Tuesday, March 9, 2021

Improving Genshin Impact, Master's Thesis Edition

About a year and a half ago, an upcoming game caught my interest due to comparisons being made between it and Breath of the Wild. As someone who liked that game but recognized that it was far from perfect and could be improved upon in many ways, I wondered what this game would be like and how it would improve upon the game that clearly served as its source of inspiration. As I've already made clear in past articles, the fact that the game was releasing on mobile was not an issue for me. Such a concern was also dampened by the fact that the game was also going to be released on PC and as it turns out, the game eventually released on mobile, PC, and PS4.

However, while the game made a solid first impression, I rapidly noticed potential content design issues that made the Warlords of Draenor expansion for World of Warcraft seem good by comparison. Unfortunately, as I progressed through the game, these concerns were sadly confirmed and I became annoyed that yet another game fell into the trap of using what I consider to be flawed game design philosophy since it tries to make player miserable to generate profit more than it tries to make players happy to generate profit. Such concerns, which I will go into more detail on below, were echoed by critics and players alike.

Many months and numerous arguments with fellow players later, it has become apparent that miHoYo, the company behind the game, seems more or less content with how their game is designed. While some meaningful content has been developed and released, much of it is rife with arbitrary limitations. In fact, the repeatable content that the game has to offer, especially for endgame players, has largely remained unchanged and still involves waiting for at least a few hours or the expenditure of money to meaningfully engage in. This factor among others has me worried about this game that I want to like, but clearly needs improvements. Therefore, in this article I will be providing an extensive list of suggestions to resolve what I believe to be problematic about the game.

However, before getting into the meat of the article, I want to address why I'm suddenly writing a Genshin Impact article instead of writing more articles on World of Warcraft. To put it simply, I'm on a break from World of Warcraft and I'm unsure if I'll be playing the game again any time soon. The reasons why are largely similar to the ones I made in the article on why I wouldn't be playing Classic WoW. However, I still have topics I want to write articles on and an article about a game that has content design issues similar to some past iterations of World of Warcraft seems like a good place to start, so without further ado...

The Issues

Personally, I think there are four major issues with the game that could be resolved with suggestions. There are also some minor issues, but they would unnecessarily lengthen this section and will instead be directly addressed in the following section. Note that I will be doing a fairly detailed breakdown of the content Genshin Impact has available, so if you want to skip the walls of text in favor of reading the larger walls of text that offer suggestions to address the issues, feel free to scroll down to the next section.


This is a point that is often complained about especially when discussing Original Resin (a term I will shorten to Resin for the rest of the article), which serves as the game's stamina system. However, the time-gating of content goes beyond the fairly slow regeneration rate of this resource. To convey my point, let's review the content that the game has to offer and explain how it's time gated or limited.


While these forms of content can be initiated without spending Resin, which is nice since failure isn't punished, rewards can only be earned from them by spending Original Resin. Most Domains and bosses can be defeated multiple times in quick succession, though earning rewards requires the usage of Resin in some way. Furthermore, Ley Lines, or Ley Line Outcrops, must have their rewards looted to spawn in a new location and there are three bosses that can only be completed once per week.

180 Resin can be generated each day, which is the equivalent of 9 Domain or Ley Line runs or 4.5 normal Boss kills. These activities can typically be completed in 15-20 minutes total, meaning that for Resin-related content, a player has to wait 24 hours to do up to 20 minutes of activities that can provide significant rewards.


Up to 4 Commissions can be completed each day for rewards, even if players go help another player with their Commissions using the co-op feature. Completing four Commissions allows players to earn a greater daily reward that reminds me of Emissary quest rewards in WoW. The time required to complete 4 Commissions is similar to WoW's 3-4 world quest requirement for emissary quests in that it can easily be done in 10-15 minutes.

Overworld Exploration

The overworld in Genshin Impact does not actually feature a boundless amount of content. While it has many puzzles and treasure chests to find, they can be found or completed only one time and do not respawn or reset. When it comes to things that do respawn, enemy camps and some gatherable items respawn once per day at 9 AM UTC, while other gatherable items may only respawn once every 2 to 3 days. This is all reflected in the infographic shown in the thread I linked above, but has also been confirmed by my own personal observation. 

On the off chance that a player somehow manages to strip their entire world (or at least the easily accessible areas) of resources before the next day rolls around, it is worth mentioning that the aforementioned respawn timers can be effectively ignored by joining another player's world to gather items and defeat enemies there. However, such a practice may be considered discourteous since one is basically stealing resources from another player. Furthermore, not all players are willing to allow others, especially random players, to join their world.

In addition, Random Events can show up in the overworld, but they can only be completed up to 10 times per day for rewards.


Up to 3 Bounties and 3 Requests can be completed each week for Mora and Reputation. Mora can continue to be earned even if the Reputation with a certain hub is maxed out. Bounties task players with finding tracks and hunting down an enemy with special traits in an area within 10 minutes. Requests task players with acquiring and delivering items to specific NPCs.

Crimson Wish is similar to Bounties and Requests because the content also refreshes on a longer timescale, with 5 being made available every half week. The objectives of Crimson Wishes are similar to that of Commissions, but only award Crimson Agate, which are offered to the Frostbearing Tree and effectively serve as the Dragonspine area's reputation system. However, unlike Bounties and Requests, maxing out the Frostbearing Tree's level renders Crimson Wish content completely inaccessible.


The Spiral Abyss is an instanced area where players have to defeat 3 Chambers of enemies to clear a Floor and performing well provides great rewards. Players can choose benefits that empower them for a single Chamber or Floor in a manner similar to that of a rogue-like game mode such as Hearthstone's Dungeon Run. In addition, there's a passive beneficial effect in place that affects all areas of the Spiral Abyss that changes every half month.

The first 8 floors of the Spiral Abyss can only be completed once for rewards, but floors 9-12 can be completed once every half month for rewards. The enemy variety on floors 9-12 also change periodically.


There are a few types of quests, such as Archon Quests, which cover the main story of the game. Excluding Commissions, which are considered a type of quest by the wiki, all other types of quests can only be completed once. Each quest chain will usually occupy a couple hours of a player's time and a new quest chain is released about once every few weeks. 

Questing content in Genshin Impact is similar to questing content in many other games in that it's intended to be some of the most enjoyable content the game has to offer, but does not last long enough to keep players playing on a more regular basis. I don't expect this fact to change since developing quality questing content takes significantly more time than it will ultimately occupy a player's time. Because of this, I believe making suggestions involving the addition of more one-time questing content is unreasonable, so I won't be mentioning them much from this point on.


Events are a core feature of Genshin Impact and much like events in many other (service-based) games, they serve to encourage players to play more during a specific period by providing some additional limited-time content. Such events occur on a weekly or bi-weekly basis and generally involve doing the same type of activity multiple times over many days. They sometimes require event-exclusive quests to fully access, so the work involved in developing them can be similarly demanding.

Unfortunately, all events share the same issue of lasting for only a limited amount of time. In addition, worthwhile rewards from events are often time-gated. This is usually because only some rewards can be earned from the event each day, but it may also be because access to content is intentionally limited and more content becomes available during later stages of the event.

The contents of events are highly subject to change and I will say that one thing I appreciate is that since patch 1.2, events do not seem to involve a player having to use Resin to earn rewards. However, because events in almost every service-based game ever are intended to run for a limited time, they generally won't address fundamental content design issues with a game even if the event content itself is amazing. Considering the events that have been made available so far, Genshin Impact is clearly not exempt from this observation.

The current content is likely to cause boredom

As the previous subsection established, all content in Genshin Impact is time-gated or limited in some significant way. However, it is possible to derive some enjoyment from the game because for much of the content, the limitations apply exclusively to the acquisition of the reward from the content. To put it another way, having fun in itself is a reward and one I personally find to be underrated. 

Unfortunately, the content that Genshin Impact has to offer, especially the repeatable activities that players will be most likely to doing, is highly susceptible to becoming unenjoyable to the point I would argue that giving players infinite Resin wouldn't even fix the potential issues. To convey this point, I will review all the content I did before, but this time from a perspective of explaining how the content can become unenjoyable or is ineffective at providing significant enjoyment to the player.

Commissions and Events

The objectives of Commissions are fairly varied and change every day. More are also being added with every content patch, so this content will be less liable to cause boredom through sheer repetition despite the fact that some have fairly similar objectives such as the many commissions that involve killing Hilichurl enemies. However, players will generally only do 4 Commissions each day and doing so will take roughly 10-15 minutes. Because of how little time is spent each day on Commissions, I would argue that even if the objectives of them were absurdly enjoyable (or far more than they currently are), they provide very little overall entertainment to players who want to spend more than 15 minutes a day playing the game.

Unfortunately, events so far often share the same problem as Commissions since most events involve spending up to 10 minutes each day on a simple activity. Some events disguise this by letting the player grind out the event, such as with the Chalk Prince and the Dragon event associated with patch 1.2. However, players still only need to spend about an average of up to 10 minutes per day on the event. This means a player may spend an hour grinding event currency, but then have no reason to do event content for a whole week. While this flexibility is appreciated, the already limited-time event content provides only a little more daily entertainment and won't sufficiently entertain some players.

Domains, Ley Lines, Bosses, and Bounties

All of these forms of content involve killing specific enemies and share similar issues when it comes to being vulnerable to becoming unenjoyable. In general, they are subject to causing fatigue due to repetition because the content is too static.

For example, all Domains have a specific challenge that usually involves defeating enemies within a specific amount of time. Each domain also adheres to a specific theme that ultimately leads to elemental enemy variety not changing much for a specific domain. Furthermore, a specific level tier of a domain is entirely static and always has the same enemies and challenge, even if there's multiple rewards for that level tier that the player can choose from. Finally, many Domains award Artifacts and once players eventually earn fairly optimal variants of this equipment, they'll have little reason to revisit those Domains. On a related note, the randomization of Artifact stats is also liable to cause players to be annoyed and enjoy the game less.

Ley Lines are like Domains in that a Ley Line in a specific location will always spawn the same enemies. While Ley Lines can spawn in many locations, they rotate through these locations as they are completed and will loop back to where they originally were. In addition, as far as I can tell, no new Ley Line locations have been added since launch.

Bosses have static locations and the fight with them is generally always the same. This is because bosses are so static in design that they don't become all that much more mechanically challenging if at all as the World Level increases. However, they also have to be fought many times because they are an important source of Character Ascension materials and this is not likely to change any time soon. One "non-event" boss has been added since launch, but its primary reward is a new Ascension material used by newly added characters.

Bounties also suffer from being too static because of the lack of enemy variety. While efforts were made to make them more interesting because of the randomization of tracks and the enemy's special traits, each tier features the same few enemies. Realistically, players will be taking bounties from the highest tier due to the fact they award the greatest reward, so players will constantly be hunting Stonehide Lawachurls, Ruin Guards, and Ruin Hunters. I don't expect this to change much once a new area with a new Reputation and Bounties such as Inazuma is inevitably added (which is rumored to come out with patch 1.6).

Overworld and Random Events

Surprisingly little changes about the game's overworld beyond the weather and time of day. While I can understand that enemy camps and gathering points should be static to a degree so players have consistent routes for farming materials, it is a serious shame that there are so few Random Events that players can run into. This is because Random Events can be used to make the otherwise static world feel more lively because when players travel around, they occasionally run into something that differs from the norm that provides a little extra excitement.

Unfortunately, I count only 22 of these events on the wiki (many of which I have not personally run into despite making attempts to do so) and many of them have similar objectives that involve killing a number of enemies. A fair amount of them also have objectives that ultimately make them similar to simplified Commissions, which reinforces the impression that Random Events are a half-assed attempt to make the world feel more lively that ultimately fail miserably at accomplishing that objective.

Requests

The fact only 3 Requests can done each week may be a saving grace since these are very simple fetch quests for items the player probably already has. It also doesn't help that the same few NPCs are used as item recipients. However, the most annoying part is that it's very easy to accidentally close the interface used to deliver items that the player clearly possesses. On top of all this, Requests barely take any time at all to complete.

Spiral Abyss

The Spiral Abyss has the potential to be the most interesting content in the game because of its rogue-like elements that change the enemy variety and the passive effects players are subject to on each floor of the Abyssal Moon Spire. However, enemy variety has only changed once since the release of the game and it's been a month since that was last changed. The overarching passive effects of the Spiral Abyss also change at a snail's pace of once every half month or so despite the fact that the Abyssal Moon Spire can easily be completed within a few hours or less.

Quests and Crimson Wish

Quests and Crimson Wish are similar in the sense that they have a limited lifespan. In the case of quests, new quests will be released every few weeks only to be completed in a matter of hours. While they are usually highly entertaining because they involve a wide range of objectives and may tell a compelling story, they are also very demanding to develop and will ultimately not serve as a good source of entertainment for the more dedicated players who play regularly (some of whom are almost certainly whaling hard).

