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Genshin Impact 2.1: New Inazuma islands, Raiden Shogun and more

Genshin Impact's recently released Inazuma region will be getting new areas and at least three new characters, developer miHoYo revealed in a livestream on Friday (20 August).

The update, titled "Floating World Under the Moonlight", will arrive on 1 September, and will also cover the game's first-year anniversary.

Most of the new character focus is on the Electro Archon herself, the Raiden Shogun also known as Baal, who as some already know is a 5-star Electro polearm user.

The Raiden Shogun, Baal (Screenshot: miHoYo)
The Raiden Shogun, Baal (Screenshot: miHoYo)

While there might have been suggestions about her being a support, miHoYo seemed pretty clear about what she'll be providing.

The Raiden Shogun will be joining as a five-star Electro polearm user who can deal massive damage and provide helpful buffs to the team.miHoYo

While it looks like miHoYo clearly wants to avoid another CEO of Geo situation, expectations are still going to be high for an Archon, especially one who can "deal massive damage". From demonstrations, her Elemental Burst converts her polearm to sword mode (similar to Tartaglia's). Also, it seems we'll have to farm the Electro Oceanid Thunder Manifestation for her upgrade mats. Crossing fingers that it won't be as annoying as the actual Oceanid (Sorry Barbara, but I'm not farming more hearts for you to get to 70...)

Kujou Sara (Screenshot: miHoYo)
Kujou Sara (Screenshot: miHoYo)

Joining the Electro ranks will also be the bow user Kujou Sara, whom most of us would already be acquainted with (if you've played the current Inazuma Archon quest). According to miHoYo, she deals "solid Electro ranged attacks" and will be able to also provide buffs.

That said, she's a 4-star, and if any of you are in the "press F for Sayu" ranks, you'll know it might be near impossible to get her during her banner.

 Sangonomiya Kokomi (Screenshot: miHoYo)
Sangonomiya Kokomi (Screenshot: miHoYo)

The other 5-star of 2.1 will be the leader of the resistance forces, Sangonomiya Kokomi, the Divine Priestess of Watatsumi Island, one of the new islands coming in 2.1.

She's a Hydro catalyst user who can "provide a great amount of healing to teammates" (Barbara screaming "don't take my stuff" right about now) via her jellyfish, and in her Elemental Burst mode looks really cool floating above the ground. Thankfully, there's a Hydro Hypostasis to beat up for her Ascension mats. From what we saw, Raiden Shogun and Kujou Sara will come first, before Kokomi's banner in the latter half of 2.1.

Aloy (Screenshot: miHoYo)
Aloy (Screenshot: miHoYo)

In addition to these three characters, all Genshin Impact players will be getting a welfare Servant free 5-star character in Aloy, the protagonist from Horizon Zero Dawn and Horizon Forbidden West.

Playstation users will get her earlier, in the upcoming version 2.1, while everyone else will get her in 2.2.

She's a Cryo bow user, but given that she's free, Cocogoat should still feel relatively safe about her artifacts and bow. That said, maybe Aloy will arrive with a nice DMG boost against mechanical foes, like the annoyingly perpetual Perpetual Mechanical Array.

With 2.1 said to be providing a "grand finale to the main story" in Inazuma, there's still no sign of Thoma, Yae Miko or Gorou on the banners, but don't put it past miHoYo to squeeze one in at a later stage (Yae is quite prominently featured in one of the Key Visuals for this update).

Signora boss fight (Genshin Impact)
Signora boss fight (Genshin Impact)

There's also a new boss fight with La Signora, or just Signora, the 8th of the 11 Fatui Harbingers, which means we finally have another Harbinger to beat up for damage tests (stop Childe abuse today) and we also finally get to take revenge for our favourite Tone-Deaf Bard. Oh, and new Talent boss upgrade mats.

With the upcoming Mooncake festival IRL, miHoYo's also having their own in-game celebration with the Moonchase Festival, where players will once again get to hangout with Keqing and Xiangling in Liyue Harbor.

There's also a Moonlight Seeker treasure hunt event taking place across Liyue, Mondstadt and Dragonspine, which will see a new free 4-star max refinable claymore up for grabs in the Luxurious Sea-Lord (which sounds perfect for Beidou, but you gotta admit it looks quite suitable for Sayu).

For those of you who enjoy more casual aspects of the game, a fishing mechanic is coming in 2.1 (only took Skyrim 10 years for this), as well as a place for all your caught Ornamental Fish to grow in the Serenitea Pot.

For whales, you'll be pleased to hear that the first-time purchase bonuses on Genesis Crystals is getting reset as part of Genshin Impact's first year anniversary events, and for those who are considering dipping their toes into whale territory, this might be something to consider. There are also a lot of free Fates up for grabs with daily logins, as well as other juicy rewards.

The trend of gating some items for an upcoming character behind a yet unreleased region or boss is one way of giving players more to do in an update, though the gating of quests tied to daily server resets may not thrill everyone (looking at you, Tatara Tales). Still, overall, it looks like 2.1 will likely rival the Dragonspine we got in 1.2, and then some, and there's definitely a lot to unpack when it hits.

GellyPanda is a casual gamer who occasionally dabbles into gatcha games.

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