Games

I started Act IV and finished the notebook part, it was incredible!! I loved this part, it was so well done!

I finished Act III, it was really great! There were so many different things to do, and many new characters too! I’m loving Vesna much more than I thought I would.

I really enjoyed all the parts at the bank, I even found it a bit stressful at times haha.

Can’t wait to continue!

I finished the event!
The cutscene was fantastic! I won’t pretend I understood the lyrics, but the song was beautiful.
I really loved Lan Yan and 万象风角灵官 dynamic, what a duo! The generation thing was also very interesting. It was a good story with both lore and important character development for Lan Yan.

I still have most of the mini games to do.

I finished chapter 2, it was so so great!!! It was so nice to see Liyue cast again, especially Xiao of course.

Also, well done Lumine!!

I loved the humour and the lore, I really like how it’s built from event to event, but people who haven’t played through the Lantern Rite about the Eight Adepts (八奇) must be completely lost? I think it was from two years ago and not permanent.

I only did one stage of one mini game but already unlocked the weapon! It says it’s 万象风角灵官‘s sword and it once cleaved flowing sea water, which sounds really cool, so I levelled it up

It’s on Keqing right now, I wish Lanyan could have it…

I finished chapter 1 and the side story!
I loved both, stories taking place in Liyue feel special and it was great to see some NPCs again!

I haven’t done Escoffier SQ which as a prerequisite but oh well.. I didn’t want to start it now, and I probably would not have time to finish it and do the event anyway.

Also, the title of the first chapter…

I know all the characters, but it’s not like I see this and immediately understand what it means. I get a general idea though, but won’t risk a translation… I guess all the chapters put together will form a poem.

I finished the AQ, it was so so great. I thought Act II was really good already, but the end was even better? So many revelations too! I wasn’t expecting to learn so much so early!! Cutscenes were so great too.

Yeah this is the best opening we had, I’m sure. There was not a single scene that felt filler, the plot was so suspenseful, it’s the first time I finish an AQ so quickly and I can’t wait for the next Acts to release.

I think I literally spent the whole Saturday playing Act II of the AQ… But it was so so great! I can’t believe we were in the middle of a closed circle murder mystery!! This was right up my alley, and the plot was so good too! I was on the edge of my seat the whole time, I rarely get so engrossed in an AQ. The atmosphere was also great, I really liked how they used the picture and the effects added.

I haven’t finished yet, but at least I finished the big part. I don’t know how long it still is…

Oh and I just saw the thumbnail for the cutscene on the official channel… I can’t believe they managed to make a really good plot with a really good twist then decided to completely spoil it to all players (even the ones who stay away from social media as long as they’re doing the AQ) via their official channel. Why?!?? The patch’s been out for 10 days, it’s reasonable to think players still haven’t finished the story.

Finished Act I, it was so great!!
I’ll continue with Act II today too. With the constant rain there’s not much else to do anyway.

I’m playing a bit everyday, just progressing one or two scenes at a time, but I have to say it again: the plot is really really good so far (I just finished the council part). For once, they managed to make the story really suspenseful, with a lot of mystery.

I enjoy Genshin story in general, but I also don’t find it the most suspenseful most of the time (like there will be a bad guy, and we’re going to defeat them), but here I can’t wait to know how it will unfold.

It’s crazy that Reverse 1999 current story is as suspenseful and engrossing and both happen at the same time, whereas recent patches were extremely boring in both games to me (AQ Act X and the Enigma story for example).

I continued the AQ, the story is so cool this time. Good pacing and a lot happening, the plot looks so promising too!

I usually always love Act I of any nation’s AQ, so it doesn’t necessarily means that Snezhnaya’s AQ is the best so far, but if it continues like that, it will be!

Oh, and I met Vodyanitsa, I love her!!

I continued the story and finally met Odette in game. She is so so pretty, she looks so different from other characters. I’m glad the MC got the new skin, because Lumine would have looked so fade in comparison with the old design.

One thing annoying is that there was a situation described as urgent, but to go there you have to take path that starts a side activity automatically. It’s annoying because you’re told you must go somewhere to help an emergency and all of the sudden you’re chatting with an NPC about something else. Not only that, but Paimon was there too! So the whole thing completely breaks the immersion. It happened twice to me on the way to where the AQ continues.

Otherwise the story is still as good, I’m really enjoying it.

I continued the AQ a bit, still very good!
It actually allows us to unlock the main region quite soon, so I was able to start farming for Odette much sooner than expected.

