Genshin Impact version 2.4 brings grand celebrations and a mysterious new area to Teyvat

Greetings, Travelers! It’s a great honor for me and the entire dev team to walk you through Version 2.4 Fleeting Colors in Flight, the first update of 2022 coming on January 5. As New Year is also approaching in the world of Teyvat, we’d like to invite you to Liyue’s Lantern Rite. Join Shenhe, Yun Jin, and our old friends in rebuilding the Jade Chamber, and gain rich rewards including 10 Intertwined Fates and a free four-star Liyue character of your choice.

To add to the excitement, beneath the still waters around Watatsumi Island lies a new realm. Sealed away for thousands of years, the now-awakened Enkanomiya calls out for a hero.

Rebuild and Rejoice at Lantern Rite

As the biggest annual festival in Liyue, the Lantern Rite is a time for people to gather together to honor their heroes and embrace the future with their best wishes. On the day of the festival, the night sky of Liyue Harbor will be lit up with thousands of Xiao Lanterns released from every household, followed by a grand fireworks show.

The bustling streets of Liyue will once again be lined with a variety of vendors and stalls, bringing a host of new festivities to those celebrating the holiday. You can try your hand at making sparkling fireworks or participate in the popular lantern riddle-guessing event.

In addition to the grand celebrations, the Jade Chamber will also be given a new lease of life at this time. This magnificent airborne palace was destroyed to defeat the ancient god and sea monster Osial during the past Archon Quest. As Ningguang and many others are busy reconstructing the Jade Chamber, you can also pitch in to help retrieve lost items. Some can be salvaged with the Waverider, while others need to be retrieved from the Treasure Hoarders. You can hunt down elite Treasure Hoarders in their encampments, or intercept their transport balloons that are transferring supplies at sea.

Reconnect with the People in Liyue

Among those rebuilding the Jade Chamber, you will meet our new characters Shenhe and Yun Jin, as well as many old friends in Liyue. Some also get a new look with the upcoming update.

Often mistaken as an adeptus, our new five-star character Shenhe actually comes from a family of exorcists. However, Shenhe had been raised by Cloud Retainer as her disciple at an early age, and she does not understand the intricacies of human relations nor the ways of the world. In combat, Shenhe wields the power of Cryo and a polearm. She can summon a Talisman Spirit and become a strong support to boost the team’s damage. Both Shenhe’s Elemental Skill and Elemental Burst can help her party deal increased Cryo damage. With her Elemental Skill and Passive Talent, you can further choose to boost all nearby party members’ Elemental Skill and Burst damage, or their Normal, Plunging, and Charged Attack damage.

Our next new character Yun Jin is a four-star Geo polearm user, and she can be a strong support to those who favor Normal Attacks. Her Elemental Skill can shield herself and charge up for a more powerful strike. Her Elemental Burst will cause AoE Geo DMG and grant all nearby teammates a Flying Cloud Flag Formation, boosting their Normal Attack based on Yun Jin’s Defense. Meanwhile, the buff provided by the Flying Cloud Flag Formation can be further increased if you have a variety of Visions in your party. To better portray Yun Jin as an opera master, we’ve invited Peking Opera Artist 杨扬 (Yang Yang) to voice her opera performances, alongside excellent voice actors of different languages to deliver her dialogue in daily life.

Shenhe and Yun Jin will be available in the first Event Wish, coinciding with Xiao‘s Event Wish. Zhongli and Ganyu will each have their own Event Wish open in the later stage of Version 2.4. To recruit more Liyue characters, complete certain requirements during the Lantern Rite and obtain one of the eight four-star Liyue characters including Yun Jin for free.

In addition, Ningguang’s new outfit Orchid’s Evening Gown can also be redeemed for free during the Lantern Rite. Keqing’s new outfit Opulent Splendor will be on sale with a limited-time discount.

Revealing the Truth Behind Enkanomiya

Travelers who’ve visited Watatsumi Island may have heard of an underwater nation that has been sealed away for thousands of years. Legend has it that the ancestors of the island lived here before moving to the surface under the leadership of Orobashi, the serpent god who was later slain at Yashiori Island. You can obtain the Key of the Moon-Bathed Deep with Shrine Maiden Tsuyuko and explore the ruins of an ancient civilization that is older than any other ruin you can see on land.

Unlike the other islands in Inazuma, Enkanomiya is a huge floating island located beneath the ocean. Though located on Teyvat, the depths of Enkanomiya are somehow disconnected from this world, constantly eroded by the Abyss. Deprived of sunlight, there was no day or night in Enkanomiya until the rise of an ancient civilization. Using advanced technology and help from Orobashi, the people of Enkanomiya created an artificial sun, Dainichi Mikoshi, which lit up the dark depths.

Clues to this lost civilization are buried in the ruins of the abandoned library, shrines, laboratory, and the city’s remains. As you delve into the depths of Enkanomiya, the transition switch between day and night through Dainichi Mikoshi is the key to solving many puzzles. Also, beware of Bathysmal Vishaps and the new Abyss Lector on your quest. Bathysmal Vishaps are extremely dangerous predators living in the dark waters. Pack members hunt together and can take advantage of their surroundings in combat. The Abyss Lector: Fathomless Flames can unleash Pyro attacks that deal delayed bursts of damage regardless if characters are shielded or not.

Optimizations and More

Before we conclude the sharing for Version 2.4, we would like to inform you that we have been improving Genshin Impact’s performance on console. With Version 2.4, you can customize the keys on the shortcut wheel of your controller.

Since Version 2.3, we’ve also introduced a new technique to achieve softer shadows, which we hope will bring a more realistic visual perception and immersion in the game world. Soft shadows provide important cues about the distance between objects. When an object is further away from another object that its shadow is cast on, its shadow becomes softer and blurrier. For example, when sunlight falls diagonally across a door frame on the ground, the darker shadow cast by the door frame becomes lighter and softer as it extends to the further end. The distant tree casts an even blurrier shadow on the ground.

Last but not least, we’d like to express our deepest gratitude to those who’ve been with us in the Lantern Rite last year, as well as to all of our new players who have just arrived in the world of Teyvat. We look forward to spending another year full of exciting adventures with every one of you!

* This article was originally published here