Wednesday, November 19, 2025

Combat-Focused Review of Hytale's Latest 16-Minute Gameplay Footage

This is an early draft for YoSquid's reading pleasure. It may contain inaccurate or incomplete information. I was sneakily viewing the footage and writing this post while at work and I spent the rest of the post-work night playing gacha games.

Bro's really not pulling any punches this time.
When Simon said they'll make it fast, I didn't expect he'd be THIS fast. I guess my expectations have just been well-tempered by Genshin Impact, the long Hytale wait, and work.

I think Simon really knows what the majority of the community wants from vanilla Hytale because there was a LOT of fighting in this footage. (Yes, I know I'm biased in favor of combat.) So I'm gonna amuse myself further by analyzing it.

Definitions of Terms

Since I'm a Genshin Impact player, I will mainly use terms from that game as analogies for various Hytale mechanics for ease of explanation. Some of these mechanics currently do not have official terms or have inconsistent terms.
Because Hytale will first release on PC, Mac, and possibly Linux, I will mainly use Genshin Impact's default PC controls as a reference. 

Normal Attack: Basic left-click attack.
Charged Attack: A stamina-consuming attack that deals more DMG and/or has a special effect. (It is currently unknown what control input triggers this but in Genshin Impact, Charged Attacks are used by holding left-click.) If I remember correctly, this attack was officially called the alternate attack or special attack interchangeably.
Plunging Attack: An attack where the character descends from the air to strike the ground, dealing DMG on impact. In Hytale, this is triggered by certain weapon types' Charged Attacks. (Using Normal Attack inputs in the air will instead attack mid-air.)
Signature Move: A weapon's ultimate ability; this term is officially used. It is charged differently depending on the weapon type—usually by dealing DMG. The Genshin Impact equivalent of this is called an Elemental Burst—both Elemental Bursts and signature moves are triggered by pressing Q.

Aimed Shot: A manually aimed attack with a bow.

Energy: The resource needed to use signature moves. Its charging speed is affected by Energy Recharge (ER). Although it is unknown whether Energy Recharge exists as a buff on lootable equipment in Adventure/Exploration Mode, I wanted to explore this possibility 'cause some signature moves are genuinely interesting.

Core Mechanics

DMG and Health

I will use that shortening for damage (much like the HoYo games do) since Simon used it in a post on X.

There doesn't seem to be a hunger bar—after eating an apple, Simon regenerated health slowly kinda like in Minecraft. It is instead shown as a buff above the health bar. It even has a radial bar representing duration.
(Something that Genshin Impact STILL won't give us!)
Later replies on X confirmed that Simon wants food to do more than just filling a simple hunger bar; i.e. granting buffs though he doesn't want to overdo it.

Fall DMG is relatively low-impact, I think. Simon can fall six blocks down (eight counting his jump) or something and not take any DMG—I think this is consistent with the goal of flexible mobility. For reference, in Minecraft, four blocks is the threshold for taking fall DMG.

As standard with other hack-and-slash games, Hytale weapons have cooldowns preventing them from attacking until the end of their animations. Normal Attack cooldowns are quite short—the daggers, for example, have a 0.3-second cooldown.

Enemies

In general, Hytale enemies are quite tanky and can take around 10 hits from iron weapons in normal gameplay before dying. (In comparison, 4 regular hits from an unenchanted iron sword are enough to kill an unarmored player in Minecraft which has 20 HP.)

Combined with skeletons being able to block attacks (they don't flash red when hit while blocking—a shield particle effect appears instead), even Hytale mooks feel challenging to fight. I guess this further raises the importance of me prioritizing defense over offense...and thankfully, my team is nowhere near as bloodthirsty as I naturally am.

Interestingly, one of the skeletons wielding both a sword and a shield blocked with its sword instead of its shield. I wonder whether this is a bug or an intentional feature to reflect undead not being very intelligent...

Stamina

As with many other games, stamina is consumed by sprinting or performing Charged Attacks.

Player-Environment Interaction

Some small objects such as flowers or sticks on the ground can be picked up by pressing F. (In Minecraft, these objects have to be broken first.)
This allows weapons in particular to remain able to use their unique right-click functions while keeping the gameplay intuitive. Minecraft, on the other hand, doesn't tell the player that sneaking prioritizes the right-click function of their item on hand instead of the crosshair target (e.g. placing blocks on top of interactable blocks like chests). In a Hytale context, this allows the player to, for example, block with a weapon or shield instead of accidentally opening a door or sacrificing mobility—imagine accidentally letting a horde of hostile mobs enter your house while you're fighting a single mob that slipped through.

As basic as it is by general video game standards...I think Minecraft players will appreciate the fact Hytale lets you sit on actual chairs by pressing F instead of, say, using minecarts as improvised chairs or using mods.

Items on the ground have an upward glow much like in Genshin Impact. This was only shown with wood logs and gray glows, though—I wonder if higher-rarity items glow differently.
In many video games, gray is 1-star rarity, green is 2, blue is 3, purple is 4, gold is 5, and a few even have a red 6-star rarity. Note that rarity does not always correlate with the power or usefulness of an item—in Genshin Impact, for example, some 4-star characters like Sucrose can match or exceed the power of some 5-stars like Kaedehara Kazuha.

Going back to the sticks, though: This is promising.
There was once a Tweet (prior to Elon Musk acquiring Twitter) where I think it was Noxy (@Noxywoxy), CEO of Hypixel Studios during the Riot Games era, who said unlike Minecraft, you can't punch wood in Hytale because you'll hurt your hand.
But thanks to sticks naturally appearing on the ground, I think it'll still be possible to start a Hytale run with basic tools and resources about as quickly as a Minecraft one.

