REVIEW: ‘Genshin Impact’ Update 1.1 is a MONSTER! (PC)

Genshin Impact released its newest update on November 11, 2020, with update 1.1 is also known as “A New Star Approaches.” There’s a lot of new things in this update, from characters to new systems. In this article, I will address those updates, however, if you’re looking for a full review of Genshin Impact, click here to read it.

The new update for Genshin Impact brought new content for casual and hardcore players alike. They added in new quests such as the new Archon Quest “A New Star Approaches” which is unlocked at Adventure Rank 35. A new story mission, Monocleos Caeli, is unlocked via Daily Mission Keys along with a decent amount of world quests too.

Another big change that came in this update is the ability to finally change key binds on both controller and keyboard. This quality of life update was something that was highly requested by the community and it’s great to see it now implemented. I personally like this change because a lot of the time, when navigating the menus, I would misclick and end up having to restart my process all over or I’d use my skills when I didn’t mean to. Now with this feature added, I can change my keys to suit my playstyle better.

They added in some customization options, such as volumetric fog, reflections, bloom, crowd density, and co-op teammate effects. All these options would possibly be taxing on a lower end computer, but I’d imagine with everything on and graphics set to max, Genshin Impact would look even more beautiful than it already does. There’s also the ability to tweak the camera too.

With this update, we’re given new banners to roll for new heroes, with Childe and Diona being the newest additions to the roster, and Beidou and Ninggaung being given increased drop rates. I am a tad bit sad that the Jean banner has been replaced because I was saving up to try and wish her, but now I shall look for a new healer to add to my party.

There’s now also equipment locking, this way you can make sure to not salvage your good weaponry by accident. Also, speaking of salvaging, you now get your surplus EXP back instead of losing it like you did pre-update. You can also continue to use your heroes who are out on expeditions; they are no longer locked out. Now I can finally send out my Fischl to do missions without fear of losing out on my current best DPS class.

Daily resin has been bumped up from 120 to 160. I personally had wished this was bumped up to possibly 200, just to give the players a little more breathing room and also save on primogems and condensed resin usage to top up.

Now let’s talk about the best feature added to the game, City Reputation. This feature is unlocked at Adventure Rank 25 and allows you to speak with a specific NPC in Mondstat and Liyue. If you’ve been playing Genshin Impact you should already have enough experience and completed the prerequisites to unlock this feature. Upon doing so, you will be able to speak with the NPC in the respective region and earn City EXP for your World Exploration and Region Quests. Once you hit level 2, you unlock Requests and Bounties.

World Exploration refers to the finding of waypoints and chests whereas Region Quests are the specific missions that can be completed only in the region you’re in. Once you unlock Bounties and Requests, they will provide some fun missions to do daily aside from your daily commissions. Bounties require you to look for three bosses out in the open world. Once you track their location and enter their area, you have 10 minutes to track them down and defeat them. On the other hand, Requests require you to travel around, dropping off materials to NPCs. Completion of these grants you City Reputation and Mora (in-game gold).

There are a plethora of bug fixes that came in this update that I would suggest you read, but with this current update, I can say Genshin Impact has definitely given both casual and hardcore players something to look forward to. MiHoYo is doing a fantastic job and I cannot wait to see what else is coming down the pipeline in the near future.

Genshin Impact update 1.1, “A New Star Approaches,” is available now on mobile, PC, and PS4.