Genshin Impact 4.4 release date and Lantern Rite celebrations
HoYoverse announced the Genshin Impact 4.4 release date during the open-world game’s latest livestream and teased plenty of new events, freebies, and more. Lantern Rite is back, and with it comes a chance to invite one 4-star Liyue character to your team for free, including newcomer Gaming. More characters are getting skins, there’s a brand-new part of Liyue to explore, and HoYoverse updated Genshin Impact’s tech a little to improve some of the visuals.
If you’re wondering who else is coming in the next version update, check out our Genshin Impact 4.4 banners overview.
Genshin Impact 4.4 release date
Genshin Impact 4.4 goes live on Jan. 31, 2024. As always, the version update lasts for six weeks, and while the Lantern Rite event will likely last for the entire update, you can expect smaller events to pop up and last for a week or two at a time.
Genshin Impact 4.4 Lantern Rite celebrations
The annual Lantern Rite event is back, with its usual suite of freebies and new modes. Taking part in these modes earns you Festive Fever, among other rewards, and once you build up enough fever, you can invite a 4-star Liyue character for free.
HoYoverse is also hosting another login event, where you earn in-game rewards for logging in a set number of days. The total amount of Fates given away equals 10 wishes.
Other Genshin Impact 4.4 events
There’s plenty to do outside of Lantern Rite. HoYoverse briefly showed off a tea making and cooking event, though whether it’ll result in permanent changes to the cooking system or is just a limited thing is still up in the air. There’s also an event where you investigate anomalies at a Hilichurl camp and battle giant ‘churls and a battle event that throws you into combat with a selection of randomly picked trial characters.
As always, you can expect a handful of new Genius Invokation TCG cards as well, including Thoma and the Hydro Hypostasis.
Genshin Impact 4.4 new skins
HoYoverse is adding three new skins during version 4.4, one each for Shenhe, Ganyu, and Xingqiu. You can get Xingqiu’s skin for free during the Lantern Rite event, though the other two will cost Genesis Crystals, which means you have to pay real money to get them.
HoYoverse didn’t mention a price, but if previous new skins are anything to go buy, you’re probably looking at 1,680 Genesis Crystals. The way Genshin Impact bundles crystals means that’ll run you $29.99, and you’ll have 300 crystals left over.
Keqing’s and Ningguang’s skins will go on sale during Lantern Rite as well.
Genshin Impact 4.4 Chenyu Vale
We're finally visiting Chenyu Vale.
HoYoverse
Version 4.4 also adds Chenyu Vale to the map, a secluded location between Liyue and Fontaine that the Adepti once called home. It’s a showcase for HoYoverse’s new tech as well, including Global Far Fog for denser cloud coverage and Gradient Tint Rock, which adjusts how rocks look depending on their altitude and distance.
