The Problem With Genshin Impact's Weapon System 

My mistake: primordial jade cutter and haran geppaku futsu are both better than black sword statistically speaking. Looking back I should've double checked my math. Although I still stand by the notion that the difference in strength is nowhere near enough to warrant the cost to obtain them.

People know the weapon banner is a scam , but it is weird to me you have to lose twice before guaranteeing the desired weapon .

The fact that a weapon costs more to pull than a character is frustrating enough in itself to say that the weapon system is badly designed.

My biggest complaint about weapons is that they don't add new 4 star weapons to the standard banner.

All I want is for the epitomized path points to carry over. I'd wish on the weapon banner more if they did this that's literally the only thing that's held me back on going for some signature weapons :(

I want more weapons in genshin that are treated like The Catch. Being able to hard farm for hours WITHOUT resin restrictions or whaling in order to get an actually really good polearm felt so rewarding. We don't need more craftables or event weapons, we need more weapons to be implemented into the game like The Catch.

I think that the fact that the widsth is frequently recommended over 5 star catalysts is a major symptom of the problem

Never thought I'd say this, but genshin truly does need more opportunities to grind equipment. There's too much grind for artifacts (at least, too much rng), yet not enough to grind for weapons. This game has so much content locked behind rng.

If only one change could be made, it should be that fate points for the path can be carried over just like pity on character banners. Yes, it’s stupid you have to lose weapon banner twice to get what you want (double unforged anyone?), but at least carrying over the fate points helps make it more bearable.

The problem with the weapon system is that it cost way too much fucking money. Thanks for watching the vid, make sure to like and subscribe.

Honestly, I kinda wish genshin would also give 5 star weapons outaide of gacha. Such as getting a 5-star after you 36 star the abyss for certain number of times. This way, completing the abyss would actually have more value other than just for primos.

Honestly, I'd meet Hoyo half way so the only changes I'd propose would be to carry over fate points (like character pity) and reduce pity to 60 so it takes a maximum of 180 pulls (just like characters) to guranatee an R1 of a certain weapon. I know there is much better stuff to propose.

"Having a character and not there signature weapon is like taking a test and knowing you can only make a 90%" the words of a god

For those who dont know, in the shogun weekly boss fight, when she clones herself the correct clone is the one who fires electricity in X form as you can see at 1:03 in the vid.

I would love to see everything you said to happen but unless mihoyo get a major backlash like the old weapon banner system (for example: the tectone's homa situation) then i don't think they're gonna change it at all, they're making tons of money out of it. The fact that you have to loose twice make you more cautious to the weapon banner at first but once you roll for it and you lost, you know the fate point won't be transferred, you're gonna pay to get the weapon and only spend more next time because you already made a precedent. Not mentioning the fear of missing out.

The problem is how it resets after every banner and you have to do 3 pities to guarantee your weapon

I get the welkins and the BP every time I get it to 50. Even with that I can't afford to go after every character let alone their weapons. The fact that you can lose the 50/50 twice on a weapon banner, as well as that the pity doesn't carry over are two things on top of the incredibly specificity of each weapon that makes that banner a no go for me. I don't even consider pulling on it.

The counterpoint is that if a weapon works on everyone, the players would only need to pull for that 1 weapon. And then they will be able to equip 5 different characters, thus lowering sales. I'm sure Genshin realized this early, and that's why they make them so specific now.

Grinding for the catch and it being relatively strong was a great feeling back when the fishing system came out. If there were more opportunities to farm for new types of equipment/weapons I would do it and furthermore entice me to the character associated to said equipment/weapon is designed for.

Aqua simulacra is said to be the second or third best weapon for almost every bow dps. Even if the hp % boost is useless for them, Ganyu, Tartaglia, Yoimiya and even Aloy benefit a lot from this bow. (Theory crafting was done on almost every bow user but it's better on these ones)

Then there's also the problem of the 5-star weapons that are almost entirely outclassed by their 4-star counterparts. Many people including myself aren't even wishing on the weapon banner out of fear of getting a The Unforged or Memory of Dust that is literally equivallent to 70 wishes wasted.

