My Brutally Honest Opinion on the Genshin Impact 1st Anniversary Rewards

In short: They suck.

Get the joke? Yeah, that's the point.
The anniversary rewards ARE a joke.

But you know me and my habit of explaining everything in detail. (Yes, even in my English teaching.) So I won't settle for such a simple answer as that.

Admittedly, though, much of my information comes from YouTubers. I suck at forming my own opinions sometimes.

x10 Intertwined Fates: Everyone Can Get This Reward

These are among the few guaranteed rewards this anniversary, not counting the Moonchase Festival rewards.

As RedFlaim pointed out, for most people, these equate to 9 3-star weapons and 1 4-star item. These are very easy to acquire, even for free-to-play players.

According, I think, to Valkyrja, these are low by other gacha games' standards, but high by Genshin Impact standards. Most events just give, say, 60-420 Primogems, with 420 being equivalent to 2 gacha pulls (when removing the remainder). A 10-pull is worth 1600 Primogems.

Before I quit Fire Emblem Heroes on its 4th anniversary, I pulled a 5-star Hero for free and a few more for a discount.

Heck, even in the 1st anniversary of FEH, up to 70 Orbs, or 17 pulls, were possible on top of a special banner with a 5% chance to get a 5-star Hero (vs. the normal 3%)!

Art Contests* and Raffle Draws

*I use "art contest" here to refer to contests that require some form of creativity, including cosplay and photography. It's not strictly limited to digital painting like with Photoshop.

There are millions of players that play Genshin Impact to this day, and among those, only 1000 players each can win a raffle draw prize of...100 Primogems. Bro, why? Livestreams, maintenance, and bug fix news give either the same or more Primogems for absolutely no effort from the players.

The most appealing reward among the raffle draws is a Blessing of the Welkin Moon...which has a 10% chance to win. Everyone else gets 100,000 Mora. This has been criticized as "gacha within a gacha game"--besides, when we think of gacha games, the "gacha" part typically applies to characters and, less frequently, equipment.

From what I know of the art contests, there are roughly 35-90 winners each. Most (if not all of them) give Primogems, but some also give physical prizes, including merch and gadgets.

Merch is cool, not gonna lie. I'm willing to take that over Primogems, but I'm not good at art and I'd rather focus on other things in life like making simple gameplay videos.

Among the gadgets are iPhones and iPads. I think these aren't the best choices for prizes because Genshin Impact is an expensive game to start playing, to begin with--you need a gaming PC/phone or a PlayStation console. I think people who can play Genshin Impact on their own PCs/PS4s/PS5s can afford their own smartphones. Also, most people nowadays have their own smartphones, so I think only diehard tech collectors will truly benefit from having these fancy-schmancy new Apple devices. (Not gonna lie, though, I haven't used an Apple device in years--I'm too used to Android.)

The only gadget that I actually feel interested in is the Razer DeathAdder V2, a gaming mouse. Besides, not gonna lie, I feel uncomfortable gaming with a plain mouse that works for...well, work. (Okay, I mean white-collar jobs.) However, this mouse will be almost useless for those who don't play video games on PCs.

Cosplay, in particular, is a VERY expensive form of art. Taking in-game photos requires Genshin Impact installed while there are free photo-editing programs out there, as well as tutorials. But cosplay? Oh boy. Whether you know how to sew or not, be ready to shell out a LOT of cash, either for a pre-made outfit or the raw materials and tools to make one yourself.

But we're not done yet. To maximize the quality of the photos you take while you cosplay, you'll probably need a DSLR camera and a good location to shoot. The DSLR camera further increases cosplay expenses while the location can vary in quality and "danger". What do I mean by "danger"? Well, the danger of being caught by law enforcement not wearing a mask. I hope your house's interior looks good.

In "Defense" of miHoYo?

The real reason I made this post is that the vast majority of community reactions to the 1st-anniversary rewards are strongly negative. I see almost nothing that talks about the other side of the story.

After all, I like to pretend to be a journalist.

First off, the low rewards in Genshin Impact have been an issue since the game's launch, most notably the 0.6% drop rate for a 5-star character which is very low by other gacha games' standards. (FEH has a combined 6% chance; 3% for a Hero on the banner, 3% for a 5-star not on the banner.)

I heard that it has even lower rewards than another miHoYo game, Honkai Impact 3rd.

But I have several theories for this.