Blocking

Any melee weapon type can block.
Yes, including daggers! Unlike in Skyrim where dual-wielding without a shield prevents the player from blocking, you can totally do so in Hytale.

A shield icon appears on the crosshair while blocking. I'm not so sure how useful this'll be yet but this is a new feature for video games in general.

Signature Moves

Signature moves do not seem to have a cooldown beyond the end of their animations. This allowed Simon to quickly spam the bow's signature move.
In comparison, many Elemental Bursts in Genshin Impact have cooldowns of 15 seconds or longer. The shortest, as far as I know, is Aino's at 13.5 seconds.

Since this is a PvP game, having no cooldowns and very high Energy Recharge can potentially be game-breaking, especially the battle axe's signature move. It was shown to keep a group of Outlanders away from the player so if spammed in PvP, anyone who isn't using a ranged weapon or another battle axe is practically dead.

When a signature move is ready, a "ding" sound is played and the weapon glows cyan. Its use is indicated by cyan and yellow trails.

UI Elements

I did not expect it but I love how they added a hit marker kinda like the Call of Duty games...even with melee weapons. The marker turns red on a killing blow. It helps that I'm more of a visual learner.

Weapon Types

These are heavily subject to change because Simon said after he posted this footage, Team Simon's designer proposed a whopping 100 changes to weapons! How are they this efficient!? I know the map used in the video was a few weeks old meaning the #HytaleIsSaved announcement was made late on purpose...but still. Kudos to this designer—and I guess Team Simon as a whole—for this insane work ethic.

Granted, it wasn't made very clear what these 100 changes are. They could be changes to audio or visual assets like sound effects, textures, and particle effects. They could be technical changes like fixing bugs. Or what I prefer: balance changes like DMG, Energy costs, etc.

Battleaxe

I think this is the first time we've seen the battleaxe used by the player since the trailer. This is why in a poll from Simon, I voted for the battle axe to be part of the next combat showcase...but the sword and shield won.

The most notable change to the battleaxe is its signature move spins a lot more now, making it highly effective at crowd control. This is really nice for me as I'm a Mavuika main in Genshin Impact and part of her optimal combo is holding her Charged Attack to perform donuts with her motorcycle.
It has also gained some cyan particles like other signature moves. The trailer version only had a yellow trail.
You can pin enemies to a corner with this signature move thanks to its impressive range as shown against a group of Outlanders.

The battleaxe's Charged Attack causes the player to jump forward. Upon landing, the player unleashes a downward cleave as a Plunging Attack.
I think the longer you hold the Charged Attack, the further you jump. Granted, it's not as fast as daggers but the battleaxe still has a use for quickly getting into melee range.

Arrows appeared on the crosshair while Simon was attacking. They were kind of all over the place but I'm guessing these determine the direction the player will swing their two-handed weapon. This suggests swing direction matters—like in real life, I imagine this can be used to exploit weak points in enemies' defenses.
When combined with movement speed buffs, I think players can easily strike these weak points in PvE...but it may be harder to do in PvP where an enemy's ability to rotate their body is limited by how fast they can move their mouse...which is often incredibly fast for seasoned gamers, especially with high mouse sensitivity.

I have a feeling my friends will want me to use battleaxes as my main weapon because I play a rogue/monk/barbarian multiclass in Dungeons & Dragons and I have horrible anger issues IRL. I'd be happy to oblige 'cause I like roleplay...though I honestly would rather use daggers.

Bow

For this weapon type only, my use of the term "Normal Attack" refers to Aimed Shots. Aside from the signature move, no other attack types were shown—not even a simple melee attack equivalent to an unarmed strike. The icons on the bottom right were also the same as when wielding a melee weapon.
In Genshin Impact, bow Normal Attacks make the character rapidly shoot auto-aiming but short-ranged arrows that usually deal Physical DMG. No such attack was shown in Hytale.

Simon clarified that for debug purposes, the bow's signature move charges very fast—after just one hit.

The signature move is a three-arrow simultaneous shot. The arrows don't spread out—they all hit the same target if I understood correctly. Interestingly, it also does not consume arrows, unlike Normal Attacks.
High Energy Recharge can thus be useful for saving arrows. However, if you're indeed interested in saving arrows, a DMG calculator is still important in case buff "allocation" is limited; e.g. using Minecraft terms, if you can only have a maximum of Sharpness V alone or Sharpness IV + Fire Aspect I on the same sword.
If you either have a ton of arrows to spare or the equivalent of the Infinity enchantment, you may not need as much Energy Recharge.

The arrow gains a yellow aura when a Normal Attack is fully charged. I like this one a lot since it's more visually distinguishable from Genshin Impact's charging animations—I sometimes still use C4 Diona's quickened Aimed Shots in Co-Op and it's a PAIN to identify whether they're fully charged.

The arrows travel a bit faster compared to Minecraft but also have somewhat shorter range, I think—Simon had a bit of trouble hitting a Void Eye in the air which was barely moving. They also use a more traditional trail effect as opposed to the "critical hit" particle effects in Minecraft that kinda obscure the screen a bit.

I feel like the bow in general deals little DMG, though—despite the signature move shooting three arrows, it doesn't feel as powerful as I expect three arrows to be. Maybe because Simon was using an iron shortbow and there are significantly more powerful materials out there? I dunno. Maybe I'm just used to Minecraft bows.

Crossbow

This is probably the most fantastical weapon type that isn't a magic weapon because it's more akin to a semi-automatic pistol—it has an ammo capacity of 6 and is reloaded one round at a time like a revolver. I see why Simon liked the crossbow—this is normally a highly underrated weapon in fantasy works and typically wielded by mooks.
I think first-person shooter players will have the most fun with the crossbow. I know Alevius, my ex-girlfriend, and I enjoyed blasting enemies with pistols in modded Minecraft.
Edit: I could be wrong—daggers won as the most popular weapon in CanadianFlash's poll followed by the sword and shield. The mace and bow/crossbow only had a measly ~10% votes each.

