Genshin Impact: 1.5 Livestream Updates!

This article will summarise the new features and events that will be available in Genshin Impact after the 1.5 Update, which will launch on 28th April. These features were mentioned in the recent live stream and are still subject to minute changes at MiHoYo's discretion. As there are still many details that have not been released in the live stream, this article will focus on the key aspects of each event and the highlights of the new update. Do look out for future guides and articles about the new events, characters, artifacts and bosses!

Codes

These are the 3 codes for all Genshin Impact servers shared during the live stream. You can copy the codes below:

FS6SU367M279
4BNSD3675J8D
ATPTUJPP53QH

Banners

There will be two new characters released in the 1.5 update, Yanfei and Eula. Yanfei is a 4 star Pyro catalyst character hailing from Liyue who will be available on Zhongli's banner. Eula, the Captain of Mondstadt's Knights of Favonius Renaissance Company, will be the next 5 star after Zhongli's banner. She is a Cryo claymore character who seems to have a more fluid playstyle compared to most Claymore characters currently in the game. Her elemental skill allows for decreased Cryo and Physical RES, perhaps hinting at a flexible build of Cryo or Physical DMG.

Following the trend from the 1.4 update, we can assume that each banner will last for 3 weeks. Zhongli's banner will be arriving before Eula's, and we will have another story quest as a continuation from his last banner. I will be writing articles in future about Eula and Yanfei's build and individual skills when more information is available about their playstyles.

Weapons

The Song of Broken Pines is a new 5 star weapon that will be available on the weapon banner. Apart from a Physical DMG bonus sub-stat, not much is known about its passive as of now. It seems to be from the same weapon series as the Elegy for the End, as it has a similar colour scheme. This could be a good weapon for Eula if she works well with a Physical DMG build more than a Cryo one.

Housing System

The housing system requires you to collect materials in Teyvat such as wood from various trees, Iron and White Iron, in order to craft furniture that can be used in the house. Blueprints to make furniture seem similar to recipes required to cook and they can be obtained through various upcoming events, which can be seen in the next section.

There are three realms that you can unlock in total -- Floating Abode, Cool Isle and Emerald Peak. You can obtain housing currency to purchase furniture to decorate your realm and there is a level-up system that gives more rewards as you continue to decorate your house. This system is similar to the current Reputation levels in Mondstadt and Liyue, with Primogems obtainable as your level increases. Additionally, there will be a merchant that appears in some traveller's realms, to offer deals of items that can be purchased for your own realm. Examples of items that you can obtain for your realm include furniture, wall decorations, plants and even pets!

Upcoming Events

There will be many upcoming events in the 1.5 update, but the timeline for the release of each event is unknown for now.

The Energy Amplifier Initiation seems to be a rather large-scale event with event currency and Diona given out as a free character. The event allows you to use your characters levels and items from the event can be placed within the Energy Amplifier to buff your characters. In the later phase of the event, there will be four domains similar to the Hypostatic Symphony event where your difficulty can be chosen. The higher the difficulty, the higher the rewards! This is definitely exciting for end-game players who want to challenge their characters and combat skills.

This event requires you to hunt down the Unusual Hilichurl and speak to various hilichurls with Ella Musk's help. These hilichurls will give you intel on where the Unusual Hilichurl might be and you can find him daily to receive rewards. Some of the rewards from this event include Liyue-style decorations for your realm!

The Battlefront: Misty Dungeon is a strictly combat-based event. You will be given a specific set of characters that you can use within the domain and it is up to you to interpret each Ley Line Disorder and see how to use elemental reactions to complete the domain.

Overflowing Mastery gives double the number of talent books material for the same amount of resin. This seems similar to the Ley-line Overflow event where you can collect 3 rounds of double talent books per day using 20 Original Resin each time. However, this only applies to Talent book domains for the stipulated event time!

Windtrace is a Hide-and-Seek event, where you will be assigned to hide or to look for other players in the game. There will be certain fixed areas and achievements that you can complete for this event to earn more rewards. There will be different hiding abilities and objects you can use per location. You can even obtain a namecard from the event!

Hangout Events

There will be two new hangout events, Noelle's part two event and Diona's event. We can definitely look forward to more hangout events of other characters in future!

New Artifacts

There are two new artifact sets that will be available through a new domain. The domain is located between Dragonspine and Stone Gate, somewhere that is currently rather inaccessible due to the lack of teleport waypoints.

Tenacity of the Millelith has a 2-set benefit that increases HP by 20%, while the 4-set increases ATK of party members by 20% and shield strength by 30% after an elemental skill hits an opponent. Since this effect can be triggered once every 0.5s and when the character is not on the field, it seems to be a prime set for Zhongli. This comes together with his upcoming banner, and though several trials need to be done to compare this set with the Archaic and Noblesse combination commonly used for Zhongli, the Tenacity set seems to have great potential for his kit.

Pale Flame is made for characters who need a more Physical build, such as Razor or perhaps Eula. With a 2-set benefit of Physical DMG bonus of 25%, this is substantially greater than the common bonuses given to elemental DMG through artifact sets. The 4-set also gives increased ATK by 9% and can stack up to 2 times, which increases Physical DMG bonus to 125%. This appears to be an extremely overpowered set that can give much higher DMG numbers for your Physical DPS characters.

New Bosses

There are three new bosses that will be available in the new update: Azhdaha, the Cryo Hypostasis and the Abyss Lector.

Azhdaha is a new boss who has similar elemental abilities to the Primo Geovishap. Azhdaha is able to use different elemental attacks by infusing itself with a different element, even changing the environment of the arena to suit its current element. The attacks differ greatly based on each element, unlike the Primo Geovishap.

The Cryo Hypostasis has similar attack patterns as the Anemo and Electro hypostases but introduces many more attacks such as transforming into a wheel that targets your character, similar to the Cryo Regisvine's targeted ice. Additionally, it has a final phase where it obtains a shield to regenerate its own health and the shield can only be broken by using certain attacks. This could include Electro or Pyro attacks to break its shield.

The Abyss Lector is similar to the Abyss Herald seen in the recent story quest. However, it has an Electro element instead of Hydro and seems to have more magic-focused abilities, including orbs that can decrease your characters elemental energy, that you need to dodge.

QoL Updates

There have been several updates made to improve players QoL, the list is as follows:

Weekly bosses resin collection has been halved from 60 Original Resin.
Bow aiming in mobile will be optimised - definitely a plus for Ganyu mains!
Crafting will be easier as you can now see the number of items you already have in your inventory.
There will be better account security, possibly 2FA. Though the specific features have not been specified yet, this has been a long time coming, with many players losing their accounts to hackers.
The bug where players do not obtain heals from the Statue of the Sevens will be fixed.
Friend deletion will now require confirmation to prevent accidentally removing friends from your friend list.
We will be able to bookmark our favourite mail and lock mail.
A character combat voice line can now be in your profile!
Friendship EXP earned in Co-Op mode is now doubled, making it easier to obtain those level 10 friendship namecards!
In-game mail will be sent out before the end of each event to remind you to complete it or redeem rewards.
Language voice-over files can be deleted, saving space for your devices.