If reports are true, get yourself ready to participate in a new region featuring an exclusive Time Cycle mechanic in what is shaping up to be an exciting big release of Genshin Impact. Just a week or so after developer miHoYo Limited released ver. 2.3 of their role-playing game with new characters and winter themes across all supported platforms, the chatter among community members alludes to the introduction of some major features in the upcoming update ver. 2.4 on mobile, PlayStation, and PC.
Official confirmation already points toward the appearance of new characters with update 2.4 that include Yu Jin (4-Star Geo polearm hero) and Shenhe (5-Star Cryo polearm hero).
And now, recent reports from credible leakers are surfacing with claims that an entirely new region is also part of plans to freshen things up for players.
It is pertinent to note that new regions are a rare occurrence in the Genshin universe. Previously, the Genshin v2.0 update was the last time we saw one, named Inazuma, added back in July.
Leakers Project Celestia and Genshin Intel are of the view that the new region is called Enkanomiya, an early preview teaser of which is already available in the game.
Adding further, Celestia says Enkanomiya, to insert realism, will have a day-night time cycle of some sort (or perhaps a night-night time cycle in this case).
With that, gamers can experience the open-world RPG in a region that uniformly switches between Whitenight and Evernight concurrent with associated shifts in the surroundings.
A quick overview of 2.4:
1. Enkanomiya
2. Shenhe (5*) and Yunjin (4*)
3. Hangout quests (Ningguang, Yunjin)
4. Lantern Rite rerun
5. Windtrace rerun
6. Alchemy event with Timaeus
7. New skins for Ningguang & Keqing
8. Kichiboushi outing event
9. Electro Sigil Shop
10. Arlecchino— Genshin Intel (@Genshin_Intel) November 24, 2021
[2.4 BETA] Enkanomiya
Enkanomiya will feature an alternating time cycle between Evernight and Whitenight that reveals different appearances of environments and mechanisms. There are a total of 9 subareas in Enkanomiya.
※ Subject to change.#ProjectCelestia
— Project Celestia (@projectcelestia) November 24, 2021
These developments seem interesting. Besides a new region and characters, usual bells and whistles make up fresh skins, Hangout quests, and reintroduction of some events such as Lantern Rite.
That said, of course, you should take these predictions with a dose of skepticism. While the details may remain unchanged, the time horizon is not cast in stone yet. MiHoYo might delay the rollout of significant additions including a new region until the version 2.5 update, although it is up to the developer’s discretion to proceed earlier than anticipated like how they skipped between versions 1.6 and 2.0.
Genshin Impact is out on PS4, PS5, PC, and mobile devices. As for the release date, we are still waiting for the official announcement regarding version 2.4. But if the past schedule is any indication, successive updates normally arrive in a span of six weeks which means expect the next one to come out in the first weeks of January.