The crossbow's signature move is currently unknown as it wasn't used at all in the footage. Since all signature moves use the same icon with a sword engulfed in an aura, there is no hint of what this signature move does.
Every 5 hits with the crossbow charges its signature move by about 33%. (This is not split per hit; this means landing only 4 or fewer hits will not regenerate any Energy.)

Like the bow, the crossbow uses arrows. Arrows are consumed from the player's inventory when reloading.

Daggers

Daggers are technically a single item but they always appear dual-wielded. In other words, I guess you can't wield a single dagger.

I have a feeling this is Simon's favorite weapon type 'cause he used these the most often and holy fudge, they're crazy fast. They also retain their highly mobile dashing and Plunging Attacks.

The slash animations are nice for a video game since they give the daggers a bit of AoE but they're also a minor gripe of mine because daggers are best used to thrust IRL. Clark and David of Sellsword Arts, two highly rated Historical European Martial Arts (HEMA) fencers, dual-wielded daggers in Blade and Sorcery and found jabbing with them in forward grip like the MUDA MUDA MUDA from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure to be highly effective...to the point the comments section described them as "goblins".

Speaking a bit more about Sellsword Arts, though, as unbelievable as it is that daggers can block, this is actually a viable tactic...if you're going sword and dagger IRL. You can block with your dagger which helps since shorter weapons are stronger in the bind and then stab with your sword so you still have some range.
It's kind of a shame that the player seems unable to wield a single dagger because I think it would've been fun to experiment with non-traditional forms of dual wielding (by fictional standards). Like, just going off vanilla Hytale mechanics, imagine going sword and dagger: you have the insane attack speed and mobility of the dagger plus the moderate AoE of the sword.
Then again, I don't know if having two signature moves will mess up the game balance or keybinds. There are only so many buttons on a controller or keyboard.

Simon confirmed that daggers deal double DMG on a backstab.
Considering weapons in general do little DMG, I feel like this is not enough...or maybe I'm just used to sneak attacks dealing a ton of DMG in other games. It kinda ruins the whole point of close-up assassination: killing someone quickly so no one notices.
However, this doesn't mean this is a practically nonexistent advantage. In a mirror match, you can theoretically gain a DPS increase by backstabbing your opponent as your first attack. It takes more time and precision to rotate one's mouse 180 degrees to respond to an attack.

Mace

TBA

Sword and Shield

These weapons are designed to be used in tandem with each other but can be wielded independently as well.

They retain their signature move from an old combat showcase: a single spin attack followed by a dashing thrust.

There's a shield bash attack too.

Rifle

I hadn't even watched the full video when YoSquid sent me a screenshot of an AK-47 and I was like, "WTF!?"

This is probably just for testing/fun anyway—I doubt we'll be able to craft modern guns like this in vanilla Hytale Adventure/Exploration Mode.

There is no ammo counter or aiming down sights and the particle and sound effects are weird...but I can cut Team Simon some slack, I guess. Instead, the AK-47 consumes arrows.

Either way, since I know how much Alevius and Glacie like playing with guns, I'll add guns to our playthrough. Guns are particularly useful for Alevius since she doesn't like getting up close and personal as much as we boys do.

Pistol

This was showcased in an exclusive clip provided by Simon to Reddoons who used it to kill two Kweebecs. I think the first one was a Razorleaf Ranger and the second was a regular citizen.

Judging from the simple, compact design, it resembles some kind of Glock pistol to me. I'm unsure of the exact model.

It has a proper melee attack where the player strikes with the "butt" where the magazine is loaded. It hit the Razorleaf Ranger once...

...then Reddoons fired, finishing off the Ranger. It also one-shot the regular Kweebec.

We haven't seen the Kweebecs taking any other source of DMG in any media so far, however, so it's too early to assume how much power the pistol has. It wasn't used on any other mobs either.

But if this pistol really is crazy powerful, imagine how good it'd be in practical combat scenarios. In real life, a standard Glock 17 magazine holds 17 rounds and the largest extended mag holds 33. Who needs the bow signature move anyway? (I'm ragebaiting YoSquid on purpose.)

Exploration and Graphics

Biomes

Plains actually feel like plains as opposed to the occasionally hilly Minecraft counterparts. This is great for mobility since I'm an outdoor melee fighter.
For Slamma, this is convenient for building since not much terraforming will be required and as a Kaveh according to Alevius, I agree.

Breaking Blocks

Not many blocks were broken in the footage—pretty much only trees were chopped. But it's a lot more interesting.
Blocks are actually broken based on the striking animations so it feels less "robotic". In other words, in Hytale, cracks appear whenever your Avatar strikes a block as opposed to being dependent on breaking duration—in Minecraft, with normal mining speed, the same "rapid hitting" animation can quickly break dirt but not leave much of a dent on wood.
To fully chop a tree, one must destroy all the log blocks on one layer. The tree will then instantly drop all the remaining logs on top and the leaves will be instantly destroyed as well. This speeds up wood collection and improves visibility of the surroundings 'cause I HATE it when mobs use the cover of trees and darkness to sneak-attack me in Minecraft.
This differs from the Treecapitator mod where you simply have to chop one log block to chop the whole tree down.
I am unsure, however, if you can accidentally "treecapitate" wooden structures that aren't trees. I hope not 'cause wood is probably my favorite Minecraft building material in terms of aesthetics. I love waking up to the color of wood in the morning.

