Genshin Impact | 5.2 Special Program

[calamarik]

Nah, I don't wanna spend anything anymore on these bannners. I'm gonna wait Xiao, I want to make him C6. I have it on C4, wish me luck!

[Mr EliteL]

Oh dang another player! Cool you have C4 Xiao, I don't have him at all on any of my 3 servers. I probably won't ever get him now either, same with Itto and Lyney because I just don't want them. Neuvilette and Xianyun are another two I don't have but still unsure but I've chosen not to pull for Xianyun. However I did a random 10 pull and got Gaming which I actually don't mind using him for some reason after building him because I had his materials.

How far and what AR rank are you, calamarik?

[Moonface]

I'm assuming most people know this is happening already but if like me you hadn't seen the news yet, there's going to be a Genshin Impact Version 4.5 Update Special Program on March 1 at 4:00 a.m. PT / 7:00 a.m. ET / 12:00 p.m. GMT.

Anyone have any hopes/predictions/knowledge/etc. for what'll be in this next update?

[Mr EliteL]

I'm trying to not spoil myself anymore so apart from the odd darn recommendation I get on YouTube so I see an image of rumours that might happen, all I only knew of was Chiori but that was confirmed just before the 4.4 update arrived. Anyway watching the program now, so I'll go ahead and do the usual;

4.5 Special Program

Redemption Codes:

1. DAKTDBWTZTYR
   
2. AT3BDSWTYBKD
   
3. 5TKAUAWAGBJR
   

What's New:

• Chiori (5* Geo Character Sword user)
  
• 5* Weapon Uraku Misugiri (Sword)
  
• Chiori Story Quest
  
• TCG Update: Neuvilette, Charlotte, Kirara, Electro Cicin Mage cards will be added
  
• New Event Wish Banner - Chronicled Wish
  You can set whether you would like a character or weapon which will make the 5* guaranteed as either, further details to come in an official announcement.
  
• ~Featured Characters: Eula, Klee, Albedo, Mona, Diluc, Jean
  
• ~Featured Weapons: Skyward set, Aquila Favonia, Lost Prayers, Song of Broken Pines, Wolf's Gravestone, Beacon of the Reed Sea, Hunter's Path
  

Version Specifics: 

• Phase 1 Banners - Chiori & Itto
  
• Phase 2 Banners - Neuvilette & Kazuha
  
• Flagship Event Alchemical Ascension - manage an alchemy potion shop, earn event weapon Dialogues of the Desert Sages (Polearm) and other rewards
  
• Feline Fortress Furrdyssey event - set up homes for cats and interact with them
  
• Rolling Crossfire event - Control a turret to shoot at Slimes
  
• The Great Fayz Reaction Debate event - Combat domain with a special feature to help out
  

QOL Changes: 

• Talent menu can now view the requirement upgrade materials below talent descriptions
  
• Training Guide, unlocks for AR12 players who have completed the quest "Welcome to the Adventurer's Guild"
  

---

Well dang them events look like such a bore actually. Why Trial characters for the Fayz event again, I just want to use my own so I hope the trial character are optional like they used to be instead of mandatory like the Triumphant Frenzy was this 4.4 patch. I suppose I'll still do them though, my NA needs more Primogems to continue my savings. I'm currently on something like 270-280 pulls since 4.0 when I tried to get Yelan but ran out just before soft pity guarantee for her and haven't wanted anyone new since then.

Might get Chiori on my main but I'll see, I have a pretty good full artifact set for her so that's a little incentive to but it matters on how she feels in her trial or what others find out about her. Then again I said wasn't going to get Xianyun but won 50/50 on my EU F2P for her just because I felt like it. Good to use for travel, I'll see how she does when I get more of her talents levelled.

The new Wish, I wonder if it'll replace the current Standard banner then the Liyue characters from there get their own banner plus a few more, though Tighnari and Dehya's weapon is in that Chronicled Wish. Or perhaps it's an Event Wish Banner that changes/alternates each patch so 4.6 will have Keqing, Qiqi, Tighnari, Dehya and two others then 4.7 is back to Chronicled with Jade weapon set instead of Skyward set. I just hope this uses the blue Fates instead but if Standard stays I can see it's going to be Intertwined.