The beginning of the AQ is so so good! The story is great (though starting slow), and there were so many things to do! Sharp contrast with the end of Nod-Krai. I loved it! So many new mechanics too in the new region,

The story was very easy so far, it’s probably going to be more difficult as we progress (and even more if the last chapters are only people discussing lore), but for now it really feels good to be able to play in Chinese without problem. Even tutorials were okay.

Finally did the event! What a missed opportunity to feature Barbara in her beach outfit…

I found the mini-game quite fun, like last time, especially because it’s co-op!

I finished the event! I didn’t like the mini game all that much, I’m not a fan of the shooting gameplay generally speaking, but this one in particular didn’t feel that interesting to me…

I finished the story! I absolutely loved the end, where we can talk to all the Fontaine cast!
Otherwise, even though I loved all the Fontinalia Festival parts, I was not a big fan of the Sandrone parts. I especially didn’t like the Sandrone x Columbina cutscene, I found it quite cringe.
And overall, I don’t like how the Sanbina ship is now represented in game. I really loved their interactions at the beginning, I loved how Columbina would keep on teasing Sandrone even though she looks so cold, annoyed and irritated by it. And subtlety hinting that Sandrone secretly cared for Columbina was fine too. That’s the most interesting part, when characters hardly reveal their true feelings, that makes them mysterious and we want to know more about them. Now I find that Sandrone has lost a lot of her aura and uniqueness.

I played through chapter 2 today! Not my favourite part of the event… I liked Sandrone at the beginning of the AQ, or in pair with Columbina, but I kind of get easily bored when we’re alone with her…

I started the event, love the story and the character apparitions so far. Scenes with Citlali were quite funny!

I finished the last chapter of Nicole’s quest. It was a nice event overall, it’s cool to have new formats for events/stories.

I finished Lohen’s SQ, so great!! I loved it, makes me feel like I know the character better, it was not too long which I really appreciate, and there was good pacing and action. No cutscene though, exactly like the event… really hoping this is not a trend.

I finally started Lohen’s SQ! I love it so far! It has good pacing, we spend time with Lohen and we’re learning things about him. I also just reached the point where the plot is becoming really intriguing. There were some funny moments too!

I finished Varka SQ, it was insane!! He got a crazy trial, I can’t remember any character having so much combat in their story! (though to be fair, there are a lot of SQ I haven’t done yet). I loved the last part a lot, the cutscenes were great too, and the combat was really cool. Thank goodness I haven’t played his story during his banner! Varka’s playstyle is so good

I made some progress on the quest, but then there’s a warning saying the next part is going to be long, so I’m keeping this for another day. My goal was to finish it before Lohen’s release, which might not be possible now but it doesn’t really matter.

I started Varka SQ and I loved the beginning: lore impactful, but sounds intriguing with a good plot. And a lot of characters too! I’ll need to note down some names in Chinese to match with their equivalent in English.
I wanted to play all chapter 1 today, but I won’t have time. Anyway, I’m glad the story looks promising.

Finally!!! It’s over!
There’s really a problem with the length of AQ Acts this version… Act X was the worst, dialogues dragged on forever, you could easily cut half of it. Maybe part of it was to build tension, to accentuate that feeling that everyone’s getting ready like it’s going to be a tough confrontation, and we might all disappear and so on… but as a player, you know everything’s going to be fine in the end, so I personally felt no tension at all, and all the build-up ended up being useless.
And it was so static too, most of it happens in the same place. No action at all, apart from the end.
I also wish that characters for which this act was really important, namely Colley and Wanderer, had more screen time. Like I can’t believe the act was 8 hours long, but they didn’t really go over Wanderer’s past. Like there were some quick pictures flashing at the end, but you can’t even call them flashbacks. Also they expected players to remember events from years ago and/or to have played limited events not available anymore.
At least it was a relief to be able to play it by chunks.

I feel like I played for hours, but it’s still going on… and it also doesn’t feel like it will end soon. There are a lot of useless and repetitive dialogues in my opinion… Act X is much much too long.
I really don’t understand why they feel the need to make it so long… Oh well, I’ll probably won’t be able to finish it this weekend, but if I play a little bit everyday next week, I will get there eventually.
So far, by far the best thing in the AQ is the music, and there are some scenes I really loved too like that art of Jeht dragging us out of danger, Faruzan and Nicole’s dialogue, the Aranara following us, Paimon and Wanderer’s private discussion (I almost cried when they talked about that feeling of being useless), Mavuika casually throwing her gnosis to us… but these are really small sparkles in a sea of complete boredom.