Simon commented that the iron hatchet breaks blocks too quickly for its tier. Perhaps iron was used for testing back in the day and they couldn't agree on the stats for other materials? I dunno. Still, even if the iron hatchet was severely nerfed, I can't say no to efficient treecapitation because of how useful wood is for my travels and base building in Minecraft.
That said, I'm curious how easy it will be to obtain other material types in Hytale and how good they'll be because I want to give Alevius the most efficient possible hatchets—I tasked her to collect wood for me in Minecraft and she genuinely likes the job.

Caves

Hytale caves are noticeably larger than in vanilla Minecraft (note that I haven't played Caves & Cliffs or later), making them a bit more akin to real-life caves. (I've been to Lumiang Cave and Sumaguing Cave north of the Philippines...and even though Lumiang Cave is considered a "hard-difficulty" cave with narrow passageways, dangerous heights, and a substantial risk of death, there are some quite-spacious areas similar to Hytale caves. Sumaguing Cave, on the other hand, is like a giant underground spring...or "chocolate fountain" if you prefer—I bet if Alevius reads this, she'll drool.)

There are lots of crystals that provide a little light and break up the monotony that is otherwise present in Minecraft caves—I'm tired of seeing gray everywhere.

The enhanced lighting and size are great because holy fudge, I hate fighting in Minecraft caves. They're so narrow and dark that I get overly paranoid of skeletons hiding in corners. It's also more difficult to "create angles" (sidestepping in boxing) while fighting close-range mobs like zombies. With Hytale caves, I can fight more nimbly in general and see distant enemies if they're near a crystal. The ranged attackers in my army like YoSquid have a clearer shot on their targets.

Lighting

Outdoor environments during the day generally feel quite vibrant and I like it. I feel like there's a greater sense of feeling in nature compared to Minecraft with its...frankly small and simple trees. Shadows also more or less match the shapes of objects blocking the light like in other 3D games.

Nighttime and caves feel much darker compared to other video games, thus emphasizing the need for a light source like a torch...which fortunately can be held in the off-hand. (In Minecraft, you'll need the OptiFine mod to do the same.) Thankfully, there are also many more naturally generated light sources, albeit faint and won't help much in spotting threats.
That said, it is a test of my spatial awareness and I'm willing to take the challenge.

Map

I know the trailer had a more detailed map than this but I was shocked to see this map for the first time since I hadn't watched the Hytale trailer in a long time. Probably because I instead held the map to Genshin Impact and Minecraft standards...and it's alright in retrospect.

First, why was I shocked? Because I was so used to Minecraft that I thought having a map in Hytale would be a bad idea from the devs' standpoint...but I was wrong. I know I frequently get lost in Minecraft and I'm lazy to craft maps in that game so the Hytale map felt like massive quality of life (QoL). Don't worry—unexplored areas are hidden in all-black.

Second, the reason I didn't describe this map as "exceptional" or whatever is...maybe it's too much to ask but it only shows the surface level like many older video game maps. I know Hytale is a block game with a 320-block height limit at the moment...but some Minecraft minimap mods also show underground maps. Genshin Impact and Wuthering Waves also have underground maps...and players complained a lot back then about the sprawling underground mazes of Sumeru 'cause they often got lost when the underground map didn't exist. Given how Hytale worlds are randomly generated, an underground map would be even more critical—I've spun in circles in enormous Minecraft caves a bajillion times 'cause I kept forgetting to mark my path.

That said, given that the voxel tech guy seems to be innovating in expanding this height limit, I wouldn't be surprised if they got a proper underground map working eventually. 

Music

We have a bit more context now on where some of the familiar tracks like "A New Adventure" and "Night on the Dunes" are played! Boo-yah!

That said, I'm not a fan of the dissonance during combat. There are dedicated combat tracks in Oscar Garvin's OST. Maybe those are for more serious combat situations than just wild encounters? Like when you're raiding an enemy base?
I know the music changed briefly when Simon was flying above a Trork encampment.

Side note: Oscar Garvin had a singer perform a new song to celebrate #HytaleIsSaved called "This is Our Tale"! Holy fudge.
And I saw a conversation on X where someone proposed having AURORA as the next singer because she's Norwegian just like Oscar. Oscar replied that he can't afford AURORA at the moment but if Simon recoups his buyback from Riot Games, Oscar can start his own orchestra. Simon replied, "100%." And this made me a bit giddy inside because AURORA also performed some tracks for the Nod-Krai region in Genshin Impact.
Combined with Oscar having a variety of genres in the Hytale OST, I'm looking forward to Hytale tracks similar to "Venture of Tonalamatl" from Genshin Impact and "Wildfire" from Honkai: Star Rail. Yes, I know those are combat tracks and most people seem to prefer chill tracks or songs they can dance to but darn it, I'm a lunatic tactician for a reason.

Operational Course of Action

Military terms are based on their usage in the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and may differ from other military organizations.

Loadouts and Role Assignments

I'm disappointed that there still seems to be no dedicated fist or spear moveset since those are my two favorite weapon types IRL and in general fiction...but I'll make do with what we have. Better for Team Simon to fix what's already available than overly expand scope and make a bloated-as-fudge project too quickly.

I'll use daggers. They're the fastest-attacking weapon type in the game and possess incredible mobility which is great for quickly ambushing foes and getting their attention. For some reason, I get attacked the most often in Genshin Impact Co-Op so this playstyle is great for keeping the enemy off my allies. I'm also quite dodgy—this primarily comes from my IRL boxing training but Wuthering Waves helped a bit.
I'll prioritize buffs that enhance both my movement and attack speed. This will improve my capability as a dodge tank and Draw Aggro target as well as my chance to backstab foes.
Aside from being basically the Chief of Staff of my army, I'd primarily serve as the logistics officer; the S4 in military terms. I'd be the dude carrying a bajillion materials, medical supplies, tools, and weapons to keep my team fighting fit.
As the most technically proficient officer, I will also be the communications officer; the S6.

