Starting Genshin Impact. Am I too late?
Hi everyone, I have a dilemma I’d like to share.
I first learned about Genshin Impact about 3 years ago, maybe 4, and driven by the excitement of getting my hands on a free-to-play game, I decided to try it—and I fell in love with it.
Unfortunately, at the time I was going through a major bereavement, so I didn’t have the mental capacity to focus properly: I never truly enjoyed the game as it deserved, because I tended to do many things hastily and without paying attention, so a lot of mechanics and plotlines remained unknown to me.
Still, Genshin was my outlet and my escape from reality; it relaxed me, and the soundtrack in particular was something I deeply loved. As I progressed through the story, I reached the Sumeru update; after that, I stopped playing.
Today I’m doing better, I’ve regained control over many aspects of my life, and I’d like to start Genshin from scratch using a different account so I can properly learn about the characters, the story and the gameplay mechanics.
However, I’m afraid of falling behind and not being able to catch up with everyone else, thus missing out on the pleasure of sharing and discussing the game’s developments as new updates are released.
So I ask: does it make sense to catch up on Genshin at this point, considering that we’re nearing the end of the story and only the final region is left?
I first learned about Genshin Impact about 3 years ago, maybe 4, and driven by the excitement of getting my hands on a free-to-play game, I decided to try it—and I fell in love with it.
Unfortunately, at the time I was going through a major bereavement, so I didn’t have the mental capacity to focus properly: I never truly enjoyed the game as it deserved, because I tended to do many things hastily and without paying attention, so a lot of mechanics and plotlines remained unknown to me.
Still, Genshin was my outlet and my escape from reality; it relaxed me, and the soundtrack in particular was something I deeply loved. As I progressed through the story, I reached the Sumeru update; after that, I stopped playing.
Today I’m doing better, I’ve regained control over many aspects of my life, and I’d like to start Genshin from scratch using a different account so I can properly learn about the characters, the story and the gameplay mechanics.
However, I’m afraid of falling behind and not being able to catch up with everyone else, thus missing out on the pleasure of sharing and discussing the game’s developments as new updates are released.
So I ask: does it make sense to catch up on Genshin at this point, considering that we’re nearing the end of the story and only the final region is left?
Commentaires
Story-wise you will go through the exact same process a day 1 player did since they didn't remove any quests.
there is noone else to catch up to
we are NOT nearing the end of the story
we have at a minimum one other nation to explore then we arent sure if next part after that will finish with just one more region or not
this is a live service game
6 years ago, they advertised it as the Teyvat CHAPTER
so its expected to continue after that
in some form
maybe new protagonist in a new region
just accept that you can get quite many characters, but you wont get them all
gathering characters is something you do over a long period of time
there is noone else to catch up to
This is normally a good response - but OP has a expressed a desire for "sharing and discussing the game’s developments as new updates are released". For that, they really DO need to be caught up (at least, if they plan to participate without spoiling themselves). So, the OP's question is legitimate. Will people still be talking about it after the game is over?
You answered that concern just fine: as you mentioned, the story is far from over. Even discounting a potential Chapter Two, Snezhnaya is NOT the final chapter - at the very least, we have a Khaenri'ah chapter, and there may be other unknown acts in the current storyline, as well since Khaenri'ah has an unknown Act number.
OP honestly has nothing to worry about. They can play at a comfortable pace and still have plenty to talk about when they finally to get caught up.
Enjoy the game
If you care about character strength, then you should also be okay if you focus on newer units. The new teams, for better or worse, are scaling much higher than previous ones. You can easily get 2 - 3 of the newest characters you like and be at a higher power level.
there are more quality of life changes than ever, you will never catch up with wales, nor do you have to, the story was good before but has improved even more, the community is mostly past the natlan-rage so it's much nicer
in short, great time to start
I'd suggest play through the archon quest and explore the new regions see if it's something you still want to play
Chinese new year, Free Stuff.
