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Genshin Impact: all about version 2.6 "Zephyr of the Violet Garden"

Here are the complete patch notes for version 2.6 of Genshin Impact's "Zephyrs of the Violet Garden", now available with Kamisato Ayato, new areas and more.

Update: Mar 30th, 2022 17:31 EDT

After leaving version 2.5 behind, we welcome the next major update of Genshin Impact with patch 2.6, now available for download and installation. It brings a handful of new features to the game, but mainly stands out for the arrival of a new area called "The Chasm" as well as welcoming Kamisato Ayato, Ayaka's brother, to the game's gashapon. Below, we tell you all the news that this update brings, as well as detailing the rewards it brings in the form of primogems and more.

All about Genshin Impact version 2.6

Compensation: just for installing the update we will receive up to 900 primogems if we have reached Adventure Rank 5.

New area: The Chasm

The subterranean mines of The Chasm will be available to players of Adventure Rank 28 or higher who have completed the Archon Quest "A New Star Approaches" and the World Quest "Surreptitious Seven-Star Seal Sundering".

New Character

5-Star Character "Pillar of Fortitude" Kamisato Ayato (Hydro)

Vision: Hydro
Weapon: Sword
The young but highly accomplished head of the Yashiro Commission's Kamisato Clan. Cultured and polite, he is a man of many ways and means.
With his Elemental Skill, "Kamisato Art: Kyouka", Kamisato Ayato makes a move to leave a water illusion in its original position and enter the "Takimeguri Kanka" state. When formed, the illusion will explode if it is near an enemy or when its duration ends, after which it inflicts AoE Hydro DMG. In this state, Kamisato Ayato attacks quickly with a hydro sword and the damage of his Normal Attacks is converted into AoE Hydro DMG, which cannot be replaced by imbibing another element.
His Ultimate Ability, "Kamisato Art: Suiyuu", creates a garden of peace where noise has any place. While active, the garden will continuously drop Bloomwater Blades that will attack enemies within it, inflict Hydro DMG on them and increase the damage of Normal Attacks of characters within the area.

New Domain

The Lost Valley: this ancient altar was buried underground due to the cataclysm that tore heaven and earth apart long ago. Its structure peeked out again with the fall of strange elements to the earth, and finally reappeared with the destruction caused by the fight between two friends who turned against each other. However, no one comes to this place anymore.

Unlock Criteria:

Reach Adventure Rank 22 or above
Complete the Archon Quest "Prologue: Act III - Song of the Dragon and Freedom"
And fulfill certain criteria

By completing the Domain, you will be able to obtain pieces of the "Vermillion Hereafter" and "Echoes of an Offering" artifact sets, among others. Located at The Chasm.

New Equipment - New Weapon

Haran Geppaku Futsu (5-Star Sword): a masterpiece of the Futsu school of swords forged to order. Its name comes from the manner in which it resembles the violent, roiling waves. Grants a bonus to all types of Elemental Damage. When the other characters of the nearby team use an Elemental Skills, they grant 1 Wavespike stack to the wielder of this weapon. This effect can stack up to 2 times and activate once every 0.3s. When the character with this weapon equipped uses his Elemental Skill, if he had Wavespike charges, he will consume them all and get the "Rippling Upheaval" effect, which increases the Normal Attack DMG by a certain amount for 8 seconds for each charge consumed.

New Artifact Sets

Vermillion Hereafter (4-Star and 5-Star): 2-Piece Set: Increased ATK. 4-Piece Set: When using the Elemental Burst, you get the effect of "Nascent Light for 16 seconds, which increases the ATK by a certain percentage and, in addition, makes that every time the character's HP decreases, its ATK increases by an additional certain percentage. This effect can only increase ATK a maximum of 4 times in this way and activate once every 0.8s. The effects of Nascent Light will dissipate if the character is removed from combat. If the character uses Elemental Burst again while the effect is active, the original Nascent Light will also dissipate.

Echoes of an Offering (4-Star and 5-Star): 2-Piece Set: Increased ATK. 4-Piece Se: When Normal Attacks hit opponents, there is a certain chance that it will trigger Valley Rite, which will increase Normal Attack DMG by a certain percentage of ATK. This effect will be dispelled 0.05s after a Normal Attack deals DMG. If a Normal Attack fails to trigger Valley Rite, the odds of it triggering the next time will increase by a certain percentage. This trigger can occur once every 0.2s.

New Events

"Hues of the Violet Garden" event: Take part to invite "Juvenile Galant" Xingqiu (Hydro)

During the event, you will receive quests to help organize the Irodori Festival. As the festival progresses, four gameplay modes will be unlocked in sequence: "The Moon and Stars Inscribe," "Theater Mechanicus," "Clash of Lone Blades," and "The Floral Courtyard." Participate and complete the corresponding criteria to obtain event-exclusive Furnishings, exclusive recipes, Primogems, Crown of Insight, Talent Level-Up Materials, and more. Complete all the criteria in "Friendship in Writing" to invite "Juvenile Galant" Xingqiu (Hydro).

