As part of the big reveal for Genshin Impact's Luna I, the gacha game's next big update landing on September 10, the devs at MiHoYo unveiled a new system that will let players boost their characters from the current level cap of 90 all the way up to 100. The catch is that the item that will let you reach the new cap is effectively exclusive to the game's whale-level spenders.
Currently, getting duplicate versions of Genshin Impact characters from gacha pulls will reward you with constellation level upgrades for them, up to a max of constellation level six – or C6, in the fandom's parlance. For the rarest, 5-star characters, you'll soon start to get an item called a Masterless Stella Fortuna for further duplicates after they've reached C6.
The issue, of course, is that even players who've been with Genshin Impact from the beginning probably don't have a single C6 5-star – unless they've been dumping serious money into the game. You need two Masterless Stella Fortunas to reach the new cap – one for level 95 and one for level 100 – and the odds of pulling a single 5-star character enough times to reach C6, never mind twice more for the relevant items, are downright astronomical. Unless you're willing to spend big, that is.
"It's not just paywalled, IT'S WHALEWALLED!" as one Reddit comment puts it, and that pretty much sums up the tone of the community's response to the new system. While you can use a Masterless Stella Fortuna to increase the cap of any level 90 character, you can only get the item from collecting a ridiculous number of 5-star duplicates.
Genshin Impact has historically shied away from balancing endgame content around heavy paywalls – though, admittedly, any gacha system is inherently at least a little pay-to-win – but there's a lingering fear that some new content might be balanced around the level 100 content, effectively locking all but the biggest whales out of some parts of the endgame. There's not yet any indication that this will happen, but the idea that it might is already causing concern.
Rather bizarrely, the reveal of the Masterless Stella Fortuna system came alongside a rather self-aggrandizing sense of generosity from MiHoYo. During the Special Program revealing Luna I, the devs confirmed that Masterless Stella Fortuna drops would appear for players who've already gotten the requisite number of 5-star duplicates, even if those dupes dropped way back in the game's olden days.
In an apparently scripted chat between devs in the program, head of marketing Michael asks incredulously, "This Masterless Stella Fortuna tracking all the pulls from launch… are you sure these decisions won't cause any problems?"
"Let's put it this way," combat designer Aquaria responds. "I often hear this saying, and I bet you and the Travelers watching have heard it too: 'Genshin Impact doesn't want to make money,' right? Well, it's not entirely true. Players who've been traveling with us this long know, over the years, Genshin Impact's production costs have gone way beyond what you'd expect in a typical game. Genshin Impact's value and what it brings to the table are far more embodied in its IP and gameplay, the characters, the stories, and the fun itself."
Here, Aquaria introduces a new event called To Temper Thyself and Journey Far, which will rotate seasonally and let you get a single free Stella Fortuna for a limited selection of 5-star characters, including many exclusives, if you complete eight weekly training goals.
"L-Let me get this straight," Michael once again asks, with disbelief written right in the program's official subtitles. "This year, not only are we giving away a standard 5-star character, if the player's up for it, they can also claim four exclusive 5-star characters? You might have denied it earlier, but your 'Genshin Impact doesn't wanna make money' rep is going to stick!"
"Well... Genshin Impact isn't exactly a conventional video game," Aquaria responds. "A lot of our decisions honestly carry a splash of idealism. Instead of a product with astronomical revenue, we would rather make something that leaves a mark on our players, on these times, and maybe even in history. And with that goal, there's always going to be a very real and materialistic side to it, but also the idealistic side that's carried us this far. Some people criticize the material parts, and some praise the ideal, but for everyone on the dev team, either or, and all aspects of what we do are what makes Genshin Impact."
The optics of MiHoYo playing up its own "idealism" and generosity don't exactly look great coming immediately after the reveal of a major new feature seemingly built exclusively for whales. I'm not sure any gacha game can claim to equally balance idealism and materialism, but Genshin Impact is doing itself no favors by acting like its monetization is some grand moral victory.
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