There is only one weapon banner I have ever wished on, and it was the Kagura's Verity and Primordial Jade Cutter banner. Both 5 stars are amazing and, as a Klee main, I wanted a BiS weapon for her. Sure, I got three Jade Cutters (I got an extra on my last roll to get Kagura's). But those weapons will never lose value 44% crit chance is just too valuable on a weapon and makes artifact farming a million times easier for a sword character.

I can tell The Bell should be at least mentioned 😆

Considering the fact that you’re only guaranteed your desired weapon after losing 2 50/50s, I wish the weapon banner pity was halved

I feel like the video could of touched on the poor billet system. They are essentially the best f2p weapons however they are so unreliable to farm for that by the time you have enough forged for R5 you could probably get a dedicated 5* that outshines it and would almost certainly have a sacrificial or favonius of the same type that would be universally serviceable as opposed to the incredibly niche billets. There isn’t a single Ganyu that prefers R5 Prototype over any 5* bow because of the sheer power gap. You’re left with a very pretty but entirely outclassed weapon that needed excessive effort (and luck) to get.

I'm annoyed they're making specific weapons and artifacts for specific characters. It sometimes makes building them boring. But also sometimes, you get stuff like EOSF and VV, which dominates on anyone who can use it.

The first thing that comes to mind is the fact that there are limitations for the base attack and the substat, with an emphasis on how the substat and the base attack are directly correlated, and there's a limit to how many combinations there are. After some thought, I think that at a certain point, the weapon skill decides the usability of a weapon, and can ruin a weapon with generally good base stats.

In my opinion I think after you have the character correlated with the weapon the chance to get the weapon should go very drastically up. But only after you get the associated character. I know there would be definitely better ideas and this doesn’t account for the standard five star weapon banner, but it’s the best i got.

Honestly, I like the specialisation of certain weapons, because it makes particular niches more fun. Redhorn may be made for Itto, but Xinyan and Noelle gained a solid buff with it. Thundering pulse is tailored for a normal attacking DPS like Yoimia, but Childe and Fischl also benefit from it greatly, and engulfing lighting is mede for characters with very high ER need, but besides Raiden it's very good on Xiangling and melt Rosaria. Also specialised weapons feel more unique. I'd say most genshin 4 and 5 star weapons are great, aside from few too specific weapons like everlasting moonglow and cinnabar spindle.

Probably only a few well-designed (or at least exciting) weapons, easily acquired: Widsith Favonius series Blackcliff series Sacrificial series Some craftable 4* And then there’s the battlepass stuff which is stuck behind a paywall. And then there’s the 3* weapons that are amazing in some use cases Black tassel for shieldbot Zhongli White Tassel for Xiangling Harbinger of Dawn Slingshot Debate Club (the almighty) Thrilling Tales of Dragon Slayers And that’s about it. All the great weapons are super RNG based and down to guesswork

i have never thought about weapons being badly designed but now that i think about it … still isn’t as badly designed as i would’ve thought when i initially started thinking

I would not say that they are badly designed but they're getting a handcrafted for their character a little too much so you either have the character (or at least another with the same gameplay style) or just use it as an really overpriced boomstick

“The higher the rarity of the weapon the more all purpose it should be.” NO! An “all purpose” five star weapon would instantly take away all design space left at its power level and force power creep on weapons coming out after it. Sure, this weapon would sell like crazy, but what about the next one? Like a card game but to a lesser extent, you have to balance each option with how much design space it takes away. Therefore more powerful effects are gated by rarer situational triggers. Five star weapons being the most powerful, it makes sense for them to be the most situational, to the point of matching specific characters. This is very different from games which you buy once and play forever like most Final Fantasy games, in which designers are free to put in an Ultimate Weapon as reward for finishing the game in some sense. Case in point, the Rocket Launcher in Resident Evil series. That doesn’t work for games without an “end”, such as Gacha game. Power creep is in a sense asset depreciation, because you have to increase difficulty of new content to match, which makes old weapons appear weaker. Genshin has been better than most at managing power creep. Idea in this video would work against that.