Eligibility: Reach Adventure Rank 30 or above. Complete the "Ritou Escape Plan" part of the Archon Quest: "Chapter II: Act I - The Immovable God and the Eternal Euthymia"

*Complete Kamisato Ayato's Story Quest "Cypressus Custos Chapter: Act I - "The Firmiana Leaf Falls," Raiden Shogun's Story Quest "Imperatrix Umbrosa Chapter: Act II - "Transient Dreams," and Sangonomiya Kokomi's Story Quest "Dracaena Somnolenta Chapter: Act I - "Warriors' Dreams Like Spring Grass Renewing" first to best enjoy the event. If you have not completed Kamisato Ayato, Raiden Shogun, and Sangonomiya Kokomi's Story Quests, you can enter the event through "Quick Start."

New Main Story

New Archon Quest «Chapter II: Act IV Requiem of the Echoing Depths»:After the Version 2.6 update, the Archon Quest Chapter II: Act IV "Requiem of the Echoing Depths" will be permanently available.

Quest Unlock Criteria: Reach Adventure Rank 30 or above. And complete the Archon Quest "Chapter II: Act III - Omnipresence Over Mortals"

New Story Quest

Kamisato Ayato's Story Quest "Cypressus Custos Chapter: Act I - The Firmiana Leaf Falls"

Quest Unlock Criteria: Reach Adventure Rank 40 or above. Complete the Story Quest: "Imperatrix Umbrosa Chapter: Act I - Reflections of Mortality." Complete the World Quest "Chisato's Letter."

New World Quests

New World Quests: "The Chasm Delvers" Quest Chain, "Stolen, by the Rightful Owner," "Undetected Infiltration," "A Cliff-Side Hero's Past," "The Millennial Mountains," "Says He Who Seeks Stone," "Dimming Mushroom's Call for Help," "A Company Vanishing Into the Deep," "Valor's Afterglow" Quest Chain, "Lost in a Foreign Land" Quest Chain, "Mycological Investigation in The Chasm," "Hydrological Investigation in The Chasm," "Paleontological Investigation in The Chasm," "The Chasm's Bounty," "The Missing Miner," and more.

New Enemies

Ruin Serpent: An ancient, bizarrely-shaped autonomous machine. It will create Oozing Concretions in battle and will attempt to draw power from them under certain circumstances, which will allow it to unleash devastating attacks. Use the Blooming Light from your Lumenstone Adjuvant to destroy the Oozing Concretions feeding power to the Ruin Serpent to knock it out of this state and cause the energy cores on its body to cease functioning. Located at The Chasm
Black Serpent Knight - Windcutter: A guard of some standing in the court. When their attacks hit a character defended by shields, they will obtain buffs at the cost of its HP.
Floating Hydro Fungus: A spore organism of some intelligence. It possesses extreme adaptability. Development Items dropped by "Floating Hydro Fungus" will also be added to "Shop > Paimon's Bargains" in future Versions.

Other Additions

1. New Recipes:

○ Kamisato Ayato's specialty: "Quiet Elegance"

○ Inazuman Food Stall: Katsu Sandwich

○ Obtain "Rainbow Aster" from the "Hues of the Violet Garden" event

2. New Achievement categories such as "Challenger: Series V," and "Chasmlighter" and new Achievements added to the "Wonders of the World" category.
3. New Namecards:

"Kamisato Ayato: Ripple": Reward for reaching Friendship Lv. 10 with Kamisato Ayato

"Lumens: Stone of Light:" Reward for enhancing the Lumenstone Adjuvant to Lv. 10

"Achievement: Thunderclap:" Reward for completing all achievements under "Challenger: Series V"

"Achievement: Chasm:" Reward for completing all achievements under "Chasmlighter"