Crimson Wish, on the other hand, were basically another form of simplified Commissions but were somewhat interesting due to the fact that the Sheer Cold mechanic had some impact on how players should approach specific objectives. Because of this, I sometimes wish they could have been doable after maximizing the Frostbearing Tree for a different reward.

The co-op experience is subpar

Genshin Impact has a co-op feature that currently allows players to group with up to 3 other players to tackle some of the content that the game has to offer. Unfortunately, as I've already established in the previous subsections, much of the content is time-gated or limited in some sort of way and that same content is also liable to induce boredom in the player. Instead of breaking down each specific type of content and explaining why they contribute to a poor co-op experience, I will instead explain why the issues I mentioned before can impact the co-op experience.

When it comes to time-gating, even though only the rewards are time-gated, players are liable to join a party for only a brief time for content such as Domains. After players leave due to their Resin being exhausted or some other reason such as reaching a reward limit on Commissions, more time has to be wasted matching with other players. In addition, Resin (or perhaps lack of Resin) restricts the amount of players willing to group up for content that "requires" it, leading to situations where even endgame level tier domains are better to do alone because it takes too long to match with other players. This also applies to other forms of time-gating such as weekly time gates, which leads to an especially painful matchmaking experience if a player tries to do weekly bosses, Requests, or Bounties later in the week.

The aforementioned issue is further exacerbated by the fact some players don't need to do specific content because they're either bored of it or don't need rewards from it. Some content such as the Spiral Abyss, which could be fun to do in co-op, are also not available to do with other players. Doing quests as a group can also be problematic due to potential differences in quest progress.

Matchmaking for co-op in Genshin Impact is also very bad because there's no good way to form a group for non-instanced content. While instanced content such as Domains and certain event content put players into a specific matchmaking queue, such an option does not exist for much of the available content such as Ley Lines, Commissions, or boss slaying. In fact, there's no good way to advertise the willingness to group up for non-instanced content outside of setting a broadcast message for players to hopefully see. For example, players who are willing to allow others to freely harvest their world's resources cannot easily show their generosity, which is a shame.

The game's monetization needs improvement

Genshin Impact is a free-to-play game, so its main method of making money involves selling various microtransactions. The most notable microtransaction revolves around its gacha (known as Wishes) that can award characters and weapons. This is technically pay to win, but hardly the epitome of cancerous gaming industry practices since unlike games such as anything published under the EA Sports branding, Genshin Impact lacks PvP gameplay or an in-game economy where the advantages one could earn from a gacha could be leveraged to hurt the experience of other players. In fact, because of the game's cooperative elements, it could be argued that the opposite is true and that players rolling characters and weapons from the gacha could serve to benefit any players they happen to play with (or maybe cheapen their experience, depending on one's perspective).

In addition to the gacha, Resin can also be purchased with real money since the currency bought with real money can be converted to Primogems. Various deals are also available ranging from bundles offering some useful items and currencies to the premium benefits of the Battle Pass (known as Gnostic Hymn).

However, while the game has been a massive financial success so far, that may not be the case in the long term. For example, I have yet to spend any money on this game because beyond my annoyance with the content design issues, I have a couple reasons why that relate to how the game is monetized. Surprisingly, frustration related to bad gacha outcomes is not one of those reasons. Note that this subsection is much more subjective than the previous ones, though I would like to think others share my perspective and the criticism I have to make will be of some use to miHoYo.

Microtransaction value proposition is low, IMO

As a disclaimer, I think microtransactions featured in many games have are terrible value because the price of the good is generally too high relative to the labor that went into the creation of the product. To put this statement another way, a lot of microtransactions come off as a blatant cash grab. In general, this is unfortunately also the case with Genshin Impact, though this mostly is in regard to the awful real life currency to Genesis Crystal conversion rate. At best, one can get a little over 80 Genesis Crystals per USD and at worst, one can get a little over 60 Genesis Crystals per USD. Conversion rates are generally worse for other real life currencies, especially if you live somewhere in Europe.

Since Genesis Crystals convert into Primogems at a 1:1 ratio, a player can buy one roll in any of the available gachas for roughly $2 if they buy $100 worth of Genesis Crystals at once. However, due to the pity system and gacha rates, about 10 rolls, or $20, are needed to earn one thing that is remotely worthwhile. This easily turns into hundreds of dollars worth of premium currency if a player wants to reliably receive a specific 5-star character or weapon from the respective event banner. The poor conversion rate of real life money to premium currency also affects the price of other goods such as Resin and will also make future microtransactions, which I will discuss in the next subsection, more expensive than they probably should be.

In fact, I would go as far as to say that only a couple things being sold in Genshin Impact are what I would personally consider to be good value. These would be the Blessing of the Welkin Moon, which I consider an extremely good deal because it's basically 3000 Primogems for $5, and the Gnostic Hymn, which I consider to be an okay deal because of its higher price for a wide range of useful in-game goods. I guess I should be happy with the fact there's some sort of microtransaction that appeals to more frugal players like myself, though I believe this can be expanded upon.

There are almost no cosmetic microtransactions

However, the more serious issue with Genshin Impact's microtransactions is the lack of cosmetic microtransactions. I find this especially strange since there are a number of unlockable cosmetics, such as gliders and namecard styles, in the game and a few have also been added since launch. The Gnostic Chorus, which is a more expensive version of the Gnostic Hymn, even offers namecards that can only be purchased with real money, so miHoYo is clearly not against the idea of selling cosmetics. This is further proven by the fact that their other game, Honkai Impact 3, offers cosmetic microtransactions.

While some may object to having cosmetic microtransactions in their game, I am personally in the camp that they are usually fine to sell. This is because they generally have a low level of impact on the development process and generally have little impact on gameplay, especially for other players. They also have little negative impact on a game's health when that is relevant, such as when a game has an active in-game economy. While a player may be bummed that they don't get to make their gaming experience look cool in some sort of way, there's usually other options available and such a cosmetic change doesn't have an objective effect on one's performance (as opposed to a subjective one due to emotional reasons). This is especially the case for Genshin Impact since there are a number of unlockable cosmetics available to acquire.

Ultimately, I do think miHoYo needs to offer cosmetic microtransactions as soon as possible and I will be making a number of suggestions on the kinds of cosmetics they could sell. Cosmetic microtransaction-focused models have proven to be quite successful, even on mobile. However, considering the game's current financial success that almost certainly can be attributed to its gacha, it's more likely that Genshin Impact will hybridize their monetization strategy like Honkai Impact and a number of other games. In any case, I do believe it's important to remind miHoYo to not squander a good opportunity. For example, Azur Lane is releasing a character with a very familiar likeness to Keqing who even has a skin available on release.

Suggestions

Now that the major issues I have with the game have been established, it's time to get into the meat of this article and make some suggestions on how to address these issues, plus some other minor issues I have yet to mention.

By the way, I will be inventing many names for the sake of conveying ideas more easily, but they may not be ideal names to use. They can be changed at miHoYo's discretion on the off chance these suggestions are taken seriously.

Farmable Rewards Baseline

At the moment, Genshin Impact generally limits the rewards player can earn. Since I will be making suggestions that involve relaxing or lifting limitations on content or adding new content with little to no restrictions in place, some rewards will need to always be earnable to ensure the content is worthwhile to do. Furthermore, while a player could technically farm for an endless amount of certain rewards, doing so at the moment is absurdly unfeasible. With that said, here are the rewards that are currently available that I think players should be able to earn an infinite amount of at a reasonable rate without having to use Resin or deal with other annoying restrictions:
Mora
Mora is the primary currency that's used for many things ranging from upgrading characters and equipment to buying useful items from vendors. Because of its wide variety of uses that could be broadened further with additional features, I believe it's appropriate to allow players to endlessly farm Mora from more of the game's content at more reasonable rates than the current endless farming method. This is because the current method for endlessly farming Mora is joining another player's worlds and going on a murder spree since enemies can drop a small amount of it.

Increased access to Mora along with increased acquisition rates can also easily be counterbalanced by adding more, preferably optional, Mora sinks. Note that character and equipment upgrades are restricted by the limited acquisition of other items such as materials from Domains, so progression can still be controlled despite the fact players would have better ways to farm an endless amount of Mora.
Character EXP
Character EXP, which is normally earned from defeating enemies that players can have unlimited access to, is so pitifully low. For example, I gain 19 EXP per normal enemy at World Level 8, while characters need over 8 million EXP total to reach level 90. Because of this, it is nearly mandatory to use EXP books that are usually acquired from limited content to level characters. While I'm fine with limiting the acquisition of EXP books, I believe it should be possible to earn a decent amount of EXP for characters the player actively uses.
Companionship EXP
Companionship EXP is used to increase Friendship with a character. The benefits for doing so are entirely cosmetic and as Friendship level increases with a character, more backstory and voice lines are unlocked. At the max Friendship level of 10, players earn a namecard style associated with the character. Because of these cosmetic benefits, I believe there's great potential when it comes to using Companionship EXP as an endlessly farmable reward. Players could even be encouraged roll in the gacha more, since I plan to suggest the addition of a new item that grants Companionship EXP to characters that the player doesn't actively use.
Reputation
Paragon reputation in World of Warcraft was an idea I failed to think of, but is a good way to encourage players to continue farming reputation even after they reach the maximum amount with a faction. The same idea can be utilized in Genshin Impact with its Reputation system, especially since I will be making suggestions to improve Bounties and Requests. Because of this, I want Reputation to be a reward that players can endlessly farm.
Various common materials, such as food ingredients, other gatherable items, and common ascension materials and other items dropped by enemies.
These items can technically already be farmed for endlessly by joining the worlds of other players, so they are a good reward to use for many of the content-related suggestions I plan to make. Doing so would also hopefully reduce friction within the community due to the reduced need to pilfer another player's world of materials.
Various consumable items such as cooked foods.
Many consumable items can technically be farmed for endlessly because they are made out of the common materials mentioned above. Because of this, I think it only makes sense to add consumable items as a potential reward. Furthermore, awarding some underutilized and under-rewarded consumable items such as resistance potions more often may encourage players to use them more liberally.

Quick Fixes

This first set of suggestions consists of what I will call quick fixes. Unlike the Leveling Quick Fixes I suggested for WoW a while ago, I personally believe these suggestions are even easier to implement since many consist of minor tweaks that can probably be done in little to no time at all. Some of these are quality of life fixes for minor issues I have with the game.
Improve Commission bonus rewards by doing the following:
  • Increase Mora awarded by roughly 50%, starting at 8500 at the lower ranks and maximizing at 20000.
  • Award 1 additional Adventurer Treasure Pack at AR 20, 30, 40, and 50.
I personally find these rewards incredibly underwhelming at higher Adventurer Ranks (or AR for short) and believe they should be improved to make Commissions more worthwhile to do. Since this reward is time-gated, I think it's fine to award more Ascension materials that are usually farmed from bosses.
Add a small reward for completing Commissions beyond the daily limit of 4. Specifically, the reward would be 25% of the normal Mora reward and 10 Companionship EXP.
The addition of a small reward to Commissions that would most likely be completed in a co-op should encourage players to help each other with Commissions more even after finishing with 4 of them. I personally find the rewards modest, but they are a nice bonus to earn and players can effectively use Commissions to (almost) endlessly farm Mora and Companionship EXP with this change.
Increase the Resin cap to 200, up from 160.
By increasing the Resin cap to 200, players can burn an entire day's Resin of 180 in a single play session. I'm certain that players who can only really play once per day would appreciate this change. This change also lines up well with miHoYo's plan to allow players to hold 5 Condensed Resin.
Reduce the cooldown of the Parametric Transformer to 6 days, 12 hours.
The Parametric Transformer is a new gadget added in patch 1.3 that converts materials into useful items such as Character EXP books. Using it incurs a 6 day, 22 hour cooldown that I believe should be shortened slightly so that players who play at slightly different times each day can more reliably use the item once per week. Alternatively, having the cooldown reset at the start of every Monday is also fine.
Reduce or remove the Resin cost for fighting the weekly bosses.
Since weekly bosses such as Stormterror can already only be completed for rewards once per week, I believe it may be reasonable to reduce or remove the Resin cost to fight them. Weekly bosses will be relevant for a long time due to the materials they award and new ones will likely be added in future content patches, so addressing the impact they have on the limited Resin players have each week is a good idea.
Add a small reward of up to 2500 Mora for completing a Domain and Ley Lines. In addition, completing any Domain also awards up to 200 Character EXP. These rewards can always be earned without using Resin.
The addition of these rewards is to encourage players to continue to do Domains and Ley Lines despite running out of Resin. This can be helpful for completing Battle Pass requirements, assisting players while getting something in return, or just for farming Mora and Character EXP. This would also allow players to farm materials from enemies by activating Ley Lines. The Character EXP reward is added to Domains in particular since defeating enemies in Domains does not award EXP.

