The next major Genshin Impact update, due to get underway on 24th May, will bring with it a colossal update to the gacha game’s in-universe Genius Invokation TCG minigame. Revolving around the King of Invokations Grand Prix event, you can expect an enormous 60 brand-new TCG cards to seriously expand your deck-building ability, while cat-themed newcomer Kirara will also make her debut as a 4-Star newbie.
Perhaps most importantly for long-time fans, developer HoYoverse is beginning to tease new region Fontaine, which will seriously expand the release’s open world in v4.0. “As an international TCG tournament across Teyvat, the King of Invokation Grand Prix attracts numerous visitors, including card players, tourists, and even a reporter from Fontaine at its venues and celebrations in multiple areas,” the press release reads. “Working for the famous newspaper The Steambird, Charlotte will not only cover the tournament but also investigate into a strange case on-site, and players can join her and meet characters from various nations in the event storyline.”
Speaking of Fontaine, you can get your very first look at the region courtesy of the brief teaser trailer below. It looks like we’ll be heading under the sea here, which is going to significantly expand the exploration potential of the title:
In addition to the aforementioned TCG tournament itself, there’ll be a ton of minigames to look forward to as part of the Grand Prix, all inspired by gameplay elements from the in-universe pastime. And of course, interacting with all of the new gameplay and accruing points will reward you with Invokation Coupons, which you’ll be able to trade for rewards, including a new 4-Star bow named the Ibis Piercer. You’ll probably want to add that to your inventory.
As alluded to above, Kirara will make her debut as a 4-Star Dendro sword wielder. As a courier, she has some pretty unique looking “package”-themed abilities, including an Elemental Burst where she drops a parcel onto the battlefield and blows away her opponents with a bunch of small Dendro bombs. She’ll be accompanied by reruns of Yoimiya and Yae Miko in the update’s first banner, while Kaedehara Kazuha and tier-list frontrunner Alhaitham will follow in the second half.
You can check out all of the new content in the trailers embedded above, including that first all-important glimpse of Fontaine. Will you be building your deck in preparation for the King of Invokation Grand Prix? Beg for a positive re-roll in the comments section below.
[source youtube.com]
Comments 16
I just got lucky and pulled Kamisato and Ganyu in the last couple months. I surely won't get lucky enough to pull Yoimiya.
I just want to pull for Charlotte now
Oh sweet jesus, there's a collectible card game within GI? No wonder they're raking in the money.
@Ralizah the card game is completely F2P and you can't spend money on it in any way, it's just a fun side game
@starnivore That's... pleasantly surprising to hear.
@Ralizah Yeah, amazingly, there are no banners for the collectible card game, which surprised me too!
Oh yeah Genshin Impact, our only hope anytime Zelda releases. PS needs to make something to compete with Mario or Zelda, seriously. Ratchet just doesn't cut it for me.
@Ralizah For all the money Genshin prints, I really feel that is largely attributed to MiHoYo actually doing a great job of supporting the game. The trading card game was a pretty huge update, but there's not a ton of different playing cards yet. One of the dev notes even sort of said as much, but their comment was that it was sort of an experiment in different ways to bring more value to the game for players. It's like, on one hand, it's an evil gacha scheme to shake thousands of dollars out of gambling addicts. Then on the other hand, it's a really lovely single player game with tons of stuff to do. I just love it.
@SplooshDmg Well, them not monetizing a feature like that speaks well to them, to some extent, right?
In fairness, the small chunk I did play felt like a perfectly normal single-player game. You just had to ignore the slot machines in the menus.
I think GI probably falls on the less offensive side of the spectrum in terms of how it's not quite as aggressive with its gacha as a lot of mobile games are with their premium currencies and whatnot.
It's conflicting for me: I detest the model, and have happily ignored games that adopted it for years, but GI and probably Star Rail are high-quality enough that I sometimes feel like I'm missing out.
I guess I could probably just continue to play it casually and not have to worry about that aspect. It's not like I'd need to dig deep into the late-game stuff where the gacha becomes more important.
@Ralizah You can definitely play the game and have fun for free if you don't care about what's meta and the shiny new thing on the horizon.
Like you say, if you just play casually and don't dig too deep into the end game you never really need to pay for anything.
@Ralizah Honestly, it's crazy to me. I see people on the Genshin subreddit talk about spending $1000 to unlock a C6 banner character. It's INSANE to me. I've mentioned before that I just pay for the measly monthly blessing and the battle passes sometimes, I really feel like I earn plenty enough in game to really enjoy myself. I'm actually considering going to purely F2P for a while since I'm not really itching for anything right now.
I wouldn't even say the late-game really requires any more or less gacha. You will naturally earn some some five star characters just by the pity system alone, and a lot of four star characters are great. However, your gear and level, etc does progress faster by paying for the battle pass because you just have more resources given to you. I think the thing though is that you really aren't competing with anyone. So, really, there's no rush to get more gear or anything. It's just fun watching your waifus and husbandos get more powerful and land bigger damage.
I've always liked MMOs and stuff, but never really fell into a proper live service freemium game, but good God, they got me. It's just a different experience. The lore is so deep and interesting. The combat is so fun bouncing between characters. It's just such a huge polished AAA game. I think in ways, it kinda puts a lot of the industry to shame with how quickly the produce content and the quality it consistency comes in at. I just can't stay away from it.
@SplooshDmg @get2sammyb I think y'all've convinced me to go ahead and get back on the horse at some point. I'm getting off the new game bandwagon soon anyway, so it'll be nice to play something that has continual new updates.
Fontaines almost here and I still don't think I'm even half way done exploring sumeru T-T. What I'd give to never experience game fatigue
@Ralizah if there's one thing you're missing out on it's the soundtrack. For a F2P mobile gacha, it puts a lot of console game OSTs to shame
@BeerIsAwesome I've heard lol. I got far enough to be able to offer their tree dendro sigils, but I don't know how deep into that quest line that is or if I've even started it
And yea I got dragonspine on my playlist too 😆. I'm more into somber more gloomy tracks tho so I mainly play Enkanomiya's and Watatsumi Island's OSTs on repeat
@BeerIsAwesome They typically get you to pay with either time or money.
@Ralizah The start is very "normal RPG" progression, it starts to dry up a little later. At which point you have a choice to spend or not to.
I 100% agree that, as long as you don't have a closet gambling addition and don't need to have it all - in which case steer WELL clear - you can completely play this game F2P. It is fully funded by the whales who don't have the same self control and spend thousands willingly.
@BeerIsAwesome I genuinely felt like that at the beginning and bought a few battle passes to support, but then I saw their financials. They will be more than fine
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