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Genshin Impactis no exception. The wildly popular open-world RPG with gacha mechanics has a variety of easter eggs, references, and hidden details to discover, and this number will only increase as the game continues development and adds more nations and content into Genshin Impact’s already expansive world.
Updated August 20th, 2021: Following the release of the major 2.0 update, Travelers can now explore Inazuma, the Nation of Eternity. Inazuma is comprised of numerous islands and its overall aesthetic is inspired by Japanese culture. Travelers can begin exploring Inazuma once they complete both the Prologue and Chapter I of the main story and are at least Adventure Rank 30.
Inazuma brings a huge amount of new content to explore and challenges to complete, including new characters, enemies, puzzles, Domains and bosses. And, a new nation also means a plethora of new secrets and hidden details to uncover.
15 Test Your Luck With Fortune Slips
The Traveler is a busy person. Between their ultimate goal of reuniting with their sibling, they always seem to be caught up in Teyvat’s world affairs, such as completing commissions for the Adventurer’s Guild, doing requests and bounties to earn city reputation, and most recently, getting caught up in a war in Inazuma.
It’s not surprising to guess that they don’t really have any time for idle chitchat with the hundreds of NPCs that inhabit the world. One NPC that gets glossed over that actually provides a unique service is Gendou Ringo, a grouchy shrine maiden who runs the fortune slip booth in the Grand Narukami Shrine.
Once a day, you can pick a fortune. As with fortunes in real life, they don’t seem to affect anything, but you can get two special achievements depending on what you pull.
14 Meet Up With Some Old Friends
Travelers will meet many characters along their journey, including Vision bearers that are able to join their team if they manage to pull them through Wishes. Unfortunately, outside of having them on your team or playing their respective Story Quest, you won’t see them in the overworld ever again unless they have a Hangout event.
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Luckily, two new Inazuma quests let you meet up with two of your old friends again. Xingqiu can be found in a certain World Quest, while you’ll have to get lucky to see Xiangling again, as you can only meet her again as part of a random daily commission.
It’s a bittersweet reunion, as they will both leave once they fulfilled their roles, but it’s at least nice to see a familiar face again.
13 Ayaka’s Wish
As part of Ayaka’s Story Quest, Travelers will attend a festival with her on Amakane Island. It’s practically a date and even more fanservice-y than the Hangout events. During the festival, the two of you share your wishes with each other and draw them on wooden plaques.
It’s just a small detail, but if you return to the island after completing Ayaka’s quest, the two plaques will now be permanently hung up along with all the others, serving as an eternal reminder of the day that the two of you spent with each other.
12 Ice Bridging to Inazuma
Despite all the story and lore suggesting it’s impossible to brave the storm that surrounds Inazuma, Beidou’s Crux Fleet managed to bring the Traveler to Inazuma. But what happens if the Traveler wants to go to Inazuma before the game intends them to? Unfortunately, this trip is long and arduous, as Inazuma is very, very far away. Combined with how long and how much stamina it takes to create an ice bridge to Inazuma, no sane person would ever attempt to do this, right?
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Surprisingly, the developers had foresight into this very idea. In an astonishing display of gameplay and story integration, once you reach a certain proximity to Inazuma, the game will simply teleport you back to where you started, implying that the storm swept you away.
11 Hitchhiker’s Guide Reference
All gamers love pro tips, especially those that give totally helpful advice, like shooting at something until it dies.
While the days of painfully obvious tips are (hopefully) over, it didn’t stop developers from being self-aware or opting to put random references to popular culture in loading screen “tips.” Genshin Impact has a relatively innocuous one in the form of “Time flies by when contemplating life, the universe, and everything…”
Life, the Universe and Everything is a book in the wonderfully absurd Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series, written by Douglas Adams.
10 Idle Animation Hidden Details
One of the most easily missed details in Genshin Impact involves idle animations. The Liyue character Qiqi has one idle animation where a gust of wind blows over her. The interesting part is that this animation literally produces a gust of wind that can interact with the environment and blow grass around.
Similarly, one of Mona’s idle animations has a unique feature as well. Since she is an astrologer, one of her idle animations shows her configuring a Constellation wheel. What isn’t immediately obvious, however, is that these Constellations are all taken from actual characters in the game, such as Amber’s Lepus or Jean’s Leo Minor.
9 Arthur And The Sword
Since Genshin Impact is a fantasy-inspired RPG, it would be a disservice not to include an easter egg referring to King Arthur or the sword Excalibur. Luckily, Genshin has both. Travelers can talk with a young boy named Arthur just outside the gates of Mondstadt. He’ll mention how he wants to pull the sword out of the ground but isn’t strong enough to do so.