Glacie will start with swords and shields but transition to sniper rifles. Although there are many available weapon types in the Tinkers' Construct mod which we used to play, Glacie went with a more traditional fighting style. He's also the best melee fighter in our team. But once he got ahold of a sniper rifle, he jokingly shot me and Alevius from atop a mountain and we couldn't see him at all.
Because Glacie is a massive simp for Kafka and other "mommies" from Honkai: Star Rail who specialize in Damage over Time (DoT), his buffs will focus on maximizing the DoT he inflicts on enemies. Given the greater tankiness of Hytale enemies compared to other video games, DoT may actually be good because it's useful in long, protracted fights when consistently applied. This complements my role as the dodge tank.
He will also serve as the intelligence officer; the S2. He seems to go his own way the most often when he, Alevius, and I played Minecraft as he flew on a Pokémon like Corviknight and discovered a lot of important areas like villages. If Pixelmon ever gets "ported" to Hytale, I'll totally install it so Glacie can build a powerful competitive team and be highly mobile in both combat and intelligence gathering.

YoSquid will be a bow user, of course. He is highly consistent in this weapon of choice in Minecraft, Dungeons & Dragons, and this time, Hytale. While I can't remember how good of a shooter he was, his confidence suggests to me that he hasn't lost his touch.
In addition, I will assign him as the army's operations officer; the S3. YoSquid is the most experienced among us in various PvP games: Minecraft, VALORANT, etc. and also recently picked up Wuthering Waves.

Alevius will start with a bow or crossbow then transition to either a sword and shield or a fully automatic assault rifle. This keeps the melee and ranged fighters evenly split and reduces the risk of friendly fire: something YoSquid is concerned about. When I asked Alevius about the types of weapons she prefers, aside from magic weapons, she mentioned swords (specifically rapiers) and bows—she's practiced archery IRL. As for firearms, Alevius enjoys playing with them in Fallout and prefers high ammo capacities but I want to ensure she remains mobile, hence my choice of an assault rifle (ideally an M4A1 or M16A4)...but I'd be fine with her wielding anything else and I'll adapt accordingly. I could even double down on the high ammo capacity preference and give Alevius an M249 machine gun able to hold up to 200 rounds and fire up to 850 rounds per minute (RPM).
This is on top of being the primary diplomat; the civil-military operations (CMO) officer or S7. She will be in charge of building relationships between our team and friendly factions like the Kweebecs. The Kweebecs in particular will interest Alevius a lot, I think, because her favorite Genshin Impact element is Dendro, she sees herself as Collei, and she's easily enamored by cute stuff, especially babies.
As an IRL accountant, she fits well as the financial manager; the S10.
Ideally, I want Alevius to equip magic weapons but I have a feeling they weren't showcased in this footage because they are far too broken or unfinished to have any value.

If there's an equivalent of a Favonius weapon (gives Energy to the team) in Hytale...I'm unsure who to give it to because we trust each other to contribute roughly equal DPS. Maybe I should hold "Favonius daggers"?

Appendix: Enemy Compilation

TBA

Skeleton (mace), 0:00: N2 hit, N4 blocked, 

Tuesday, October 28, 2025

Genshin Impact Tier List Based on Filipino Societal Expectations of Me

Genshin Impact tier list based on Filipino expectations.

Hi. It's been a long while, hasn't it?

I simply haven't been feeling like writing publicly recently, especially with all the grinding I'm doing both in work (I have a new office job but can't disclose what it is) and in gacha games—I just got a PRO role in Skycoach and am piloting others' Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail accounts.

But I was officially put on break by my office—heck fudging yes! Freedom at last! There were no holidays in September and I got burned out.

Anyhoo, enough background yapping. I admit this post was heavily influenced by work frustrations since now, the vast majority of the people I work with are Filipinos (as opposed to Japanese students) and...is it just me or do Filipino workplaces feel more socially taxing on autistic people than Japanese ones? Both Japan and the Philippines are notorious for overworked employees, sure, but I feel like in the Philippines, you don't just have to deal with drinking parties (called 飲み会 nomikai in Japan) but also brainrot conversations (I don't give a flying firetruck about celebrities or teasing like some Americans do), being pressured to sing and dance, and take a bajillion photos of hyper-extroverted girls, especially if they find out you're a skilled photographer like I am 'cause Filipinos seem to value quantity over quality in photos.
Part of why I wrote this is I also have a workaholic supervisor who I pissed off so much (usually unintentionally) that she now acts as strict as a (in my head) one-third German, one-third Japanese, and one-third Filipino boss when interacting with me (and other people who get on her nerves even if they wield higher authority than her). Think the strictness and sense of justice of Kujou Sara plus the attention to detail and parental instinct of Xianyun but the ability to engage in brainrot and social extroversion of Arataki Itto.

Tier D

All these characters contain traits that your average grass-touching (i.e. not highly introverted or a hikikomori) Filipino will absolutely HATE to see in me.

