Genshin Impact Version 3.4 Arrives January 18 And It’s Time For The Lantern Rite Celebration

It’s time to ring in the new year in Genshin Impact with Liyue’s annual Lantern Rite Celebration. The event kicks off on January 18, with the launch of Version 3.4. This year, the festival will take on a musical focus with many of the game’s more musically talented characters taking the stage.

The new version of the Lantern Rite was announced in today’s Version 3.4 Special Program which also announced a new area, two new playable characters, a new card game mode, and more. Of the two characters, one will be pretty familiar – and one players have been waiting on. Alhaitham joins the team as a five-star Dendro swordsman. He’s still trying to keep a low profile, but that doesn’t make him any less powerful.

The other new addition is a four-star Dendro polearm user from Liyue. She’s grown up in isolation in the mountains and as a result, has a great affinity for animals as well as an association with the Adepti. She’s also very caring and assists some of the more well-known members of Liyue society.

As for the new area, we expected it to not be a whole new zone – because those show up on the big update change, and we were right. Once again, this new area expands on an existing zone. In this case, it adds on to Sumeru, the Desert of Madramaveth. It will be different from the existing desert area in that players have to deal with tornado-like sand storms – particularly a giant one in the center. Getting closer to the middle makes things more severe and dangerous.

The new zone also introduces a new boss that’s basically a sandworm with the power of Anemo, Setekh Wenut. Like many sand-dwelling creatures, this one relies on vibrations to detect victims moving above it. Players can also expect plenty of ruins and hard-to-reach areas that need exploring. As expected, the new zone will provide more information on the desert people’s deity.

Aside from taking on a musical focus, the Lantern Rite Celebration also adds new mini-games including a paper stage – which is a bit of a side-scrolling platformer that players manipulate by moving set pieces. This will allow them to get the “actor” to different areas on the stage. There are also some open-world activities, including one that involves the boat.

Other events arriving in this update include a beetle battle organized by everyone’s favorite Oni and a martial arts competition in Liyue. As is generally the case with Genshin Impact, there are enough events to keep players busy for days.

As always, today’s stream included some limited-time codes. Using all three codes before the day ends will net players 300 Primogems, 10 Mystic Enhancement Ore, 5 Hero’s Wit, and 50,000 Mora.

Code 1: NS8TUVJYR4UH

Code 2: NSQTVCKYRMDM

Code 3: LB8SDUJYQ4V9