Hoyoverse has unveiled what's coming to Genshin Impact in the gacha game's next colossal update.
The developer revealed during a livestream that Genshin Impact update 4.0 takes us to the new lands of Fontaine, a Hydro-themed region in the grasp of conflict. Water threatens to engulf the land further, and we have little doubt it's up to you to sort that all out alongside the now-confirmed Hydro archon Furina. The update is due August 16, but it will technically arrive the night of August 15 for many Western players.
Lyney is a Pyro bow user and the first playable Fontaine five-star, and he'll be available for the 4.0 launch alongside a rerun for Yelan. Their banners will feature Lynette as a four-star, but the Anemo sword user will also be given out for free in a post-Adventure Rank 25 event. The second half of update 4.0 will feature rerun banners for Zhongli and Tartaglia, with new Cryo claymore user Freminet as a rate-up four-star.
Speaking of free characters, update 4.0 includes a laundry list of limited-time events, and one of them will give everyone a copy of Bennett. As we've said in our Genshin Impact tier list for years, Bennett is still one of the best characters in the game, so it's nice to finally get him totally free without needing to buy him from the in-game shop or luck out on a banner.
Delving further into what was shown, the developers explained the underwater exploration that separates patch 4.0 from what we've seen prior. The devs say they deliberately avoided any sort of oxygen meter to make exploration less stressful, and you'll never run out of stamina either. That said, you can replenish aquatic stamina by grabbing special orbs to keep swimming at top speed.
There's also a new underwater combat system with fresh animations for every character, and with normal attacks off-limits, absorbing new abilities from spirits called Fontemer Aberrants is apparently essential. Hoyoverse says the split between land and underwater areas in Fontaine is about 50/50, and that includes some giant floating cubes of water that serve as environmental puzzles.
Coming into the stream, we knew who the first three playable Fontaine characters would be, with a trailer last month revealing a dozen more characters who may join our ranks at some point. As ever, we also saw heaps of Genshin Impact codes good for 300 Primogems and other resources, though you only have 24 hours to redeem them, so you may want to be quick about it.
Looking further ahead, the developer has also been teasing artifact improvements that would be a welcome sight after three years of grinding the buggers, especially with two new artifact sets coming in 4.0. While those quality-of-life improvements might not meet update 4.0, we hope to see them at some point during the 4.x run.
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