Aether, Bennett, Kaedehara Kazuha, Lumine, and the Wanderer are adventurers/travelers/wanderers at their core. Except maybe for Bennett who takes commissions from the Adventurers' Guild, these characters do not travel for profit (unlike some real-world travel vloggers). They're fine with traveling with either many or a few companions; heck, in Kazuha's and the Wanderer's cases, they may even travel alone.
Child Skirk counts here too because she was excited to be an adventurer prior to being trained by Surtalogi. However, it was not stated whether she wanted to adventure alone or with at least one companion.
I'm so bored of traveling in an organized group (i.e. classmates with teachers as chaperones; coworkers; or family members) due to...well, the fact they're organized. I'm chaotic neutral and autistic so adapting to lawful group settings is extremely unnatural and exhausting to me. I don't like having to wake up at this specific time, trying this strange new food, participating in this social ritual, etc. But I've always had a dream of adventuring alone or with a group of close friends thanks to my Pokémon experience since childhood...which I imagine will rub many Filipinos the wrong way because "Bakit hindi mo ako sinasama? Hindi ba ako close sa iyo?" (Why aren't you including me? Am I not close to you?) The truth is often...yes. YoSquid, to this day, is the only Filipino I truly consider a close friend...probably because of how different he is from other Filipinos while being a silly intellectual and gamer like I am.

Arataki Itto, Fischl, Hu Tao, Kirara, Ororon, and Razor are just plain weird, I guess. What good is being a social extrovert if you're a consistent knucklehead? In urban parts of the Philippines, generally, the only acceptable public performances are those of pop songs and their associated dances—very few would give a flying firetruck about Fischl's antics. Hu Tao might sound to Filipinos like an annoying commercial break on TV. Given this is an Asian country influenced by America, being a farmer like Ororon is considered deplorable (for crying out loud, when I expressed interest in learning to farm, I was called out by someone who wanted to be a chicken farmer for "wasting my intelligence"!)...and it doesn't help Ororon's social skills suck. And no one likes a guy who acts like a cat or wolf.

Chongyun and Xingqiu like to help people out of the goodness of their hearts; not for profit. Unlike Noelle, though, they do not have as much of a reputation for efficiency, especially since Chongyun struggles to actually find a demon to exorcise while Xingqiu does not care to continue his family business in favor of pursuing his own heroic path...and reading more fiction books.
I hear of expat stories where they notice Filipinos find it weird when doors are opened for them (when security guards aren't doing it). I have a feeling Filipinos also easily smell when I'm trying to be a people-pleaser so they frequently say no when I try to be generous. (Side note: I sometimes weaponize this by "offering" to share my food when I really don't want to share so I can hoard all the food to myself because I will most likely hear a no. On the off chance I actually get a yes, I will share.)

Aino and Klee are too childish. In this Asian country, it's assumed by many adults that if a kid can talk and walk, he/she can do things adults can and should be treated as such...so I hate it when I try to play with my Klee-like niece and I get called out for it because even though she's not even a teenager yet, I should "respect her like an adult." My ex-girlfriend Alevius, an American, disagrees...though it may be due to her bias in favor of children to the point she (a 21-year-old) even treated me, a 26-year-old, like Baby Xiao (and I liked it—I didn't give a firetruck about our age difference). Aino's case is even worse because she threw violent tantrums on some Frostmoon Scions who initially refused to give back one of her robot friends.

Shenhe, Skirk, Tartaglia, and Xingqiu are associated with passion in martial arts or brutal murder...and much like the Japanese, some Filipinos seem to be disapproving, indifferent, or scared of me when I calmly mention that I love martial arts when in reality, I don't like hurting people in real life and I limit my BRUTAL MURDER to video games. I feel like many Filipino adults are the type of people who think people who play Grand Theft Auto are violent criminals in real life.

Diona is the antithesis of the Filipinos I encounter who keep exhorting me to drink alcohol no matter how bluntly or frequently I say no. (For crying out loud, no Japanese student has ever done this to me—even the alcoholics.)

Kamisato Ayaka is one of the characters Alevius strongly relates to because of her elegance...and fanon yandere personality. Unlike your typical crop top-sporting Gen Zer, Alevius prefers Victorian fashion (she's a fan of British culture and Monty Python) and similar. She also has much less of a potty mouth than I do. But when I ranted about my Keqing-like high school crush and my work supervisor, Alevius threatened to knife them (though I'm sure she'll never actually do it outside of legitimate defense).
I similarly take love very seriously (hence Alevius describing us as having a knight-and-princess dynamic)...and got in trouble at work for my staunchness in avoiding being too physically close to female coworkers outside of things like handshakes or meetings.

(Self-reminder: Put Yae Miko in the C tier and Candace and Yoimiya in the B tier)

Chiori, Citlali, Collei, Freminet, Furina, Lynette, Lyney, the Raiden Shogun, Sayu, Xilonen, and Yun Jin do not fit Asian ideals. Chiori is a staunch individualist who is blunt and will kick your butt if you annoy her, Citlali and the Raiden Shogun are extremely introverted, Collei is dumb by Asian standards because she is still learning to read, Sayu is a lazy sleepyhead, Xilonen is similarly lazy, and the other characters are not doctors, engineers, lawyers, or pop/rock dancers or singers (unlike, say, Xinyan).

Finally, Yumemizuki Mizuki is there mostly because many autistic people like me have difficulty intuitively figuring out what someone is thinking (in technical terms, impaired Theory of Mind) and thus have to slowly and logically process it. So it weirds many Filipinos out BIG TIME when I discuss psychology in general...and for those who have actually interacted extensively with neurodivergent folks, I feel like it's a 50/50 chance—one who has a probably-ADHDer boyfriend was like "WTF?" (my words, not hers) while another with an autistic daughter actually kept me engaged without feeling suspicious.

Tier C

Most of these characters have at least one minor quality Filipinos look for in a person but a fatal flaw that stops them from being likable at the end of the day if they were real people.

Lisa is smart but just...ew. I don't wanna talk about it.

Amber and Mona are extroverted and smart respectively but one sucks at cooking while the other sucks with money.

(Self-reminder: Put Kaeya in the A tier)

Beidou is a good person, sure, but being a pirate is weird.

