using VPN for discounted top ups

i'm aware many people connect to VPN to get cheaper rates when topping up for genshin. most of these people connect to places like japan to get a solid 20-30% discount on top ups. its never been bannable before, but i was curious about connecting a vpn to ukraine instead. it currently has the best value (additional 60-70% primos for the same money), but i'm wondering if its risky trying that? i'm planning on doing the top up on my phone using a google play account based in ukraine (made with vpn on) and redownloading genshin on that account.

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Commentaires

uspdd2026-01-29 23:40

It's easier to use an official partner 3rd party service like lootbar or codashop, they basically do this for you - monthly and top up is safe, you just enter uid

xiaolangzhu2026-01-30 00:28

FYI lootbar.gg is not an official partner

uspdd2026-01-30 01:04

It's not? I saw it in hoyo's poll about spending and thought it's official. Well, at least I've never had problems with it, but good to know.

proxy19c2026-01-30 00:18

I'll save you the hassle, they have prices in USD there. Prices you've seen are associated with Epic Games Store and you can't fake a different country on EGS anymore, their payment provider will just tell you that you're not in the country you have associated your account with.

Google Play is also going to require a real card of the bank of the desired country you wish to set your payments to. Unless you happen to have a debit or credit card of the country it just won't work.

There's no risk if you actually have a foreign bank account and if you can prove it's yours.

frostN0VA2026-01-30 00:45

>its never been bannable before

Just FYI using VPN to abuse and circumvent regional pricing is against TOS for literally all online game and services.

It may not be enforced by Mihoyo now, but you have zero guarantee that they don't start banning people tomorrow. And even retroactively because they 100% know what accounts abuse regional prices.

Master06432026-01-30 01:40

Are you sure Ukraine is discounted for genshin tho, cuz i don't think so or else I would hear more fuss. Japan works tho, also I'm pretty sure you can't do all that on playstore, you can use the official site.

issm2026-01-30 04:19

It's not discounted, but Ukraine's currency value collapsed thanks to the whole "getting invaded by Russia" thing. (Like, 25% relative to my local currency)

Unless Mihoyo went and cranked up UAH prices to match (which I haven't heard of, and kind of wouldn't expect to see because that'd be a *really* bad look), the exchange rate would naturally make it cheaper to buy "in" Ukraine.

Bluetooth_Speaker12026-01-30 03:17

Yes, you can get banned for this- you probably won't and i haven't heard of anyone being banned for it but the risk is still there for you and anyone else who does it. Not trying to stop you, just know the risks when you're breaking the tos lol

issm2026-01-30 04:08

> It's against ToS.

So what? This is one thing over which Mihoyo would be stupid to ban people over.

90% of players are F2P to begin with. Just getting someone to pay you for literally anything is already a huge deal for a F2P dev. They're not going to flush all that effort down the drain because you're using a VPN.

Add on top of that, digital goods are basically free to reproduce, and Genshin easily brings in more money than it costs to develop anyway, so anyone using a VPN to top up is still just running up Mihoyo's profit margin.

If they had to choose getting money at 50% off or banning the user and getting 0 money, you bet your ass Mihoyo's going to take the 50%

If Mihoyo does suddenly decides this is a huge deal, rather than ban you, they'll probably just start requiring that top ups happen from the same country the person is playing from.