These additional rewards scale based on the level of the enemies, so higher level Domains and Ley Lines at higher World Levels would yield closer to the maximum Mora and Character EXP rewards.
Increase Character EXP gain from defeating enemies by up to 100%.
As I mentioned in the previous subsection, I believe Character EXP gain from defeating enemies is way too low. While I don't believe that even doubling the EXP gain from enemies is sufficient by itself, I will be suggesting other features that will make Character EXP farming more feasible. Because of this, I think increasing Character EXP gain from enemies by the suggested amount is fine and would also make farming Ley Lines, which the previous suggestion makes possible without Resin, a much more rewarding activity.
Allow players to destroy any Artifact for Mora regardless of its rarity.
For some reason, players cannot destroy Artifacts that are 4 or 5-star rarity. While these are usually better for feeding EXP to Artifacts the player plans to use, it is possible to accumulate a huge excess of Artifacts with no decent Artifacts to feed them to. Because of this, I believe players should be allowed to destroy Artifacts of any rarity for Mora since it's already possible with 3-star or below rarity Artifacts.
Remove the 10 Random Event per day reward limit.
While this won't fix the fact that there aren't enough Random Events to make them interesting for long, a good first step towards making them worthwhile to pursue is removing the arbitrary reward limit since completing Random Events awards items and goods that I want players to be able to endlessly farm with relative ease.
Remove the item turn-in interface for all item turn-in quests except for those that involve cooked items.
When turning in items for Quests, Commissions, and Requests, an interface sometimes pop up that forces the player to choose an item and submit it to fulfill the objective. This interface is very easy to close on accident with a bad click and is often useless since there are objectives that allow players to immediately turn items in if they have them without having to use this interface. Because of this, I think removing the interface from most item turn-in quests would make for a better player experience.

The reason I make an exception for cooked items in particular is because players can choose between a Delicious, normal, and Suspicious version of a food item. This is because there might be more of an incentive to deliver Delicious food in the future.
Allow players to automatically use the amount of Character EXP books needed to level a character one or more times.
At the moment, players have to click or hold a + symbol for quite a bit of time to use the proper amount of EXP books required to level a character one or more time. The equipment leveling interface doesn't have this issue since items can be automatically chosen and consumed to level equipment. I believe there should be a small quality of life change that makes allocating Character EXP to a character by using EXP books a quick and painless process. Instead of choosing the type and number of EXP books to use, players can instead select what level they want their character to be and EXP books would automatically be chosen to grant the appropriate amount of EXP.
Increase out of combat Stamina regeneration significantly (by at least 100%).
Not to be confused with Resin, the Stamina system in the context of the action RPG gameplay Genshin Impact features limits how much players can climb, sprint, swim, and so on. While I think it's fair to prevent players from sprinting constantly in combat due to the insane amount of invincibility frames it grants, Stamina regeneration is really slow when it comes to overworld travel. The bar quickly drains even with all the upgrades, but it takes the better part of 10-15 seconds to refill. 

This is significantly slower than some other games, including Breath of the Wild, which has much faster Stamina regeneration and allows for the constant consumption of Stamina restoring food (doing so incurs a cooldown in Genshin).

Minor Additions

The suggestions made in this subsection are more complex than the previous one, but simple enough that I believe they can be added when minor content additions such as Story Quests are. This is because these suggestions involve the addition of features and content, but are not so demanding to develop that they require a major patch to implement into the game. To put it another way, one or more of these additions can be made every few weeks.
Add a feature that allows the player to refresh the overworld content before a daily reset at an increasing Mora cost.
  • The cost would start at 5000 Mora, increasing by 5000 Mora until it reaches a maximum cost of 25000 Mora per reset. This cost would reset each day.
  • Using this feature resets all enemy camps and item spawns. Chest spawns would not reset.
  • Using this feature also increases Character EXP gain by 50%, stacking up to 5 times. This effect is removed during the daily reset.
This feature would allow players to farm their own world as much as they want, but it comes with an increasing Mora cost. Since Mora would be an endlessly farmable currency, which the quick fixes in the previous subsection help to ensure, players would only need to grind a little bit if they really want to reset their world.

To encourage players to farm their world, I also added a beneficial effect that increases Character EXP gain. Players can reset their world 5 times in quick succession to maximize this benefit, though it would come at a cost of 75000 Mora total. This cost would help sink excess Mora that a player may have if they opt to use this feature for farming Character EXP.

It is worth mentioning that this feature may accelerate how tired players get with overworld content since they may end up farming it more. However, I believe this is okay since more overworld content will be added in the future. Additional overworld content may also serve to greatly increase the value of this feature for players who somehow are able to farm items and enemies on an increasingly vast landscape.
Add a Domain for farming new consumable items that can reroll primary and secondary stats on an Artifact.
  • This domain have two levels available at Adventurer Rank 40 and 45, which feature enemies at level 80 and 90 respectively.
  • This Domain would be unique in that it uses scenarios from every Domain that awards Artifacts. One scenario from the level 80 or 90 tier would be randomly chosen each run.
  • New Domains that award Artifacts can have their scenarios added to the pool. Scenarios unique to this Domain can also be added.
  • These new items, which I will call the Fatetwister and Fateshaper, can reroll primary and (all) secondary stats on an item respectively. 
    • Players would generally be awarded Fateshapers more often.
    • 1 of these new items would always be awarded from the Domain at level 80, and 2 at level 90. 
This suggestion features the addition of one of a few new reward ideas that I plan on making. In this case, I am suggesting the addition of two items that can reroll Artifact stats that are primarily awarded from a new Domain. These two items would allow players to focus on trying to make a more optimal Artifact by rerolling only primary or secondary stats. This would not be perfect since for rerolling secondary stats in particular, all of them would be rerolled, but it would allow players to retain either primary or secondary stats they consider ideal. Having the option to reroll Artifact stats instead of farming more would also allow players to not clog up their Artifact inventory. Fatetwisters and Fatechangers are also worth farming to stockpile in the event that new Domains with new Artifacts are added, giving players an incentive to farm this Domain even if they don't immediately need the items.

As for the Domain, I want it to randomize which scenario players need to complete for rewards because it would help to make the content less repetitive. This is especially important for a Domain I believe all players would farm frequently due to the general desire for optimal Artifacts. While this won't necessarily prevent players from getting bored of how much of a chore the Domain is to complete, the experience should be relatively unique, especially with new Domain additions and the addition of scenarios unique to the Domain. Using existing scenarios also makes the Domain easier to implement.

Because this Domain is meant for many types of players, it should also be easier to create a co-op group for. Finally, this Domain provides an opportunity for miHoYo to balance the various Domains that award Artifacts since people have differing opinions on which Domains are the hardest.
Improve the co-op mode feature by adding a simple LFG system where players can advertise the desire to group up for various activities such as boss killing.
When discussing issues I have with the game, I mentioned that there's no good way for players to group up for content such as Commissions and bosses. This is because outside of Domains and event content, there's no matchmaking system for this content. While I don't think there necessarily needs to be a matchmaking system for all content, many multiplayer games, including non-MMO ones such as the Monster Hunter series, have a feature that allows players to group with each other based on the activity they want to do.

Specifically, the co-op interface should be reworked to allow players to make a listing that shows their desire to do the various activities that can be done in a group and don't already have a matchmaking system. Specifically, these activities would be the following, though more can be added:
  • Commissions
  • (Non-event) Bosses
  • Bounties
  • Ley Lines
  • Crimson Wish
  • Event content without a matchmaking system
  • Free-for-all (open to do any activity including overworld exploration)
Players can then invite or join the world of the player who made the listing.
Add significantly more Random Events. Add a feature that gives players hints on where Random Events might spawn. 
As I mentioned in the section above, there are far too few Random Events to make the world feel lively. This is why I think more Random Events need to be added, especially to regions without it such as Dragonspine and the various areas in Liyue. These Random Events do not need to be added all at once and a modest number can be added every few weeks. Within a few major patches, the Random Event pool would be much larger and the world would hopefully feel more lively as a result. I would also advise creating more unique Random Events that aren't just dumbed down versions of Commissions. For example, more non-combat puzzles involving the usage of Elemental Skills could be added.

To accommodate the increasing amount of Random Events, I also believe a feature should be added that provides players with hints on where Random Events may be. Specifically, interacting with Katheryne would mark a large general area on the map where a Random Event can spawn. This would provide an exploration opportunity for players looking to earn a bit of extra Mora and Companionship EXP.
Upon reaching Reputation level 4 with a nation, allow players to complete an infinite amount of Bounties and Requests for that nation each week. In addition, add a reward cache for earning 500 Reputation after reaching level 8. This reward can be earned repeatedly.
  • The first 3 Bounties and Requests each week award full Mora and Reputation. Subsequent Bounties and Requests award 25% of the Mora and Reputation.
  • The reward cache from earning enough reputation after reaching level 8 would award some Local Specialties, consumable items, and a new reward: the Companionship EXP Book.
  • Companionship EXP Books would grant any character 10, 50, or 100 Companionship EXP for rarity 2, 3, and 4 respectively. The reward cache would award about 75 Companionship EXP worth of books on average.
As I mentioned in the previous subsection, I want Reputation to be a reward that players can endlessly farm. By allowing players to eventually take on as many Bounties and Requests as they want beyond the weekly limitation of 3, players can grind both Reputation and Mora, though doing so would be a bit more time-consuming due to the diminishing return in rewards after the weekly limit is reached. I retained this limitation so that more casual players can earn significant rewards for doing a few Bounties and Requests each week and not feel strongly compelled to grind afterwards. I also added a Reputation level requirement of 4 since players can reach it fairly easily through quests and exploration, which helps to ensure players have finished a fair amount of the content the game has to offer or least completed a few weeks of Bounties and Requests.

The result of this change is that players have access to more content that they can do to their heart's content. While Requests are probably not that interesting, Bounties are at least somewhat interesting and because they can be done repeatedly, there's not as much of a need to do the highest tier Bounty especially after the weekly limit is reached, which provides an opportunity for players to vary their Bounty targets more.

I also mentioned a "Paragon reputation reward" that, much like its World of Warcraft iteration, involves farming for more Reputation after reaching the maximum level for additional rewards. Earning Reputation, which can easily be done passively through weekly Bounties and Requests if players don't wish to grind, would earn some practical rewards along with the new Companionship EXP Book reward. While there would be other ways to farm Companionship EXP Books, Reputation could be one of the first methods for doing so since it's the only minor content addition I am suggesting that would award it. This suggestion would provide players with another activity for a special reward that can be useful to have even if they don't immediately need it. In this case, the EXP Books could be retained and used on future character acquisitions.
Increase the maximum Friendship level to 25, up from 10. Add new namecard styles for each character that are unlocked at levels 15, 20, and 25 that are upgraded versions of the original namecard style.
  • Each Friendship level beyond the 10th requires the same amount of Companionship EXP that it takes to advance from Friendship level 9 to Friendship level 10.
To complement the various new ways to endlessly farm Companionship EXP, I think the addition of more unlockable cosmetics at higher Friendship levels is a good reward for players to work towards. I believe these should be simple enough to add since I'm specifically suggesting modified versions of existing namecard styles, though adding a few for every existing character is demanding enough to justify needing at least a few weeks of work to implement.

This suggestion would also greatly increase the amount of Companionship EXP needed for players to truly unlock everything their character has to offer, making it even less likely that the Companionship EXP Books mentioned in my previous suggestion would be devalued since new characters would be constantly added. Note that doing so is far from mandatory though since most of the major Friendship level unlocks are gotten by level 6 and not everyone would be interested in having more namecard styles.

Major Additions

The suggestions I make in this section are so significant and extensive that they'd usually warrant their own article if it weren't for the fact I want to minimize the amount of Genshin Impact articles I want to publish. These suggestions would require at least a month or more to develop and could likely only feasibly be implemented when a major patch is released. Because of how large and impactful these suggestions are, I believe that implementing even one of them would improve the enjoyment of the game considerably.
Add a feature that allows Paimon to provide practical assistance in combat and other situations. She can gain EXP to increase her power and unlock various abilities.
Paimon is the companion who accompanies the player on their journeys through Teyvat. While I personally enjoy her company, others may find her annoying for a wide variety of reasons. However, I will admit that I wish she were a more useful companion who provided practical help in addition to her colorful commentary. Because of this, I want her to be a companion who can be leveled up to increase her usefulness in combat and other situations. The devs have put such a feature into the "open world" part of their previous game, so I believe this is a reasonable request to make. However, given my obsession with proposing certain progression systems, what I have in mind is far more extensive than what Higokumaru has to offer.

Paimon Leveling System Basics

Paimon's progression is split into two parts. The former part is the core progression and can be completed in a little over 1.5 months of regular play. This involves leveling Paimon from 0 to 50 and would unlock many important features such as various elemental attacks and utility effects that I will discuss later. The latter part is the endless progression and is what I and some others call a Paragon progression system since Paimon would be able to level endlessly from 51 onwards to improve herself in some way. Unlike with my Paragon suggestion for World of Warcraft, Paimon's power would objectively increase like with Diablo 3's Paragon system because I believe Genshin Impact's players won't obsess over marginal power increases in the same way as highly competitive WoW players.

