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[InterMusketeer]

I wish you could put furniture on a wishlist so you don't have to constantly re-check which chair you needed a copy of. I just finished all of my crafting this week, with all Fontaine sets my characters want completed. The amount of primos is not that high, but it's a nice boost regardless.

I also just went back to check reputation quests in both Fontaine and Sumeru. Seems I missed a couple that were added somewhere down the line. The only ones left are dependent on commissions. Those are a real hassle.

Also do you guys think they will ever increase the level cap to 100?

And along the same lines, some games have introduced new versions of existing characters or let you other wise upgrade a 4 star unit into a 5 star, (and then they can let 5* upgrade into 6*) to refresh the roster and gives characters new moves and abilities.

These are the types of big changes I think people have been hoping for. A big shake-up that changes everything. For now, MHY has no reason to do any of this. They can just release the next 5-star waifu and make as much money for way less work. They will probably leave this trump card for later, after we've visited all major nations for example.

 

[Icymanipulator]

Well I managed to nab a copy of gaming, so that’s nice. It’s going a bit slower than my initial grind. I think I may finally dive into the card game lol

 

[Pejo]

Man of all times to get multiple copies of the new 4*, it's gotta be now. I'd rather have the wish refunds from getting dupes...

 

[Icymanipulator]

Wow that first trial/quest for Fontaine was pretty good, production value is clearly much higher lol excited for the rest of the story there. Had no idea they introduced so many major characters so soon.

 

[jonnyXx]

Well I managed to nab a copy of gaming, so that’s nice. It’s going a bit slower than my initial grind. I think I may finally dive into the card game lol

I was really down on Gaming and Xianyun but after doing their trials I actually had a lot of fun with Gaming+Xianyun. Gaming's trial is kinda meh but together with Xianyun he's a lot better. The effects on his abilities and the glow on his outfit look great in HDR.
Decided to pull for them but I'm in soft pity range and still no Gaming. Will probably have to wait for the 4 star selector to get him.

Looked into genesis crystals but man the prices are disgusting! Don't know how you can justify it unless you're pretty well off.
$135 CAD gets you 80 pulls if it's your first purchase and only 40 pulls otherwise. HORRIBLE value.
Imagine paying that and then loosing 50/50. No fucking thanks.

 

[InterMusketeer]

Looked into genesis crystals but man the prices are disgusting!

Definitely. The only purchases that could be worth it are Welkin Moon and maybe the Battle Pass.

Lots of rumors today about an entirely new banner. It would include characters like Klee, Albedo and Eula IE Genshin's band of rejects. It is said to have something similar to epitomized path to ensure you get the character of your choice. Wishes would also give you a new type of currency similar to Star Glitter which can be used in a special shop to purchase certain 5-star weapons. Unclear which ones those would be, might just be Skyward series. Unclear what fates this banner would take and what the pity is like.

 

[Icymanipulator]

I’m playing the new event and man, Piamon voice actor seems way better then usual.
Also it’s super nice to see Keqing again, it’s been awhile.


Edit.
Any of the new recipes in Chenyu Vale good?

I always buy up every recipe I see from every shop. Haven’t cooked any of the new recipes yet, but hoping there’s some good stamina ones that require easy resources lol

Edit2
In star rail news I got black swan in 3 10 pulls lolololol, still have 26k jade left over. I’m ahead of the game now! Reminds me of DFFOO, where I got lucky like 4 times in a row and got so ahead of the game resource wise, it never caught back up with me.

Edit3
GUEKC231UN
My invitation code for Star Rail

 

[InterMusketeer]

Haven't started Lantern Rite yet since it recommends doing CR's quest first. Gonna do that tonight.

Latest rumors about that third banner say it has a separate duration from other banners. So it might last for two entire updates or something like that. The characters within are based on each region. So it starts with Mondstadt and people are expecting a Liyue-flavored one too with Ganyu, Hu Tao and Shenhe for the future.

I think this all comes down to the specifics of how the epitomized path works and what the pity counter is like. The possibility of losing 50/50s to useful characters/cons sounds appealing.

Also rumors about Arlecchino and Clorinde: Arle would be a braindead on-field DPS like Neuvillette, and Clorinde is said to be a utility support like Faruzan that brings overload teams to the next level. They're expecting Chevreuse + Clorinde to form the basis of many powerful teams leading into Natlan. They're even calling Clorinde the stocking archon. Early leaks like this one are usually not too reliable, but I wouldn't be surprised if they made the champion duelist an off-field support.

 

[Pejo]

I always buy up every recipe I see from every shop. Haven’t cooked any of the new recipes yet, but hoping there’s some good stamina ones that require easy resources lol

I haven't looked at any of the new recipes in I couldn't even tell you how long. I use Jade Parcels for bosses and eggs to revive characters, those are the only two I've ever used. I'm a classic JRPG item hoarder though, so that's probably why.

Edit2
In star rail news I got black swan in 3 10 pulls lolololol, still have 26k jade left over. I’m ahead of the game now! Reminds me of DFFOO, where I got lucky like 4 times in a row and got so ahead of the game resource wise, it never caught back up with me.

