Genshin Impact’s Weapon Skin Controversy Explained

After being the hot topic of several leaks leading up to its release, the new Stygian Onslaught endgame activity was finally released in Genshin Impact’s version 5.7 update. Unlike most other endgame activities, players can participate in Genshin Impact’s new Stygian Onslaught game mode in co-op. However, some of the rewards from Stygian Onslaught can only be earned if players complete the different challenges solo, which notably includes the first-ever weapon skins in Genshin Impact.

While the introduction of weapon skins in Genshin Impact should have been a cause for celebration, this highly requested feature hasn’t exactly been met with praise so far, for many reasons. Primarily, despite having the option for co-op to make it appear more accessible, the rewards from Stygian Onslaught being locked behind solo completions have made them inaccessible for many gamers because of the game mode’s overall difficulty and high investment cost to participate in it. Ultimately, the new weapon skins in Genshin Impact, and the Stygian Onslaught activity by association, have turned out to be quite a controversy.

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Genshin Impact’s Stygian Onslaught Activity Faces Backlash for Unfair Difficulty Balancing

At long last, and after years of fans’ requests, there are finally weapon skins in Genshin Impact, which can be earned from the new Stygian Onslaught endgame activity in version 5.7. The four-star weapon skins can all be unlocked by completing the Dire Difficulty of the Stygian Onslaught activity solo, while the five-star weapon skins will also require players to complete the Dire difficulty solo, but within 180 seconds. However, obtaining any of the new weapon skins in Genshin Impact is easier said than done.

This is because each of the enemies within the Stygian Onslaught activity will have their health and damage drastically increased in each subsequent difficulty level, with the Dire difficulty level providing an extreme challenge.

Already, parts of Genshin Impact’s community are criticizing the highest difficulty levels of this activity for only being accessible to gamers who spend a lot of money on Genshin Impact (these big spenders are often referred to as “Whales”) to have specific characters unlocked and fully upgraded. In other words, these new weapon skins and other rewards from the Stygian Onslaught activity are likely out of reach for free-to-play gamers and newcomers.

Although these new weapon skins are purely cosmetic items, they have been a highly requested Genshin Impact feature for many years. So, now that they’re finally available, only to be inaccessible to a large part of the game’s community, this has understandably become a cause for frustration that has led some players to lose interest in the premise of weapon skins.

Genshin Impact Finally Has Weapon Skins, But There’s an Asterisk Attached

Another reason why this new endgame mode has become so controversial is that the new weapon skins in Genshin Impact aren’t permanent rewards. Upon the release of every new version update for Genshin Impact, the weapon skins that players have earned will be removed from their inventories and will need to be earned from the Stygian Onslaught activity again.

Except, what makes this a cause for concern is that the enemies within this game mode are anticipated to rotate in future updates, so any players who have compatible team comps to have cleared Dire difficulty in version 5.7 may not have the proper characters to do so again in the next update, and thus possibly miss out on the weapon skins like many other players already are.