You got me there. I'm one of those people who pulled for Albedo because of cinnabar spindle. But also because of his new artifacts. So rare that a character gets buffed like that. 😁

I think there are a couple changes I'd make to the weapon wishing system: 1. Change the epitomized path to only 1 wrong drop like the 50/50, and further make the stacks stay across banners 2. Maybe with a rumoured standard banner revamp, have a weapon and character banner for standard, with some set of more universal weapons, or at least the addition of some of the better ones 3. This one is an I'm not sure, but weapon banners could be split into one each like double character banners, so (if ignoring number 1), it functions largely the same as a character banner. I think this would just make it more fair, and more accessible for the free-to-play and low-spender player base.

tbh I think having a weapon specifically for a certain character is a amazing and esthetic pleasing idee the problem is the weapon banner

I would love to see a video about Niche Supports, lime Yunjin, Sara, Gorou and Shenhe. Just an ideia ~=~

5-star weapons just shouldn’t be restricted to the same parallel character banner it was meant for. The weapon banner should just increase your odds of getting that weapon even when it’s available on a standard banner through normal means.

The weapon banner is a scam, but except for that I don't see any inherent problem with the weapons. Some are really good, some are kinda bad, some are only missing the right character or enemy. Edit: It was more or less only about the weapon banner... waste of time.

i disagree with the aqua simulacra being a weapon "exclusive" only for yelan. yes ofc she will benefit from it the most, but you have to remember the weapon's other passive which will increase damage unconditionally which is generally good. i don't count the being near opponent part a condition because in the end, you will fight enemies from close range. for example if you're playing yoimiya against tge maguu kenki, you need to be close to him otherwise it will block your attacks. the same goes for fischl because you will usually put oz near an opponent for it's initial damage

Something that’s probably not considered bad that I myself don’t like: Every recent signature weapon has a substat of Crit Rate or Crit Dmg. sure it makes a weapon more universal, but combined with the power creeping base attacks that keep on rising with every new release, it’s bugs me personally for some reason. i can’t explain why, it just does.

7:54 sacrificial fragments (the catalyst) strangely has an EM main stat. it's highly likely that it's specifically for sucrose since she has the whole EM thing and we see her holding it in that one windblume cutscene

I find that the cost to level the 5 star weapons is the most outrageous part, 907 mystic enhancement ores compared to 399 for a 3 star weapon. I know there is a reasonable gap in the base performance of a 3 star and a 5 star, but not enough to justify over double the cost, it's almost as if they're punishing you for getting the better weapon, especially if that weapon is tailored to a single character... Also, as a personal gripe, I tend to prefer more simple designs, so watching weapons -bows in particular- grow more horns, spikes and other protrusions the higher their star rating is kinda puts me off too.

One example : Aqua simulacra | Good for DPS , good for Support/Sub DPS. Has insane stats of pretty high base ATK and very high crit DMG. Everlasting Moonglow | Can only work with 2 characters in the game. Provides DMG boost of 1% Max HP for only Normal attack. Provides less energy on R1 than an R1 Prototype Amber. Staff of Homa | very universal , good crit damage and HP boost that additionally boosts your character's atk based on their max HP. Vortex Vanquisher | Not even the BiS for the user (zhongli). Staff Of Homa is arguably better than Vort. Vanquisher as it boosts both damage and HP which Zhongli needs. Vort. Vanquisher provides atk which zhongli doesnt scale best of. If the substat is HP it would be better

I don't think it would benefit mihoyo to make all-rounded weapons because if they did that then players would eventually run out of reasons to pull for new weapons I think the majority of their sales come from people pulling for one character, and one weapon, not sure though