I got a Welt dupe in 20, then 20 afterwards got Swan. I was nowhere near pity in either, so I got pretty lucky myself.

I'm trying to find team that she fits in with Kafka. Right now my Kafka team is Kafka/Little Gui/Hanya/HUO². Hanya is non negiotiable to remove since she provides the skill points to a skill point hungry team type. I don't care for HuoHuo very much but she can solo sustain/damage buff and provides occasional Wind Shear on breaks. I feel like Gui is Kafka's best partner for all the DoT stacks she adds. So I can't drop Hanya because then I'd be in a skill point desert doing basic attacks all the time, I can't drop the healer/tank slot so HuoHuo stays for now (hoping Sparkle fits this team better in the future), and Kafka is the core to a DoT team. I guess the question becomes: Who provides better DoTs, Swan or Gui? Wish parties were 5 slots instead of 4.

I really want Sparkle, so it's a good thing I got Swan early. In a case of solo sustain teams, I'm finding that the tanks are more reliable than the healers. They usually don't allow for big recoveries/turnaround, but they make the damage you take/recover a lot more consistent than getting insta-jibbed by a bug explosion or something. I still think that currently Fu Xuan is the best solo sustain in the game. I rarely buy into weapon banner stuff but next time she reruns I'm gonna get her light cone to make her even better solo sustain. She offers insane role compression into a single party slot and is very skill point positive on top of being an insane tank with self recovery.

Edit3
GUEKC231UN
My invitation code for Star Rail

Haven't started Penacony yet, so idk what this is. Is it something time-sensitive?

Latest rumors about that third banner say it has a separate duration from other banners. So it might last for two entire updates or something like that. The characters within are based on each region. So it starts with Mondstadt and people are expecting a Liyue-flavored one too with Ganyu, Hu Tao and Shenhe for the future.

It's good that they're doing something to reduce the rerun timeframe for older characters, but unless this uses a new/grindable currency, it's pretty useless to vets. I can't imagine a bunch of people spending pink wishes on characters they already had multiple chances to pull. It'd be great if they added a new currency and made it a long time free grind, like a new abyss mode or something. Sadly, they probably won't and don't have a reason to.

I think this all comes down to the specifics of how the epitomized path works and what the pity counter is like. The possibility of losing 50/50s to useful characters/cons sounds appealing.

I'd rather they just get dumped into standard banner and add epitomized path and more free blue wishes per patch. Having a 3rd banner type seems kinda greedy all things considered. Then again, we still only get a few wishes and a pet for anniversaries after the game made billions of dollars USD.

Also rumors about Arlecchino and Clorinde: Arle would be a braindead on-field DPS like Neuvillette, and Clorinde is said to be a utility support like Faruzan that brings overload teams to the next level. They're expecting Chevreuse + Clorinde to form the basis of many powerful teams leading into Natlan. They're even calling Clorinde the stocking archon. Early leaks like this one are usually not too reliable, but I wouldn't be surprised if they made the champion duelist an off-field support.

Chlorinde getting Shenhe treatment simultaneously disappoints me and yet doesn't surprise me one bit. They're always careful to reflect the lore properly in the game world except when it comes to characters and their kits/usefulness. They must let a monkey come into the office and throw darts at a wall with a bunch of kit descriptions, for each new character. I hope Arle doesn't have HP loss shit, otherwise that sounds good.

Is Chlorinde still 5*, or did she get hit by the "C6 mandatory 4*" treatment?

Nice Shenhe art:

 

[deanote666]

Rolled the weapon banner, getting an early 5* and got the bird's weapon on the first 5*.

Threw a roll at Nahida's banner and rolled a 5* early and lost to Keqing C3742.

 

[Nankatsu]

Star rail players, can anyone help me out with the invitation event, please?

Honkai: Star Rail "Festival Invitation" Returning Players Web Event Is Now Online!

Invite Trailblazers to return and win surprise rewards such as Stellar Jades, PS5, and iPhone 15!

act.hoyoverse.com

 

[Pejo]

Star rail players, can anyone help me out with the invitation event, please?

Honkai: Star Rail "Festival Invitation" Returning Players Web Event Is Now Online!

Invite Trailblazers to return and win surprise rewards such as Stellar Jades, PS5, and iPhone 15!

act.hoyoverse.com

I clicked it, here's mine apparently? I still don't know what this is for, I haven't started 2.0 yet.

Honkai: Star Rail "Festival Invitation" Returning Players Web Event Is Now Online!

Invite Trailblazers to return and win surprise rewards such as Stellar Jades, PS5, and iPhone 15!

act.hoyoverse.com

 

[jonnyXx]

Clorinde is said to be a utility support like Faruzan that brings overload teams to the next level.

That's a bit disappointing I expected she'd be a main DPS. You wouldn't think that the duel champion is a support.