Xiangling is undoubtedly a highly skilled chef to the point Escoffier wants to learn from her but Xiangling may be too passionate in her job to be socially acceptable. I feel like in this country, groups and people like Arthur Nery, BLACKPINK, BTS, ONE OK ROCK, Taylor Swift, other people in your immediate vicinity like classmates and coworkers, etc., are the only acceptable topics for infodumping—not even Mobile Legends, interestingly.
Dehya is similarly passionate about her mercenary work and much like Ike from the Fire Emblem series, Dehya has a sense of honor. However, being a hired killer makes Dehya somewhat suffer from similar problems to Tartaglia and others.
Iansan is a gym rat to the core...which is not as appealing by Philippine standards compared to playing basketball.

Being the Anemo Archon, Venti is an excellent bard and absurdly heavy drinker...but he's also the God of Freedom so his unhinged nature would not sit well in a collectivist culture like this.

Xiao is a strong and dutiful warrior but he's far too aloof. Rosaria is similarly aloof but prefers to strike from the shadows; not on the front lines. Alhaitham is probably the worst type of aloof here by Filipino standards since he's both untidy and an Insufferable Genius. Kinich is similar to Alhaitham but much less of a jerk and more of a practical thinker in the moment...but suffers in that despite many Filipinos having a gambling and/or social media addiction, video games are even more frowned upon.

Eula is a dancer but #1, it's not pop; #2, have you ever tried openly swearing vengeance on anybody and everybody IRL?

Shikanoin Heizou is a smart and competent detective but Kujou Sara can't stand the fact he wanders off just chillin' out of nowhere.

Yae Miko is funny and attractive at first but her pranks and teasing will eventually get on people's nerves.
Not like I want to act like Yae Miko anyway. Heck, I prank and tease people significantly less often than the average Filipino; this is usually limited to my family members and close friends much like with Xingqiu.

I think Filipinos only want the punny side of Cyno; not his serious, seemingly emotionless side.

Layla would've been in D-tier if she didn't have her Star's Blessing alter ego where she becomes crazy powerful and smart while her normal sleepyhead side is asleep. Doesn't help that I've been having a hard time activating my version of Star's Blessing...or as I prefer to say, entering my Nightsoul's Blessing unless someone drives me into throwing Aino-level tantrums.

Kaveh is good at architecture but he's broke as fudge...and I hate this country's "pa-libre" culture; i.e. asking for free stuff. (Doesn't stop Alevius from having him as her #1 favorite character, though! I'll take it! And honor that by building cool stuff in Minecraft!)

Filipinos would much rather drink alcohol, Coca-Cola, or coffee than tea which is Wriothesley's favorite drink. Doesn't stop this boxer dude from being personable, though (to the point Alevius shipped him with Arlecchino).

Navia is an elegant and generous mafia boss...but she's infamous in the fandom for being a crybaby and in this country, you're only allowed to cry if either you're a girl or you're spamming crying emojis. 😭😭😭

Arlecchino has a scary exterior so given how much Filipinos live in the present instead of looking at the big picture, she's a quick turn-off. It is possible, however, to convince them with proof that Arlecchino is actually a loving "father" figure (like Alevius).

Clorinde is a combination of the weirdly passionate Pyro characters and the aloof characters in this tier since when she's working as the Champion Duelist, she takes her job very seriously but outside of it, she's an awesome Dungeon Master (yes, I'm intentionally using the Dungeons & Dragons term). And I think few Filipinos know what tabletop RPGs are and it'd be a huge pain in the butt for me to teach them given how traditional schools and workplaces kill creativity. (I was homeschooled—maybe that's how I had a lot of time to enhance my creativity so it was somewhat easy for me to learn to be a Dungeon Master and my players were genuinely entertained.)

Kachina is quite ambitious but I feel like by Filipino standards, she's not good enough because although she qualified for the Night Warden Wars, she was Killed In Action (KIA).

Tier B

This tier is the bare minimum to be accepted in Filipino society, I think. It will not fly, however, with those who are much more extroverted, either logically like the Germans or socially like other countries colonized by Spain in history.

Albedo, Sangonomiya Kokomi, and Sucrose are not very socially proficient but they make up for it by being nerds who don't have major moments of jerkiness like Kinich's or Xiao's.

Diluc is an aloof Batman expy but he makes up for it by being insanely rich.

Qiqi works for a doctor so I guess it counts for something? Similarly, Tighnari knows medicine but that's not his main job.

Candace and Yoimiya are nurturing characters who are the mother figure of Aaru Village and big sister figure of Inazuman kids and Klee respectively. However, hardly any Filipino seems to call me to fit any of those roles—not just because I'm male (duh) but I guess I'm too childish for my age—I'm 26 years old but I still feel like a 13-year-old at heart.
The closest I got was being the leader of my close friend group, I guess, but it only had two Filipinos—the remaining three were American, Indian, and Singaporean. One could argue it practically had three Americans because YoSquid and I act nothing like a typical Filipino.

Charlotte is a professional photojournalist who values quality news reporting. However, masking as Charlotte becomes exhausting when I am asked for lots of photos either by people who act like March 7th from Honkai: Star Rail or put Kujou Sara-like pressure on me to do so to the March 7ths out there. In photography, I care about quality, not quantity.

Zhongli is also incredibly smart but he's a bit too infodumpy by Filipino standards. I admit I sometimes have difficulty summarizing things.

Gorou is loyal like a dog but I think Filipinos don't like my natural Tanjiro-like leadership style and prefer for me to lead like one of the S-tier characters.

Nahida is extremely smart but may be too childish for Filipinos' taste.