I started Act X, and I really don’t like this AQ. I think it’s the first time since playing that I really don’t like a content in the game. There are things I liked less, like some Fontaine WQ that felt much too verbose to me. And yeah, I did found the last Nod-Krai AQ acts much much too long to the point where they burnt me out, but I wasn’t bored exactly.
I’m not saying that it’s uninteresting, but the way it’s delivered is very monotonous. It also feels verbose for the sake of it, like they absolutely want to make the AQ 8 hours long.
I’ve played for a long time, but it seems unending… at least we can take breaks.

I finished the event, it was so sweet! It might just be one of my favourite events I played in the game. It even had me tearing up in the last chapter

I played through chapter 2, it was so so cute and so so funny!!! I can’t remember the last time I laughed so hard in a Genshin story. The whole party is just adorable I constantly had a big smile on my face while playing the story.
So far, I’m 100% loving the event story more than the AQ.
After playing chapter 2, I’m even more annoyed at the weapon skin. If it had to be a skin (and not a real weapon), and if it had to be recycled design, they could have at least made a version per weapon type so that all the “Little Witches” could equip it as a souvenir of their adventure…

I was so tired of the AQ, I decided to start the event story to distract myself, and yeah, it worked! I only played until the mini-games presentations (I’m so happy these were voiced), but I liked the beginning, it was very funny and cute, and it’s nice to get to know Prune!
Yeah I guess that rather than discussing Sumeru lore with grown-ups, I prefer to play with children and their imaginary friends…
And also, I love Qiqi
I only played one game of each, I love the Yaoyao/Qiqi one and the Sayu one too! Combat was good too, much better than what we had last time (I’m not super fan of the “interrupt combat to use a mechanic” type of game). As for Klee’s… I guess I just still haven’t gotten the hang of it…

I finally finished act 9!
First of all, I must say that it’s really cool to open the game and think “I will play the AQ for 20 minutes”.
But then… the first half of Act IX was really good, but the second half was just people standing in circle discussing lore? I’m personally not a fan of this kind of AQ, and unfortunately we had a lot of it in Nod-Krai, especially towards the end. I don’t find listening to endless discussions very engaging for a video game, I would prefer more action, having things to do, feeling more involved.
And then, Sumeru lore is quite difficult too. At first, I wanted to read the wiki to fill the gaps (either things I don’t understand in Chinese or things I forgot), but then it was just too much so I gave up.
So yeah, I personally haven’t been a fan of the end of Act IX… I hope Act X will pick up the pace.

I continued the AQ a little bit, and I know I said it already, but I’m so so happy that they’re now allowing us to leave more often
I swear Nod-Krai AQ has completely burned me out, and I haven’t played as much the last patches because of it. I can’t play for hours at a time, I usually just spend 20 or 30 minutes in the game then do something else. I can spend 1 hour for some story content, doing IT or playing TCG, but 4-5 hours in a row was exhausting.
And I really love the story so far
As for Chinese level, I think that now I’m confortable following any Genshin story in Chinese, but I must admit that Sumeru lore is still hard to me. The reason is that I was still playing in English when doing all the Sumeru AQ and the WQ, so I don’t know the terms in Chinese, but most of the time it was easy to deduce from the context.
For example, I had no idea that the Akasha system is called 虚空. Thankfully the way it was talked about in the story made it obvious characters were talking about the Akasha system, but I was surprised by the Chinese name.
And I find Paimon’s notes quite useful!

I started the AQ, what a start!! The beginning is so good!
And it looks like they really did allow us to quit when we want to! I’m just at the beginning, so I hope it’s not going to change, but so far, there were a lot of “breaks” where it was possible to leave the AQ. I will try to progress a little bit, maybe not every day, but several times a week if I can. So I can finish during the patch without burn out.
Also the title… 身土坏空，五蕴识转. I know all the characters, I have no idea what it means.

I finished Emilie SQ! I loved it, it was my favourite genre, and yeah the end was foreseeable, but I enjoyed it still. It’s the kind of story with a lot of recurring vocabulary, so even if the beginning had a lot of unknown words to me, I found the second and third parts to be much easier to follow.
I’m also glad that I finished before the next patch given that we’ll have a new AQ.
Now I need to add new words from the end of part 2 and the whole of part 3 to my flashcards!

I finished adding all the new words to my flashcards from the part I already played through, which means I can now continue the story! I must say, the genre of the story is right up my alley!

I continued Emilie SQ, there was a big chunk where I couldn’t pause, so this means I have a lot of text to study now before continuing. Still enjoying the story very much!

I finished the event story and the associated anecdotes. I loved it very much, and I really really love Aino! The additional anecdotes were very good too (I much prefer this format over the drink event we had last time).