 

[InterMusketeer]

It's good that they're doing something to reduce the rerun timeframe for older characters, but unless this uses a new/grindable currency, it's pretty useless to vets.

Sure. They won't serve many long-time players. But they can rid us of less desirable banners. Especially weapon banners.

Chlorinde getting Shenhe treatment simultaneously disappoints me and yet doesn't surprise me one bit. They're always careful to reflect the lore properly in the game world except when it comes to characters and their kits/usefulness.

Is Chlorinde still 5*, or did she get hit by the "C6 mandatory 4*" treatment?

Man, it's like they do it on purpose. Really wish they'd fix that.

I haven't seen any leaks regarding Clorinde's rarity, so I assume she's still a 5-star.

That's a bit disappointing I expected she'd be a main DPS. You wouldn't think that the duel champion is a support.

For sure. I also worry that a team core that requires two characters (Chevvy and Clorinde) and restricts possible elements would be too... well, restrictive. Overload teams also just don't seem that cool to me. Like it's neat that they're feasible now, but not to the point that they should define Natlan meta.

Here's supposedly the banners for the upcoming updates:

According to this we're getting new region banners every update. Wouldn't they go through characters way too quick like this? Is 4.7 gonna have Inazuma characters and 4.8 Sumeru? I feel like most Inazuma and Sumeru characters still feel relatively fresh, or they're popular enough that they warrant their own banners...

 

[Pejo]

Sure. They won't serve many long-time players. But they can rid us of less desirable banners. Especially weapon banners.

Well how I feel about this new banner type is largely going to depend on what currency it uses and how to get it. If it's just primogems with no notable increase income, they can get fucked.

Man, it's like they do it on purpose. Really wish they'd fix that.

I haven't seen any leaks regarding Clorinde's rarity, so I assume she's still a 5-star.

Ah well, guess we wait and see what it is before I start feeling internal gloom about it... maybe.

For sure. I also worry that a team core that requires two characters (Chevvy and Clorinde) and restricts possible elements would be too... well, restrictive. Overload teams also just don't seem that cool to me. Like it's neat that they're feasible now, but not to the point that they should define Natlan meta.

I actually wish they'd lean in to Burning as a mechanic a bit. Make a character that applies constant burning so you can do multiple frequent melts/vapes off of it. Overload is fine for bosses/large enemies but sucks for the overworld due to the knockback. Kinda the opposite as Electro Charged. All things in balance I guess.

Here's supposedly the banners for the upcoming updates:

According to this we're getting new region banners every update. Wouldn't they go through characters way too quick like this? Is 4.7 gonna have Inazuma characters and 4.8 Sumeru? I feel like most Inazuma and Sumeru characters still feel relatively fresh, or they're popular enough that they warrant their own banners...

To be fair, there are what, 80~ characters now? Doing banners at the same frequency would make it absolutely painful for new players or people farming constellations on their favorites, and we still have several nations left to go. Surely MHY has to stop being so stingy with the older characters at some point...

If this new type is rolled on a new Abyss Bux or Event Dingdongs currency that you can start getting from each patch's events, I could see it being a nice long grind which the game desperately needs. Right now all we have is artifact min/max as a long grind which is extremely unsatisfying.

 

[InterMusketeer]

I actually wish they'd lean in to Burning as a mechanic a bit. Make a character that applies constant burning so you can do multiple frequent melts/vapes off of it. Overload is fine for bosses/large enemies but sucks for the overworld due to the knockback. Kinda the opposite as Electro Charged. All things in balance I guess.

I'm sure they'll release someone in Natlan that does that. They're revisiting underused mechanics one by one it seems.

To be fair, there are what, 80~ characters now? Doing banners at the same frequency would make it absolutely painful for new players or people farming constellations on their favorites, and we still have several nations left to go. Surely MHY has to stop being so stingy with the older characters at some point...

Maybe it's me who overvalues certain characters. When I hear Hu Tao and Shenhe will share a banner like that, it just sounds insane to me. They both still feel relevant to me. I also kinda assumed they'd go through all regions and that they would constantly change the line-ups, but I'm probably jumping to conclusions.

If this new type is rolled on a new Abyss Bux or Event Dingdongs currency that you can start getting from each patch's events, I could see it being a nice long grind which the game desperately needs. Right now all we have is artifact min/max as a long grind which is extremely unsatisfying.

I guess I side-stepped this point because I just assume it's gonna be intertwined fates. MHY always does things in the most lazy, money-grubbing way possible. So they'll be pink wishes. Wouldn't the leaks say something about different currencies or new rewards or endgame content otherwise? That's my line of thinking anyway.

The only other possibilities I've seen is that you might be able to convert fates from one type to another (with unattractive exchange rates) or that you can buy fates for this new banner with starglitter (maybe for cheap). Either way it would eat into your budget to get newly released 5-stars.

Of course I hope they do something cool and allow people to grind for older characters for free, but I'm not counting on it. Might just be my defense mechanism kicking in.