Designing 5-star weapons with wide-ranging passives would just create a lot of mundane choices with negligible differences. For miHoYo to put those type of passives on 3-4 star weapons is much more preferable imho... 3-4 star weapons are much more attainable so for them to have passives that work on multiple characters makes more sense. Some 5-star weapons are visually designed like cherries on top of their designated characters so I think it's better to stay that way. The only flaw I can see on Genshin's weapon system is the damned banner... and I'm about to pull for Redhorn Stonethresher. F

Something further to point out, is that even in the hyper-specialized state 5* weapons have gotten into, not all 5* weapons are created equal. Kokomi's everlasting moonglow is viable on her and her alone, and even then you might consider Thrilling Tales to be the better option for support. Meanwhile, while weapons like Primordial Jade Cutter, Aqua simulacra and Staff of Homa may favor specific 5* characters more than others, they still perform extremely well on many units and are better than most if not all 4* options. This remains true even if another 5* weapon might technically be better for that specific character. Ganyu and Childe may have their own personal weapons, but Aqua simulacra will still perform extremely well on them if you happen to lack those other options.

90% of all weapons are designed to do ONLY dmg. The rest are meant for supporting but fail. So yes they are all bad designed. As always hoyo fails to understand that we don't need DMG to have fun, we want fun gameplay

I think most 5* weapons are fine. A weapon only being 100% optimal on their chosen character, but still very good on others is fine. For example Homa is designed for Hu Tao, who already scales hp for attack, and with a way to drop her hp in range, which other characters don't. It's still a good weapon on chars that only scale off hp without ways to drop it down (Zhongli) or even don't scale off it at all due to the general good stats that weapon has (decently common on Xiao). Mistsplitter is another good example, even if the char can't trigger all 3 bonuses (only 2, or possibly even at 1), it's still a solid weapon that you can use on basically any dps sword character. I think it's fine for players to be able to go for the character weapons on the chars they really want to minmax, assuming those weapons aren't completely useless (or nearly so) outside it. Kokomi and Eula are examples of bad cases, and Raiden's weapon is a bit on the iffy side (useful on Xiangling, might see more play later).

I think it would be a thing to add the BIS (BEST IN SLOT) to the character banner. So you would end up with f.e. a "Yelan Token" after the first time you get her. This way you could trade this token for either her BIS weapon or a constellation. Tbh the weapon banner could then 2 random weapons for non featured characters. So you could still get the weapon you missed out on before. This is atleast what I came up within 10 minutes...

omg hard disagree with so much in this video. First of all the only way for mihoyo to make money and not powercreep with every weapon release is for them to make the weapons more character specific. Any other way there would be little to no incentive to pull for future weapon if all 5 stars were universal. Second Bennett xingqiu xianling are not less universal than 5 stars. 5 star weapons are more universally applicable than 4 stars due to them giving better stats, even if not everything takes effect. Everything is just so mildly incorrect.

As much as the weapon system can be improved, I don't find it an issue with the current content that's in the game. End game is really not that hard, and can be easily completed using 4 star weapons. If mihoyo ever decides to add harder content, I agree that attaining 5 star weapons is too luck/money dependent, but as of now they're not needed, they're just a bonus. Call it bad design or content f2p players are missing out on, but at the end of the day they're mostly stat sticks and not a significant form of content that people need to enjoy the game.

Hoyoverse knows how to do a good weapon banner, if you take a look at Honkai’s weapon banner system it’s much more friendly to its player base Every 10 pulls on the exclusive weapon banners gives you a boosted chance to obtain either their signature weapon or a piece of their signature gear That paired with the large amount of crystal giving events that take place makes obtaining weapons so much easier They know how to do it better but they just don’t and I’m sad 😞

This was always the reason I NEVER had the chance to get any weapons because I barely scrape by with just pulling for a character I want especially if I lose 50/50. I feel they should do it like how FEH does it or Dragalia where the weapons could be made and you had every possible way of farming the materials for them in Dragalia or just have the characters come with certain ones.