When it comes to leveling Paimon, Paimon can gain experience in the following ways from the non-event content that is currently available in the game:
  • When the player earns Character or Companionship EXP, Paimon gains an equal amount of EXP. EXP gained from EXP Books does not count.
    • Character EXP awards are based on the amount awarded to a single party member, not the total that all party members earn.
  • When the player earns Adventurer EXP, Paimon gains double the amount of EXP.
  • Whenever the player gathers an item, Paimon gains 5 EXP.
  • When an Abyssal Star is earned in the Spiral Abyss, Paimon gains 150 EXP.
  • When a Bounty is completed, Paimon earns 150 EXP
  • When a Request is completed, Paimon earns 50 EXP.
Based on these details, players would earn about 3340 Paimon EXP from the 4 daily Commissions (3000 Paimon EXP from Adventurer EXP plus up to 340 Paimon EXP from Companionship EXP). Without other suggestions in place, spending 160 Resin earns around 2580+ Paimon EXP from normal bosses (1600 Paimon EXP from Adventurer EXP, 800 Paimon EXP from Character EXP, and 180 Paimon EXP from Companionship EXP). By adding these two values together, players can expect to earn as much as ~6000 Paimon EXP per day from typical daily activities, though it's more likely that regular players would earn ~5000 Paimon EXP per day.

It is worth mentioning that Paimon EXP is yet another type of reward that can be used to encourage players to do certain content in addition to what is currently available. Specifically, if a Paimon progression system is in place and future content, especially event content, does not award much Character, Companionship, or Adventurer EXP, it could award some Paimon EXP to encourage players interested in earning that reward.

Core Progression Details

Paimon's core progression begins with a short quest that's available at Adventurer Rank 10 to explain how the feature works and ends with advancing Paimon's level to 1 by awarding 100 Paimon EXP. This provides immediate access to her basic attack, which can apply any one element of the player's choice (including Dendro). The element selection must be made in a new interface that, like the party setup interface, cannot be opened in combat.

The amount of Paimon EXP needed to advance from level 0 to 50 is 250,000 EXP. This would initially be very fast since the EXP required starts at 100 and increases by 200 per level (so level 5 would require 900 Paimon EXP, for example). This would top out at 9900 Paimon EXP to reach level 50 from level 49. The amount of EXP required to reach level 50 may seem like a lot, but this requirement is balanced around the fact players that can gain 5000 Paimon EXP per day through what I consider regular play, which means players can feasibly reach level 50 in less than 2 months, possibly less than 1 if they grind.

Since core progression involves unlocking a lot of useful effects that are later enhanced through endless progression, here's a detailed breakdown of what Paimon gains at each level from 1 to 50:
  • Level 1 (100 EXP required): Paimon learns her Basic Attack. Paimon will fire a ranged attack at the closest enemy within 12 meters of the player every 5 seconds that applies one of the seven elements of the player's choice. 
    • The base damage of all of Paimon's damaging attacks is determined by the average level of the party.
  • Level 2 (300 EXP required): Basic Attack cooldown reduced to 4.8 seconds.
  • Level 3 (500 EXP required): Paimon learns her Empowered Attack. When the player critically strikes, Paimon will immediately unleash an empowered attack based on her element. This effect has a 15 second cooldown.
    • Pyro: A fire patch of 2 meters radius will appear under the critically struck enemy for 3 seconds, dealing minor Pyro damage every 0.5 seconds.
    • Hydro: Traps the critically struck enemy in a bubble and deals Hydro damage to them for 1.5 seconds. This bubble then explodes and applies Wet to all enemies within 3 meters.
    • Dendro: Roots the critically struck enemy and all enemies within a 2 meter radius for 1.5 seconds, applying Dendro. Pyro damage dealt to rooted enemies is increased by 50% in addition to applying Burning.
    • Electro: Zaps the critically struck enemy, then chains to up to 3 enemies within 5 meters of each other, dealing Electro damage to all of them. Damage is increased based on distance between enemies.
    • Anemo: Blows back the critically struck enemy and nearby enemies by approximately 5 meters. This can trigger a Swirl reaction if the affected enemies or area are affected by an applicable element.
    • Cryo: Pierces the critically struck enemy with an ice spear that travels for up to 10 meters in a straight line, dealing Cryo damage to all enemies in a line.
    • Geo: Pierces the critically struck enemy from below with a stalagmite, which then shatters and deals heavy Geo damage to all enemies within 2 meters. This attack penetrates shields.
  • Level 4 (700 EXP required): Empowered Attack cooldown is reduced to 14.5 seconds.
  • Level 5 (900 EXP required): Paimon gains her first Utility Skill slot. Paimon learns the following Utility Skills, which can each occupy one Utility Skill slot:
    • Benchwarmer: Inactive characters are healed for 0.5% of their maximum health every second.
    • Celestial Dust: When your active character is affected by a debuff, Paimon will remove it and heal the character for 3% of their maximum health. 15 second cooldown.
    • Let's Keep Moving!: Increases out-of-combat Stamina regeneration by 20%.
  • Level 6 (1100 EXP required): Basic Attack cooldown reduced to 4.6 seconds.
  • Level 7 (1300 EXP required): Empowered Attack cooldown reduced to 14 seconds.
  • Level 8 (1500 EXP required): Paimon learns the Paimon's Protection Utility Skill.
    • Paimon's Protection: When your character takes damage equal to or greater than 15% of their maximum HP, shields that character for 10% of their maximum HP for 5 seconds. 30 second cooldown.
  • Level 9 (1700 EXP required): Basic Attack cooldown reduced to 4.4 seconds.
  • Level 10 (1900 EXP required): Paimon learns her Ultimate Attack. When the player uses an Elemental Burst, Paimon will use an Ultimate Attack based on her element to complement it. 45 second cooldown.
    • Pyro: Causes an explosion centered on the character, dealing heavy Pyro damage to all enemies within 8 meters and knocking them back.
    • Hydro: Creates a vortex centered on the character that draws enemies within 10 meters in for 3 seconds. Any that are within 5 meters of the vortex suffer continuous Hydro damage.
    • Dendro: Creates a thorny ground of 10 meters radius centered on the character for 8 seconds that deals Dendro damage to all enemies within. Enemies that move suffer additional Dendro damage.
    • Electro: Calls a lightning storm of 5 meters radius that lasts for 8 seconds and is centered on the densest pack of enemies. Every 0.5 seconds, a lightning bolt will randomly strike within the area, dealing moderate Electro damage to enemies within 1 meter of the strike.
    • Anemo: Creates a windy area of 12 meters radius centered on the character that increases allied movement speed by 15% and instantly Swirls any elements used within the area, applying the element to all enemies within. The Swirled element will be defused after 1 second so that another element can be affected by Swirl. Lasts for 8 seconds.
    • Cryo: Rapidly fires spears of ice at the closest enemy, dealing Cryo damage every 0.25 seconds for 4 seconds.
    • Geo: Unleashes a tremor that deals slight Geo damage and stuns all enemies within 15 meters radius for 3 seconds (reduced duration against stronger enemies). This attack also heavily damages enemy shields.
  • Level 11 (2100 EXP required): Ultimate Attack cooldown reduced to 44 seconds.
  • Level 12 (2300 EXP required): Empowered Attack cooldown reduced to 13.5 seconds.
  • Level 13 (2500 EXP required): Basic Attack cooldown reduced to 4.2 seconds.
  • Level 14 (2700 EXP required): Ultimate Attack cooldown reduced to 43 seconds.
  • Level 15 (2900 EXP required): Paimon learns the Passion for Cuisine Utility Skill.
    • Passion for Cuisine: Increases the duration of all newly applied food buff effects by 50%. This benefit is cancelled if this Utility Skill is removed. 
  • Level 16 (3100 EXP required): Ultimate Attack cooldown reduced to 42 seconds.
  • Level 17 (3300 EXP required): Ultimate Attack cooldown reduced to 41 seconds.
  • Level 18 (3500 EXP required): Basic Attack cooldown reduced to 4 seconds.
  • Level 19 (3700 EXP required): Ultimate Attack cooldown reduced to 40 seconds.
  • Level 20 (3900 EXP required): Paimon gains her second Utility Skill slot.
  • Level 21 (4100 EXP required): Empowered Attack cooldown reduced to 13 seconds.
  • Level 22 (4300 EXP required): Ultimate Attack cooldown reduced to 39 seconds.
  • Level 23 (4500 EXP required): Empowered Attack cooldown reduced to 12.5 seconds.
  • Level 24 (4700 EXP required): Ultimate Attack cooldown reduced to 38 seconds.
  • Level 25 (4900 EXP required): Paimon learns the Willful Ignorance Utility Skill.
    • Willful Ignorance: When your character is affected by an Elemental Reaction, the effects are nullified and the character is healed for 5% of their maximum health. 20 second cooldown.
  • Level 26 (5100 EXP required): Ultimate Attack cooldown reduced to 37 seconds.
  • Level 27 (5300 EXP required): Ultimate Attack cooldown reduced to 36 seconds.
  • Level 28 (5500 EXP required): Basic Attack cooldown reduced to 3.8 seconds.
  • Level 29 (5700 EXP required): Ultimate Attack cooldown reduced to 35 seconds.
  • Level 30 (5900 EXP required): Paimon learns the Traveler's Swiftness Utility Skill.
    • Traveler's Swiftness: After swimming, gliding, or sprinting, increase Movement Speed by 5% for 5 seconds. This effect stacks up to 3 times. Cannot benefit from this effect while in combat.
  • Level 31 (6100 EXP required): Ultimate Attack cooldown reduced to 34 seconds.
  • Level 32 (6300 EXP required): Empowered Attack cooldown reduced to 12 seconds.
  • Level 33 (6500 EXP required): Ultimate Attack cooldown reduced to 33 seconds.
  • Level 34 (6700 EXP required): Ultimate Attack cooldown reduced to 32 seconds.
  • Level 35 (6900 EXP required): Paimon gains her third Utility Skill slot.
  • Level 36 (7100 EXP required): Ultimate Attack cooldown reduced to 31 seconds.
  • Level 37 (7300 EXP required): Basic Attack cooldown reduced to 3.6 seconds.
  • Level 38 (7500 EXP required): Ultimate Attack cooldown reduced to 30 seconds.
  • Level 39 (7700 EXP required): Empowered Attack cooldown reduced to 11.5 seconds.
  • Level 40 (7900 EXP required): Paimon learns the Hunter's Instinct Utility Skill.
    • Hunter's Instinct: Reduces the distance at which wildlife detects you by 50%. When fleeing, Wildlife will take 100% longer to disappear.
  • Level 41 (8100 EXP required): Ultimate Attack cooldown reduced to 29 seconds.
  • Level 42 (8300 EXP required): Ultimate Attack cooldown reduced to 28 seconds. Basic Attack cooldown reduced to 3.4 seconds.
  • Level 43 (8500 EXP required): Ultimate Attack cooldown reduced to 27 seconds. Empowered Attack cooldown reduced to 11 seconds.
  • Level 44 (8700 EXP required): Ultimate Attack cooldown reduced to 26 seconds.
  • Level 45 (8900 EXP required): Paimon learns the Second Stomach Utility Skill.
    • Second Stomach: Doubles the Fullness Gauge of your characters and doubles the rate at which Fullness depletes.
  • Level 46 (9100 EXP required): Ultimate Attack cooldown reduced to 25 seconds. 
  • Level 47 (9300 EXP required): Ultimate Attack cooldown reduced to 24 seconds. Basic Attack cooldown reduced to 3.2 seconds.
  • Level 48 (9500 EXP required): Ultimate Attack cooldown reduced to 23 seconds. Empowered Attack cooldown reduced to 10.5 seconds.
  • Level 49 (9700 EXP required): Ultimate Attack cooldown reduced to 21 seconds.
  • Level 50 (9900 EXP required): Basic Attack cooldown reduced to 3 seconds. Empowered Attack cooldown reduced to 10 seconds. Ultimate Attack cooldown reduced to 20 seconds. Paimon learns the Emboldening Revival Utility Skill.
    • Emboldening Revival: When a character is defeated, Paimon will revive them at 30% of their maximum health and increases their ATK and DEF by 25% for 30 seconds. This effect has a cooldown of 120 seconds.
Since this breakdown is rather lengthy, here's a summary of the abilities that Paimon would have by the time she reaches level 50.
  • A Basic Attack that can apply an elemental effect of the player's choice that has a 3 second cooldown between activations.
  • An Empowered Attack that activates off the player's critical strikes with an effect based on Paimon's element with a 10 second cooldown between activations.
  • An Ultimate Attack that activates when the player uses an Elemental Burst with an effect based on Paimon's element with a 20 second cooldown between activations.
  • 10 Utility Skills and the ability to have 3 of them active in Utility Skill Slots at any one time.
Endless Progression Details

Paimon's endless progression is much simpler than her core progression. As Paimon levels from 51 onward, her damage output would slightly increase. In addition, the level curve is entirely flat and each level requires 10,000 Paimon EXP to gain.

