For many Genshin Impact players, the expectation was for this week to be quiet. We are in the final few days of Yoimiya’s banner, most in-game events have finished, and most Travelers are just passing the time until update 2.1 arrives on September 1. However, Mihoyo has kept fans interested with sneak peeks into how the upcoming five-star character Aloy will play. We’ve also seen some discussion in the community about balance issues with Yoimiya and a distinct lack of enthusiasm about the game’s upcoming anniversary events. Here’s what you may have missed.
The biggest news regarding upcoming content centers around a reveal of Aloy’s gameplay and skills. As part of a collaboration with Sony, Horizon Zero Dawn’s Aloy is coming to Genshin as a five-star cryo bow user and will be free for PlayStation users on September 1, while PC and mobile users can enlist her skills once patch 2.2 hits in October. This week we finally saw a glimpse of her skills and discovered unique information about her constellation.
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In a trailer unveiled at Gamescom, we see Aloy firing a bow before throwing what appears to be a freeze grenade. There’s no firm confirmation of how these moves work as yet, we just know that they appear to be cryo-based moves with stackable buffs. However, the trailer suggests that the grenade may potentially be able to freeze enemies without needing a hydro applicator, which could be a game-changer.
A follow-up Q&A revealed that you can gain companionship EXP and a few other expected perks like name cards, but Aloy won’t have a constellation. In many ways, this is to be expected since the character will be given away for free to all players. However, it does mean that her abilities won’t scale in the usual way.
While Aloy’s arrival is still a few days away, many voices in the community are calling for adjustments to the current banner character Yoimiya. Theorycrafting has shown her to be coming up short in a number of areas and fans of the pyro bow character are eager for her to get a Zhongli-style buff so she doesn’t get permanently benched like fellow pyro bow user Amber.
Complaints include issues with survivability and auto-targeting, as well as an over-reliance on support characters. Underwhelming five-star characters are something that was previously seen when Zhongli was first released. In that scenario, he was buffed but it took two patches to get his character to the stage it’s at now. It remains to be seen if Yoimiya will be adjusted in a similar way, especially since Mihuyo has not yet addressed the complaints.
Gripes about characters weren’t the only ones circulating this week with many players also expressing disappointment over the planned anniversary events. So far, the only details we have are that an in-game event will offer log-in rewards including primogems and the team has also planned a free online concert to celebrate the game’s music.
On a lighter note, fans were also wowed by cosplayer Josafat Chrisdianto who has made an incredibly detailed ruin guard costume that even has lights and moving parts.
Now that you’re up to date the only thing left to do is start saving those wishes for Baal, whose banner lands with patch 2.1 on September 1.
Next: Genshin Impact Online Concert Will Commemorate Its First Anniversary