 

[Pejo]

I guess I side-stepped this point because I just assume it's gonna be intertwined fates. MHY always does things in the most lazy, money-grubbing way possible. So they'll be pink wishes. Wouldn't the leaks say something about different currencies or new rewards or endgame content otherwise? That's my line of thinking anyway.

The only other possibilities I've seen is that you might be able to convert fates from one type to another (with unattractive exchange rates) or that you can buy fates for this new banner with starglitter (maybe for cheap). Either way it would eat into your budget to get newly released 5-stars.

Of course I hope they do something cool and allow people to grind for older characters for free, but I'm not counting on it. Might just be my defense mechanism kicking in.

The only reason I bring it up is that HI3 has had many systems in place like this for years and years to slowly grind up old characters, even the S ranks (similar to Genshin 5*s). Star Rail even has a respectable weekly "standard banner" grind where you can guarantee like 5 standard banner wishes unrelated to general gem income and event stuff. On top of that, after 300 standard banner pulls, Star Rail just straight up lets you select a standard 5* character. I feel like it's beyond time for Genshin to get something like that. This new banner type could be it. Let's say they make the new banner us green wishes, and you can get 5 of those per week by doinog repeatable content. That's a decent start. Or let them use blue wishes and increase the blue wish acquisition rate.

 

[Icymanipulator]

That’s fucked up to put Alhethem and Furina at the same time : (

Edit.
Pejo
Star Rail
My plan is to build Swan, use my already super built Kafka, throw in Hanya to make Kafka detonate dots more often and Luocha to heal.

The only option for me is to throw out Hanya, which I will do for certain fights or if I just want more dots. Sampo or Luka, hell even Pela. Apparently with swan and pela you can hit 100% defense reduction, so that’s a viable option as well.

I’ve loved Kafka ever since she came out, and it was super worth building up Sampo and Luka for a dot team. I was worried that Swans Arcana would be some kind of special dot that Kafka wouldn’t be able to interact with, but it turns out that she can and it’s insane.

 

[jonnyXx]

Xingqiu's outfit is worse than his standard one. Again the shorts totally ruin the outfit, he just looks like he hasn't finished getting dressed.

 

[deanote666]

Since there's so many star rail peps here, I'll post a code I found. Expires 2/29.

6B976L2STURF

 

[Icymanipulator]

InterMusketeer
Saw your post farther up about doing CRs story quest first and then doing the festival story. I had done the very opening part of the festival but went back and did CRs story quest first. Glad I did. Nice looking out

Edit
The event is definitely helping with gems, I now have Noelle at C6. Other then 1 Gaming it’s been all Noelle.

Would it be safe to say that a C6 4* is similar power level to a C0 5* generally speaking? I know other games that have loosely followed this kind of thing.

Edit2.
I picked Xianling as my selector choice. I had her at C3, and really really wanted C4.
My initial plan was gaming but I got him already and after his trial, while fun, I don’t think I’d ever use him over Diluc as my fire on fielder. It’s not a matter of strength really, I just really enjoy playing Diluc and I like how he looks.

 

[Pejo]

Man I started up the Penacony quest last night in Star Rail thinking it was just going to be a few hours long as the introduction to the new destination. Like 7 hours later and I finally had to stop and go to bed.

Absolutely incredible patch for Star Rail, and that's coming from someone that thought the game was DEFINITELY not living up to its potential beforehand. So much content, and Penacony is like a dream version of what I expected Fontaine to be like. It's got the Bioshock vibes which is one of my favorite settings in gaming. The main quest is like 100x better than the Luofu, and I'm genuinely excited to see what happens next. It's a shame they have so many filler patches and junk combat content. If they stuck with the story stuff primarily, they could easily beat any modern day JRPG developer.

The puzzles and gameplay flowed effortlessly with the combat and story. There were fun minigames, lots of collectibles that made things worth exploring, and they're handing out the premium currency like candy. The main story is gripping, there's a character focus to it, but with several layers of story going on simultaneously and all of them are interesting. The writing actually has multiple choices that shape the story into something you personally chose, with no way to go back and see the different results if regret making a meme dialogue choice. I feel like my choices matter more in a single restaurant scene in Star Rail than the choices I made in the entirety of Mass Effect 3.

Anyways, that's all. I already read some spoilers I wish I wouldn't have in an unmarked post on reddit, but I still have to see the story through to the end. If any of you guys tried out Star Rail and stopped after the main story content ended, I highly recommend the new Penacony arc.

 

[Icymanipulator]

Damn you’re getting me hyped up to play Star Rail now lol

Speaking of updates, didn’t HI3rd get its like overhaul or something?

 

[Pejo]

Damn you’re getting me hyped up to play Star Rail now lol

I can't stress what a massive upgrade this was over the Luofu arc. The storytelling being probably the best part. They still use lots of made up jargon names for things, but even not understanding that stuff, it's still great.

Speaking of updates, didn’t HI3rd get its like overhaul or something?

Next patch for Global. Right now it's just available in CN. We're always a month or so behind. They picked the absolute most boring character designs for the new plot, but I'm assuming that's because they know they need to give out a bunch of freebies to prevent pissing off the old players and are saving the better characters for later patches.