Specifically, for the first 50 levels (51-100), Paimon's damage would increase by 25% (or +0.5% damage per level). To increase her damage by another 25%, she would then need to gain 100 levels (or 0.25% damage per level), or twice as many levels as before. This doubling requirement would continue to apply for subsequent increases of 25% damage. This damage bonus should be limited in certain content such as some Domains or the Spiral Abyss to keep players from steamrolling the content with an absurdly high leveled Paimon. However, other content such as overworld content and the next content suggestion I will be making would not limit Paimon's endless progression power in any way.

To keep endless progression from only being about gradual power increases, I believe there should be some achievements and cosmetic rewards such as namecards for players who reach various level milestones with Paimon. For now, I'd add milestone rewards at levels 100, 250, 500, and 1000, with level 1000 awarding a special cosmetic outfit for Paimon and the other milestones awarding cosmetics such as namecard styles.

Another idea I have considered for Paimon's endless progress is that it could be made seasonal by resetting her level to 50 after the release of every major patch. When this happens, players are awarded cosmetics based on how high of a level she reached and new cosmetics could be awarded each season for specific Paimon level milestones. While some players may be upset by this level reset, this implementation is optional and is specifically meant to keep a tighter rein on character power if such a form of control is required.

What Paimon Leveling Accomplishes

Adding a progression system for Paimon is intended to make all content a little more meaningful to do, which I consider to be an important aspect of designing a Paragon progression system. This is important for Genshin Impact since while it may not entirely fix how tired players get of doing the same activity constantly, the Paimon EXP that is earned would always be meaningful in some way. Players may also be encouraged to do a greater variety of activities since all of them would ideally award some EXP for Paimon. Other suggestions in this section will help to provide even more activities that would ideally be both interesting and resilient to causing repetition fatigue in players.

Paimon's practical benefits are also highly customizable. They can be fully unlocked fairly quickly and while there aren't many benefits, I would like to think that all of them are interesting and incomparable to the point that there's no options that are strictly the best. This especially applies to assigning Paimon's element since party compositions vary wildly for each player. The result is that a player may want Paimon to use certain elemental attacks based on the elements available to their current party composition.
Add a rogue-lite dungeon called the Fleeting Abyss that is far more ambitious in design than the Spiral Abyss. This is because its contents would be heavily randomized, it could be done in co-op, and any player who meets the requirements could attempt it since characters start at level 1 with no equipment.
Aside from generally being a very enjoyable game series, Pokemon Mystery Dungeon features an interesting concept where there are endgame dungeons that reset the party to level 1 and, in some cases, prevent players from bringing items in. While there may have been other games that utilized this concept in some form prior to this game series, it's where I drew inspiration from when making this particular suggestion. The series is also where I partially drew the inspiration for the various features that this dungeon would have, though I drew inspiration from other rogue-likes and rogue-lites such as the Dungeon Run feature in Hearthstone.

Getting Started

Like the Spiral Abyss, the Fleeting Abyss would require Adventurer Rank 20 to access and to make implementation easier, the entrance would be shared with the Spiral Abyss. In addition, the quests to unlock Confront Stormterror and Paimon as a combat companion must have been completed. Like with Domain content, players can opt to enter the Fleeting Abyss by themselves or with a group, including through matchmaking.

After entering, the player would be prompted to select 4 characters to bring into the dungeon. These characters can be chosen from the characters that the player already owns or from a rotation of 7 characters that all players can use. These 7 characters, which I will call the "free rotation characters" would consist of two 5-star characters and five 4-star characters. On the weekdays, the 4-star characters would be individually rotated out by replacing them with another randomly selected character of the same rarity. On weekends, the 5-star characters would be rotated.

Free rotation characters would be special in that they would always have 3 or more constellations unlocked. The exact number of constellations unlocked would be equal, meaning there's a 25% chance for a character to have 6 constellations unlocked. If a player happens to own a character that's available on the free rotation, the version of the character with more constellations unlocked would be available. This is because standard party forming rules are in place and duplicates of the same character cannot be taken into the dungeon.

Once a party has been formed, the gameplay mode can be selected between Normal and Hardcore. The only major difference between these modes is that in Hardcore mode, any character that is defeated cannot be revived with consumables, effectively making them unusable for the rest of the run. Passive revival effects can still activate and bring a character back to life, though the ability must be ready to activate since the character would be removed from the party shortly after their defeat. In co-op, if a player dies in Hardcore mode and there are no spare characters to use, they would be able to spectate the other players until the party finds another character or the run ends.

Fleeting Abyss Mechanics

The first thing that must be mentioned about the Fleeting Abyss is that the characters used would have their level and talent levels set to 1. In addition, all Artifacts are removed and weapons would be replaced with 1-star rarity weapons that are typically equipped by newly acquired characters. However, Constellations that are unlocked on a character would remain, which is why it's so important that the free rotation characters have some or all of their Constellations unlocked.

The Fleeting Abyss itself is a 20-floor dungeon that would feature the following content:
  • Each floor would advance the level interval of enemies that appear on it by 5, increasing to 90 by floor 18. Floor 19 would then feature a level 100 boss.
  • Floor progress is saved if the player decides to stop partway through and it would retain the floor reached, character data, and treasures found. Floor progress is tied to each individual player, so a co-op group can continue their run even if other players leave. In addition, players can join an existing run as long as they have no floor progress saved. A player can reset their personal floor progress at any time, making it easier to join a co-op run.
    • Players who join a run in progress can simply take control of a character in the party.
    • A run ends if the entire party is defeated before the floor is completed, even if there's characters in reserve.
  • Before starting a floor, players would be given the opportunity to prepare themselves by enhancing their characters and equipment or adjusting Paimon's abilities. This is the only time such preparations can be done. In co-op mode, all players have to indicate they are ready before advancing.
  • Every 3rd floor (Floors 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, and 18) would feature a major encounter such as a normal boss, normal boss variants, or waves of elite enemies.
    • Later floors may feature new gimmicks such as an Oceanid that can make the water on certain tiles poisonous for a time.
    • These challenges are never timed. However, they may be abnormally lethal.
    • Completing the encounter immediately completes the floor.
    • These floors will henceforth be referred to as major encounter floors.
  • All other floors except the 19th and 20th floors would have a semi-randomized layout by using level design from an existing One-Time or Story Domain.
    • Specifically, the level design would be exactly the same (perhaps with some alterations), but the enemies, treasures, and puzzles (which would be optional) can be randomized to a degree.
    • A fairly simple way to do this is to take the existing level design and change the enemies and puzzles in such a way that there are 3 variations of that level. The treasure should always be randomized, however. If this method is used, the same variation of a level should not be used more than once during the same Fleeting Abyss run.
    • To help with varying the experience more, the same level design should not be used for consecutive floors, regardless of the type of randomization used.
    • Unique level designs that are exclusive to the Fleeting Abyss can be added over time. It also goes without saying that new One-Time and Story Domains can have their level designs utilized in this dungeon too.
    • Finally, some floors could have random beneficial or neutral effects. For example, one floor would permanently afflict everyone on the floor with an elemental debuff while another increases the amount of treasure found on the floor.
    • In co-op mode, players would have 30 seconds to do whatever they need to on a floor after someone in the party completes the floor.
  • As mentioned before, the 19th floor would feature a level 100 boss. This would always be drawn from the available weekly bosses and the respective boss arena would be used. However, I strongly recommend the addition of new mechanics and other variation in the Fleeting Abyss version of the boss fight. 
    • For example, Fleeting Abyss Stormterror would start with all platforms already under the effects of Energy Rain. However, changing platforms would reset the increasing damage over time (assuming it doesn't already - I wouldn't know).
    • Only weekly bosses that the player has unlocked can appear on the 19th floor. This means players are at least guaranteed to fight Stormterror.
  • Floor 20 would be where players loot the rewards that they earn from the run. This will be covered in the next part.
  • Finally, characters that the player owns that were used in the dungeon would be set to their original state upon leaving the dungeon.
As the player advances through the Fleeting Abyss, they would find treasure that can be used to help the player complete their run. These can be found in chests, destructible items, and looted from enemies. They can also be earned as a special reward for completing a major encounter floor. These treasures, which would disappear once the run ends, are as follows:
  • Weapons of increasing rarity based on how many floors the player has completed. Discovered weapons would always be one that a character in the party or on standby can equip. Note that in co-op mode, players can receive weapons that their own character cannot use, but it can be given to another player during the preparation period before the next floor.
    • Players can even find 5-star weapons in this dungeon. However, they would be quite rare and it's unlikely that players would be able to completely Refine the weapon.
  • Weapon enhancement materials, which naturally can be used to increase a weapon's level.
  • Artifacts of increasing rarity based on how many floors the player has completed. While looted Artifacts are entirely randomized, players would sometimes be given the opportunity to choose one Artifact out of a choice of three when completing a major encounter. This gives players a good chance of utilizing Artifact set bonuses.
    • Players would generally find a lot of additional low rarity Artifacts even on higher floors since they are needed for enhancement purposes.
  • Character EXP, which is not technically a treasure but is extremely important for leveling characters in the Fleeting Abyss. Character EXP gain from killing enemies is initially multiplied by 10 in this dungeon. This multiplier is increased by 1 (additively) for each floor completed, meaning that by floor 17, players are earning 26 times the normal experience from enemies.
    • In addition, completing a floor would also award (10000 * floor number completed) Character EXP to all characters in the current party.
  • Character EXP books, which would help to increase the level of certain characters faster. These would be made especially useful for helping characters catch up in level because they would give 10 times more experience as long as the character's level or projected level (from using EXP books) is below the highest leveled character.
  • A special type of talent leveling book that increases any character's talent level by 1 for each book used. These books replace all the talent leveling materials that are normally required.
  • New characters, which would generally be found by completing major encounter floors. They would always be a character that your party does not have. If on some off chance a party has every character available in the game, the party would receive a large number of Character EXP books instead.
    • The new character's level would be equal to the upper end of the level bracket of the floor (so floor 3 would award a level 15 character, for example).
  • An item that unlocks constellations for any character, which would be a rare treasure found on any floor. These would unlock an additional constellation for a character of your choice for the rest of the run.
  • Consumable items such as food and elixirs. Materials that can be used to create consumables can also be found in the dungeon very frequently. In addition, ingredient crafting is instantaneous.
  • Recipes for various consumable items. The party would have no recipe knowledge whatsoever when entering the dungeon, so recipes must be found to create any sort of consumable item from raw materials.
  • Relics that provide bonuses similar to Benedictions in the Spiral Abyss. These would last for the entire Fleeting Abyss run. Completing a major encounter floor allows players to choose a Greater Relics that provide bonuses similar to a Benediction that lasts for one chamber. On other floors, players have a chance to find a Lesser Relic that has an effect similar to a Benediction that lasts for one floor. In co-op mode, players would each receive their own relics and can only benefit from the effects of those relics. Here are some example effects:
    • (Greater) Durin's Hidden Blessing: The player is subject to the effects of Sheer Cold. However, when using an Elemental Burst, the character is imbued with the effects of Scarlet Quartz for the next 5 normal attacks. 
    • (Greater) Fulfilled Vision of Grandeur: Critical strikes reduce the remaining cooldown on the character's Elemental Skill by 20%. Using an Elemental Skill increases critical strike chance by 1% for 8 seconds, stacking up to 10 times.
    • (Greater) Playful Seelie: Every second, have an increasing chance to summon a Seelie that wanders around for 15 seconds. As long as the player touches the Seelie and for 2 seconds after, increase movement speed by 15% and grant a 25% chance to negate incoming damage.
    • (Greater) Devil's Bargain: Reduces Paimon's damage and the cooldown of her abilities by 50%.
    • (Greater) Mirror of Attuned Reprisal: When a character would suffer damage from an elemental attack that matches the character's element, the attacking enemy suffers the damage instead. Does not work on environmental damage.
    • (Lesser) Treasure Magnet: Increases the amount of treasure found in chests and destructible items by 25%.
    • (Lesser) Charm of Endless Slaughter: Each enemy defeated increases ATK by 2% and EXP gain by 5% for 20 seconds. Stacks up to 5 times.
    • (Lesser) Final Vengeance: After suffering lethal damage, your character stays alive for 5 more seconds and gains the Energy needed to unleash an Elemental Burst. The player cannot switch characters during this time. On Hardcore mode, all damage dealt is also increased by 50% during this period.
    • (Lesser) Regenerative Brooch: Restores health equal to 3% max HP every 5 seconds to the active character. This effect instead occurs every second while out of combat.
    • (Lesser) Lightning Rod: Normal and charged attacks have an increasing chance to unleash a lightning strike on the enemy, dealing moderate Electro damage in a small area. Charged attacks have a higher base chance to activate this effect.
When it comes to treasures, the following should also be noted:
  • There are no ascension materials to be found in the Fleeting Abyss. Instead, maximum weapon and character levels are automatically set to 90 and ascension bonuses are unlocked by reaching the appropriate level threshold for a specific ascension. 
  • There is also no Mora to be found in the Fleeting Abyss, meaning that anything that normally has a Mora cost would not have one.
  • When a major encounter floor is completed, players would first choose one of three Greater Relics as a reward. They would then choose one of three of a random assortment of characters and Artifacts as a reward.
  • In co-op mode, players receive their own share of treasure that individually is less than what a player would receive when playing solo, but when combined is more than what a player would receive solo. The more players there are, the less individual treasure received and the more total treasure received. 
  • As mentioned briefly above, players can give treasure to each other during the preparation phase that takes place prior to starting a floor, allowing them to pool their resources if desired. However, Greater Relics cannot be given to other players (though Lesser Relics can be).
    • Players who join a run in progress would be able to choose Greater Relics based on the number of major encounters completed, but may need to be given treasure by the other players otherwise since the character's possessions may not be enough for the player to properly contribute.
    • If players leave a run, their possessions are evenly distributed between all remaining players where possible, then randomly distributed.
To summarize this part of the suggestion, players start with characters at level 1 and advance through an increasingly difficult 20 floor dungeon. The contents of the dungeon are partially randomized, especially in regards to the many treasures that can be found and used to improve the player's characters. Co-op is also taken into consideration since players would be allowed to give most treasures to each other and can even share floor progress with each other so that no one feels left out.

