Amanda Sexton

Mrs. Keeley/Mrs. Baran

ALC
12/13/21

I downloaded Genshin Impact on my phone as a result of boredom during lockdown. I

had seen ads for it everywhere. So, I opened up the App Store and decided to give it a chance.
I had no idea what I was getting myself into.
Using the wishing system for the first time scored me my first two 4 stars; Noelle and
Beidou. My first 5 star was Mona, who in a moment of pure luck, I pulled on the beginner’s
banner. I had no idea how to use her skills, but I put her on my team because of her special
sprint, which allowed her to move faster than other characters but in the form of bubbles.
However, I lost Zhongli’s 50/50 to Jean on the event limited banner not even a full week later.
She joined my team as my new main and my healer. At the time I had no idea how the gacha
system worked, so I was just happy I had gotten both 5 star characters.
Not long after I got the game, two amazing events came out. They were the “Chalk
Prince and the Dragon” event in version 1.2, and “Lantern Rite” in version 1.3. These events
helped me realize how beautiful and stunning of a game Genshin Impact is. In the “Chalk Prince
and the Dragon” event, we joined a character named Albedo in Dragonspine to learn the secrets
of a mysterious sword that was imbued with the venom of a dragon. We fought countless
enemies to study the sword with Albedo’s help. In the ‘Lantern Rite’ event, we joined characters
from the nation of Liyue in their yearly lantern rite festival. We crafted xiao lanterns to release,
lighting up the sky. We even convinced the mysterious adepti Xiao to watch the festival from
afar, so he would experience the lantern’s release for the first time. These two events are what
really made me stay excited about Genshin Impact.
Around the same time as these events, I pulled my first event limited character. Ganyu
still remains my favorite character in the game to this day. She quickly became my main and the
character I enjoyed playing the most. I even used my first crown on her talents.
It wasn’t long before I started fighting the tough battles of “spiral abyss”. These battles
required you to have two teams of characters to fight countless enemies in a limited amount of
time. I struggled with spiral abyss a lot; I didn’t have many characters that I knew how to use in
battle. Not to mention, at the time most of the enemies in the earlier floors were “cryo”, or ice,
enemies. My main was Ganyu, who was a cryo character. So there wasn’t much she could do to
help me in these battles. However, as I progressed through spiral I was able to make my
characters stronger and stronger. Mona was the first to start hitting high numbers. In fact, she
was my first character to do 50k. After pulling Hu Tao, the numbers I hit got even higher. I could
hit over 100k with minimal effort thanks to Hu Tao.
More recently, a new region called “Inazuma” was released in Genshin Impact. Just like
the first two regions were based on real places, Inazuma was based on Japan. With the new
region came many new unique characters to meet and pull for. It also meant new weapons to
pull for, like my first event limited 5 star weapon, thundering pulse, a bow that I gave to Childe.
Now, after over a year of playing, I’m ar57, almost 58. I have many 5 stars, including all
of the “standard banner” characters, Ganyu, Hu Tao, Childe, Eula, and Arataki Itto. I have four 5
star weapons as well. I’ve cleared Spiral Abyss on multiple occasions, with my highest damage
being 570k with Hu Tao. Genshin Impact now means a lot to me, and I hope to continue playing
and having fun.