One, it's possible to get decent results in any Spiral Abyss "season" with just the 7 starter characters. It's kinda like what Karen in Pokémon Gold and Silver says: "Truly skilled Trainers should try to win with their favorites." Or, in this case, "Truly skilled Travelers should try to win with the characters they have." PIMPNITE is famous for being able to sweep competitive teams with weak Pokémon like Magikarp. Similarly, Enviosity, known to some as the F2P Archon, can beat the Spiral Abyss with those 7 characters.

In other words, it's a subtle way to say "you can win even if you never do any sort of gacha", which may be a marketing strategy to attract more F2P players.

Two, in general, the harder it is to get something, the more rewarding it feels when it is finally obtained. It's why we get bored quickly when, for example, we start an RPG with a max-level character equipped with the very best items. After all, even Genshin Impact whales rejoice like crazy when they get the characters they want.

Also, it's a way to get players to play for longer. Ever since I got my English tutoring job, I have NEVER missed a day of Daily Commissions. (But I capped my Resin a few times, such as last July when my niece and I were staying overnight at a swimming pool where there was no Wi-Fi. I don't use mobile data.)

Next, let's talk about the puny art contest rewards. Putting the gadgets out of the way first, the Genshin Impact Facebook page shares Genshin Impact content from the Apple App Store more often, while the most Google-related thing that they've done was...a Google Play namecard. Similarly, I see ads saying "Recharge Genesis Crystals with Razer Gold!" I think Apple and Razer are providing free products to miHoYo to be given away.

Next, let's talk about the sheer few winners. I admit I don't dive deep into the fan art community, but holy wow, I see a wide variety of amazing fan art on Instagram and DeviantArt. The competition is very intense. However, if I remember correctly, the 1st prize is typically 6000 Primogems...or 37 pulls. I was able to achieve 70 pity after Theater Mechanicus: Stage of Wonders and before Sangonomiya Kokomi's banner. Perhaps this is miHoYo's way of saying that, traditionally, in a birthday celebration, the birthday celebrant is the one who gets gifts, not the people attending.

Putting them all together, perhaps miHoYo is trying to teach us an important life lesson: that the real rewards are the memories you make along the way. After all, even if the meta encourages hardcore gameplay, the advertising emphasizes traveling above all else. Daily Commissions and events are pretty generous with Primogems in comparison--after all, most of them encourage the player to travel from place to place.

Or perhaps miHoYo is trying to take advantage of the Approval of God trope. After all, merely getting acknowledged by a celebrity is enough to make some girls melt and scream in joy. I know whenever I got a reply from someone from Hypixel Studios, I was very thankful.

Nah, Those Reasons Still Suck

As far as I know, even Enviosity can't 36-star the Spiral Abyss using the 7 starter characters--he relies on his gacha characters like Bennett and Eula to do so.

In the end, no matter how good the best artists are or how much effort they put, it's still up to miHoYo to decide which are the best.

I wish they also gave rewards based on community reception, just like with the Klee sticker contest.

Obviously, there are players who care only about the story and the traveling experience, so Primogems typically don't matter to them. Those who do want Primogems probably want to do things like catching 'em all, taking photos with the characters, or simply enjoying the characters' company.

I don't like Sangonomiya Kokomi's combat, but I REALLY enjoy her personality, especially given I'm also a tactician.

But, come on, miHoYo, let the hardcore F2P players get what they deserve for being so loyal to the game.

I was thinking...maybe give more rewards to those who have played for more than 200 days? lololol

After all, I talk about Genshin Impact a lot, even with people who don't play video games. When I make analogies, for example, I use the Genshin Impact characters and lore.

Making Fun of the Anniversary Rewards

The theme of my Genshin Impact 1st anniversary celebration is the Fowl meme.

I started by pretending to be Diluc. The night before the anniversary, I mimicked Diluc while teaching one of my non-gamer students, such as by saying "I hate alcohol" in Diluc's voice. I wore a black shirt and red shorts at work in my store, similar to Diluc's color scheme. Also, Diluc is one of several characters that can kill Timmie's pigeons with a single attack: a huge phoenix. Which is also a bird. I used the bird to destroy the birds.

Luckily, my mom had no idea what to cook for the anniversary (I didn't tell her in advance about the anniversary), so I asked her to buy KFC and she approved. After all, Diluc, along with Noelle, got special KFC artworks.

Enjoy the photos I've taken:

My younger brother may not be a Genshin Impact player anymore, but even he wouldn't say no to Fowl.

I normally drink from a jug, but just this once because I was Diluc, I drank from a goblet.