A long time ago, in the summer of 2022, when the cast of playable characters from Genshin Impact‘s then yet-to-be-released region of Sumeru leaked, I took one look at the line-up and committed right then and there to pulling just one – Dehya, whose name, rarity, Elemental type, weapon type, skills, and abilities were all unknown to me at the time. She was just a “tall female” character with what looked like cat-ears protruding from her head (we now know that’s just how her hair bunches up in the back), but I knew from the moment I saw her that I would burn through all my hard-earned Primogems for her.
Dehya | attackofthefanboy.com
For me, it came down to the fact that Dehya was the first (and for a while the only) character from Sumeru that we knew for sure had brown skin…although brown, in this case, is arguably only relative to the other characters from the region, who have an even more blindingly pale complexion than those from Mondstadt (the region of Teyvat inspired by Renaissance-era Germany). I am sure this came as no surprise to many, but I had not long been playing Genshin Impact at the time of those leaks and when I had inquired as to why there were only two dark-skinned characters in the entire game, I had been assured by other players that “in Sumeru, there will be diversity!”, so I was deeply disappointed to realize that HoYoverse wasn’t even being subtle about their egregious colorism, the use of orientalist stereotypes in their designs, and the general appropriation of SWANA (Southwest Asian and North African) cultures in their worldbuilding. To this day, they have not officially addressed any of these issues, and that is in no small part due to a fandom that aggressively suppressed the backlash with harassment and abuse.
As a result, I have only pulled for a single five-star character from Sumeru – Cyno, who I ought to clarify is probably only brown-skinned by Genshin Impact‘s very low standards. He’s lighter even than Dehya. In my pursuit of Cyno, I successfully obtained several copies of Candace, currently the darkest-skinned of the three non-white playable characters from Sumeru and – by a total coincidence, I’m sure – the only one that’s a common four-star unit obtainable for free through the permanent Standard Banner, immediately making her less desirable to the majority of Genshin‘s player-base due to her lower base stats. But even Candace is light in comparison to Xinyan, a four-star character from Liyue who released near the start of the game (who just so happens to be my Main DPS and the only character I’ve ascended to Level 90).
Well, now the first drip-marketing for Dehya is finally here, and – despite her already being light-skinned, as I mentioned earlier – HoYoverse felt the need to brighten her official artwork to the point where she essentially appears white, although we know for a fact that her in-game character model has a significantly darker skin-tone. I can’t say I’m surprised, because they’ve done this before with Genshin Impact and their other games, but I will never not be disappointed when they attempt to advertise their few brown-skinned characters as lighter-skinned than they are in the hopes that players will be more incentivized to pull for them.
Dehya | pockettactics.com
I will not be going over Dehya’s leaked kit and playstyle in detail at this time, as that information is currently subject-to-change anyway. If you’ve played the Sumeru Archon Quest, you already know she wears a Pyro Vision on her belt, and carries a claymore. That’s pretty much all I can say, but I can tell you that the leaks are out there if you want to get a clearer idea of the role Dehya plays for her party and start farming the Ascension Materials she’ll need (not all of which, I will warn you, are yet available to us). If you’ve seen the leaks, I urge you to at least be considerate in the comments below for those who haven’t and don’t wish to be spoiled.
As for Dehya’s role in the story of Genshin Impact, I don’t expect her to have that much lore significance, but that’s not an issue for me. I honestly appreciate that there are smaller-scale character stories woven throughout Genshin Impact that keep us firmly grounded in the human drama unfolding across Teyvat even as the conflict between the gods becomes cosmic in scope. I only hope that Dehya’s Story Quest brings back the fan-favorite NPC Dunyarzad Homayani, Dehya’s employer and closest confidante (and the other half of Dehyarzad, the most popular fan-pairing involving Dehya). Those two had terrific chemistry in all their scenes together, and I need more of their adventures now that Dunyarzad is presumably recovering from the effects of Eleazar and itching to explore the world.