 

[Icymanipulator]

Man props to the devs, Chengyu Vale, the golden fish, and “Blueys” design are all great.

 

[Sakura]

Man I started up the Penacony quest last night in Star Rail thinking it was just going to be a few hours long as the introduction to the new destination. Like 7 hours later and I finally had to stop and go to bed.

Absolutely incredible patch for Star Rail, and that's coming from someone that thought the game was DEFINITELY not living up to its potential beforehand. So much content, and Penacony is like a dream version of what I expected Fontaine to be like. It's got the Bioshock vibes which is one of my favorite settings in gaming. The main quest is like 100x better than the Luofu, and I'm genuinely excited to see what happens next. It's a shame they have so many filler patches and junk combat content. If they stuck with the story stuff primarily, they could easily beat any modern day JRPG developer.

The puzzles and gameplay flowed effortlessly with the combat and story. There were fun minigames, lots of collectibles that made things worth exploring, and they're handing out the premium currency like candy. The main story is gripping, there's a character focus to it, but with several layers of story going on simultaneously and all of them are interesting. The writing actually has multiple choices that shape the story into something you personally chose, with no way to go back and see the different results if regret making a meme dialogue choice. I feel like my choices matter more in a single restaurant scene in Star Rail than the choices I made in the entirety of Mass Effect 3.

Anyways, that's all. I already read some spoilers I wish I wouldn't have in an unmarked post on reddit, but I still have to see the story through to the end. If any of you guys tried out Star Rail and stopped after the main story content ended, I highly recommend the new Penacony arc.

Yeah I've only played it for like 2 or 3 hours, and am waiting till the weekend before I play the rest of it, but it's pretty good so far.
I hated the Luofu arc. I don't know if I just don't like the pseudo China stuff, but I found it super boring.

In regards to the multiple choices though, I think Star Rail has always had stuff like that. For example in the beginning of the game you can choose to remain on the space station and you get a separate ending, and I also remember Kafka's quest had multiple outcomes I think. I'm pretty sure there are other quests and stuff in the game like that as well.

 

[Pejo]

Yeah I've only played it for like 2 or 3 hours, and am waiting till the weekend before I play the rest of it, but it's pretty good so far.
I hated the Luofu arc. I don't know if I just don't like the pseudo China stuff, but I found it super boring.

Yea I liked Belobog way more than Luofu, and so far Penacony is way better than Belobog. Regarding the Luofu, They set it up that there are at least what, 6 other megacruisers in the Xianzhou fleet. Hopefully when we return, they give it the Chenyu Vale treatment and make it good instead of just a bunch of storage containers and run down houses talking about boring stuff the whole time. I'm not sure if it's just MHY's HQ being in Shanghai and maybe Shanghai being shipping focused, but it seems like all of their games' "not China" areas are just big run down shipping commerce areas.

In regards to the multiple choices though, I think Star Rail has always had stuff like that. For example in the beginning of the game you can choose to remain on the space station and you get a separate ending, and I also remember Kafka's quest had multiple outcomes I think. I'm pretty sure there are other quests and stuff in the game like that as well.

Oh yea, it's not new or unique to Penacony, I'm just impressed with how far the story deviates when you make your decisions. It's not like the overall narrative changes, but lots of little details and characters' interactions with you can be vastly different based on my choices vs. what I've seen in videos and stuff. I still regret picking the wrong choice in Kafka's text so that she didn't send me a selfie. Bricked my damn account.

I just finished up the Penacony main story a few minutes ago, up until the "to be continued..." and it was really good throughout. Lots of good setup for the next chapter, let's hope they stick the landing and make it satisfying the whole way through. I notice MHY tends to be great at setup for various plot points and questions but then they have a really hard time finishing it in a satisfying way, and sometimes they forget about stuff they set up and it just goes nowhere. I'm super interested to see what Firefly's outcome will be.

Also in Genshin, I did Cloud Retainer's story quest, and it was pretty good too. I'd put it in my top 5 of character story quests. Touching story and showcased her personality without making it overly reliant on nobody NPCs. I really like her short dungeon that mixed several remote locations of Liyue into a linear dreamscape type thing. Thought that was really cool. Damn she picked a shitty house though. I'd have just had Ping make me a teapot and put it on a roof or some shit instead of living in that dump.

*edit*

Holy shit this trailer hits completely differently after playing the story. Well done MHY.


Also, this variation of that song was great.

Spoiler

 

[Nankatsu]

Man I started up the Penacony quest last night in Star Rail thinking it was just going to be a few hours long as the introduction to the new destination. Like 7 hours later and I finally had to stop and go to bed.

Absolutely incredible patch for Star Rail, and that's coming from someone that thought the game was DEFINITELY not living up to its potential beforehand.

Glad to hear it. I'm still playing it really slow, mainly because of the major juggernauts dropping this month.