Rewards

While I personally think that enjoyment is a reward that players would find an abundance of from this content, I think it's important to add some rewards not just to provide an incentive for players to try the content. Doing so also helps to integrate a reward suggestion I previously made. Specifically, the Fleeting Abyss would be intended to be a good method for farming Paimon EXP to level up Paimon.

The Fleeting Abyss provides the following rewards and benefits, minus the fun factor:
  • Paimon EXP - The Fleeting Abyss would be one of the primary ways to grind Paimon EXP and because of this, there would be many EXP awards that can be specifically earned from doing this content.
    • The first two floors would award 150 Paimon EXP when cleared.
    • All other normal floors would award 300 Paimon EXP when cleared.
    • Major encounter floors would award 500 Paimon EXP when cleared.
    • The final boss floor, or floor 19, would award no Paimon EXP. Instead, players would earn 2000 Paimon EXP for completing a run of the Fleeting Abyss when they earn their reward on the 20th floor.
    • Each piece of treasure gathered awards 1 Paimon EXP, excluding Relics. Lesser Relics award 10 EXP when found. Greater Relics are obtained from major encounter floors and award no EXP.
    • Paimon would gain EXP equal to the base Character EXP gain from enemies. This is the amount of EXP that would be awarded before it is multiplied by the floor bonus mentioned above.
  • Mora - Since Mora would likely always be useful and can also be farmed from other activities, I thought it was reasonable to always award it from this content, though it's not meant to be an efficient method for doing so.
    • When the run ends, players would earn an amount of Mora equal to the ((highest Character level + highest Weapon level + highest Artifact level) * 40), or up to 10800. Ending a run prematurely does award Mora.
    • Reaching the 20th floor would award an additional 4200 Mora, which would add up to 15000 total if the player had a level 90 Character, Weapon, and Artifact.
    • The first 15000 Mora that a player earns from the Fleeting Abyss is doubled each week. This can be accomplished by simply completing the first run each week with a level 90 Character, Weapon, and Artifact or by doing multiple runs that award less Mora.
    • No Mora would be awarded until the 3rd floor is completed. This is mostly to combat potential cheese strategies that could be used to farm a lot of Mora in a rather unenjoyable way.
  • Battle Pass Points - I haven't really talked about using this as a reward much yet because many of the previous suggestions didn't feature major content additions of this sort of scale. With that said, I think it's reasonable to award some Battle Pass Points for trying to run the Fleeting Abyss each week. However, not every player would be able to complete a run, so I would instead suggest adding a 450 Battle Pass Point award for completing 3 major encounter floors each week.
  • Temporary access to high-powered characters - This is technically an intangible reward, but I think it should not be understated that the Fleeting Abyss allows players to have a deep gameplay experience with under-developed characters and characters they do not own. In the case of the former, this is especially great for players who lack the resources to fully develop many characters. In the case of the latter, players may be unlucky or unwilling to spend so much trying to receive a certain character.
By the way, while I think this should go without saying, I fear that miHoYo may try to bastardize this content by attempting to monetize it in undesirable ways. Because of this, I want to make it very clear that it should not cost Resin to access this content or obtain any of its rewards.

What the Fleeting Abyss Accomplishes

Adding new content is important and it's especially important for there to be non-limited content that is built to last since event content won't always be running or be considered interesting by players. The Fleeting Abyss is the most significant content addition suggestion I will be making and I believe it would hold the interest of players for a long time. This is because the dungeon is basically a game in itself due to the self-contained progression and the rogue-lite aspect that makes it unique compared to the rest of the game. The dungeon also adds another meaningful activity to do in co-op and many considerations have been made to accommodate that style of play.

The devs have already shown that they can implement content that's basically its own game since Patch 1.3 added a tower defense minigame using Genshin Impact's combat mechanics known as Theater Mechanicus, which I will discuss in greater detail later in the article. While what I am suggesting may be even more ambitious to implement than that minigame, I tried outlining the suggestion in such a way that aspects of its development are made easier through the usage of existing content. Furthermore, I would like to think that players would praise this sort of content greatly and the resulting positivity may pay off in the literal sense.

Once the content is released, it would be easy to improve it further afterwards to extend the lifespan of the content. For example, any new content added to the game such as new enemy varieties, level design, and so on can utilized to provide more options for what can be randomly generated within the Fleeting Abyss. New characters and items can also be added as treasures found in the dungeon, which would be a fantastic way to let players demo new characters and weapons in a way that the Test Run feature cannot.

Other additions can be also made to the Fleeting Abyss to further make it feel less repetitive to run. For example, a harder difficulty could add negative effects to every floor. These effects can be invented by clever developers and/or inspired by existing effects such as Ley Line Disorders (except the anti-fun one that increases ability cooldowns) and negative effects from event content such as the opt-in effects from Hypostatic Symphony. There could also be different versions of the dungeon with greater or fewer floors. The dungeon could also have themed random generation based on an existing region to make the experience feel more immersive. 

The point I'm ultimately trying to make in the previous two paragraphs is that a creative mind can do a lot with content like the Fleeting Abyss and the contents of this suggestion (i.e. everything before this concluding part where I discuss future possibilities) represent the bare minimum of what I believe should be added to the game.

In terms of practical benefits, the Fleeting Abyss is specifically intended to be the main content used to level Paimon quickly since it awards a high amount of Paimon EXP. This means that players would be encouraged to grind the content if they want to get Paimon to absurdly high levels. Because of this, I put a lot of effort into trying to make this content interesting for a long time while providing methods for improving it further whenever development resources allow for it.
Add the Creature Coliseum, which would be an arena where players try to win over the crowd's favor and defeat enemies in a series of matches.
There are many games that feature content where the player has to engage in a series of battles in order to please a crowd, but my inspiration for this content comes from the Glitz Pit in Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door. While there may have been issues with the pacing of the story surrounding this area, I did enjoy the gimmick that was used in the many fights there where the player has to fulfill some additional objective in order to truly be considered the victor.

One activity that Genshin Impact pushes the player to engage in is fighting against enemies and in the case of content such as Domains, they are basically pit fights. However, as I mentioned before, many of these encounters are uninteresting because each specific fight is exactly the same and any gimmicks that are present never change. Unfortunately, the addition of Contending Tides in Patch 1.4 doesn't offer much hope since while it's similar to what I will be suggesting, it is event content and will only be available for a limited time.

This is why I ultimately devised this suggestion since in addition to randomizing the enemies players have to fight, players would also be encouraged to fulfill certain conditions to make the most of the encounter. However, it is worth mentioning that unlike the content I drew inspiration from, doing so is not mandatory to win. This content would also be permanent, meaning players would always have access to it.

Getting Started

Unlocking the Creature Coliseum is as simple as reaching Adventurer Rank 16 to be able to use the co-op feature. Once that requirement is met, the player would head to the Thousand Winds Temple, which would serve as a good location for this content since it is literally the remnants of an amphitheater. Upon reaching this location, the player can then talk to a NPC in the rafters to participate in the content. They can choose to start a run by themselves or join as a group that's either premade or formed through matchmaking. Players would then be taken to an instanced version of the Thousand Winds Temple that is far more lively.