The four-star character set to be released alongside Dehya in Version 3.5 is Mika, a cartographer from Mondstadt whom I’m sure I will obtain several times over despite the visceral loathing I have for his bland design and grating personality (if you don’t recall, we were introduced to Mika in Version 3.1 during a limited-time event, and he was so awe-struck in the protagonist’s presence that he basically hid behind Kaeya the entire time…mind you, this boy is a fully-fledged Knight of Favonius and a member of Grandmaster Varka’s expedition to Snezhnaya who apparently interacted with the high-ranking Fatui Harbinger Capitano). Again, his kit is out there if you want to take a look, but you’ll probably get him through the Standard Banner eventually, whether you want him or not.
Mika | gfinityesports.com
So how are we feeling about the drip-marketing for Dehya, and which of these two characters do you intend to add to your team in Version 3.5? Share your own thoughts, theories, and opinions, in the comments below!
SPOILERS FOR ALL GENSHIN IMPACT ARCHON QUESTS AHEAD!
Four Archon Quests deep into the overarching narrative of Genshin Impact, a couple of patterns have started to emerge. It’s pretty much a given at this point that in each new region we visit, our slowly meandering protagonist (who just wants to find her/his sibling and leave the world of Teyvat forever) will begrudgingly grow attached to a new group of characters all destined to be playable as we come together to try and prevent our common enemy, the Fatui Harbingers, from capturing the Gnosis of that region’s respective Archon. Each and every time, the situation escalates out of control and eventually requires us to put our life on the line for the people of Teyvat and their gods, and each and every time, the mission fails because at the last moment the Archons only ever halfheartedly try to stop the Fatui (to be fair, if we ever stopped to question why that is, we might realize that they’re not the bad guys in this story, but our self-righteous protagonist has a hard time comprehending that anyone they don’t get along with is a good person).
Lesser Lord Kusanali | oneesports.gg
But while we fail more often than not at whatever it was we originally set out to do, letting the Fatui slip through our fingers with another Gnosis in their possession, there is something we’ve learned from all our encounters with the Archons and interactions with their subjects in three of the four regions – namely, that gods are intrinsically unfit to govern humans, and it’s only by moving forward without them and their impossible ideals that Teyvat can adapt to overcome the challenges it now faces. I don’t believe it’s merely coincidence that the Traveler’s journey began in Mondstadt, the one and only region in Teyvat whose respective Archon willingly stepped down hundreds of years prior to the events of Genshin Impact to ensure he would never become a tyrant, or that in Liyue, we helped the Geo Archon fake his own death so he could do the same for his people.
In Inazuma, the transfer of power was not peaceful – but only because the immovable Electro Archon turned out to be a semi-sentient yet emotionless puppet whose programming physically prevented her from allowing any change to occur in Inazuma. Once we got through to the real Electro Archon, Ei, who had been cooped-up for centuries meditating on the meaning of “Eternity”, we very quickly convinced her to step in and put a stop to the strife she had inadvertently caused in a misguided attempt to keep her people safe from her own intense emotions. In her second Story Quest, Ei agreed to come out of isolation entirely and rule Inazuma alongside her puppet, imparting with her what she now believes wholeheartedly; that the nation and its people can change over time and still last forever. That being said, the two of them act as a line of defense against existential threats while Inazuma’s internal affairs are now managed primarily by regular humans and youkai belonging to the Tri-Commission.
But in Sumeru, Genshin Impact bucked the trend entirely. Here, our protagonist’s intention is not to help a god abdicate, but to install a god on the closest thing Sumeru has to a throne. This seems to go against everything else the game has to say about gods and their dealings with humans, and it’s bewildering to me that more people aren’t talking about what it means – not just for Sumeru, but for the regions of Teyvat we haven’t yet visited, like Fontaine, Natlan, and Snezhnaya. First thing’s first: let’s take a closer look at what really happened in the Sumeru Archon Quest.