I finished chapter 3 of the story, and it was so great! Even though I found the story very predictable, and even though what happened was what I expected, it was still very good. I loved the main NPC’s story.
To be honest, I haven’t been a big fan of the last two events stories (the Mondstadt one and the Dragon Spine event), so I’m really glad about this one.

I’m progressing very slowly, but I did study one more short passage. It was pretty easy, almost no new word apart from 嗅觉. I was surprised I never saw this word before! I do think I have a solid vocabulary basis now, but then sometimes I come across basic words that I didn’t know at all, and it always feels weird.

I was afraid that Emilie Story Quest would be full of words related to perfume and flowers (not really the kind of vocabulary that I’m the most interested in), but the beginning has brought me surprisingly useful words that I didn’t know like 囤积居奇. I did add a lot of words just for the second dialogue, but I’ve seen most of them in my flashcards now, so I’ll continue the story as soon as I have time.

I finished chapter 2 of the current event. I like the story (always here for crime fiction!!), but it’s very foreseeable…

I don’t know why, but I started Emilie SQ. I’m going to study it too. I don’t have Emilie and I know nothing about her, but I love her CN voice. I only played through the beginning, but I added all the unknown words to my flashcards (there were a ton of them!). I also just did day 1 of the current event, so I’ll need to progress on that too. Still can’t study the event because the text is not in the wiki yet.

I continued Vodyanitsa’s story quest, she’s so nice, and her story is also quite sad, though she really has a great attitude about it.

I did Vesna’s anecdote, it was so funny! It’s cool that it’s a sequel to Vodyanitsa’s.

This passage was so funny, but so many new words too! I only knew 交头接耳. As often, the meaning is easy to guess, but I’m adding them to my flashcards.

I read her character story 2, this one was much easier! and quite short too. It was a really nice read.

I read Vodyanitsa character story 1, and it was so hard to read… lore heavy too, so I had to look up characters in the wiki, and ended up reading the story in English. Character stories are one of the most difficult things to read in game to me, but this one was particularly difficult. I hope the next episodes will be easier.

The event has ended… it was so great! I loved it! Gameplay is about close to zero, but it was fun to try to predict the outcome and watch the match. I also really liked the live aspect of it and the competition format.

Finally built Vesna? Not great, but good enough I guess… I have do many characters to build this patch, I can’t really afford to farm artifacts so that’s her build.

I’ll never play Vesna over Mizuki anyway, I pulled her mostly because I like her and she’s great for exploration, but I don’t care if she doesn’t deal that much damage…

I did craft Emberwell R5 for her, I think it’s a tiny bit better than the BP sword?

IT is cleared! Anemo cycles are the best, I cleared two of the latest stages with Xiao (had to kept Faruzan and Xianyun for him), and I had still several good characters at the end too, so the clear was not a problem on my second try.

I finally finished Odette’s character story. Even though we knew about the outline of her life through the AQ, reading the details was heartbreaking. I feel like I understand her much better now.
The episode of the photograph was so sad to read.

苦痛是我的羽翼，我的翅膀。

Placed my bets for the day! I think it would be so cool if this was a permanent thing, with an arena somewhere where you could play the auto-battler, but also bet mora once a day.

I really like this event! I had some good bets, some bad ones too, but now that we’ve reached the quater-finals things get much more interesting since we already saw each team performance once, so betting is much more strategic now

I already got all the rewards which were easy to get, so it’s just for fun. I just need to remember to do it every day, thankfully my husband reminds me.

I finished the second chapter of the Selenic Chronicles. Once a month I remember that I still haven’t finished those… I really like how many diverse activities there are, I just always forget to do them.

So now I finally have the card name

沁凉 qìnliáng must describe something refreshing like “soakingly” cool.

I continued Vodyanitsa’s anecdote, it was so so great. I feel like it helps us understand her better, even more so than her apparitions in the AQ. I still haven’t read her story nor played her SQ, but I really love her personality and her dedication to her fans. I found this anecdote chapter quite moving too.

Some vocab I had to look up:

I like how much value she’s giving to the lives of her audience, the same way they value her singing.

I’m starting the new event, the idea is interesting! Though I would much much prefer playing myself… The auto-battler is one of my favourite events, I don’t know if I like that prediction thing all that much.

People are massively thinking that the red team will win in the first game… they do have an archer, but most of their troops are 小队 and the opposing team is only composed of 范围 (AOE) which is stronger against small formations. They also have freeze which is useful. Red team has more units in total, but blue have more different stuff deployed. As for the stats, blue units have massively more HP and Atk than the red flyers, but the archer is stacked… Maybe if they manage to freeze it, it could work? But then they’re going to attack the flyers first while the archer is firing at them from a distance, though it will have to shoot several times to kill them. Once the fungi have gotten rid of the flyers, they will be at a disadvantage against the archer (AOE against 单体 single target), but still… Eh, I’m voting for the Fungi Family.

