst. These weapons hit almost as hard as their names are to pronounce, so get to work forging all of them. Just make sure you’ve collected enough Billits in advance, which are required to make all of these weapons.
In terms of artifacts, only two new ones are here to start.
First is the Emblem of Severed Fate, which is a five-star set that focuses on recharging your energy. Here’s how it breaks down depending on how many pieces you equip:
- Two-piece set — Energy recharge +20%
- Four-piece set — Increases Elemental Burst damage by 25% of Energy Recharge with a cap of a 75% bonus damage.
Second is the Shimenawa’s Reminiscence, also five stars, and is more offensive.
- Two-piece set — Attack +18%
- Four-piece set — When casting an Elemental Skill, if the character has 15 or more Energy, they lose 15 Energy and Normal/Charged/Plunging attack damage is increased by 50% for 10 seconds
Cross-save
While not as flashy or tangible as new quests, characters, or items, Genshin Impact finally getting full cross-save support is still a major addition to the 2.0 update for a lot of players. Specifically, PlayStation players had to suffer having their accounts locked on their platform up until now. Thankfully, PlayStation, PC, and mobile players can now carry their progress between all these platforms through one unified account.
The only potential downside here is that for this feature to work, speaking to PlayStation players specifically, you cannot have already created a new account on either mobile or PC using the same email address that is linked to your PSN account.
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