Sumeru, prior to our arrival, was a nation in desperate search of a god. Their current Dendro Archon, Lesser Lord Kusanali, was a mere child in god-years who had barely grown in strength and wisdom over the last five centuries, concerning her citizens and particularly the sages of the Sumeru Akademiya, who fondly remembered a time when the original Dendro Archon, Greater Lord Rukkhadevata, effortlessly kept her people safe from all manner of threats. In every corner of Sumeru, worshippers of an ancient deity named “King Deshret” had started popping up, prophesying his imminent return and eagerly looking forward to the overthrow of the weak Dendro Archon. But in the heart of the Akademiya itself, the sages were hard at work designing a god of their own – a being far stronger than the Lesser Lord Kusanali, powered by the Electro Gnosis stolen from Inazuma by the Fatui Harbinger Scaramouche, who volunteered his mechanical body to be this new god’s vessel.
Scaramouche Boss | gamespace.com
Ultimately, the sages had to be stopped – if left to their own devices, they would have surrendered the care of Sumeru to a god beyond their ability to control, all while Lesser Lord Kusanali languished in a cell, incapable of protecting her people from the obvious machinations of the Fatui. A civil war between King Deshret’s worshippers and the Akademiya loyalists would have been inevitable, thousands would have died, and the nation would have tumbled into chaos, until the Akademiya itself was weakened to the point where they would have no choice but to bow to their new god’s every order. Sumeru would have become a vassal-state of Snezhnaya, and the Fatui would have gained the accumulated knowledge of the Akademiya without shedding a single drop of their own blood.
So we collaborated with Lesser Lord Kusanali to stage a coup in the Akademiya, round up the corrupt sages, and defeat Scaramouche. It was an excellent plan, and we would have pulled it off without a hitch if the Fatui Harbinger Dottore hadn’t been waiting on the sidelines the whole time, waiting for the last possible moment to swoop in and steal both the Electro Gnosis and the Dendro Gnosis, which Lesser Lord Kusanali traded for the immediate destruction of Dottore’s small army of clones and information regarding the “false sky” of Teyvat, respectively. Satisfied, the Fatui departed Sumeru, leaving Lesser Lord Kusanali to pick up the pieces and begin reassembling a deeply-divided Akademiya.
That’s where my problem arises, because that’s the situation in which we leave Sumeru, with Lesser Lord Kusanali governing the region from her position of power in the Akademiya – a prison no longer to this most indefatigable deity. It is nowhere stated, suggested, or even implied that this is to be a temporary situation, or that Lesser Lord Kusanali intends to step down at any point in the future. The Traveler believes (for reasons I think I understand, and will elaborate upon in a minute) that she will mature into a competent Dendro Archon despite her lack of experience in pretty much every scenario, and sure, she proves time and time again that she listens attentively to all her peoples’ prayers…but she’s also the first to admit that she still doesn’t fully understand human emotions, and she doesn’t know when or whether she ever will. I fail to see how even a benevolent god with good intentions can rule Sumeru the way its people deserve when the message that Genshin Impact has sent in every previous Archon Quest is that gods inevitably make mistakes and mortals always pay the consequences. It’s not like there weren’t plenty of other candidates for the job, including all the uncorrupt sages at the Akademiya (Tighnari’s master being one of the most notable).
Irminsul Tree | pcgamer.com
What’s worse, the people of Sumeru have very little say in the matter. Upon defeating Scaramouche and the corrupt Akademiya sages, the Traveler and Lesser Lord Kusanali took steps to ensure no such internal threat would ever arise again by venturing deep into the pulsating heart of the Irminsul Tree, which contains all of Teyvat’s accumulated data from its past, present, and future. There, we encountered the faint remnants of Greater Lord Rukkhadevata, Sumeru’s first Dendro Archon, who had been waiting patiently for us to come along and help her erase herself from Irminsul completely. The Traveler, being an outsider to the world of Teyvat, is soon the only person who remembers Greater Lord Rukkhadevata, while the rest of Sumeru is deluded by Irminsul into thinking that Lesser Lord Kusanali was always the Dendro Archon, and that the sages were guilty of committing treason against their god.