Ok, I must admit that this is quite fun, but still I would rather play myself…

Tutorial had those two words I didn’t know, which is strange because they must be recurrent in Genshin. I knew 阵型 for battle formation but not 阵容 which means line-up, so a pretty common word!

I also learnt the character 徽 in 警徽 for police badge, but didn’t strictly know the word 徽记, though its meaning is not hard to guess.

I just finished her character story 4, it’s so sad… We knew the outline from the AQ, but reading the story is heartbreaking.

I also really liked this sentence:

I have Vodyanitsa’s notebook!! I didn’t know there was such a thing in the game, it’s so cool. Vodyanitsa’s is the meeting point I progressed the most I think.

I also made some more expeditions in the shadow realms and upgraded my pass, so I unlocked some more blueprints to upgrade my weapons.

I did chapter 2 of 巡猎者木屋, it was so short! I still don’t have access to the other blueprints, and I’m not sure how I’m supposed to upgrade my access pass.

I also started the new 绝境攻炼. I just did one round, died at some point and got the minimum set of points. It did give me a weapon part for a weapon which blueprint I don’t have… I should spend more time looking at this whole system because I’m completely lost!

I did Vodyanitsa’s anecdote, it was really cool! Her reaction was quite the twist, I really like her personality! I just unlocked her meeting point as well (very late, but… ). Now I did the first chapter of each meeting point I think. I probably need more exploration progress to unlock the second one, I’ll have to check.

I haven’t done a lot of anecdotes so far, maybe just Charlotte (which was very good as well), and a couple of shorter encounters.

Vesna is the character I liked the less from the trailer in terms of design and personality, and I will always prefer to play Mizuki in stellar swirl, but I care less about combat and kit lately, and I’m so glad I decided to go for Vesna. Her exploration abilities are incredible!

Double pulling session for Vodyanitsa and Vesna! Three pity for both.

I cleared fearless! I had only cleared once before, and it was in September last year, so one year ago already! I’m sure my account could have done fearless during 6.x, but I never tried hard enough.

I’m trying to replenish my collection of dusts and elixirs.

Chimeric Lion:
Lumine is not even built, talents are at 1 and she doesn’t have any relevant set, but I didn’t know who to play otherwise. Anyway, it worked.
Mizuki has the strongest single strike with over 400k?!

Yumemizuki Mizuki

Odette

Lumine

Qiqi

Anemo Operative:
This was the most difficult, I tried Kinich, but it didn’t work. Maybe it could if I reliably did more cannon shots per skill. Lohen also did not work, it takes too long to break the shield… So I ended up trying Zibai, and out of the three stages that’s by far my fastest clear!

Zibai

Illuga

Columbina

Linnea

Knuckle Duckle:
It’s not as strong without Columbina, but still one of the best team on my account.
And I’ll always be playing Kazuha. I don’t care.

Flins

Kaedehara Kazuha

Aino

Ineffa

I cleared with Mizuki and Xiao as usual!

The obvious distribution was to play Mizuki stellar swirl first half and Xiao second half, but I couldn’t pass the Baptist, at least not with Durin-Nicole. Breaking the pyro shield with anemo only took too long. I didn’t try FFXX but it would have been the same for the cryo shield. So I decided to play Xiao first half, with Odette for the stellar mechanics, and Mizuki lunar-charged second half with Durin for pyro support. It worked perfectly. Not only that, but I realised afterward that I had kept Mizuki on a 2p-2p crit. instead of moving her back to VV full EM.

First half:

Xiao

Odette

Faruzan

Xianyun

Second half:

Yumemizuki Mizuki

Durin

Columbina

Ineffa

I tried a fearless clear, but I don’t know how to beat the second boss. Xiao can’t do it (I believe there’s too much anemo res, he can break the shield very easily, but there’s not enough damage overall), Lohen and Durin have good DPS but take too much time breaking the shield… I don’t know if other lunar teams can do it…

I’m not sure I understood Alyosha’s kit completely, because from what I read, he doesn’t do much? Heals and taunt on burst and increase stellar superconduct damage by 20%? That’s about it? His healing scales with his Atk, but his own damage is buffed depending on his ER? And I have no idea how decent it is anyway… Oh well, I’m going to build him for IT first and then see if I want to max him later.

