Genshin Impact has finally introduced the game's next major region, Dragonspine, with the long-awaited Version 1.2 update. Alongside powerful new five-star characters like Albedo, Version 1.2 introduces players to new enemies, animals, and even weapons to use in battle, like the Dragonspine Spear.
Of course, Travelers will have to put in some work to play with all the new Genshin Impact content, but thankfully, gaming communities have helped make information, like the locations of rare items, a bit more accessible. That being said, players hoping to get their hands on the new region's weapons will actually find themselves harvesting resources, as three out of four of them are craftable, rather than found as treasure.
Travelers can get their hands on four new weapon as of Version 1.2, including a sword, claymore, catalyst, and polearm. The sword is an event-exclusive free weapon, and the other three weapons, are forgeable and share an ability. The polearm is specifically known as the Dragonspine Spear, and players hoping to craft it probably already know that it calls for an elusive Northlander Polearm Prototype.
Northlander Weapon Prototypes present some of the more obnoxious tasks in Genshin Impact, as they're generally only available as drops from Weekly Bosses. There are some rare exceptions, though, which are as follows:
- Spiral Abyss Floor 3, Chamber 3 - Floor's Bounty (rewards one Northlander Polearm Prototype)
- Frostbearing Tree Level 8 (rewards one Northlander Polearm Prototype)
Players can also purchase one of each kind of Northlander Weapon Prototype from the game's existing souvenir shops, but otherwise, those hoping to get their hands on this rare crafting material should look to the game's weekly bosses: Dvalin, Andrius, and Tartaglia. They drop the Northlander Polearm Prototype, as well as its variants.
Players can challenge the aforementioned bosses however many times they choose, but they'll only be able to claim rewards once per week. Each of the Weekly Bosses can drop all five of the Northlander Weapon Prototypes, each of which has an incredibly low drop rate. So players must not only get lucky enough to receive a Prototype at all, but also hope that they get the correct one. Once a player manages to get a Northlander Polearm Prototype, they're effectively a few Starsilver away from a shiny new Dragonspine Spear. This spear, like the other Dragonspine weapons, generates icicles that deal Cryo DMG to surrounding enemies.
Players should also be aware that Northlander Prototypes can alternatively be used to craft the other forgeable four-star polearms: Crescent Pike and Prototype Grudge. Whereas each of the new forgeable Version 1.2 weapons bear the same ability as the Dragonspine Spear, these two have unique abilities, so players may want to choose carefully before investing their Northlander Prototypes. With each copy of a weapon, a player can raise its Refinement Rank, which in turn amplifies the weapon's abilities.
Genshin Impact is available now on the App Store, Google Play, PC, and PS4, and is currently in development for PS5 and Switch.