Creature Coliseum Mechanics

Upon entering the instance, players would be able to tweak the difficulty of the content as they please, which is done by changing the following:
  • World Level, which would determine the enemy level based on the level that enemies would normally appear at a given World Level.
    • For example, at the maximum World Level of 8, enemies up to level 94 would show up as usual.
    • Players cannot choose a World Level higher than what their Adventurer Level allows. In co-op, this is determined by the player with the lowest Adventurer Level.
  • Length, which would determine how many battles players have to finish. This would determine the enemies players have to face as well as the rewards earned.
    • The Short length would be 3 battles long, featuring 2 sets with normal enemies, then 1 set with elite enemies.
      • There would be an average of around 5 normal enemies for normal enemy sets, though this can vary wildly. This applies to all normal enemy sets in Creature Coliseum.
      • The elite enemy would be supported by up to 4 normal enemies.
    • The Medium length would be 6 battles long, featuring 4 sets with normal enemies, 1 set with elite enemies, and a normal boss.
      • There would be at least 2 elite enemies in the elite enemy set.
      • The normal boss would be a typical or modified version of a normal boss fight. However, Oceanid would not appear due to how that encounter works.
    • The Long length would be 10 battles long, featuring 6 sets with normal enemies, 2 sets with elites, 1 normal boss, and 1 special encounter.
      • The special encounter would be an encounter with a unique humanoid enemy that is about as challenging as a weekly boss. I would strongly recommend designing encounters based on notable characters throughout Teyvat, including ones that can be rolled from the gacha. At least 5 of these encounters should be available to provide decent variety and more can be added later. This may be very demanding to do, but this is part of why Creature Coliseum is considered a major addition.
  • Difficulty, which would determine how challenging the mechanics of the Creature Coliseum are. Difficulty would not directly modify enemy stats, though mechanics may indirectly do so.
    • The Easy difficulty would feature more lenient Crowd Favor mechanics.
    • The Normal difficulty would feature standard Crowd Favor mechanics. In addition, encounters would have additional conditions associated with them that are independent of the Crowd Favor mechanic.
    • The Hard difficulty would feature more challenging Crowd Favor mechanics. In addition, harsher conditions that are independent of the Crowd Favor mechanic would be imposed.
As I just mentioned, Crowd Favor is a core mechanic of the Creature Coliseum. Here's how it works:
  • During battle, Crowd Favor would be a value that's set between -100 and 100. It would start at 50/0/-50 on Easy, Normal, and Hard difficulty respectively.
  • Crowd Favor decays at a rate of 1/2/4 per second on Easy, Normal, and Hard difficulty respectively.
  • Crowd Favor would change based on the following actions:
    • Deal critical damage: +1 Crowd Favor (cannot occur more often than once per 0.5 seconds)
    • Enemy attack successfully dodged: +2 Crowd Favor (cannot occur more often than once per 0.5 seconds)
    • Normal enemy defeated: +2 Crowd Favor
    • Elite enemy defeated: +5 Crowd Favor
    • Use Elemental Skill: +2 Crowd Favor
    • Trigger Elemental Reaction: +2 Crowd Favor
    • Use Elemental Burst: +5 Crowd Favor
    • Party member is defeated: -10 Crowd Favor (-25 on Hard difficulty)
    • Player is affected by Elemental Reaction: -2 Crowd Favor (-5 on Hard difficulty)
  • Each round would have at least one special method for gaining Crowd Favor active. These increases stack with existing Crowd Favor increasing effects and consist of the following:
    • Trigger a specific Elemental Reaction: +3 additional Crowd Favor (+5 total Crowd Favor)
    • Glide for at least 2 seconds: +3 Crowd Favor
    • Damage an enemy with a plunge attack: +1 Crowd Favor per enemy damaged
    • Defeat up to 3 enemies in a specific order: +2 additional Crowd Favor for each enemy defeated in the correct order.
    • Perform a charged attack with a specific weapon type: +2 Crowd Favor
  • When Crowd Favor is negative, enemies receive 1% increased Crit Rate and take 1% less damage for each point below 0.
    • On Hard difficulty, enemies would also heal for 0.05% of their maximum HP every second for each point of Crowd Favor below 0. This healing can never go above a 25% threshold of the enemy's health.
      • For example, if an enemy has 70% HP when the healing activates, they can never heal above 75% HP.
  • When Crowd Favor is at -50 or below, one of the following effects, which is determined at the start of the round, would also occur. Two would occur on Hard difficulty:
    • Enemy elemental damage dealt increased by 25%. Enemies gain an elemental infusion on their attacks if they didn't already have one.
    • When the player sprints, their damage taken is increased by 50% for 5 seconds.
    • Stamina regeneration is reduced by 50%.
    • The party's active character(s) begin to suffer increasing periodic damage, maximizing at 5% max HP per second.
    • Party member healing effectiveness is reduced by 75%.
  • When Crowd Favor is positive, players receive 1% increased Crit Rate and deal 1% more damage for each point above 0.
  • When Crowd Favor is 50 or above, one of the following effects, which is determined at the start of the round, would also occur. Two would occur on Easy difficulty: 
    • All party members gain 25% Attack Speed.
    • All party members gain Energy at a rate of 1 per 2 seconds.
    • All party members are shielded for 15% of their maximum Health every 10 seconds.
    • The Stamina cost for sprinting is reduced by 50%.
    • Enemy movement speed is reduced by 50%.
  • If a round is completed while the Crowd Favor is positive, additional round completion rewards may be earned. These rewards increase linearly, maximizing at 100 Crowd Favor.
There are additional field conditions that are set every round. On Normal difficulty, the conditions have neutral effects and are as follows:
  • The weather is rainy - Much like in the overworld, rain would apply the Wet debuff to everyone, making Hydro-related Elemental Reactions easier to trigger.
  • A healing zone is present in the center - The healing zone in question would heal anyone standing in it for 5% of their max HP every second.
  • All combatants suffer periodic damage - Specifically, everyone would suffer 5% of their max HP as damage every 10 seconds. This damage cannot be lethal.
  • Flammable objects are scattered everywhere - Objects such as barrels, crates, and piles of leaves would be scattered everywhere and can be ignited to more easily deal Pyro damage. In addition, there are explosive barrels.
  • Devices that zap nearby combatants will periodically appear - These devices would attack the closest target within 15 meters, dealing moderate Electro Damage. Three would appear in random locations every 20 seconds, lasting for 20 seconds.
On Hard difficulty, one of the following field condition would also be set in addition to the Normal difficulty condition each round. These are specifically detrimental to the players and are as follows:
  • Corruption slowly spreads across the arena - This zone starts at a random location with a diameter of 3 meters and expands by 1 meter diameter each second. Players that stand in it suffer 10% max HP as damage every second. Enemies that stand in it become empowered and deal 50% increased damage
  • Enemy reinforcements will constantly appear - 3 normal enemies would appear every 15 seconds. They can be any normal enemy, but if certain normal enemies are already present, the reinforcements would be identical to them. They do not need to be defeated to complete the round.
  • Ice towers guard the edge of the arena - These are mechanically identical to the Cryo Mechanici in Theater Mechanicus. They would fire ice bolts at a range of 15 meters that deal area Cryo damage and slow damaged players.
  • Sprinting distance is halved - This also halves the amount of invincibility frames, which effectively makes dodging significantly harder.
  • The usage of devices is disabled - This is self-explanatory.
Now that the mechanics of Creature Coliseum have been explained, let's explain how a run of Creature Coliseum would work:
  • Each round of Creature Coliseum is split into two phases, which are the Preparation Phase and Combat Phase.
  • During the Preparation Phase, players would be able to wander around the rafters to talk to NPCs.
    • Some NPCs would offer simple quests that usually involve turning in an item. Up to two of these quests can be completed, with each increasing the base Crowd Favor for the next round by 10.
    • Rapport can also be built with the NPCs. For each NPC that is talked to during this phase, base Crowd Favor for the next round is increased by 1, up to a maximum of 5.
    • To put all this another way, up to 25 Crowd Favor can be earned just by interacting with NPCs during the Preparation Phase.
    • There would also be a Junior Overseer that players can bribe to release enemies of the player's choice. This would work on all encounters except for the special encounter and costs 2500 Mora each round.
  • When players are ready to enter the Combat Phase, they can talk to the Creature Coliseum's host, who would be the same NPC that players talk to in order the enter the Creature Coliseum. They would then be taken to a screen that shows what to expect next round, which includes details on the following:
    • The enemies players have to face, including specific quantities of enemies.
    • The value that Crowd Favor is set to at the start of the round.
    • The special Crowd Favor conditions that can be met to increase Crowd Favor. Up to 3 conditions can be in place each round.
    • If on Normal or higher difficulty, the field condition(s) for the round would also be listed.
  • Players would then be able to set up their party as needed, since certain enemies and conditions may require certain characters to more effectively handle.
    • While consumable cannot be used during the Combat Phase outside of what the NRE device allows, players can opt to use buff consumables when setting up their party.
  • The Combat Phase is fairly self-explanatory and would feature all the aforementioned mechanics. In addition, party energy is set to 0 so players can't use Elemental Bursts at the start to gain a lot of Crowd Favor. Finally, completing the round would revive and fully heal the party.
To summarize this part of the suggestion, players can optionally try to win support from the audience between rounds to build Crowd Favor. Having a high Crowd Favor allows players to benefit from highly useful effects that are randomly determined each round, but having a low Crowd Favor causes players to suffer from a randomly determined penalty instead. The enemies that appear in each round are somewhat randomized unless players opt to bribe and would always appear in a fixed quantity. Finally, there are randomized field conditions in effect each round that may change how players approach an encounter due to the effects that occur, which in turn provides more variety to the combat gameplay.

Rewards

The rewards earned from Creature Coliseum depend on a few factors. The first is determined by the length that is chosen and would primarily affect the end reward. The second is determined by the enemies that appear during a specific round and would determine the rewards earned from that round. Finally, the chosen difficulty and World Level would have some effect the quantity of the reward that is received.

The follow rewards are earned after completing a round:
  • Character and Paimon EXP, which are determined by World Level and the type of enemy featured. The following values are the amount awarded at World Level 8 and lower World Levels would award a lower amount:
    • 150 Character and Paimon EXP is earned from normal enemy rounds.
    • 300 Character and Paimon EXP is earned from elite enemy rounds.
    • 500 Character and Paimon EXP is earned from normal boss rounds.
    • 1000 Character and Paimon EXP is earned from special encounter rounds.
  • Mora, which is also determined by World Level and the type of enemy featured. The following values are the amount awarded at World Level 8. Lower World Levels would award a lower amount:
    • 250 Mora is earned from normal enemy rounds.
    • 500 Mora is earned from elite enemy rounds.
    • 750 Mora is earned from normal boss rounds.
    • 1500 Mora is earned from special encounter rounds.
  • Materials dropped from enemies, which are determined by the enemies that appear during the round. For example, if Hilichurl Shooters show up in a normal enemy round, then an appropriate amount of Hilichurl Arrowheads would be awarded.
  • On Normal difficulty, 50% more rewards are received. On Hard difficulty, 100% more rewards are received.
Upon completing a run of Creature Coliseum, players would earn rewards based on the length that was chosen. These rewards would be in addition to the rewards earned from completing the previous round and would be as follows:
  • On Short, players would receive additional enemy drops based on all enemies that appeared. They would also receive 50 Companionship EXP and two Crystal Cores.
    • Enemy drop rewards are increased by 50% on Normal difficulty and 100% on Hard difficulty.
  • On Medium, players would receive additional enemy drops based on all enemies that appeared. They would also receive 100 Companionship EXP and 500 Paimon EXP (this includes the Companionship EXP gain).
    • Enemy drop rewards are increased by 50% on Normal difficulty and 100% on Hard difficulty.
    • In addition, 40 Resin can be spent to earn additional loot based on what the normal boss would typically drop. Reward quantity would not be increased by higher difficulty levels.
  • On Long, players would receive additional enemy drops based on all enemies that appeared. They would also receive 150 Companionship EXP and one Fatetwister or Fateshaper.
    • Enemy drop rewards are increased by 50% on Normal difficulty and 100% on Hard difficulty.
    • In addition, 20 Resin can be spent to earn one additional Fatetwister or Fateshaper. 40 Resin or one Condensed Resin can be spent to earn two additional Fatetwisters or Fateshapers. If the World Level of the run is set to 8, the amount of Fatetwisters and Fateshapers earned from spending Resin is doubled.
What the Creature Coliseum Accomplishes

The Creature Coliseum allows players to fight enemies in a new format that should make it more exciting than completing a time trial or wiping out an enemy camp. It should also provide players with a challenge that encourages them to develop their characters along with their personal skill to overcome it. This is because I have opted to introduce more mechanical challenges since that's my preferred game design philosophy. For example, leveraging the Crowd Favor mechanic properly would allow players to avoid penalties and benefit from bonuses more often, which especially matters on Hard difficulty.

The Creature Coliseum is a great place for farming enemy drops, especially if players opt to bribe the Junior Overseer to control the items dropped. In addition, each length would offer useful rewards specific to it that should appeal to certain types of players. The Short length allows players to farm Crystal Cores, which are useful for creating Condensed Resin among other items. The Medium length allows players to farm normal bosses at lower World Levels (which will also be possible in Patch 1.4, but more options are nice) and provides another good way to farm Paimon EXP outside of the Fleeting Abyss. The Long length allows players to farm Fatetwisters and Fateshapers to reroll Artifact stats without needing to spend Resin, though Resin can be used to earn more at a time.

The Creature Coliseum is also a good co-op activity since players would generally be able to earn Crowd Favor more easily. Completing tasks during the Preparation Phase would also be faster with more players around.

Finally, the Creature Coliseum serves as a form of permanent endgame content that should not only be able to stand the test of time, but indirectly benefit from new updates. This is because the addition of new enemies means that more types of enemies can show up in Creature Coliseum. New areas also provide an opportunity to add new settings for the Creature Coliseum. New special encounters and conditions, whether they are ones that affect the field or are meant to manipulate Crowd Favor, can also be added over time to make the content feel fresh. This is especially important to do since endgame players would generally want to try the Creature Coliseum at the maximum World Level on Long length and Hard difficulty to farm Artifact stat reroll items, which should always be relevant.
Add permanent versions of minigames that give players some fun side activities to do that doesn't involve waiting for event that may occur infrequently.
If this article hasn't made it clear already, I don't like how some events have really enjoyable content, but it's only around for relatively brief time after which it is gone for a long time if not forever. While I don't think all event content needs to return, if only because some events such as the While It's Warm food delivery event were absurdly unenjoyable, I think it's important to keep content that players clearly enjoyed. At the moment, I think bringing back a permanent version of Theater Mechanicus and Gliding Challenge would address the issue I just brought up.

How Permanent Gliding Challenge Would Work

Adding a permanent version of the Gliding Challenge is as simple as adding back all 7 courses that were temporarily available and allowing players to attempt them at their leisure. In addition, because there's a lot of score attack videos despite an apparent lack of positive feedback for the event, emphasizing the score attack element may encourage friendly competition between players. This can be done by making the following additions:
  • Add a way for players to race each other in co-op. The player with the highest score, followed by the fastest time in the event of a tie, is considered the winner.
  • Add a leaderboard that shows how well friends did in terms of score and time for each course.
  • Optionally add a region-wide leaderboard that shows the same.
  • To encourage players to attempt courses again on a regular basis, reset the leaderboard(s) with every major patch. This would not reset personal best data, even if it doesn't show up on the leaderboard anymore.
In addition, I think it is important to add more courses over time. Adding at least one more course with each major patch shouldn't be too demanding and would help to prevent the content from feeling stale. Introducing new mechanics such as aerial enemies that try to trigger the Overload reaction on players or effects that drain Stamina would also make the courses more interesting.

How Permanent Theater Mechanicus Would Work

Adding a permanent version of Theater Mechanicus, which received a fair amount of positive reception, is a little more complicated since there was a progression system that involved farming Veneficus Sigils to upgrade towers. This then allowed players to completed more difficult stages. In addition, the main purpose of Theater Mechanicus was to acquire event currency to buy goods from the Xiao Market. This obviously wouldn't exist in a permanent version of the minigame.