I try to do the dailies and do some pulls on characters that I like. Currently trying to get the Dragon Dan Heng (I know that is not his name, but I don't remember exactly what it is too). About 60 pulls in on his banner and nothing.

That's a thing I actually noticed, game seems to make you go deep in pity before you can actually pull anything. Sure I haven't pulled that much, but compared to Genshin that's what I'm feeling.

I'm still a long way from the new planet, but no rush. I got a lot of content to tackle.

 

[jonnyXx]

Dang I hate to admit it but I'm having fun with the plunge playstyle.

Tried out Chongyun, Xiangling, Furina, Xianyun in Abyss first half and it went pretty well. Its a bit of a clusterfuck of reactions but it's fun and good enough to clear. Also tried Chongyun, Shenhe, Furina, Xianyun and that was good too. I wish they would buff shatter, either the reaction itself or release an artifact set. My boi Chongyun could use it.

 

[Nankatsu]

Star Rail players tell me something: does the game have some type of Bonus if you use two of the same elements within the team, like Genshin does?

I can't seem to find anything within the game that states that, so I was wondering.

 

[Pejo]

Star Rail players tell me something: does the game have some type of Bonus if you use two of the same elements within the team, like Genshin does?

I can't seem to find anything within the game that states that, so I was wondering.

There are artifact sets with that effect but in general, no. I usually find it's better to run 4 different elements for toughness breaking reasons.

Nice Ningguang cosplay:

Spoiler

 

[InterMusketeer]

Also in Genshin, I did Cloud Retainer's story quest, and it was pretty good too. I'd put it in my top 5 of character story quests. Touching story and showcased her personality without making it overly reliant on nobody NPCs. I really like her short dungeon that mixed several remote locations of Liyue into a linear dreamscape type thing. Thought that was really cool. Damn she picked a shitty house though. I'd have just had Ping make me a teapot and put it on a roof or some shit instead of living in that dump.

I liked it quite a bit too. CR's awkwardness and tsun behavior were very cute. There were a couple funny moments too.

I've been playing Lantern Rite's story now, but unfortunately it mostly focuses on Gaming's daddy issues. Maybe this is just my bias speaking, but I feel like Yaoyao for example wasn't involved that much in the story last year. Bit of a shame they decided to focus the story on the 4-star for this update when Gaming is such a bore. Also, that mole or mark on his neck is fucking distracting.

Tried out Chongyun, Xiangling, Furina, Xianyun in Abyss first half and it went pretty well.

Interesting skin choices! But yeah, it's surprising how many characters Xianyun enables to do good damage. I really didn't think that would be as fun as it ended up being. Might just be a temporary thing, maybe I'll get sick of it in a couple weeks, but I think she's worth the primos anyway.

 

[Icymanipulator]

Nankatsu
In Star rail I just make sure to cover weaknesses of whatever I’m fighting. It helps your damage out a ton. And like Pejo said, there are some sets that give bonuses for multiples of the same element.

I’m Genshin I’m starting to get a little worried on my prospects of getting CR in time. Just been extra busy outside work, 11 days left though should be enough… will likely clear out the new area this weekend.

 

[Pejo]

Oh nice, I didn't realize we were getting a 4* character selector in Star Rail on top of all of the other freebies and rewards. Damn this patch is fucking STACKED. Was able to E6 my Yukong, feels fucking great.

 

[Icymanipulator]

Oh nice, I didn't realize we were getting a 4* character selector in Star Rail on top of all of the other freebies and rewards. Damn this patch is fucking STACKED. Was able to E6 my Yukong, feels fucking great.

A selector for Star Rail too?!
News to me, very nice.
I’m still slowing building Swan, that’s what I get for not pre farming lol

 

[Pejo]

A selector for Star Rail too?!
News to me, very nice.
I’m still slowing building Swan, that’s what I get for not pre farming lol

Yea it's between Little Gui/Yukong/Misha/Asta, so not as many selections but I've been sitting at E5 Yukong forever so the choice was easy for me. I'm sure now that I nabbed her I'll get nothing but Yukong dupes from now on, but still, it was a completely unexpected surprise.

So... InterMusketeer

Varka concepts leaked.... I don't know how I feel about it. They basically aged him down compared to his lore, and he's got about a Diluc/Wrio age "look", in my opinion. I'm kinda disappointed with it because I wanted a grizzled old man with a 3rd male body type (strong dude), but well, anyways, here it is:

Spoiler: Varka concept

I can't tell if it's shading or if he has facial hair stubble. Stubble even would be an improvement over all the babyfaced males we have.

 

[InterMusketeer]

So... InterMusketeer

Varka concepts leaked.... I don't know how I feel about it. They basically aged him down compared to his lore, and he's got about a Diluc/Wrio age "look", in my opinion. I'm kinda disappointed with it because I wanted a grizzled old man with a 3rd male body type (strong dude), but well, anyways, here it is:

Spoiler: Varka concept

I can't tell if it's shading or if he has facial hair stubble. Stubble even would be an improvement over all the babyfaced males we have.