8 Marvin And Marla
Marvin and Marla are two NPCs that the Traveler can meet on their journey. Marvin is in Mondstadt, while Marla can be found in Springvale. The two have a secret romantic relationship that Marvin’s father does not approve of. They meet each other at Starsnatch Cliff every night and spend all of it profusely declaring their love for one another.
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Marvin and Marla are an obvious reference to high school English class darling Romeo and Juliet, down to the melodramatic and flowery Shakespearean speech.
7 Heart-Shaped Rock Formation
One of Genshin’s easiest-to-miss easter eggs can be found on a small island just to the east of Yaoguang Shoal and north of Guyun Stone Forest in Liyue. The easiest way to reach this island is to travel to the Geo Hypostasis and activate the nearby pinwheel with an Anemo character to create a wind current. Travelers can then glide north to the island.
Besides being a cute easter egg in itself, this heart also holds another secret. If Travelers invite another player to their world and stand in the heart with them, a hidden chest will appear.
6 Liben The Merchant
A recurring event NPC, Liben is an eccentric-looking man who works as a merchant and asks the Traveler to collect various odds and ends for him. In exchange, he rewards Travelers with valuable goods, such as Primogems and Mora.
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He also shares a few similarities with the Happy Mask Salesman from Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask. By examining his backpack, Travelers will notice various trinkets, including what appears to be Dragon Balls along with crystals from Honkai Impact 3rd, another miHoYo game.
5 Paimon Breaks the Fourth Wall
Beyond the copious amounts of memes and pop culture references scattered throughout the game’s dialogue and achievement names, it seems Paimon isn’t afraid to break some of Genshin’s immersion either. During Venti’s Story Quest, the Traveler will ask Paimon to acknowledge her “favorite line,” which is none other than the infamous “How about we explore the area ahead of us later?” players get when they are getting close to being out of bounds.
Also, if the player heads to the settings menu and messes around with the dialogue volume, they will eventually be addressed directly by Paimon and receive a secret achievement as well.
4 Skyward Sword References
Genshin Impact was initially dismissed as a Breath of the Wild clone in its early days, and it’s not hard to see why. From the lush and vibrant open world to gliding, Domains, and the borrowing of many of its mechanics and enemy archetypes, Genshin was often referred to as being the “anime Breath of the Wild.”
The English localization team was most likely in on this and decided to add a sly nod to Zeldaby referencing Skyward Swordinstead. Players can obtain 5-star character Keqing and a 5-star sword called Skyward Blade from the Wish system. While the latter reference should be obvious, it should be mentioned that Keqing’s Elemental Burst is called Starward Sword.
3 Vergil’s Moveset
As the primary antagonist of the popular Devil May Cry series, Vergil possesses a variety of stylish and over-the-top moves. And somehow, many of Genshin’s sword users have seemingly inherited or been taught the art of the sword by Vergil himself. This includes moves like Judgement Cut and Judgement Cut End, which Ayaka’s charge attack and Keqing’s Burst are heavily based on, respectively.
Additionally, Xingqiu’s Rain Swords are more or less a copy of Vergil’s Spiral Swords, with Raincutter being analogous to Vergil’s Storm Swords and Blistering Swords. Naturally, players can create their own off-brand Vergil by having Xingqiu support Keqing or Ayaka.
2 Is That A Jojo Reference?
Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure is one of the most prolific and influential anime of all time, and its references get snuck into anime and gaming culture all the time. Starting with Stardust Crusaders, Stands have become a staple of the series, and it should come as no surprise to Jojo fans that the Wolf Wolf Within summoned by Razor’s Burst is a reference to Jojo’s Stands.
The Jojo references don’t stop there, however. Fischl also strikes a flamboyant pose in her splash art which is highly reminiscent of Jonathan Joestar’s iconic pose, and in the first version of the game, there were literally achievements called “Stardust Crusader” and “Gold Experience Requiem.”
1 Unusual Hilichurl
The Unusual Hilichurl, as its name aptly points out, is an oddly dressed Hilichurl with unusual mannerisms. It prefers to be passive and ignores the Traveler unless provoked.
The Unusual Hilichurl is based on Liu Wei, one of miHoYo’s founders. It attacks by whacking its enemies with its briefcase or tossing Primogems and Homu plushies at them. Homu appear in various games developed by miHoYo and can be considered a crossover reference.
NEXT: Secrets Many Still Haven’t Found In Genshin Impact