In essence, the Traveler has eradicated every challenge to Lesser Lord Kusanali’s reign not because she’s the rightful leader of Sumeru (that claim could potentially be disputed by King Deshret, if ever he returned, but we trusted Lesser Lord Kusanali and the Akademiya sages without hesitation when they told us he was dead), nor because she proved she was the most qualified person for the role, nor even because the people of Sumeru told us they wanted her (but we “corrected” their memories, so that’s no longer an issue)…no, everything we did for her, we did because our protagonist decided for us that she was our best friend after first meeting her. And while the Traveler is certainly capable of making mistakes, this decision of theirs is not framed as one within the story, and the fandom certainly doesn’t seem to see it as one. People assume Lesser Lord Kusanali will be a good Dendro Archon because they like her character.
And that’s fine, by the way. But it’s been bothering me for weeks now that the Sumeru Archon Quest seems to set a precedent for our protagonist going around forcibly suppressing the memories of the people without their knowledge (much less their consent), rather than actually addressing the root cause for their discontent and working to change the unsustainable status quo in each region, as we’ve done in the past. In particular, I’m thinking of the Eremites, King Deshret’s loyal worshippers, and how the persecution they endured for hundreds of years (all of it perpetuated by the Akademiya, mind you, and in the Dendro Archon’s name) is swept under the rug so that they will accept Lesser Lord Kusanali as their god without argument: actually helping them is far from a top priority for the Traveler, and that responsibility is shifted onto the character of Cyno by the end of the Archon Quest.
Aaru Village, home of the Eremites | pcgamesn.com
In the most recent Archon Quest: Interlude, Inversion Of Genesis, the Irminsul Tree is tampered with yet again, this time with the effect of erasing all memory of Scaramouche. Every mention of that name, even voiced lines of dialogue, have been removed from the game entirely. The lore surrounding Irminsul is all very interesting, don’t get me wrong, but the act of altering Irminsul is already a lazy plot-device that I want to see less of going forward (the easiest solution to this problem was already foreshadowed in the Winter Night’s Lazzo trailer).
But I’m getting way off-topic. Back to Lesser Lord Kusanali, I do have one theory (that, believe it or not, came to me in a dream) for why we helped her take control of Sumeru without any caveats – a theory which I believe could also provide clues about the three Archons we have yet to meet, and their eventual fates. Bear with me here. The seven Elements personified by Archons in Genshin Impact are Anemo (air), Geo (stone), Electro (electricity), Dendro (plant-matter), Hydro (water), Pyro (fire), and Cryo (ice). You need only skim through this list to recognize that the outlier is and has always been Dendro, Lesser Lord Kusanali’s Element. Where the other Elements are inanimate and incapable of changing without external pressure, Dendro is alive. Crucially for my theory, Dendro is capable of growing, of adapting to different conditions on its own, of evolving and changing.
See where I’m going with this? It makes a great deal of sense to me that the Traveler, as the only person in Teyvat capable of wielding all seven Elements, would know that growth and adaptation are fundamental aspects of the Dendro Element (not only in real-life, but in Genshin Impact‘s gameplay as well), and would therefore know that Lesser Lord Kusanali will adapt to become the Archon her people need because it is her Element’s natural inclination to do so. I can’t actually confirm this is the case, but looking back at the free-spirited Anemo Archon, the old and stolid Geo Archon, and the shockingly violent Electro Archon, it wouldn’t be the first time an Archon’s Element has dictated their actions and personality on some level. And I doubt it will be the last.
Very soon, our travels across Teyvat will take us to Fontaine, a land presided over by the Hydro Archon, Focalors. We know from Lesser Lord Kusanali’s description of her that, like any body of water, she can be unpredictable and temperamental at times; but it may be because she’s especially susceptible to the gravitational pull of a celestial body hovering directly above Fontaine (that would be Celestia, a floating city inhabited by the suspiciously silent gods who originally put Focalors and the other Archons in power). My theory is that the raging tides within Focalors will only be calmed when Celestia is finally unmoored, whether by us, by the Fatui, or by a maddened Focalors herself. Beyond that, we know nothing for certain, but the Pyro Archon erupting before having to be extinguished and the Cryo Archon’s cold, dead heart being thawed by some demonstration of love both sound like safe bets to me.