The weapons in general aren't an issue imo, but the way they're acquired. Simply having the fate points carrying over or making it like the character banners is such a huge step in the right direction while maintaining the gacha part of it (pulls are still needed to take advantage of the guarantee). I do think however that "higher rarity = more generalist" just opens the issue of other future weapons rendered useless. Staff of Homa and Mistsplitter are for the most part, usable on anyone and everyone because only a snippet of their passives are actually "locked" behind few users (Homa's being the

I'm still hung up over the fact that Hoyoverse hasn't released any new 4 star gacha weapons since November of last year. That's so strange considering that since then there's been: •3 New DEF scaling characters practically in a row (Itto, Gorou & Yun Jin) •3 New HP scaling characters. (Yelan, Shinobu and even though Ayato's HP scaling is more of a side benefit that a focus it's still part of his kit) •Multiple reruns of characters who scale with the above stats (Albedo, Zhongli, Kokomi and Itto *again*) You'd think it would improve banner sales since players would be more inclined to on a banner if they could at least get a decent new 4 star weapon that they couldn't already get regularly. So I can only guess that Hoyoverse found that new 4 star weapons didn't impact weapon banner sales very much. In which case, I would say that the weapon banner has bigger problem than no new 4 star weapons.

The problem is that when they do make a good weapon for a current charackter you get from grinding,The event is limited.Fading twighlight,Oatherswirm eye,And the spindle are perfect for their intended charackter.Except there limited and you will never be able to get them again

This dude really said that Bennett wasn't all-purpose when he's used in 90% of teams 💀

I think the biggest reason 5-star weapons are so specialized and character-specific is to avoid powercreep, and by extension avoid the dreaded pay-to-win label. If, for example, every new 5-star polearm buffs damage and works on almost every polearm user, then there's only so many 5-star polearms Mihoyo can release before new polearms start giving bigger buffs than older ones -- otherwise there won't be any incentive at all to roll for the new polearms. But if that happens, and late-game content gets harder to scale with it, then soon enough free-to-plays and even low-spenders will be locked out completely. It's pretty clear that Mihoyo does _not_ want that to happen. But if every new 5-star polearm only buffs damage through very specific circumstances that really only apply to a single character, then Mihoyo can release dozens of new polearms without having to worry about new ones taking over old ones, at least until much later in the game's lifespan. So new 5-star weapons are powerful enough to incentivize whales to play for it, thus turning a big profit, but not so powerful that it completely alienates the free-to-play and low-spender crowds. I'm sure that's Mihoyo's reasoning for it

*every five star in this game being made in such a way that only one or two people can utilize it for its maximum capacity* staff of homa: and i took that personally

Would be really great if we coukd somehow farm for them. Or even obtain them with starglitter. And the pool for the standard banner should be increased and something more than 25 starglitter should be given if u pu a 5 star over C6

There needs to be a lot more weapons added to the game frequently, like every other patch should include some new 3/4 star weapons to use. Also they’re should be a lot more craftable or farmable weapons. Like the fishing mechanic should be more utilized, giving a weapon for each character type would be great, instead of just Polearms

This makes tons of sense, I pulled on the weapon banner twice specifically to get a 4 star weapon, the five stars never felt worth it even if it featured the weapon of a character I had/wanted

I pulled for Albedo on his rerun because I started playing right before 2.3, so naturally got invested in his character and happened to hit piry (which I didn't even understand the concept of back then) just about at his banner (I did pull on Hu Tao's, but was too late to the party to actually get her; no regrets, though, I have built a full geo team with Albedo since and they're pretty awesome) and having a weapon tailored specifically for him was a nice bonus.

This has been a very well put together video with good point and explanation, but dear traveler, if you think that's bad, in honkai our Valkyrie's signature weapons have a specific passive that only activate when equipped by that specific battlesuit alone

You dont have to get their signature weapon for the character to be good... You more than likely will pull a decent weapon for the character while pulling for the character... I use many characters without their signature weapon. I will likely not summon for their weapon and i dont feel Im missing out... The only thing i feel is unfair is that you have to fail twice before its 100%... Weapons being best used on a particular character doesnt bother me... no one summons for the weapon and not the character =/, so the weapon fitting the character makes sense to me

Even just making it cheaper would make it more accessible, or have the weapons be on the stardust shop, you can eventually get it by trying to roll constellations on the main banner. And yes, having them be more versatile with a way to get more diverse weapons from just playing would also be a great addition, you could even dungeon lock them like they do with artifacts.