So, yeah, start playing now.
the only thing you’ll truly miss out on is that special events are time locked, meaning if you didn’t play them when they were running there’s no option to do so anymore, and you won’t have certain event rewards like weapons, wind gliders, teapot items, or companions that others might have. story wise you’re not going to have crazy huge gaps in the lore for not playing through these or anything, and you can always looks up recaps or summaries on youtube if you’re curious. so it’s not the end of the world, but i do find it annoying, especially as some event weapons are really good and oftentimes the best f2p options for certain characters but now can’t be acquired by new players.
character acquisition and/or meta wise, it depends on what you’re looking for out of the game. if you’re new, you won’t have to think about endgame for a while but it can also be frustrating to feel your account is low power if you care about meta, so it’s a good idea to tune into the current state of things. recently genshin has gotten into the habit of releasing the best characters for a team at very close to the same time if not on the same banner, which can be good for newer players looking to catch up (although bad for more established but f2p players, lol).
for example, columbina and ineffa are a very strong core on banner together right now, so it’s actually a good time to start, and we will most likely start seeing other nodkrai reruns soon. the only potential issues you might face are:
1) if you play through the story and really like an older character and want them on your account, depending on how old it can take forever for them to rerun. and if you’re building a team around them and their teammates are also older, it can take a long time to actually completely acquire said team. they won’t be unusable without their best teammates in most cases but i did find that annoying when i returned. however this is another reason why the current banners are so good for new players, because columbina / ineffa can actually slot well into many old teams and help reduce the dps gap.
2) speaking of dps gap, because power creep is very real older characters might not fit into teams you’re trying to build to face the current content. you should still always pull who you want, but as someone who didn’t start too long ago i often find that i have no real use or justification (from a meta perspective) to get characters i liked in the early story. and i don’t think meta is everything (i usually pull them anyways if i really really like them lol) but with limited resources, how much use you’ll get out of the character definitely plays a role.
note that when i say this, i’m only talking about endgame not the overworld, where virtually every character works. i still “main” a 1.x character and use them often, but it’s sad that i usually can’t use them to clear endgame content. however, we’ve recently seen old characters get relevant buffs, so there’s hope, but it’s still good to think about if you’re into that sort of thing.
The story and sidequests can be done with free characters the game give you and if you play on a daily basis you'll eventually get primos to pull for some character.
Finally, dont even bother in the "end game content" like abyss, theater something or any punching bag "content" because that is meant for whales or sweaty kids
Play at your own pace.
Take it at your own pace. Don’t rush your way through it.
While we are getting close to the last region this is only the Teyvat chapter as mentioned by the devs, so i believe there is still more for us to see in the future
I believe even if you start from scratch right now you will be just fine
I do sympathize, it's one thing to say "take your time and go at your own pace" but then you miss out on going online to squeal about new characters, and discuss the new story arcs with everyone else, compare notes and theorize, etc.
Personally, I'd make peace with spoilers, and trust the story to stand on its own even if you already know what happened. It will still be fun to play through it. Don't worry about the regional details, like what exactly happened with Al-Ahmar or the Saigou Three etc. As long as you know the big picture summary, you'll be able to get online and share in the excitement with everyone. (For example a big picture summary might be, for Mondstadt: >!"Dvalin was attacking the citizens, but we fought and purified him. P.S. Venti is the archon."!<)
Welcome back, and good luck!
Also don't feel overwhelmed by the info they throw at you. You don't need to remember everything since there's a ton of summary videos on youtube which connect the dots for you. So relax and enjoy!
You might not be caught up with Nod-Krai on time, but if you have even a semi free schedule to catch up, you are more than likely to finish it by Snezhnaya/early Snezhnaya (August/September). It’s a LOT of content, but take it at your own pace. You’ll reach the upcoming content eventually, but don’t rush it and regret it later. Enjoy the journey :]
..That being said, if this is an option you’re willing to do, I believe there is a feature to start later Archon Quests even if you don’t finish all of them (post Liyue). Aka like.. if you want to do Nod Krai after Liyue, you could. But you’d obviously be missing a lot.
I wouldn't worry about catching up to the discussion as you only get to experience the story for the first time only once in your life whereas discussions will always happen.
Some people love the story, others love exploration, others love the gacha, and some people like the combat aspect.
Just have fun with the game and play however brings you the most fun. If that's being up to date with the story, and being part of community discussions, then don't worry. The recent major chapter just concluded and we have like 6+ months before we get the next major chapter. You have a lot of time to slowly go through all the archon quests.
Personally I am semi invested in meta, combat, and endgame. That part of Genshin is just very fun to me. But I know over 80% of the player base don't actually share this sentiment and still have tons of fun in this game. Don't feel pressured/fomo about meta takes or whatnot unless that's something that actually excites you.
And I highly recommend finding a list of proper order to do main quests , it's confusing for new players and they will do it in the wrong order.
I personally like to finish 90% of all quests and explorations in a nation before going to next for most story and lore enjoyment but you can skip this if you don't feel like it.