Raiden Ei, Lesser Lord Kusanali, Venti, and Zhongli | dotesports.com
This simple theory can ultimately only justify the Traveler’s choices in-game, and perhaps help us understand their reasoning for deciding which Archons have to go, and which can stay – it doesn’t make me feel any better about the fact that even a single Archon will remain in power at the end of the day, and it doesn’t necessarily allay my fears that HoYoverse will muddle the themes of Genshin Impact‘s story. But hopefully now that I’ve gotten this off my chest, I won’t have to stay up at night scouring the internet trying to find any discussion of this topic, only to have my most convoluted search-terms produce zero results, because now this post will be out there. If anyone has similar feelings on the Sumeru Archon Quest, I encourage you to elaborate on what I’ve written here and share your own thoughts, theories, and opinions, in the comments below!
My fellow Ittorou shippers, our time has finally come.
What’s that? You thought I’d start off by talking about the long-awaited gameplay preview for Scaramouche, who graces the thumbnail of the Genshin Impact Version 3.3 trailer (above)? Well, if it’s commentary on Scaramouche’s redesign and unique gameplay mechanics that you’re looking for, allow me to redirect you to a post from earlier this month where I went over most of the information that was only officially revealed in yesterday’s Special Program, including what I would consider to be a far more concise description of his Elemental Skill than what was offered on the livestream, which got a little bogged-down with ornate names for everything under the sun. Seeing as that post has not yet been outdated by any new information from the game developers, there’s actually not too much more to say about Scaramouche – I mean, besides the fact that he’s getting his own Archon Quest, apparently. Don’t worry, we’ll go over all the details in due time.
Arataki Itto
But first thing’s first, and the thing in question is Ittorou – which I suppose is its own kind of ornate term, so let me explain. “Ittorou” is the nickname for a popular queer ship in the Genshin Impact fandom that involves the characters of Arataki Itto and Gorou. The one is a Geo on-field Main DPS, the other a designated Geo support, and they are apparently both at their best when played alongside each other (I wouldn’t know, having never gotten my hands on a copy of Gorou, despite him theoretically being the easier of the two to obtain as a four-star character). They debuted simultaneously in December 2021, and Gorou has only ever received a drop-rate boost on Itto’s limited-time banners; in fact, he is likely to reappear on a banner next month when Itto gets his second rerun. Yet despite their obvious synergy, they’ve never interacted onscreen.
Until now, that is. For the main Event of Version 3.3, Akitsu Kimodameshi, characters from all over Inazuma have been invited to participate in a “test of courage” organized by the Yashiro Commission…and the trailer confirms that Itto, Gorou, Heizou and Yoimiya are amongst the champions hoping to venture into Chinju Forest on Narukami Island, where malevolent spirits roam under the cover of eternal darkness, and come out the other side unscathed both physically and mentally. Now, as much as I hate to see my favorite characters suffer, just think of the potential interactions we could see – Itto cowering behind Gorou at every strange sound, Gorou leaping into Itto’s arms in a moment of weakness, Gorou’s fur bristling and Itto trying to comfort him by patting his head like a dog. Even though we know damn well that MiHoYo has no intention to put any of its characters, straight or queer, in canonical relationships, they’re giving me what I want, which is a canonical basis for the very much non-canonical fanfic I intend to consume in massive quantities after the Event.
And to be fair, despite never having interacted with each other previously, Itto and Gorou are already about as blatantly queer-coded as the male characters in Genshin Impact can get (it’s a very different situation for female characters: although they’re just as unlikely to ever state that they’re queer, it’s no secret that Jean and Lisa, Ningguang and Beidou, and Ei and Yae Miko are more than just extremely close friends). The reason fans started shipping Ittorou in the first place is because Itto has a voice-line where he talks about the warm, fuzzy feeling that he gets around Gorou, and also because he has a massive crush on Gorou’s alter ego, the advice columnist “Ms. Hina”, who is depicted on posters and standees as Gorou wearing a dress. But we still don’t know how Gorou feels about Itto, so this new Event is sure to be very illuminating in that regard.