Maaaaan, the redhorn is the best weapon ever man, fits like a glove on Noelle. I will fight on that hill to the end.

This was me using Homa on Raiden. It was basically a stat stick because she could never get the full benefit of the passive with Bennett on the team. I pulled for Engulfing Lightning the first chance I got and now just have Homa on Zhongli (I don't want Hu Tao).

This video source material is something like: "I made this the fuck up" when he said blacksword better than Jade cutter on Keqing I died inside.

Can you add a link to the music you use in your videos? I liked the one in this video but don’t know where I’d ever find it

spot on my dude like always, and that albedo sword case applied to me at least, so i think your opinion makes all the sense. they should really take notes

9:40 Imo Amenoma Kageuchi is Ayaka's signature weapon, it looks so much better than her 5* weapon and is used in all of her promotional material.

I have two *F-ing* Unforged, and man, it could be fine if shields could snapshot, but they don't. I don't have Zhongli. I'm still giving it to Eula though. Should I make it R2 or give the other to Beidou?

Just wondering if you can do a video about genshin world quests also love your videos

I absolutely love this video and not because I hate Mihoyo’s bad practices when it comes to getting money from us, but because I’ve been saying this since it became more prevalent to get 1 weapon that only 1 character could truly benefit from. The Aqua Simulacra was my last call in the meta shifting closer to Honkai, where weapons are going to be more important than just getting the character alone. It’s definitely a bold claim, but after investing a lot of time into learning about Honkai you can see the same practices happening in Genshin. All we need is a real reason to grind these characters out to their best performance and it’ll be here for everyone to see. This was my first video of yours to see and a damn good one at that. Looking forward to sharing more opinions like this!

i think the main problem with the weapon system is the fact that 95% of the weapons are just stat sticks and cosmetics, most characters signature weapon just increases their dmg by like 20%(from a f2p or low spender weapon) but whats the point of increasing your damage if you already thrash on the most difficult content in the game?In other games weapons can change your playstyle or how you play that character like in tf2 were you have this dude with a long range sniper rifle that you can switch to a bow for a up close gameplay, you don't have that in genshin, Whats the difference between an ayato with his signature weapon and an ayato with a harbringer of dawn? Well the signature weapon ayato deals more dmg yep thats it and i can already clear abyss with a harbringer of dawn ayato why should i bother wasting a character worth of wishes on just more dmg that i don't need?

If I were to change the weapon system, I’d make Epitomized path more forgiving, like holy heck getting a 5 star weapon is harder than a 5 stat character: Maybe bring down the pointe needed to 1 and/or have unused points carry over to the next banner

I saved up for months for Yelan and was lucky enough to get c1 and Aqua, I feel pretty blessed but I agree entirely with this video. Along with constellations it feels like there's too much in this game where even if you get a character they're not "complete." Even in Brave 9 where you need 9 copies of a character and their companion there are ingame non-gacha methods to give a character the equivalent of constellations that can be earned. A shop like you suggested for weapons combined with something like arknights has where you can buy generic class tokens to give your character constellation equivalent upgrades would be great. Especially during off banner seasons for, say, Kazuha I'd be able to progress him even if slowly.

I've literally been struggling with this in my head for a couple months. I've been saving up all my wishes for when Itto rolls around and I really want him and his weapon. But the odds of getting Redhorn are so rough that even though I'd probably spend money if it guaranteed me it without breaking the bank, because that's not the case I'm gonna probably end up settling for Whiteblind, as much as I would like Redhorn

I think it’s gonna be about how banner weapons are generally inflexible for other 5 stars besides the featured banner one

Never thought about it before, but now that you mention it, most weapons being character specific instead of being able to be used by multiple characters is insane.