Filipinos cringe (or in Philippine English, "nosebleed") when I speak English due to my fluency and natural American accent. Doesn't help that I also know a little Japanese and was a former English teacher. So me acting like Faruzan is more like entertainment than education to some of them.

Filipinos are MASSIVE foodies so if I had Chevreuse's junk food addiction or Escoffier's cooking skills, I'd be constantly begged for food if I wasn't a crazy people-pleaser.
(The reason I put Escoffier in B and Xiangling in C is Escoffier's characterization emphasizes her cooking skill more than her passion while Xiangling is the opposite.)

Tier A

These characters have their flaws generally overlooked in favor of at least one major quality Filipinos look for in a person.

Barbara, Ganyu, Ineffa, Jean, Mika, Noelle, Thoma, and Yaoyao are responsible and friendly people. Additionally, Barbara is a singer, Ineffa and Jean are mother-like, Noelle is crazy strong and multi-talented as a maid which is very common among Filipino women, and Thoma is a "male maid" who also gives "pa-libre" despite the risk of him going broke.
Admittedly, I put Ineffa in A-tier also as a jab at how society makes people robot-like.

Barbara, Gaming, Nilou, and Xinyan are dancers or singers. For crying out loud, Nilou is such a popular choice for cosplayers (not necessarily Filipinos) even to this day!

You know the Asian stereotype of "doctor, engineer, lawyer, or bust"? Baizhu, Ifa (yes, I know he's a veterinarian), Sigewinne (yes, I know she's a nurse), Xianyun, and Yanfei fit the bill. (I know Aino is an engineer too but she's far too much of an a-hole by Filipino standards.)
Doesn't help that I heard from a newly promoted Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Lieutenant General that he thinks his deceased father is disappointed in him because unlike his siblings, he didn't become a lawyer. Sigh. Being a soldier is an incredible honor, darn it!

Yelan is a scary secret agent but part of her role includes being charismatic so she gets a pass, I think. Being able to strike a casual conversation with some dangerous criminals you're planning to arrest takes a lot of guts and social prowess.

Dori is rich as fudge. In this third-world country with a "pa-libre" culture, everyone has to pitch money in but being rich is a "bonus". I don't want Filipinos thinking I'm "rich" and taking advantage just because I have a gaming laptop and a rich uncle working in California—I've largely stopped depending on him. For crying out loud, this same rich uncle expects me to treat him to a restaurant! It's as if he's unaware of how terrible the economy in California is right now, let alone the whole muddle-fudging world.

Chasca is probably one of the most family-oriented playable characters in this game given how much she cares for her adoptive Qucusaur family to the point we even rescue a "little sister" of hers from poachers extracting Qucusaur blood! Filipinos are similarly so family-oriented even after children reach adulthood that they're expected to send home money and pasalubong (homecoming treats/gifts) from abroad! It's not as simple as sending food, fridge magnets, or keychains like the Japanese do with omiyage either—you have to bring home entire freakin' boxes!
Honorable mention to Chasca's human stepsister Chuychu for also being a doctor.

Mavuika is different from other Pyro characters in that she's multi-talented. In addition to being a strong warrior, leader, and strategist, she tries out a bunch of hobbies like painting—she wants to continuously improve herself. I admit this latter part is the reason I'm not super similar to Mavuika contrary to what Alevius thinks.

Finally, Varesa eats a LOT. I reckon she's not a picky eater...unlike I who unintentionally disrespects Filipinos because apparently, "I'm full", "I'm good", and "I'm not hungry" are NOT good enough responses to being offered food I don't like, unlike in America.

Tier S

These are the "model children" of Filipinos; the kinds of people Filipino children are expected to be as soon as they arbitrarily become "adults" even at 8 years old or something.

Kamisato Ayato, Keqing, Kujou Sara, Kuki Shinobu, Neuvillette, and Ningguang are all very hard workers. Forget Neuvillette being a bit of a crybaby—as the Chief Justice, he's probably THE best law expert in Fontaine bar none. Kamisato Ayato is highly charismatic. Kuki Shinobu is multi-talented as she possesses the skills of both Xiangling and Yanfei. Keqing is relatable to the fashion-crazy Filipinos out there.

Sethos is both smart and a social extrovert. People see his potential to excel in the Akademiya. The Ruins Exploration: Fieldwise Center even showed Cyno-level humor from Sethos.

Mualani is the ultimate entertainer. She loves dancing, surfing, and volleyball while being a veteran of the Night Warden Wars. She's also extremely extroverted—even Paimon can't keep up.
I once mimicked Mualani's dance in front of my coworkers...and while they liked it and I think I was accurate, I secretly died of cringe because it is incredibly out of character for me. I would much rather discuss something intellectual, play co-op video games, or spar/train in martial arts than do a popular dance.

Conclusion

TL;DR: Filipinos like "kids" who are doctors, engineers, lawyers, extroverts, professional photographers who cater to their selfie-happy culture, responsible, rich, and excellent dancers and singers of pop music. They dislike individualists, introverts, lazy people, martial artists (except for Manny Pacquiao), and manchildren. Logical intelligence is only valuable when it keeps the productivity machine running or is celebrity/gossip brainrot; not when it's an individual passion.

Just get me the fudge out of the Philippines. I had way more success with Alevius, an American, than most Filipinos and Japanese people. I am a gamer, martial artist, and intellectual at my core; not a cog in the machine, a dancer/singer, or a March 7th's lapdog. Stop forcing me to drink like Venti or eat like Varesa; this conflicts with the Anemo Archon's ideal of freedom.

The funny thing is despite this shared Asian demand for responsibility in others, many Filipino adults are actually irresponsible. It drives me up a wall when I see my coworkers littering or other drivers being hyper-aggressive, for example.