As an additional incentive for participating, one of the limited-time rewards obtainable through the Akitsu Kimodameshi Event is a new weapon named the Toukabou Shigure, technically classified as a sword but more closely resembling an umbrella with a claw-like handle, a leering mouth, and a single eye. The weapon’s distinctive design is based on depictions of the Kasa-obake, a type of yōkai or demon, found in Japanese art and literature dating back to the Edo period. And looking at the amount of research that went into this one weapon, I can’t help but again be reminded of the stark difference between how MiHoYo lovingly takes inspiration from Japanese culture when expanding the region of Inazuma and its accompanying lore, and how they grabbed a bunch of random, orientalist stereotypes of Southwest Asia and North Africa when it came time to do the same for Sumeru.
Kaeya posing with a Tanuki in Chinju Forest
In fact, despite the region still being fairly new, Sumeru and its roster of characters are already being neglected by MiHoYo in favor of Inazuma, Liyue, and Mondstadt, with only one Sumeru-based Event announced for Version 3.3 and no Hang-out Event for the new four-star character, Faruzan, whom I was excited to learn more about after it was revealed during the Special Program that she’s over a hundred years old and knows a great deal of lore pertaining to Sumeru’s desert-dwelling ancient civilization, having spent decades trapped in the ruins beneath the desert. Unfortunately, it’s possible we won’t see or hear from Faruzan until some random side-quest or Event brings us back to the desert, and that could take a while. She was not mentioned in association with Misty Dungeon, a popular Event that will return in Version 3.3 with a desert theme.
Cyno in the deserts of Sumeru
Misty Dungeon first appeared in the spring of 2021 under the title Battlefront: Misty Dungeon, and was so popular it was brought back later that same year as Misty Dungeon: Realm Of Light. This year’s reskinned version of the Event is titled Misty Dungeon: Realm Of Sand, and will take place in Sumeru, but it will still follow the same general concept, requiring players to move through a labyrinth, completing puzzles and timed challenges until they unlock an encounter with a final boss. And it won’t be the only fan-favorite Event making a comeback in Version 3.3 – Windtrace, Genshin Impact‘s version of hide-and-seek for co-op mode, will also be returning with some cool new perks for both hiders and seekers, including giving players the ability to continue participating in the game even after being captured.
And if you don’t share in the nostalgia for Misty Dungeon and Windtrace, well, Genshin Impact has got you covered with Across The Wilderness, a brand-new Event where players run around rooftops capturing balloons. From the description and preview, it looks relatively stress-free, but there’s no doubt that having multiple Anemo characters like Venti, Xiao, Kazuha, and Scaramouche on your team will give you a literal boost while running, jumping, and climbing (if you needed any more reasons to pull for Scaramouche, he’s about to make exploration in this game ridiculously easy).
On that note, I guess it’s time we talked about Scaramouche’s Archon Quest: Interlude, which presumably picks up right where the final chapter of the Sumeru Archon Quest left off, with Scaramouche hidden away at the Sumeru Akademiya in the care of the Dendro Archon and making a full recovery from the traumatic head injury he sustained after falling from the cockpit of his giant robotic exoskeleton (long story). But of all things, an Akademiya inquiry into the events on the island of Tatarasuna leads the Traveler back to Scaramouche and forces the former Fatui Harbinger to begrudgingly sift through his scattered memories and construct a full account of what happened there roughly four-hundred years ago.
Scaramouche getting an Archon Quest in place of a Story Quest is interesting because Archon Quests aren’t optional, so whatever dark secrets are contained in Scaramouche’s backstory, MiHoYo wants us all to know this stuff. The only other characters in the game with that level of personal significance to the overarching storyline, besides the literal Archons of each region, are…honestly, maybe only Dainsleif and Kaeya, and they’re both so integral to the story of Khaenri’ah and its destruction that they literally can’t appear for too long or one of them will inadvertently spoil the game’s ending. I pray that we get a little more time with Scaramouche before he’s put in a similarly awkward position.
