Genshin Impact announces streamlined boss fights, other quality-of-life changes for Version 4.2

HoYoverse has posted a new developers discussion detailing some quality-of-life changes coming soon to Genshin Impact in Version 4.2. While the developers note they are “still working on many other optimizations,” the fixes revealed below should streamline several things for long-time players.

Skip prerequisites for weekly bosses

First on the list is a change to how weekly bosses are unlocked in Genshin Impact. Some weekly boss domains are normally unlocked by progressing through certain quests. If you don’t have time to complete these quests, those domains remain inaccessible in your world, meaning you don’t have easy access to valuable weekly drops.

With a new change to the weekly domains, you can now access the boss fights through the Adventurer’s Handbook starting from Adventure Rank 40, bypassing the quests entirely! You’ll still have to do the quests if you want the domains to be accessible from the overworld, but you’ll no longer have to rely on finding a co-op host to fight those specific bosses.

Accepting story quests

Under the current system, when you unlock character Story Quests, the new quests are automatically added to your active quests list. This can sometimes lead to conflicts with other quests that feature the same characters.

Starting in Version 4.2, you’ll be able to unlock Story Quests but not activate them right away. This lets you save those quests for later when you have the time to play through them. It also makes it easier to spend your Story Keys so you can get back to earning more. You’ll also be able to check prerequisites for Story Quests and Hangouts from a new menu.

More map pins

Are you running out of custom map pins? I ran out mid-Sumeru. Thankfully, the maximum number of pins is being increased from 150 to 200. You’ll also be able to batch select existing pins to delete them more efficiently. Quite nice of them, considering the size of Teyvat’s map has more than doubled over the past couple of years.

TCG features

If you enjoy Genius Invokation TCG, there’s good news. There will be a speed-up function that increases animation speed for dice rolling and other interface animations during duels. HoYoverse didn’t specify whether character attack animations will be affected. Either way, this should make duels feel snappier.

You’ll also be able to share TCG decks you’ve created with other players using a code. Conversely, you can also use another player’s code to import their deck. This will be nice for players looking to try new decks but don’t want to spend time making one from scratch. Or for players like me, who are bad at TCG and just want to use a pre-made deck.

None of these changes are huge, but they’re still welcome additions. It’s nice to see that the Genshin Impact team still cares about user experience instead of focusing solely on new content.

The release date for Version 4.2 of Genshin Impact has not been officially confirmed at this time. However, a “special program” showcasing the update will go live on Twitch on October 27.