12:12 holy shit lmaooo. This is me. I was planning on getting Eula, but Cinnabar Spindle was there and it was too good to pass

i got albedo cause i wanted him tbh but the new weapon they introduced during his last rerun made me seriously consider going for his constellations so i might just do that on his next rerun 😭😭

Thank you for an amazing video and in-depth view points. Personally, at this point of playing GI I don't think I could have say anything anymore. I feels to me that MHY can do way better, just like they did with HI3, but they just chose not to do that.

10:42 Black sword is not better then Primordial Jade cutter on Keqing. Jade cutter gives 44% crit rate, HP increase, and ATK bonus based on HP which Keqing wants. It makes it easier to build the character if you get screwed over with HP% substats on your artifacts. It was her best in slot before Mistsplitter Reforged came along. Compared to Black sword which isn't even Keqing's best 4 star weapon option, Lions Roar is her best 4 star option and her third best weapon option in general.

Wow dude you just read my mind. I was planning to get albedo since my cinnabar spindle has been collecting dust in my inventory.

I was using the Catch for a long time with Raiden and on her like 3rd rerun I got her weapon MAINLY for looks but also with the expectation of huge damage. To my surprise I actually lost damage took me a while to get new artifacts to actually even notice a power spike but giving the Catch to Xiangling boosted my overall account power. When I was new to genshin crafting weapons doing weekly bosses hoping for a claymore to refine my whiteblind was exciting now I rarely even do weekly bosses at least not past the 3 budget value ones and only for character talent materials. I think if the weapons were more focused around a crafting/farm system over the gacha it would be more enjoyable. Although at this point I don't think they care about making the game better for players more focused on how to squeeze more money out of people.

Personally, I think most 5* weapons that have recently been released are meant to primarily be stat sticks, with the passive not really being impactful enough to limit the usage of the weapon to only 1 character. I think your way of looking at it is the same as treating the absence of a reward as being a punishment, in this case the reward being a weapon performing slightly better on the character it was designed for, or in the case of artifacts maybe the 2p set bonus doesn't do much, but the 4p set bonus does (TF, TS, Lavawalker, Bloodstained, Tenacity or even VV are good examples of this). Haran, PJC, Homa, Aqua and Redhorn are all good examples of this. They've got amazing stats, and the passive is more often than not just a tiny little useful buff for the character that it matches, but it by no means makes the weapon any worse for other characters to use it, and as such the passives should be treated as a bonus, not necessarily a baseline. The HP stat/scaling on PJC, Homa and Aqua, and the DEF scaling on Redhorn are all inconsequential buffs that don't matter much for whichever character can use them, regardless of whether it's their signature weapon or not. I honestly don't even know which character PJC would even be designed for. Currently the only character I can think of that can use the passive effectively is Ayato, and he already has a "signature weapon" in Haran. It's also worth mentioning that, like most weapons, Summit Shaper, Vortex Vanquisher, The Unforged and Memory of Dust are not signature weapons, but rather a series, in this case Liyue-themed weapons. The same goes for Skyward weapons being Mondstadt-themed and Thundering Pulse, Kagura's Verity, Mistsplitter Reforged and Engulfing Lightning are Inazuma-themed weapons. Other series include the Millennial Movement (which are signature weapons for outcasts (Eula, Venti and Kazuha) I guess? lmao), the Lithic series(? only Blade and Spear for now), Haran, Akuoumaru, Mouun's Moon and Wavebreaker's Fin (which has the deep sea theme around the fight against Osial's wife). Although they might certainly fit a specific character better than others, they're almost all weapons that fit a specific playstyle rather than a specific character (hence they don't have any hard usage restrictions), and most of them have a standard banner character that can make use of them (almost) just as well as the 5* character you might think they were designed for (Lisa with Kagura, Fischl with TP, Keqing with Mistsplitter, Thoma (cope) with Homa, to name some (suspiciously esthetic) examples). If anything, most actual signature weapons that basically don't work for any character except the one they were designed for, are 4* weapons, and some of them are event rewards (Dodoco Tales, Cinnabar Spindle, for example). Mitternacht's Waltz and Alley Hunter are the only limited gacha ones I can think of, and they're both Fischl weapons, and we already know the devs love Fischl. We don't talk about the donut and QQ, they don't exist. And even QQ is a decent stat stick if only for its ridiculous base atk, and the Donut is useless even on Kokomi lol