Genius Invokation TCG | pcgamesn.com
One more thing before we finish up here: new, completely optional permanent gameplay is coming to Genshin Impact in Version 3.3, in the form of an animated card game named Genius Invokation TCG, but for the time being there are no plans to offer rewards or allow players to track their progress in the game, and it’s subsequently unclear how MiHoYo intends to keep players from growing bored of this after the novelty of challenging friends and random NPCs to duels wears off, as I’m sure it will sooner rather than later. Until I sit down and actually read the rules, my first impressions of Genius Invokation TCG are neutral. Admittedly, I’m a little bitter about the absence of Itto – he literally plays Genius Invokation TCG! How is he not featured on a character card? – but the art and animations are the only things catching my eye in the gameplay preview.
Anyway, what did you think of the Version 3.3 Special Program? Will you be spending your hard-earned Primogems on Scaramouche’s banner, or waiting for another character? Share your own thoughts, theories, and opinions, in the comments below!
Every update to Genshin Impact is immediately preceded by a “Special Program” highlighting all the new features coming to the game in that particular update, as well as anything else the developers might want to share regarding the game’s future – such as the stunning announcement of a Genshin Impact anime series that made last month’s Version 3.1 Special Program one for the history books. Unfortunately, while it was always unlikely that the high bar set by that Special Program would be cleared anytime soon, a string of almost-impossible-to-avoid leaks at HoYoverse have resulted in most, if not all, of Version 3.2’s potential surprises being spoiled for players long before they were meant to be announced, and the Special Program on Sunday suffered from having virtually nothing to add to these leaks.
Scaramouche Weekly Boss | vg247.com
Most egregiously, the unveiling of the new Scaramouche Weekly Boss was met with uncharacteristic apathy from the very same people who have been waiting for this for years – not because it doesn’t look absolutely terrifying, but because footage of this new Boss has been floating around on social media for weeks at this point, giving everyone who’s seen it far too much time to absorb the shock, process it, and move on. And that is a damn shame, because next to Scaramouche, most of Genshin Impact’s six Weekly Bosses look like child’s play. Sure, the Raiden Shogun is difficult (I’ve fought her exactly once, and have no plans to challenge her to a rematch until it’s absolutely necessary), but even she can’t use five of the seven playable Elements against us simultaneously.
Scaramouche, in his final form (or rather, his penultimate form, since it is very likely he’ll become a playable character in Version 3.3 following a name-change, a slight redesign, and the gift of an Anemo Vision), resides within a colossal robotic exoskeleton that hovers in mid-air above the player and is capable of swiftly dashing from one side of the arena to other. This robot, constructed by the corrupt sages of the Sumeru Akademiya with assistance from the Fatui, is powered by Divine Knowledge extracted from the minds of scholars who study the Irminsul Tree (the world tree at the heart of Teyvat, and the source of the Dendro Archon’s power), and is intended to serve as the vessel for a new God to replace Lesser Lord Kusanali, the current Dendro Archon. Ironic, then, that one of the two Elements the robot can’t wield is Dendro: instead, a vaguely bug-shaped drone infused with Dendro Elemental Energy will assist the player throughout the fight, firing missiles at Scaramouche – with the catch being that it requires recharges.
The Elements Scaramouche will be hurling at us include Anemo, Cryo, Electro, Hydro, and Pyro, so plan your own team composition accordingly. And if you’re wondering why Geo is the only Element not represented in this battle, know that I’m right there with you. The Fatui have quite literally been in possession of the Geo Archon’s Divine Knowledge since the final chapter of the Liyue Archon Quest, and now you expect me to believe that they won’t even use it in their attempts to replicate an Archon? I get that Geo is underrated by many players because its Elemental Reactions suck, but I didn’t realize that was the case even in-universe. I almost feel obligated to bring a whole Geo team to this battle out of spite.