I finished an IT run I had started at the beginning of the month. Didn’t manage to get that last flower… but it was so close!!
Now I didn’t have Odette nor Alyosha, so I could give it another try during the week or next weekend. Odette is IT ready, even though she’s not fully built yet, but Alyosha is not… Just bringing Odette might be enough, especially since it’s SO artifact farming time right now, so I don’t know if I want to build Alyosha just yet. Oh and I can bring Lumine cryo too… If I find the time to do a new run, I’m sure getting full flowers won’t be a problem.

I tried playing Mizuki stellar-swirl with Odette, and it was insane!! Odette is not even built yet…
So reading her kit, you can either go skill > skill or burst > skill to get the special skill. First choice is probably faster, but the second shows the burst animation, so it has to win (if burst is available of course). But there’s no need to go skill > skill > burst.

Only have the free copy! Not complaining though, Alyosha was one of my favourite designs when they revealed the trailer, so I’m super happy he’s free. I’m not sure I’m going to add him to my teams all that often, but I will build him for IT.

Odette came home in the first ten-pull! Lucky!!
No Alyosha, but the free copy is enough for me. It’s probably going to take me the whole version to properly build her, given how slow I’ll probably be in progressing the AQ and exploration, but it’s fine.

Her animations are really sublime, she has to be one the prettiest characters in the game.

Reading Sandrone’s character details in Chinese made me realise something!
Alain initially called her 小玛丽安 “Little Mary-Ann” as a souvenir of his sister, then decided that Sandrone deserved her own identity, and only continued to call her Little Mary-Ann in his heart.
People in Snezhnaya call her 木偶 mù’ǒu, which means “puppet” or “marionette”.
But in the English translation, both 小玛丽安 and 木偶 are translated to “Marionette” which is confusing and does not convey Alain’s initial intention as well (to me, “marionette” does not sound at all like something related to the name Mary-ann).

I should level up her skill to 9, but… I haven’t played Sandrone a lot in difficult combat, and I also don’t have Yae Miko, so for now, she’s driving Bineffa…? I really don’t feel motivated to improve and artifacts, so that’s Sandrone’s build for now.

I cleared IT with full flowers this time! It’s much easier for me when there’s no geo!
The run was actually very smooth and easy. Gaming is always one of my favourite characters to play, there’s that eidolon stage, that I always clear with him if I can.

I tried again to clear with Xiao first half and Mizuki second half, but I still can’t do a continuous run.

This team clears first and second chamber, but I obviously can’t do third chamber with that:

Xiao

Faruzan

Fischl

Xianyun

And this team clears second and third chamber, but I’m too slow on the first chamber… (was missing 30 secs, it seems impossible…):

Xiao

Fischl

Lauma

Xianyun

Maybe I’ll give it another try later…

I more or less finished the management game! I still have a couple of things I haven’t done, but I secured all the primogems, so I don’t know if I’ll try to really 100% complete it. If it was the only content remaining for the patch, I probably would, but I still have the whole WQ and Moon exploration to do, so I’ll probably stop there.

Charlotte’s skin is adorable and I really loved the game and the interactions that were in it (especially Sandrone playing the piano!). I’m still really not a big fan of underwater exploration and combat, though with all the upgrades, it was a much better experience. I would have much preferred if the “exploration” part of the game had been real combat instead.

It was very long too, I can imagine that players who keep the event/mini games for the last minute will struggle to complete it in time…

I tried the new Abyss, couldn’t clear with Xiao and Mizuki yet…
Mizuki lunar charged is obviously very good second half. The problem is the first half. By adding Fischl to the Xiao team (replacing Furina/Durin) I can clear the first chamber no problem. The second chamber was easy too. The problem is the last boss, I can’t do anything against the mechanic. I could try and bring Lauma too just for that, but this would mean having two characters in the team that do nothing most of the time. It would basically be a Xiao and Xianyun duo run. I don’t think it’s enough DPS, and I would need to put both on support sets actually useful to Xiao.
I might give it a try in the next days, and if it doesn’t work, well I’ll have to clear with Sandrone.

I made a lot of progress on the management game, I really like it!
It feels so strange to see Columbina with eyes opened for so long!

I continued the aquarium management game, and I like it a lot. I think I’ve unlocked all the major things, I just need to continue playing and progressing.
It’s so much better than the theme park thing we had in Fontaine last time. There was nothing to do apart from clicking on things again and again. Here at least there are several activities and we really get to do things.

I continued the event and finally unlocked the management game!
I love management games, and I particularly love the aquarium theme, so I’m biased, but I find that the game is much better than the two other iterations we had before. Underwater combat is really not my favourite thing though, but filling the aquariums, doing commissions and levelling up is fun.
I’m not sure about the backpack thing though, it doesn’t seem to be that important to optimise it…

I’m still at the very beginning of the game so we’ll see, but I’m loving it so far!