"Travel Notes: Irodori": Reward obtained via the BP system

4. New Furnishing: Leisure Device: Maximum Motivation: Tubby created this furniture combination with great care out of a Practice Plaque and multiple Practice Stakes. The Practice Stakes can be placed anywhere within a limited area and will persist once placed. You can initiate the Practice Challenge at any time. If you can destroy all the wooden stakes in 2s, the challenge will be considered a success. Interact with the Practice Plaque to check your records.
5. The "Adjust Brightness" function has been added to Settings > Graphics.
6. "Radiant Spincrystals" have been added to Mondstadt, Liyue, and Inazuma. After obtaining them, you can unlock the corresponding Realm Music using "Euphonium Unbound."
7. The Teapot Traveling Salesman has added some "Radiant Spincrystals" which can be purchased after obtaining and completing the corresponding World Quests in Inazuma.
8. After completing Raiden Shogun's Story Quest "Imperatrix Umbrosa Chapter: Act II," Ritou will add a shop where you can purchase "Sango Pearls," "Unagi Meat," and 2-Star "Lucky Dog" Artifacts.
9. New Living Beings: Lucklight Fly (Capturable), and Bluethunder Weasel (Capturable)
10. New Harvestable Resource: Starshroom
11. The redirect link to the "Adventurer Handbook: Bosses" screen has been added under the "Sources" for certain Development Items.
The Development Items dropped by "Floating Hydro Fungus" will also include a redirect link to the "Adventurer Handbook" in future versions.
12. Adds a shortcut for opening the Party Setup Screen on mobile platforms: on the main interface, tap and hold the avatar of any character to quickly access the Party Setup Screen.
13. Adds some prompts for loading screens.
14. New Loot Drops from "Abyss Heralds," and "Abyss Lectors": "Gloomy Statuette," "Dark Statuette," and "Deathly Statuette."
15. Spiral Abyss: Floor 11 Ley Line Disorders changed to: All characters in the party gain a 75% Anemo DMG Bonus. Updated the monster lineup on Floors 11 – 12 of the Spiral Abyss.

Starting from the first time that the Lunar Phase refreshes after updating to Version 2.6, the three Lunar Phases will be as follows:

Phase I: Sheet-Ice Moon: After a character's Normal Attack hits an opponent, this opponent will be afflicted with a Mark of Ending. After 10s, this Mark of Ending will be removed, dealing True DMG to this opponent. When a character's Normal Attack hits an opponent with a Mark of Ending, the DMG dealt by the Mark of Ending's removal will be increased. This DMG can be increased 9 times.
Phase II: Snap-Rain Moon: After a character's Normal Attacks hit opponents, the DMG dealt by this character's Normal Attacks will increase by 12% for 5s. This effect can stack up to 5 times. Each stack is calculated independently. This effect can be triggered once every 0.1s.
Phase III: Iris Moon: After a character's Normal Attack deals DMG to an opponent, the Physical/Elemental RES of this opponent will decrease by 6% for 5s, matching the type of DMG dealt. This can stack up to 7 times. RES decreases of different types can co-exist, and their stacks and timers will be independent of each other.

Adjustments & Optimizations

Enemies

Lowers the DMG done by "Geovishap Hatchlings" when their tail sweep skill hits a character continuously.
Optimizes the appearance of the "Primo Geovishap" in the "Living Beings" section of the Archive.

System

Optimizes the Ornamental Fish icon.
Optimizes UI presentation and text of content that has yet to be unlocked in Hangout Events.
When below Adventure Rank 30, the "Tutorials" icon will be permanently displayed on the main interface.
Adds "Recently Unlocked" to "Tutorials." Five newly unlocked tutorials will be stored for easy access.
"Tutorials" will record the position where you last have read. If there is no unread tutorial, the last read tutorial will be selected.
Adjusts the position of the Tutorials button in "Living Beings."
Optimizes the sorting logic for Weapon Enhancement Materials and Artifact Enhancement Materials: these two materials are still placed at the bottom of their respective categories, but their internal sorting will be affected when sorting by quality.

Audio

Optimizes the volume of music in the Serenitea Pot.
Optimizes the Japanese, Korean, and English voice-over for certain characters and quests.
Adds Alternate Outfits voice lines for the characters Jean, Amber, Rosaria, and Mona; Travelers can change the outfits in "Character > Outfit" to play the relevant voice lines.

Other

The text of the "Exit Download" button in the login screen has been changed to "Stop Download," and the text description of the related function was optimized.
For animation cutscenes from Version 2.6 and earlier, Jean, Amber, Rosaria, and Mona's appearances have been adjusted to the Alternate Outfits.
Optimizes the effects of the cutscene animation in the Archon Quest "A Long Shot."
Optimizes some display animation details of the character Kaeya in the Character > Weapon interface.
Batch optimizes the logic related to the enemy homing function for 15 characters and 4 large-sized enemies: Golden Wolflord, Stormterror, Ruin Serpent, (new enemy in Version 2.6), and Bathysmal Vishap Herd.
After the Spiral Abyss resets on April 1, the "Gladiator's Finale" and "Wanderer's Troupe" Artifact set rewards in "Domain Reliquary: Tier I," and "Domain Reliquary: Tier II" for Floors 9-12 will be replaced with "Vermillion Hereafter" and "Echoes of an Offering."
Optimizes the sensitivity of the controller in the Hangout Events interface.
Optimizes the display of certain messages on the interface when using a controller: hides messages that are not part of the current operation interface.
9. When using a controller, you can quickly activate certain functions of the shortcut wheel by pressing key combinations.
Adjusts the height of the central stage disc in some Domains.
Adjusts the text description of Achievement category "Liyue: The Harbor of Stone and Contracts." Progress in exploring Liyue's The Chasm area will be counted separately in the "Chasmlighter" Achievement category.

Source | HoYoVerse