Players will have two brand new characters to test against the Scaramouche Weekly Boss in Version 3.2 – Nahida, a.k.a. Lesser Lord Kusanali, and Layla. Nahida, the Dendro Archon of Sumeru, is a five-star character (available only through a limited-time banner) with a bunch of unique qualities: not only will she become Genshin Impact‘s first Dendro catalyst user, she will also be the first catalyst user with the ability to aim her Elemental Skill – a small viewfinder, through which she can mark multiple opponents with a “Seed of Skandha”. Up to eight opponents can be marked at once and they will be linked to each other for a time, meaning that if one marked opponent is affected by an Elemental Reaction (or by the explosion of a Dendro Core), they all take Dendro DMG. This effect is called Tri-Karma Purification. Off the battlefield, Nahida can use her Elemental Skill to quickly collect any natural resources caught in her viewfinder, including flowers and fruits…and scanning over certain NPCs with the viewfinder will reveal secret internal dialogues, which sounds cool and slightly invasive.
Dottore in the Sanctuary of Surasthana | blog.playstation.com
Nahida’s Elemental Burst casts a Court of Dreams around her, within which different effects will occur depending on how many characters of a certain Elemental Type are in your party – for example, having one Pyro character on the team will increase the DMG dealt by Tri-Karma Purification, but having two will increase it even further. She is obviously going to be an excellent character to have on your team, and it’s a shame her design is both terribly boring and (not coincidentally) devoid of any cultural influences from the actual regions that theoretically inspired Sumeru and its characters, or else I would probably have pulled for her when the time came. As it stands, I’ll be saving my Primogems.
The other new character arriving in Version 3.2, an insomniac student of astrology at the Sumeru Akademiya named Layla, is a four-star Cryo sword user with the potential to supplant Diona as Genshin Impact‘s best four-star shielder. Her “Curtain of Slumber”, which forms around her after she falls asleep, creates Cryo shooting stars that multiply every time a character in the party uses their own Elemental Skills – when four such stars have appeared, they will break away from the active character and target nearby opponents. Layla’s Elemental Burst summons a ceiling mobile that hovers above the battlefield, firing off shooting stars.
It was mentioned during the Special Program that Layla would also be at the center of an event in Version 3.2, Fabulous Fungus Frenzy, wherein players will have to capture, name, feed, and train their very own small army of sentient fungi with the aim to collect Primogems and other rewards, including the four-star Electro claymore user Dori. Besides Layla, a character from another nation will apparently be arriving in Sumeru to witness the Fungi battles – and while I’d be overjoyed if it turned out to be Arataki Itto, I have a suspicion it’s either Yae Miko or Tartaglia given that their limited-time banners will be rerunning concurrently with this event.
My most-anticipated Event in Version 3.2, however, is Adventurer’s Trials – a series of diverse and peculiar challenges designed to give players a reason to use characters strategically, for their unique skills rather than for their DMG output. Events of this sort could help to combat the trend amongst higher-level players of using the same four or five characters to brute-force their way through all of Genshin Impact‘s Events and endgame content alike, and that to me is even more exciting than the addition of new endgame content (though Genius Invocation, the competitive card game set to be released in a future update, does sound promising).
In other news, the most noteworthy of several miscellaneous adjustments to Genshin Impact‘s system announced in the 3.2 Special Program is the addition of Serenitea Pot Replication, allowing players to directly recreate their favorite Serenitea Pot designs without the hassle of actually building them. Granted, you can only take what other, more talented or more dedicated players are willing to share with the world, but this is a very exciting feature for amateur architects like myself.
Kusanali | sirusgaming.com
As for the hotly-anticipated Genshin Impact anime, no word yet on when that will air, who will star, or even what the story will consist of – but you can bet that whenever that information is revealed, that will be a Special Program to remember. The events of Version 3.2’s Special Program, however, are likely to be forgotten by this time next month: and that’s even counting the official reveals of the Scaramouche Weekly Boss and the Dendro Archon. What HoYoverse would ideally learn from this is that beating leakers to the punch is essential, but I’m cynical and I’ve given up on expecting them to learn anything from their mistakes. Anyway, what did you think of the Special Program, and what has you most excited for the upcoming version? Share your own thoughts, theories, and opinions, in the comments below!
