Genshin Impact is a pretty amazing game, inarguably one of the best games out there. Whether you are a beginner just starting off, or an advanced player grinding away, whether you are someone who regularly purchases in-game items, or whether you are staunchly a free-to-play player -- the game has enough content to keep everyone engrossed. Game developer studio Mihoyo is now adding in more content to Genshin Impact with the upcoming v1.3 "All That Glitters" update scheduled for February 3rd, bringing along a new character, new events, a new boss, and a way to get a free 4-star character as well as loads of free Primogems.

You can watch the trailer above to get a glimpse of all of the new changes, or you can watch the full English stream where all the notable changes are expanded upon, or read along as we summarize everything that is about to come in the new update. The full changelog for the update is not out yet, so there's bound to be a few smaller changes, bug fixes, and probable Quality of Life improvements included as well.

New 5-star character: Xiao (Anemo, Polearm)

This update is bringing along a new 5-star character in the form of Xiao. From the details given, we know that Xiao is an Anemo character wielding a Polearm.

Genshin Impact -- Xiao new character with Anemo polearm

5-star characters are usually intended to be "premium" characters, and consequently, Xiao will also receive its own banner which will up the chance of pulling the character through the loot boxes.

But as we mention that Genshin Impact is quite generous to free-to-play players are well, all players will receive 10 free Intertwined Fate by simply logging into the game over a few days, which they can use on this banner to try their luck in pulling this new character. Xiao will be sharing its banner with Keqing since there are no new 4-star characters in this update.

Free 4-star character

While there are no new 4-star characters in this update, Mihoyo is offering all users a free 4-star character through the "Stand by Me" special event.

Genshin Impact -- Free 4 star character event

All players who complete the event can choose one 4-star character from Xiangling, Xinyan, Beidou, Ningguang, Xingqiu, and Chongyun. While no details were offered on the event tasks, we can expect it to be slightly challenging but still very much feasible for all players.

As to what character you should select as the reward, we would suggest first picking up a character you do not have over getting a repeat character for their Constellation. Xingqiu is a good pick because of his extra talent "Flash of Genius" which gives him a 25% chance to refund one count of one material out of all crafting materials used. Over time, this will be really beneficial through your leveling up grinds. Alternatively, you can also aim for C4 Xiangling or C1 Ningguang if you have all of these characters already.

Lantern Rite event

Lantern Rite will be the highlight event for this update, divided into a few stages. Completing these stages will give you an event-specific currency that you can use in the event-specific shop to exchange for Character Ascension fragments, Experience books, Mora, or the Dust of Azoth (new material).

Theater Mechanicus -- Tower Defense minigame

As part of the Lantern Rite event, we get a new tower defense minigame. The trailer suggests that players will be able to craft, place, and upgrade different towers with different elements and mechanics along a path.

Like tower defense games, hordes of enemies will try to pass through the path. Your objective will be to stop them from reaching the end of the path. Genshin Impact is adding its own twist to this by letting you also enter the field with your own character and help clear out any chokepoints or just get through quicker.

Primo Geovishap -- New boss

Genshin Impact -- Primo Geovishap new boss

The Primo Geovishap is a new boss coming to the world of Genshin Impact. This beast appears to be a massively powerful form of the annoying Geovishap Hatchlings. Adding a twist to the tale is the fact that this boss can shift between different elements. More details are awaited on the mechanics of the boss, but it sure does change things up on how party setups will be tweaked depending on which element of the boss you are tackling. The boss will be unlocked through an investigation mission that will also pay out some Primogems and Mora.

Boosted Ley Line Overflows

Through the new update, Mora and Experience Ley Lines will have a 2x boosted drop for the first collection. So you can spend 20 resin and get 2x the usual output on your first collection. This will be a significant boost for players who are grinding to level up their characters.

Miscellaneous Changes

These are some of the less exciting changes. There will be a new tab within the Archive section that will show off Living Beings and their models as well as how many times you have defeated those enemies so far. The player profile screen is also seeing a small refresh, allowing you to pick up to 4 characters that you can show off to your friends. The Alchemy section will now also allow you to transform crystals from one element to another by using the Dust of Azoth. It's not clear how easy or difficult to obtain this new material is, but it could shift the way players need to tackle annoying bosses. Another event will require you to take pictures of certain things using the in-game camera tool to get Primogems and other rewards. There is also a Parametric Transformer gadget to be obtained, that will allow you to convert items from one to another.

There is also a small browser minigame that you can play right now to get some rewards.


The new update will be rolling out on February 3, 2021, and we can expect the events to roll out in a staggered manner over the month.