Thanks so much for this video! It came at the perfect time. I've been agonizing over whether or not I should pull for the Redhorn Stonethresher for my Itto. He's my fav. Character and I was lucky enough to get him on his first banner. I'm currently using whiteblind, and was dreaming of his potential with his sig. Weapon. But the 5* system is bs for weapons, and I'd probably just end up with that catalyst instead. I shall continue saving for Kazuha.

I've been playing the game since launch and am ar 57 but I've never even thought to wish on the weapon banner for a lot of the reasons you said I feel like if they had something similar to other games where bosses or enemies had "rare drops" you could use to craft 1 copy of the weapon, that would be super cool

9:41 Reminded me of how i missed albedo’s event. It felt like a slap in the face since i’ve been using Harbinger of dawn on him for a long ass time

Totally disagree with you saying Jade Cutter is useless on Kequing. The weapon converts a portion of your HP into bonus ATK. Jade Cutter is the second best general use sword in the game. With a good base attack and a critical rate sub stat, nearly any DPS or sub DPS can use it because it gives you more HP, then converts some of that HP into bonus ATK. Only Misplitter is better one Kequing. The Black Sword is weaker than Jade Cutter. EDIT: I will say if you compare an R5 Black Sword to a R1 Jade Cutter than that maybe a different story. Either way Jade Cutter is still a good boost in damage for any sword using unit because of how general the bonus ATK based of HP is.

i love the commentary on game design in this vid, but may i ask where you got these numbers from?? the black sword is most definitely not better than haran for ayato and jade for keqing. also the idea that raiden, kazuha, zhongli etc are the more “all purpose” options over xiangling, bennett, and xingqiu is just wrong. i 100% get the idea of what you’re saying, but your evidence definitely don’t line up

Lady Keqing’s signature weapon is that Moon Chase sword in the standard banner artwork but is yet to be released.

Bro you're so right. The only reason I decided to get Albedo in his rerun was because Cinnebar Spindle motivated me. It is possible for players to be motivated to pull for a certain character if they are guarenteed to have a good weapon option for then.

Man, i really hope some of the people in-charge of this game watch your videos. If they do, by some miracle, and they implemented all the changes you recommended more people will want to play this game and Vets would have less of a hard time farming and pulling.

I don’t mind there being weapons for specific characters, but i think that for every character-specific weapon there should be a more broad-use weapon like the old ones

I agree with everything you've said. Essentially, I've never found the weapon banner worth rolling. I've been on Genshin for 13 months now. I have 42 chars. My philosophy is... "get the characters, then the sharp pointy things". The 5-star weapon I got from the base banner was a sword, and I gave it to Benny because high base atk = better Benny buff. My team uses a collection of 4-Stars obtained from featured banner rolls, some craftables (love the Amenoma Kageuchi and my C6 Noelle weilds a now R3 Whiteblind - need billets, you know how that is), and quite a few Hymn weapons for my most favorite five star DPS chars... Serpent Spines for Itto and Diluc, Black Sword for Ayato, Deathmatch for Xiao, etc. Somehow I don't think they get all that much money from the weapon banner. Seems like the lion's share of MHY's profits is all CHARACTERS. I honestly think they need to bury the weapon banner. I like your suggestion of a "grind method" for weapon acquisition. I would do it. I'm insane enough to actually be slowly working towards that 2000 fish we need to pull out for the measly 20 primos. I will get there eventually. My Raiden uses the Catch. So you can see, I ain't got problem with putting in some work to get a nice sharp pointy thing.

That’s exactly it. I was lucky enough to get C2 Raiden on her first banner and wanted her weapon on her rerun but I didn’t. Because of that I’m dying for another rerun so I can get the spear