[Dragon Lord]

New banner won't likely replace the Standard because it sounds like the new one will use Intertwined Fates (at least according to the image is specifically says "Event Wish", which should indicate that it uses Intertwined), so it's going to come down to whether or not you want to spend on new limited characters or have the chance to get specific characters/weapons from the new banner. I do like that the pity on the new banner will be a little nicer when going for a specific weapon, as you'll be guaranteed the weapon you choose after only one 50/50 loss instead of the chance of losing two 50/50s before being guaranteed it. I'm also happy to see them bring weapons like Tighnari's Bow and Dehya's Claymore to the banner, as neither of them have been available after those character's initial banner runs. In the end it'll likely be more for whales to make use of than F2P or light spenders, because as I mentioned, you'll have to choose between spending on these new banners or going for new limited characters that release.

I was interested in Chiori until more news of her kit and play style started to come out. She originally was believed to be an off-field Geo sub-DPS like Albedo (but much stronger) that would pair up perfectly with Navia, but now as it turns out she's dependent on Geo constructs being on the field to summon her doll (her second doll is locked behind her first constellation, which is a pretty big dick move on Hoyo's part) and every Genshin player knows that Geo constructs normally last about two seconds on the field in a boss fight before being destroyed by the boss, so that makes her kit sound extremely unreliable. Shame too because I like her design and dual swords (it's just a shame that her second sword is just a generic looking one and doesn't mirror whatever sword you have her equipped with), but she's sounding like a pretty big skip right now. I'll wait until the numbers people and deep divers have a chance to play around with her and see what she can really do before I make my final judgement though. I'll probably have enough to guarantee C1 by the end of her banner, so if it turns out that C1 fixes all of her issues and she CAN work with Navia that way, I might go for it.

Shame that I skipped Xianyun for her though, because now it's sounding like Xianyun would have been the better character to go for.

Events seem to be the usual recycled events from previous versions of the game with some slight changes. Hopefully they won't take too long to clear for the easy Primos. Been liking that a lot of events lately have cut down on the dialogue from some random NPC before being able to do them, hopefully Hoyo continues down that path. Let me just get my Primos and get the damn thing over with. Don't need 30 minutes of why this NPC needs to do this experiment in some domain to afford a sandwich for lunch.

I love that the new character guide system will just straight up tell players that their characters suck and need to be built better.

[Mr EliteL]

Yeah it seems that Standard will remain which is fine. I forgot to consider the other requirements for the limited characters so perhaps they'll be doing it either every patch with a new lineup which will likely include select standard 5* characters, or once in a while patch. We'll see. I'm also glad it's just 1 loss this time and it also keeps the wish count, if it didn't then it would instantly be a useless banner. 

Oh right the announcement for the details, hold on...ah there's an FAQ. In that it says the Chronicled Wish will be available "from time to time" so I'm taking that as not a permanent banner, even though there's 7 in the criteria and 8 more when they become available after the period of "recent Event Wishes" is over, I'm going to guess this could mean 3 updates worth for the period as that's about or just over 4 months time. Then I'll take away Archons for obvious reasons, Hu Tao and Yelan as they sell well, and maybe Ayaka. That leaves Childe, Ganyu, Kokomi who are ready for the next Chronicled, then Ayato, Cyno, Yoimiya who'll easily be added later then Yae Miko and I suppose Xiao unless they really do leave him for Lantern Rite only every year, or just allow him to have a second run here. So if they do it like it then every other patch a Chronicled could be likely. Also to lessen players whining about too much choice and not enough primogems/Fates for pulling, but if they still do well they'll just have to do the other alternative, go get some Genesis Crystals. Perhaps an Archon version of this will eventually come around too.

Haha...ha yeah the Training Guide. Can't wait to see it tell me that because I don't usually use artifacts most people use or well I kind of do. More like half are on at least one of their recommended set (e.g Ganyu Wanderer's or Blizzard, Hu Tao Crimson or Marechausse, Noelle Husk or Marechausse), or I just simply don't go meta way, or I tried to but the artifacts I grinded for suck so had to use something else, or like my Raiden's Emblem is garbage because the domain hates me. Took me ages to get my main Yelan on Emblem (my EU F2P still isn't but is managing on Hydro+HP), also just got my main Yoimiya on Shimenawa who was previously on Echoes (my EU F2P Yoi has been on Shim for a long time though), so I'm still trying for Raiden...since her freaking first banner too.