I started an IT yesterday, everything went very smoothly (cleared about half or 1/3 of it, I don’t remember where I left exactly). I’m confident I’ll be able to clear with all the flowers this time!
The elements are much better for me this time, I hope I’ll have time to continue the run today!

I wanted to test Mizuki with her buffs, so I did an Abyss run. I thought it’ll also be a good opportunity to test Xiao with Durin and Nicole.

First half:

Xiao

Durin

Faruzan

Nicole

Second half:

Yumemizuki Mizuki

Ororon

Columbina

Ineffa

It was so much better than my first run!!! I had a lot of spare time on each chamber! Chamber 2 in particular was very close on my first attempt, but I finished well before the time.

Problem is that I don’t know whether it was Nicole in Xiao team or Mizuki’s constellation buffs that made the difference, my bad for testing both at the same time…

I did Mizuki’s quest “Witch’s Revelation “, and I was shocked, her fortune sounds so negative… I thought that maybe I didn’t understand well so I checked the English, and it sounds less negative in English, it feels like they deliberately chose mild versions of the three words Barbeloth gives as interpretation of her fortune. Like I can’t be sure of course, but I feel like the Chinese words all have stronger negative connotations than the English ones…

Could have been better, could have been worse… got a Keqing along the way… It’s actually the first time I get her on banner!
I’m pleasantly surprised by Sandrone’s traversal ability! It didn’t look that great on the SP for some reason, but I like it a lot. Still have no idea how to play her, but I think I’m going to enjoy her playstyle! I don’t have Neuvillette, so to me it feels very unique and new!

To be honest, I’ve never really liked Alice, from the first moments she appeared in game to the Nod-Krai arc where she was more present… but now I’m starting to warming up to her because of Prune’s story.

His kit is pretty easy, there’s only three key words: 欢悦 (the thing he accumulates to unleash his special skills), 争胜 (the thing teammates accumulate for him to increase damage of special skill and burst) and 乘兴 (the thing that increases his skill level).

Finally did Fischl Witch’s Homework! The story was so great, I think it was the best one from the ones I did. And it would have probably helped to do it before my IT run rather than after but oh well…

Finished the event! It was really cool talking to Bennett, and I had completely forgotten how fun the region was with the asha exploration mechanic!
The event was okay, I like coop events anyway, but it was also not the most memorable one imo.

With this done, I cleared all the events of the patch, I’m ready for moon landing!

Finally finished an IT run! It was NOT easy… I managed to keep Zibai for the last boss, but even her with Aino and Illuga cleared on the last second.
I probably won’t try another run, I don’t see my characters able to make a full flowers run.

Also, strongest single strike was Linnea with other 500k!! How!?!

Finally did Prune’s last ascension, but I’m not maxing her level (still 80) nor her talents. I won’t really play her anyway, I built her for IT and because I like her, but I have no idea if she would be good in any of my teams.

I did Lohen’s Witch’s Homework (his story was pretty good!) and tried the new IT, but it’s really tough. I’m halfway through, but I’ll have to give up on the full flower clear. I don’t even know if I’ll be able to complete the run even. If not I’ll have to redo a run without trying to go to the flowers, which will allow me to keep better characters for the last combats. And borrowing my husband’s Kokomi was a mistake…
MVP so far is Durin for sure.

Finally finished Lohen SQ which gave me the last materials to build him! Artifacts are very bad. Durin has the best pieces which were not even that good to begin with… but it’s fine, I don’t really care about his damage.
Given that Xiao is using Ineffa’s weapon, I gave Lohen PJWS which I believe is really good on him.
And artifact passive and cryo resonance give 35% CR, but maybe I should adjust his build if I decide to not play him with granny.

When talking about choosing a name for her imaginary friend, the text say that 德斯卡戴 felt full of philosophical reasoning. I didn’t understand why, so I looked at the name of her imaginary friend in English: it’s Descartes! But René Descartes in Chinese is笛卡儿, so the two sound very different.

As per tradition, my first Abyss clear was Xiao and Mizuki! Clearing with those two makes me so happy every single time
First half:

Xiao

Durin

Faruzan

Xianyun

Durin is back on NO for the clear… I’m so glad I pulled him for Xiao, because it’s so much easier to clear content that requires pyro.
And yes, I chose to play Xianyun instead of Nicole, but this Abyss is actually a good way to test the Durin-Nicole core for Xiao, maybe I’ll try later in the month if I feel like it.

Second half:

Mizuki

Ororon

Columbina

Ineffa

I didn’t think it would work because of the Suanni, but they did it!

