The newest Genshin update is packed with a
ton of new content and these are the top 5 new features coming with the 4.4 version. So, with this update comes a new and quite
honestly pretty unique zone called Chenyu Vale. It’s located somewhere between Liyue and
Fontaine and surprisingly enough, the biomes showcased were not yellow like you would expect
to see in Liyue, at least not the majority of it but it’s mostly green biomes that
contain lots of aquatic locations, like this massive waterfall and river. The developers have also hinted that there
will be these special objects that you can collect, which I guess will be used to redeem
rewards. Either way, this zone looks pretty cool and
in terms of additional permanent content, the Cloud Retainer’s story quest will also
be available. Just like with every update, we’re getting
a bunch of events and the biggest one, of course is going to the yearly Lantern Rite
festival. This time around this event is all about flying
kites and the major event will be comprised of 3 activities. First there’s this mini-game where you guide
Guoba who needs to forage for different ingredients and then Yao Yao’s cute companion helps
cook the food, while the 2nd activity will be made up of a bunch of co-op mini games,
so like in one of them you need to run around and collect these Lucky Teabricks, in another
one you will need to control as many platforms as you can by moving onto them and then there’s
also this kinda quirky game where you need to stand inside the circle and push other
players out, so I guess we’re getting some PvP action here. Now the biggest reward for participating in
this event is going to be a new costume for Xingqiu – talk about a relevant reward as
I am sure a lot of us have been using this Water Dude for so long, it’s going to be
refreshing to see him in a new costume. On top of that, Ganyu as well as Shenhe will
also get their own costumes but they will need to be purchased. I mean they both look pretty elegant in these
costumes and my alt costume Keqing will appreciate this Lantern Festival themed party. But one big thing is coming back with this
update and it’s the yearly 4-star selector which also includes the new 4-star character,
so yeah, more free stuff and its funny that if you’re a starting player, you could get
Xingqiu and his new costume for free with this update. But when it comes to smaller events – the
first one called Receiver of Friends From Afar puts us into an unpaid labor job where
we need to cook Liyue specialty food by completing various mini-games and the rewards seem unremarkable,
just free stuff that’s all. On the other hand, this event called Journey
Through Hiligmatic Terrain seems pretty fun, it has two activities as far as I can tell
– in the first one you take control over this Eye which allows you to infiltrate the
Hilichurl camps and you can jump between them to reach the main goal which is a Mysterious
Statue you need to discover. And then the 2nd activity is this co-op battle
event where you fight a new type of large Samachurl and honestly I am surprised to see
co-op fights making a return – I actually like them personally. Finally, there’s Triumphant Frenzy battle
event and to me this is probably the most exciting event of this update and it’s not
because of the rewards but how this battle works. Basically, you’ll be offered each round
to build a party of characters from a random selection, so you’ll be forced to think
up of a good team, especially if you end up with characters that have low synergy with
each other and I think that’s pretty fun. But yeah, it seems like we’re also gonna
get 10 Free Intertwined Fates by logging in and other freebies during the 4.4 update as
you can see here from this picture that was shared during the livestream. Overall, pretty nice way to start 2024. After so many years of speculating who is
the Cloud Retainer, she’s now going to be playable Anemo 5-star Catalyst user and her
name is Xianyun although I am not sure if I pronounced it correctly. Anyway, this Anemo Bayonetta is really interesting,
her skill allows her to jump high into the air and then she can perform a Plunge Attack
and this can be done up to 3 times. While I think this will be a cool new way
for you to traverse, if you decide to pull for her, what really shocked me was her burst. So, first of all, when unleashed, it will
deal AoE damage and heal the whole team and then this companion called Starwicker will
follow your active character around, provide further healing and get this – the active
character will be able to jump high into the air, high enough so they can do a plunge attack
and it seems like Anemo damage will also be dealt on top of that. To me this sounds amazing – imagine Plunge
Diluc finally coming to life after so many years, especially considering some players
who liked to do his Dragon Strike technique. But yeah, I’ll be doing a full pre-analysis
video about Cloud Retainer very soon because there’s a lot to unpack here. Moving over, the other character is going