Well, if all they're gonna do is pander to coomers, Alice better have some fat tits. Leaks when?

BTW female fans are already fully expecting the stubble to go, so don't count too much on that I guess.

 

[Pejo]

Well, if all they're gonna do is pander to coomers, Alice better have some fat tits. Leaks when?

BTW female fans are already fully expecting the stubble to go, so don't count too much on that I guess.

In Star Rail, they just revealed this character:

His personality is kinda like the grizzled "uncle" detective character. Aside from every character (male or female) having a boob window in this game, his design is pretty good. He has stubble in the game, and I think was wildly popular with women. I had hope after he was released that Genshin might do something similar for Varka, but well....

 

[InterMusketeer]

In Star Rail, they just revealed this character:

His personality is kinda like the grizzled "uncle" detective character. Aside from every character (male or female) having a boob window in this game, his design is pretty good. He has stubble in the game, and I think was wildly popular with women. I had hope after he was released that Genshin might do something similar for Varka, but well....

I mean, they even left open the option for a bellybutton window on this dude. His entire shirt is actually too tight and he's got a bunch of BDSM leather straps all over him. To me, this sits firmly in the camp of pandering too. But well, I can see how he's at least more manly-looking than Xingqiu or Itto.

If it were up to me, Varka would just look like that Templar knight, and he'd have a cursed helmet he put on sometime that he can't take off anymore. But that doesn't sell to fujos so it was never happening.

 

[Pejo]

I mean, they even left open the option for a bellybutton window on this dude. His entire shirt is actually too tight and he's got a bunch of BDSM leather straps all over him. To me, this sits firmly in the camp of pandering too. But well, I can see how he's at least more manly-looking than Xingqiu or Itto.

If it were up to me, Varka would just look like that Templar knight, and he'd have a cursed helmet he put on sometime that he can't take off anymore. But that doesn't sell to fujos so it was never happening.

In my mind, he's always looked like an in-shape version of Goldlewis from Guilty Gear.

Kinda grizzled with a full beard and a shaped mustache. Leather duster or jacket or something with some chain motifs. I think I also thought he was missing an arm and had a metal claw or something on one side, but I'm not sure if that was lore or just my headcanon. It's been too long since we got his initial lore, I don't remember anymore.

 

[InterMusketeer]

In my mind, he's always looked like an in-shape version of Goldlewis from Guilty Gear.

Kinda grizzled with a full beard and a shaped mustache. Leather duster or jacket or something with some chain motifs. I think I also thought he was missing an arm and had a metal claw or something on one side, but I'm not sure if that was lore or just my headcanon. It's been too long since we got his initial lore, I don't remember anymore.

I'm not too familiar with his lore (anymore) either, but I can see that. But they'd need to introduce a third body type for men to make that happen. Guess they're too cheap to do that.

In any case, I'll stick to my waifus at this point. Even if they finally release a halfway decent guy it's already too late for me.

 

[Nankatsu]

I seriously don't get Star rail. Does this game spike in every single major boss and hopes you go grind every single character?

I hit a difficulty spike in Belobogs main boss and had to level up some characters. Ok first time, totally understandable.

Then fast forward to deer boss on the next planet. Again, difficulty spike. Had to go farm / level up other characters, more suitable for the boss in order to clear.

Fast forward yet again, to the Saint Medicus Master fight, and all my leveled up characters fucking struggle and I can't clear the fight.

Seriously, this isn't funny at all, and I enjoy the heck out of RPGs, strategizing and grinding... When they're well executed.

This game gives me very lousy vibes on that regard, because it's constantly making me go build characters from zero in order to tackle the main narrative.

 

[Pejo]

I seriously don't get Star rail. Does this game spike in every single major boss and hopes you go grind every single character?

I hit a difficulty spike in Belobogs main boss and had to level up some characters. Ok first time, totally understandable.

Then fast forward to deer boss on the next planet. Again, difficulty spike. Had to go farm / level up others characters, more suitable for the boss in order to clear.

Fast forward yet again, to the Saint Medicus Master fight, and all my leveled up characters fucking struggle and I can't clear the fight.

Seriously, this isn't funny at all, and I enjoy the heck out of RPG, strategizing and grinding... When they're well executed. This game gives me very lousy bibes on that regard.

Just pisses on you because yes.

Interesting that you are having problems. Just like Genshin, they tie world level to your progress on those uncap quests, so I made sure I was ready with at least a full strong team before I did those uncap missions, and never had a single problem in story fights. Some of it is that I'm not using meta teams, so I've already been practicing at dealing with all kinds of fuckery that the game throws at you and I've found a team is that is basically ready and capable for anything. Still, I didn't recall that Medicus fight all that tough. I think after you beat her she just becomes a standard "elite" enemy. Like not a boss, but one of those ones that you'll fight in elite floors in SU and for ascension materials. Is she the one that makes rules or uses the life siphon skill? If it's the rules one, just pay attention to which type of attack she's gonna counter and don't use it if you can't survive the counters. It will say something like "don't use skills" or "don't use basic attacks" etc. If it's the life siphon one, just try to bring relevant elements and try to keep her toughness broken as much as possible, so she can't use her skills. Otherwise, you need a debuff cleanser like Natasha/Huo²/Bronya/Luocha/March (with a few Eidolons I think).