I wanted to try Lohen in the current Abyss so I did a run last minute! He is still half built (level 69, talents 6/6 and no Witch’s Homework yet).

First half:

Lohen

Durin

Kazuha

Nicole

I tried with Citlali, but it didn’t work, I was missing a few seconds on the third chamber. Changed to Kazuha and cleared everything with a lot of margin. Lohen’s damage was really low given his build. I was also not doing his combos really. But Durin’s damage is impressive. I never really played Durin dark form before, he was just a Xiao support. But with Lohen, I gave him his DPS set, and I’m really shocked by his numbers!

Second half:

Columbina

Lauma

Linnea

Ineffa

The support team from Nod-Krai. It’s probably not optimal to make them all fight for hydro, but the team is mega strong still, and I find it fun to play.

I took the Miliastra personality quiz and my result was “Master Strategist of Liyue“.
I’ve been having fun with “One Stroke Puzzle”, “Nonogram Scrolls” and “Flappy Linnea” among others to farm primogems. Then I spent 15 minutes customising my Manekina. Some standard fates gave me the autumn-theme outfit I wanted so badly when it came out, but now the weather’s much too hot to wear that…

I finished the combat event, and it was so much fun!!! I loved it!! I’m hoping they will add this as a regular combat feature one day.
I named 咕咕丸 as champion
The most difficult part of the event, was to read the five sections tutorial in Chinese.

At least, now I know how to say “to parry” in Chinese.

Also, one thing we can say to Kazuha is 下回可以一起到処游览。If only it was true and we really could…

I’m still in the middle of the second chapter… I love how almost each time we get to do a different activity or game. On the one hand, I’m happy to still have these to do, so I can also meet Columbina still, but on the other hand, will I ever get the glider… not before Snezhnaya that’s for sure…

Her character story 1 was so sad it made me cry. I kind of want to equip the bubble pistol gadget when she’s in the party, no actually I’m going to look at all the toy gadgets I have in the backpack and equip them all!

I finally got around to reading Prune’s kit… it’s so hard to read character kits in Chinese, but I decided to really immerse and stop watching guides in English or read anything in English about the characters. So from what I understand, I need to stack attack on her, and ideally, I would like to have her burst up too… There’s also a special mention if the DPS swirls, so I guess she only gets her full value with Varka or DPS Venti? I might just play her a bit in overworld for fun, but I won’t completely build her right now, and I don’t think I could slot her in any of my teams right now.

I went to pity and won my 50/50, it’s such a relief! My primogems count has never been so low…
As usual, I haven’t pre-farmed at all so it might take all the second half of the patch to build him and find him decent artefacts. And I don’t know what his best team is, but I do have Nicole and Durin, so it’s probably okay.

If she ever officially replaces C2R1 Xianyun in Xiao’s team, then she’ll be double-crowned, but… I’m in denial, I don’t want to accept the fact that she can replace Xianyun. I want to believe that this is just a dream, and we’re all going to wake up to Adepti buffs or sth, that will make Xianyun BIS again and Xiao completely broken…
3735 is probably not enough, but oh well… good enough for now!

I studied Nicole’s kit in Chinese. Hexerei characters are called 魔导 módǎo, that’s good to know!
I still can’t believe she can replace my C2R1 Xianyun in Xiao’s team…

… At double pity… It was a complete disaster… double pity, lost to Dehya and only got Prune C1… Nicole, why??
I love her, her animations are so beautiful! Given that I haven’t pre-farm, building her will take some time, but she will mainly go in Xiao, Kinich and Lyney’s team I think, and I might also try melt Ganyu, though this would mean redo her build.
Also, I’m someone who never explores with the compass (except for the limited Summer maps), but now that I have Nicole, I feel like using it.

I only got C1 Prune despite going double pity on Nicole’s banner. I’m glad to have her, though I don’t know if I’m really going to build and play her. because I have no idea which teams she would fit in. I’m going to build Nicole first in any case.

I finally took the time to farm Linnea’s 空羽蛾 (empty wings moths?), so she’s finally built now. 90, 1/9/9. I’m sorry it took so long, but I really haven’t played a lot during this patch…
Also, she’s dealing up to 300.000 with a fully charged Lumi… what???

Linnea’s kit was not difficult to read at all. I learnt how to say “hit” (it’s for Lumi hitting with her hammer) and “million tones” lol.

I pulled Linnea mostly for her exploration abilities, her love for animals and her special interactions. I do have Zibai, but I would have pulled for Linnea even if she had another kit. Though I must say, I don’t like Lumi, I don’t like her design, and for some reason, I really dislike her unique voiceline.