to be… Gaming? Like, Genshin Gaming? Anyway, Gaming if I pronounced it correctly
is a 4-star Pyro Claymore user and just like Cloud Retainer, he has some verticality built
into his kit because his skill consumes his HP but allows him to leap into the air and
then he can deliver a Pyro plunge attack, which is pretty cool since this is the first
character who can jump high into the air and is not from the Anemo element. As for his burst – he will enter a special
mode, heal himself and deploy this cute companion which will deal AoE damage and then if Gaming
comes into contact with it, his skill’s cooldown will be reset and then if he uses
his skill, he will summon his companion again, so to me this looks like a budget Xiao gameplay
style with extra steps, which might be cool in all honesty. And speaking of which, we can see here that
Gaming puts on this cool cloak on him and has this neon look when he is using the burst,
which is always great to see when a burst transforms character’s looks. Either way I am super happy this update brings
2 new characters that can fight enemies with Plunge attacks and in fact – Cloud Retainer
might enable some older characters to do this type of combat as well, so I am very curious
to see how this will turn out. Again, my analysis video about this is coming
out very soon, so make sure to subscribe to my channel. But let’s talk about the banners – in
phase 1, Xianyun along with Nahida will be the featured 5-stars and at the same time,
Gaming will also be available to pull for as the featured 4-star on either of the banners. This is pretty awesome since if you pull,
you might be able to obtain both new characters. And as for the 2nd phase banners, Xiao is
coming back along with Yae Miko. I mean, Xiao showing up during Lantern Year
festival is nothing new here but it’s surprising to see Yae Miko as well. And of course, during phase 1 there will be
a new signature 5-star weapon that you can pull for called Crane’s Echoing Call. As a quick mention, this update also introduces
a new world boss for you to farm its ascension materials. It’s called Solitary Suanni and it looks
like a combination of a cat, dog, dragon or whatever but the point is – it looks pretty
cool and it seems like it uses Anemo attacks like these tornados, so hopefully it’s not
going to be an annoying fight whenever this boss is added to the Spiral Abyss. And what’s interesting is that during the
livestream we also got to watch this cute papercraft animation that talks more about
this boss and the lore behind it. Hoyo is once again rolling out a bunch of
quality-of-life changes for Genshin and starting with the first one – you can now Fast Equip
artifacts. Basically, there will be 2 buttons: Quick
Loadout will just equip some artifacts on your character, similar to the way how Recommended
Gear button works in Honkai Star Rail, while Custom Loadout will let you select artifact
set, main stats, substats and whether you want to show the artifacts that are already
equipped by another character. I mean, while this feature has Loadout name
in it, it’s definitely not what a lot of players have been asking for, which would
be a save/load feature where you can create a bunch of loadouts of artifacts that you
can switch between. But let’s move on – the next feature will
re-organize Serenitea Pot furnishings into categories that you can look through by using
this filter screen and now when you place furnishings in editing mode, the current position
in lists will be remembered when switching between categories. And when looking through companions, they
will now be sorted by their friendship level and you’ll be able to see it before placing
them. And then… Genshin will get a new red dot notification
that reminds you to claim your Daily Commission rewards because apparently the Devs have noticed
people are forgetting to do this, which is kinda funny since the rewards are pretty pitiful
and easy to forget. Next, the amount of team comps you can save
up will increase from 10 to 15 loadouts, which is always a nice thing to have and then what’s
even better – a Borderless Mode will be added for PC players which is something that
needed to happen for a long time. Finally, when trying out test trial characters,
you will now be able to just quickly try out the next one instead of exiting and re-entering
the stage and then there’s this change for PC and console players that will optimize
Model Precision which supposedly will increase the precision of the models and surfaces like
in this picture I guess. Oh and for those of you who love bopping to
Genshin’s music, the 2nd Fontaine OST album is coming out with the update as well. And I didn’t know where to put this but
Genshin TCG will also receive a small update that adds a bunch of new cards, including
Sayu and Thoma. But yeah, that’s pretty much it when it
comes to the 4.4 update. I hope you guys found this video useful and
as always, make sure to press that like button on this video and subscribe to my channel. Thanks for watching and see you very soon.