[Mr EliteL]

4.6 Special Program

Redemption Codes:

1. WTKBMBD8ZZRZ
   
2. EAKA5BU9HHRM
   
3. 9B3AMTCQZYQ9
   

What's New:

• Arlecchino (5* Pyro Polearm user)
  
• 5* Weapon Crimson Moon's Semblance (Polearm)
  
• 2 new Artifact Sets - Fragment of Harmonic Whimsy & Unfinished Reverie
  
• New Area: The Undersea Capital, the Lost Homeland
  
• World Boss: Statue of Marble and Brass
  
• Weekly Boss The Knave (accessible through Arlecchino's Story Quest or Trounce Domain)
  
• Arlecchino Story Quest Act I
  
• Cyno Story Quest Act II, Sethos appearance
  
• TCG Update: Shinobu, Faruzan, Abyss Herald: Wicked Torrents, Emperor of Fire and Iron
  

Version Specifics:

• Phase 1 Banners: Arlecchino & Lyney
  
• Phase 2 Banners: Wanderer & Baizhu
  
• Flagship Event: Iridescent Arataki Rockin' for Life
  
• Windtrace: Seekers & Strategy
  
• Specially-Shaped Saurian Search
  
• Vibro-Crystal Applications
  
• Overflowing Mastery
  

System Optimizations:

• Serenitea Pot: Quick Obtain function for Replicas and missing Furnishings from Furnishing Sets, Discounts for certain Furnishings and Blueprints plus increase of purchase limits of some items, optimization of Create Furnishing module, increase maximum number of Creation Queues, filter and search function for Furnishing and Blueprints, optimization of Realm music interface
  
• New Profile Avatar images
  
• Treasure Compasses improved, shows chest markers on map and mini-map
  

---

Wow so no Furina Act II, we get Cyno instead and Arlecchino will not only come as the playable character but the Weekly Boss too. I was wondering who or what it would be and because she wasn't being a threat in the Archon Quest it might not be her but what else is there other than springing another random out of nowhere boss like the whale again. If only her scythe was her playable weapon but I suppose the polearm looks similar or just not without the blade part of the scythe. 

Anyway, I'm not interested in getting Arlecchino, Lyney is a skip and so are the other two for me. Same with the Flagship Event, screw that it has no appeal whatsoever and Windtrace which I avoided before isn't for me either. Bye-bye sweet Primogems for those. I'll do the other two events though when they prop up. Will just do dailies, explore a bit in the new area and do the quest there, face Knave for the boss drops and play other stuff in the meantime waiting for 4.7. Where's even the Dainsleif Interlude quest, Clorinde and Siegewinne taking ages to show as well.

[Moonface]

Something that gets me is that for as big as this game is, I saw absolutely nowhere mention that a 4.6 Special Program had even been announced and only knew one had happened because of EL's post above. Even websites that cover a lot of Japanese games and/or actually covered this program don't seem to have posted up front when 4.6 was airing. Just seems odd when a game this big would be an easy traffic maker.

[Dragon Lord]

This patch might be the absolute biggest pile of trash Hoyo has shoved in our faces. Not only are the characters running terrible (Arleccino will unfortunately still sell because she's overhyped by the Genshin content creators), but they also dare insult us by not giving us Furina's next character quest, and instead dig to the bottom of the trash heap to give us a part 2 for Cyno?! Get outta here with that crap, put Cyno back in the dumpster with Itto where he belongs.

Speaking of Itto, they then go on to insult us even more by not only giving us an Itto related event yet again, but then they have the audacity to pile on Windtrace on top of it? Get out of here Hoyo, time for Genshin to EoS (/s).

Yeah, this patch is an easy ignore. Get the primos for shit and then that's about it. Nothing good about this one. Hope 4.7 ends up being a godly patch because this one is a huge yikes.

[Moonface]

...they also dare insult us by not giving us Furina's next character quest, and instead dig to the bottom of the trash heap to give us a part 2 for Cyno?! Get outta here with that crap, put Cyno back in the dumpster with Itto where he belongs.

I tried using the Wiki to figure out an answer but didn't get much luck; is there something that logically dictates Furina should get a new character quest over any other characters on the roster? The most I've gleaned is she had a lot of focus in 4.0 and 4.2.

[Mr EliteL]

Archons tend to get two Acts for their Story Quest during their nation's focus, the only exception being Venti but as there were two Archons in version 1 Liyue was the main focus so Zhongli had two Acts. Furina was portrayed as the Archon for Fontaine going so we assumed she's get two like Zhongli, Raiden and Nahida did in their version .2 and .6, each coming with the second Weekly Boss so Hoyo broke their pattern. It was already absent for 4.6 so it was possible it was just delayed. I was thinking Natlan would be the nation to possibly change as it's the one before Snezhnaya, the recent patches have been nothing but filler since 4.2 really.