 

[Icymanipulator]

I always ran Natasha and Gepard (sometimes FireMC depending on weakness) during my initial story run then 2 dps units usually Dan Heng as one of them.

 

[Nankatsu]

Interesting that you are having problems. Just like Genshin, they tie world level to your progress on those uncap quests, so I made sure I was ready with at least a full strong team before I did those uncap missions, and never had a single problem in story fights. Some of it is that I'm not using meta teams, so I've already been practicing at dealing with all kinds of fuckery that the game throws at you and I've found a team is that is basically ready and capable for anything. Still, I didn't recall that Medicus fight all that tough. I think after you beat her she just becomes a standard "elite" enemy. Like not a boss, but one of those ones that you'll fight in elite floors in SU and for ascension materials. Is she the one that makes rules or uses the life siphon skill? If it's the rules one, just pay attention to which type of attack she's gonna counter and don't use it if you can't survive the counters. It will say something like "don't use skills" or "don't use basic attacks" etc. If it's the life siphon one, just try to bring relevant elements and try to keep her toughness broken as much as possible, so she can't use her skills. Otherwise, you need a debuff cleanser like Natasha/Huo²/Bronya/Luocha/March (with a few Eidolons I think).

Yap, she's the one that reduces all my characters life via skill. Completely fucks me up, even if I bring a shielder or healer.

I am honestly not paying any close attention to my gear, because I'm not even able to farm 5-star artifacts yet. Just slapped something in the characters I run and called it a day.

 

[Pejo]

Yap, she's the one that reduces all my characters life via skill. Completely fucks me up, even if I bring a shielder or healer.

I am honestly not paying any close attention to my gear, because I'm not even able to farm 5-star artifacts yet. Just slapped something in the characters I run and called it a day.

Ah, well not that it's currently any solace, but Luocho and HuoHuo trivialize that enemy. Anyways, might want to just level up your highest tier head artifacts to the max regardless of stats or set for the HP bumb. I'm guessing your HP is just way too low if that siphon skill makes the fight unmanageable. Just like Genshin you can later use these leveld up pieces as fodder to level other artifacts, so you're only losing a tiny bit of xp and credits.

What team are you using and what does your available roster look like?

 

[Pejo]

Interesting post I saw earlier, based on the name of the billets we get (not sure how reliable that is), the Teyvat map is oriented incorrectly in our menus. If you use "northlander billets" literally, here's the current map adjusted to true north being at the top of the map:

If this is true, that means Schneznhaya is gonna be in the upper left and Natlan should be bottom left or bottom right. Just something to consider. I also found out while reading about this that Teyvat is the name of the continent, not the planet.

 

[deanote666]

Interesting post I saw earlier, based on the name of the billets we get (not sure how reliable that is), the Teyvat map is oriented incorrectly in our menus. If you use "northlander billets" literally, here's the current map adjusted to true north being at the top of the map:

If this is true, that means Schneznhaya is gonna be in the upper left and Natlan should be bottom left or bottom right. Just something to consider. I also found out while reading about this that Teyvat is the name of the continent, not the planet.

Teyvat is flat though... How is there a planet?

 

[Pejo]

Teyvat is flat though... How is there a planet?

Well whatever Teyvat is, you're right though, it most likely is flat, if the whole "the stars are fake" thing ever ends up panning out. But when people address Teyvat, they're talking specifically about the continent. I don't think Genshin's "world" has a name that we know of yet.

Been digging in to the lantern rite today. Multiplayer is laggy as fuck and unfun. Not too bad to grind out for the rewards though. Man I keep fucking gettin Gaming constellations. I could really use just about any other 4* so I can get the refunded wishes. That would help with my Cloud Retainer goals a lot more than a few buffs on a twink I don't plan to use much if at all. Lantern Rite gave me a nice bump of wishes though, so that's pretty cool. I'm about 15~ until soft pity which should guarantee my C1. Still have a ton of stuff unfound in Chenyu too, on top of most of the Fontaine world quests still to do. Right now it's moreso finding the time to play.

 

[Nankatsu]

Ah, well not that it's currently any solace, but Luocho and HuoHuo trivialize that enemy. Anyways, might want to just level up your highest tier head artifacts to the max regardless of stats or set for the HP bumb. I'm guessing your HP is just way too low if that siphon skill makes the fight unmanageable. Just like Genshin you can later use these leveld up pieces as fodder to level other artifacts, so you're only losing a tiny bit of xp and credits.

What team are you using and what does your available roster look like?

For this stage of the game what level are the characters suppose to be? I'm currently with everyone at level 60.

But I guess this isn't the issue, since the game scales according your own level.

Maybe my issue are talents level, idk.

I don't have a very extensive roster. I'll post who I have later on, don't have access to the game right now.