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Ever since Genshin Impact first made its mark on the industry in 2020, it’s been building towards Snezhnaya, the seventh nation of open world Teyvat, and the homeland of the Fatui.
And Travellers will finally arrive in the region next month, from 12th August, as part of v7.0.
For those who don’t follow these games, this is a milestone update that adds an entire new region to the sandbox, along with its own gameplay mechanics, characters, stories, wildlife, and so on.
If you’re a newcomer, you will be able to skip directly ahead to the new quests – but obviously you’ll be missing a lot of the narrative context if you do.
Snezhnaya is an industrial nation that’s dealing with the consequences of a blizzard when you arrive. This is causing an energy crisis, and the new storyline will tackle all of the political consequences of that.
Multiple characters will debut in this update, but there’ll be two new playable units: Odette and Alyosha.
The former is a 5-star assassin ballerina, who mixes elements of dance into her combat style. Meanwhile, the latter is a 4-star hunter, who you’ll unlock for free as part of the main quest.
In addition to the traditional combat and exploration gameplay, one new mechanic added as part of Snezhnaya will be third-person shooting, with multiple weapons and attachments available in v7.0.
I assume these mechanics will continue to evolve in future updates, and HoYoverse says they’ll eventually be added to the Miliastra Wonderland, which is Genshin Impact’s user generated content hub, similar to Roblox.
Other limited time events in v7.0 will include a train racing minigame, which I’m particularly looking forward to. You’ll be able to earn Diona for free by completing all of the gameplay.
Speaking of trains, Snezhnaya will have a working railway system, which will double as your base of operations within the new location. I imagine this must have presented a real technological challenge for the dev team, as the train is constantly moving through the environment while you’re riding on it.
I’m pretty excited for this update, but I must admit I’m so far behind on my Genshin Impact these days. While I still enjoy the game, I wish it would add in some kind of dialogue skip feature, as there’s too much talking to get through.
There’s no mention of that in the quality-of-life updates, unfortunately.
Nevertheless, I’m hoping this new winter wonderland will keep me cool this summer, as it’s been non-stop heatwaves these past few months in the UK.