With these points in mind, I believe the following changes would need to be made to Theater Mechanicus:
  • Remove the Xiao Lantern cost to start, since it's no longer possible to obtain the crafting materials for it.
  • All mechanici would start at their maximum level. It would be fairly quick to finish Theater Mechanicus progression, so I reasoned it's better to eliminate it so that all players can start on an even playing field to more easily co-op with each other.
  • All stages would have a Difficulty 7 version of them. Since all mechanici are at their maximum level, players would run this difficulty very often. Because of this, it's important to ensure there are a wide variety of stages available since each requires a different strategy to do well in.
  • Veneficus Sigils would still exist, but their purpose would be reworked:
    • Spending 1000 would allow the player to select one Mystic Art of their choice prior to entering the stage. This can only be done once per attempt. Fearless and Fickle Mystic Arts cannot be chosen.
    • Spending 2500 would unlock one attempt at the Blink of an Eye difficulty. This would offer increased rewards but award no Veneficus Sigils, making it an effective sink for Veneficus Sigils and encouraging players to farm them.
I also think it's important to add the following at some point after a permanent version of the minigame is made available:
  • New mechanici - Adding more types of mechanici would allow for more diverse strategies in this minigame. For example, a mechanici that can remove elemental debuffs from enemies may have a useful niche application.
  • New stages - These would add more level design variety while potentially altering the kinds of strategies players employ since enemy waves and maximum constructible mechanici allowance can also be adjusted. Adding new Blink of an Eye stages in particular would allow players to have more high difficulty stages to try.
  • Higher difficulty levels - I personally don't think the difficulty can be increased much further, but one more difficulty level that has greater rewards and an even higher Veneficus Sigil cost to attempt would make it easier to sink Veneficus Sigils while providing what to many players would be an absurd challenge.
  • More enemy varieties - Since enemy AI is adjusted for this minigame, newly added enemies would require additional work to make them suitable for use in this minigame. However, I believe the payoff would be worth it since new enemies can offer new kinds of challenges.
Rewards

In addition to the entertainment and other intangible value that minigames would provide, I think all permanent minigames should at least award Companionship EXP Books. 

In the case of the Gliding Challenge, players would earn about 10 Companionship EXP in books on average. However, repeating the same course would reduce this reward by half until another course is completed, which would encourage players to try multiple courses.

For Theater Mechanicus, there is a base average reward of 7 Companionship EXP in books for completing any stage. This increases by 3 Companionship EXP for each difficulty level above 1, maximizing at 25 for completing a Difficulty 7 stage. Players would earn 50 Companionship EXP in books on average for completing a stage on Blink of an Eye difficulty. In addition, players would earn 5 Companionship EXP for their active party for each Fearless challenge they complete.

What Permanent Minigames Accomplish

Permanent minigames would provide an additional fun activity that allows players to earn a little bit of Companionship EXP in the process. More importantly, adding permanent versions of minigames would show players that minigames that are liked may stay around, which would be a great way to respond to positive player feedback. In fact, patch 1.4 is adding more minigames and there's a possibility that some of them might be good enough to keep as permanent content.
Add a Treasure Hunt feature that functions like Treasure Trails in Runescape. Players would have to complete puzzles, talk to NPCs, and overcome combat trials to earn a significant reward.
Treasure Trails, also known as clue scrolls, are an interesting piece of content in Runescape because they encourage players to drop what they're currently doing and complete a series of steps around the world to earn what could potentially be very valuable treasure. Genshin Impact has recently implemented some event content that reminded me of how this feature worked. Specifically, the Lost Riches event and the Illumiscreen event quests involve going on a treasure hunt that involves a fair amount of exploration with steps that are similar to what clue scrolls sometimes give.

Genshin Impact features a number of objectives that would make for great clue scroll steps if a feature like it were implemented. For example, players have to interact with NPCs quite often to help resolve their troubles in a number of ways. They also have to solve many puzzles and complete minor encounters on a regular basis. Furthermore, one of the strongest aspects of Genshin Impact is that there's a large overworld to explore with some great movement options that are inspired by Breath of the Wild. Because of all these reasons, a feature similar to Treasure Trails would work well in this game.

Getting Started

To start a Treasure Hunt, players would need to receive an Unread Treasure Map. They can be obtained from the following sources:
  • Daily bonus Commission reward - Players would always receive one Unread Treasure Map from their bonus Commission reward.
  • Spending Original Resin - Players have a 1.25% chance per Resin spent to receive an Unread Treasure Map, up to 75% for spending 60 Resin (assuming my previous suggestion to reduce weekly boss Resin cost isn't implemented).
  • Completing rounds in the Creature Coliseum - Once a Creature Coliseum run ends, players have a 10% chance per round completed to receive an Unread Treasure Map. This means completing a run on the Long length guarantees an Unread Treasure Map.
  • Completing a Fleeting Abyss run - Once a Fleeting Abyss run ends, players have a 5% chance per floor completed to receive an Unread Treasure Map. Completing all 20 floors in a run guarantees an Unread Treasure Map.
  • Opening a Reputation reward cache - The reward cache from earning reputation beyond level 8 would always award one Unread Treasure Map.
  • Quest and event reward - Unread Treasure Maps can be awarded at miHoYo's discretion from quest and event content.
Players can possess up to 5 Unread Treasure Maps. They can use one to receive a Read Treasure Map, which would start the Treasure Hunt by giving players the first step.

Treasure Hunt Mechanics

Players can only have one Read Treasure Map in their inventory at a time. The objective of the Treasure Map's current step, which is completely randomized, would show up as a World Quest in the Quest interface, allowing for easy navigation to it. The objective can be reset by talking to Katheryne, but all step progress on the Treasure Map would also be reset. To find the treasure associated with the Treasure Map, 3-5 steps must be completed.

Each step would have one of the following types of objectives:
  • Puzzle objectives, which involve completing a simple puzzle that usually requires the usage of some elemental skill. To easily add many puzzles to the puzzle objective pool, one-time puzzles that spawn chests can be reused.
  • Combat objectives, which would be similar in scope to a Random Event objective and involve defeating a small pack of enemies or the like.
  • NPC objectives, which involve talking to an NPC and completing their task. This task would either involve answering a trivia question such as one on regional history or delivering an easily obtained item.
Much like with Treasure Trails, there would be a fixed pool of each type of objective (similar to how Commissions work) and the objective assignment is what is randomized. More objectives should also be added over time to make the content feel less repetitive.

Once all steps are completed, the player would be presented with a treasure chest that contains their reward and they can use another Unread Treasure Map.

Rewards

Completing a Treasure Hunt would award some gatherable materials and 3-5 Anemo or Geo Sigils based on the number of steps that needed to be completed. The Sigil type that is obtained depends on the region that the Treasure Hunt is completed in. Since Sigils can always be traded in for Mora, players can consistently earn as much as 4000 Mora from completing a Treasure Hunt once all other items are bought.

In addition, cosmetics that were awarded in the past such as the Mini-Seelie from the Lost Riches event and the many namecard style rewards could be made purchasable for the type of Sigil that the devs deem appropriate. Not all limited-time cosmetics need to be made available again in this way, but I do believe it's important to give players more of a reason to do Treasure Hunts than to farm materials and Mora or buy out what the Souvenir Shops currently have available to sell.

What Treasure Hunts Accomplish

Treasure Hunts would be a useful bonus reward for much of the content available in Genshin Impact and encourages players to try all of the content that is available. Players are then rewarded for extensively traveling around the overworld to earn their reward, which may encourage further exploration.

By offering Sigils as the reward, players would have a renewable source of the currency that allows them to more easily buy goods that require the currency. Adding cosmetics to the Souvenir Shops would allow players to buy items they may have missed and in order to do so, they would have to engage with the game's content fairly extensively or at least scour the overworld for chests since they also drop Sigils. Players interested in earning a little extra Mora may also see value in doing every Treasure Hunt they can, though there are plenty of other activities that one can earn Mora from.

Monetization-related Tweaks

Finally, I wanted to make some suggestions that relate more directly to how Genshin Impact is monetized. I've already outright stated what I think should be done about the monetization of the game, so this subsection should be short compared to the insanity that is the previous subsection.
Add items that can unlock constellations for any 4-star and 5-star character as well as items that can upgrade the refinement level on any 4-star and 5-star weapon. These would be very demanding to receive and some can also be purchased with Masterless Starglitter.
While I don't mind how characters and weapons themselves are acquired thanks to the pity system, I do think that having to receive 6 more dupes of a character or 4 more dupes of a weapon to get the most out of a character or weapon is absurdly demanding. In fact, I would go as far as to say it serves to make most people disinterested in rolling, especially considering how expensive rolling in the gacha is. This is why I'm borrowing an idea from Azur Lane and suggesting the addition of items that can unlock any character's constellations and can be used to increase the refinement level of any weapon. For context, Azur Lane has units called the Universal Bulin, Prototype Bulin, and Specialized Bulin Custom that can be used to increase the level cap of a unit without needing a duplicate of that unit.

In the case of constellation unlocks, I would suggest the additions of two items called the Celestial Fragment and Celestial Core (or they can be named whatever, much like any other item name I invented in this article), which would unlock one constellation for a 4-star character and 5-star character respectively. The Celestial Fragment would be added as a reward for reaching Battle Pass Level 50 and can also be purchased for 40 Masterless Starglitter up to 3 times each month. I also strongly recommend that one is made purchasable from event shops. The Celestial Core would be a reward for reaching Battle Pass Level 50 with Gnostic Hymn active and can also be purchased for 100 Masterless Starglitter once each month. 

In the case of refinement upgrades, I would suggest the addition of two items called the Refined Starsilver and Enchanted Starsilver. Refined Starsilver would be added as a reward for reaching Battle Pass Level 30 and can also be received as a reward for earning 27 stars in the Abyssal Moon Spire twice per month. It should also be made purchasable from event shops periodically. Enchanted Starsilver would be a reward for reaching Battle Pass 30 with Gnostic Hymn active and can also be purchased for 100 Masterless Starglitter once each month.

As you can see, players will be limited in terms of how many constellations and refinement levels they receive from normal gameplay. In fact, earning 5-star constellations and refinements would require an absurd amount of patience or the expenditure of money to at least buy Gnostic Hymn (or even Gnostic Chorus), which increases the value of that particular microtransaction. Meanwhile, 4-star characters and weapons are fairly common to get from the gacha while earning additional constellations and refinements for them by using the suggested items would require a fair amount of dedicated play. Because of all these reasons, I don't think miHoYo's income from Genshin Impact's gacha would be affected much and the good faith effort to provide players with a more consistent way to unlock constellations and refinement levels may result in financial benefits as players are more inclined to buy other things the game has to offer.
Add paid character skins
As I established when discussing issues with Genshin Impact, a lack of cosmetic microtransactions is my biggest gripe with the monetization of this game. I'm genuinely surprised that the game is approaching 6 months in age and there have somehow been no paid character skins. Considering that the game is praised for its art style, I suspect people would be willing to spend a lot of money on eye candy using the same art style. In fact, I would go as far as to say the money miHoYo would make from this suggestion would more than make back any "loss" incurred from every other suggestion I made, including the previous one in this subsection.
Add paid skins for Paimon
But when it comes to making money off cosmetics, why not go even further beyond? There may not currently be a great reason to add cosmetics for Paimon, but if she becomes a core part of the gameplay, giving her a few purchasable outfits makes more sense since she'll be visible more often.
Add paid cosmetic weapon overrides.
While character skins would account for how their non-existent armor looks, weapons would probably remain unchanged. This provides an opportunity for the addition of purchasable cosmetics that change how a character's weapon looks.
Add paid cosmetic gadget overrides/effects.
Finally, while I personally don't use gadgets much, I could see a few, such as the Wind Catcher, having some optional cosmetic flair added that could be made purchasable for money. Considering that the Mini-Seelie pet is considered a gadget, adding more purchasable gadget pets is an option too.

Incidentally, when it comes to all of these cosmetic suggestions, I think it's important to also add some cosmetics of each type that can be acquired through normal gameplay rather than real life money. The quality and quantity of these cosmetics is otherwise subject to miHoYo's discretion, though it would be nice to be able to earn more than what is often going to be a namecard style as a cosmetic reward.

Closing Thoughts

As I said near the start of this ridiculously long article, I want to like Genshin Impact. It has an interesting party-based combat system, the overworld is quite vibrant, and the stories it tells are entertaining. However, the game clearly needs improvement before I would consider dedicating myself to the game by spending money on it or giving a good faith recommendation of it. I would like to think that this article has shown that I have a good grasp on at least some of the issues plaguing the game and the suggestions I made would sufficiently address those issues. However, much like with past suggestions, I don't expect the developers to take any of these ideas seriously, even if the criticism is not being made towards a Blizzard game this time.

It is also worth mentioning that there are many games, especially on PC, that don't resort to offering insanely short-lasting ephemeral experiences while having little else that is meaningful to do to the point that even good traditional mobile games may offer a better gameplay experience. There are also others working on games inspired by Breath of the Wild that show promise such as Craftopia, meaning there will be competition and it will grow more fierce over time.

In any case, if miHoYo wishes to maintain a bastardized version of Breath of the Wild that's often only worthwhile to play for a relatively brief amount of time each day, I will approach the game in that manner. In such a case, I will derive whatever enjoyment I can, then engage in other activities I find enjoyable. This in turn reduces the likelihood that I will spend money on Genshin Impact, which I already mentioned above but since miHoYo probably cares a lot about money, it's worth mentioning again. I would like to think that there are a number of F2P players and low spenders who share this line of thinking.

We can just wait for a better game, after all...
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