[Dragon Lord]

Yeah, Elite pretty much got it all. This was supposed to be part 2 of Furina's story quest, instead we get part 2 for a huge nobody in Cyno, which doesn't make any sense to me.

Instead we are being given yet another Pyro Polearm character who will just be inferior to Hu Tao, re-runs for some of the games worst characters, and two events that are going to push a lot of players towards alcoholism. That being the event with Itto (the most annoying character in the game that Hoyo for whatever reason insists on shoving down our throats every couple of patches) and the always god-awful Windtrace (a hide-and-seek like game that is horribly balanced and just a general huge waste of time).

Honestly, at this point I have to assume they want to make Genshin look bad so that Honkai Star Rail continues to look so good in comparison.

Also, I knew that Arleccino would be playable due to leaks from way back, but man I am so sick of Harbingers constantly being painted in a positive light and becoming our friends in this game. Out of all of them so far, we've only gotten to see ONE of the "bad guys" get killed, and it wasn't even the Traveler who killed her. I was to actually beat the shit out of and kill the villains, not constantly hug them and become such good besties.

Wanderer I could forgive because they actually came up with a story reason for why he became the way that he did, and Childe was always described as a bit of a wild card. I swear to god if we don't get to actually kill/see the death of Dottore (the harbinger who fucked things up in Sumeru and lore-wise has down extremely horrible things) I'm going to throw Genshin straight into the trash bin. If they actually pull a way to 'redeem' him out of their asses, I'm done.

[Mr EliteL]

I'm starting to think they want to make Harbingers playable to make money for all the people who "simp" them which seems to be too many that I've seen in comments across sites (YouTube, Twitch, Hoyolab, etc), starting to see comments that are even saying we'll surely get a Dottore clone to be playable or Capitano is guaranteed to become playable, where the heck are you pulling that from exactly?! I really hope not, I do want Harbingers to be interesting characters but don't just make the majority be playable and let at least half get the treatment Signora got. So far we have 3/5 who've we encountered so far are playable, and 1/5 has been off'd so it's not looking good, bah.

I like Dottore but as a villain only because I so want to finally watch him go down. Capitano's meant to be one of the strongest so hope we also get to take him down too either in Natlan or later. Pulcinella has Childe in the palm of his hand, so if he begins to threaten Childe's family to make him act against us more seriously or something, or that pushes Childe to turn on Pulcinella/Harbingers giving us a reason to kill either depending on the situation. Then there's Pierro, Pantalone, Sandrone and Columbina...there's only Natlan left to Snezhnaya so it's running out of time to fill them all in plus the Tsaritsa. I can just see Columbina being playable, unless Natlan is has a lot less filler patches and brings more story to encounter more Harbingers, or perhaps some will be left after confronting Tsaritsa and Pierro. We can still have a summer event to slow things down and relax, or perhaps the Summer event will be a good time to have the Harbingers try and stop the Traveler from reaching the region.

There's been quite a lot of attention for Arlecchino's release, seems to be a bit more than there usually is for a new character, although I have liked what I've seen I'm still not pulling both because I'm low on Primogems and I want to spend more time with my other Pyro DPS's (Hu Tao on main, Yoimiya on my EU F2P, Yanfei on my NA F2P after I got Lost Prayers). Ridiculous people keep saying Hu Tao will be powercrept by Arlecchino, she's still one of my go-to characters it won't make her obsolete, they'll just be on par.

Ah, also we have these three coming in 4.7:







I wonder which will be 5-star or 4-star. Probably Clorinde 5, the other two 4 but Sigewinne could be 5, or all three as Cyno is 5 and Sethos seems to be his equal. I don't care for Sethos though so not bothered what he is, it's the other two I'm curious about.

[Moonface]

Genshin: "May I copy your homework?"
Bloodborne: "Sure but don't make it too obvious."

Like really if you color swapped her whole outfit palette into dark grays and blacks she could sit on the chair of Lady Amelia of the Astral Clock Tower.

[Dragon Lord]

Yesss, finally Sigewinne drip marketing. Leaks have gone back and forth for months on whether or not she'll be 5-star or 4-star, but the most recent leaks state that she's likely to be a 5-star, and they better be true. We need another 5-Star adorable bundle of cuteness in our lives.

Been waiting so long for her and if they make her 4-star I will riot.