The much anticipated Dragonspine region finally arrived in Genshin Impact with the game's newest update, Version 1.2. Players have been enjoying new quests, playable characters, enemies, and even weapons, since earlier last week when the patch was released.
With regard to weapons, the latest Genshin Impact update introduced three new forgeable four-stars that have sent players scrambling in pursuit of Northlander Weapon Prototypes. In short, four-star weapons that can be crafted require Northlander Weapon Prototypes of the appropriate kind - for example, a four-star sword requires a Northlander Sword Prototype, and so on and so forth.
Considering that five-stars are the rarest possible, four-star weapons are rather powerful, and as such, the ingredients needed to forge them are accordingly difficult to obtain. In general, these weapons call for a bundle of White Iron Chunks and Crystal Chunks, and a single Northlander Weapon Prototype. While the new Dragonspine weapons require Starsilver in place of some of the minerals, they're still forged using Northlander Prototypes.
Fortunately, the special event-exclusive four-star weapon introduced by Albedo's event isn't actually crafted at all, so players can upgrade it without having to hunt down several Northlander Sword Prototypes. That said, any players hoping to bestow their powerful sword-users with either a Prototype Rancour or Iron Sting, will still need these valuable base materials. Northlander Sword Prototypes are dropped as rewards by the game's Weekly Bosses. Otherwise, players must seek out and/or hope for special opportunities.
In addition to the Weekly Bosses, players also have a one-time shot at every Northlander Prototype from special in-game sites:
- Mondstadt Souvenir Shop (one-time purchase for 225 Anemo Sigils)
Once the Mondstadt Souvenir Shop's Prototype has been purchased, players will simply have to rely on luck to find one. They are not only rarely received from Weekly Bosses, but also come in five distinct varieties. Weekly Bosses will very rarely drop a single Northlander Weapon Prototype at all, and when they do, they will drop a random one of the five potential variants, making the hunt for a correct Prototype all the more frustrating.
That being said, players do have one task at hand that will improve their odds: powering through the main story. When hunting down Northlander Weapon Prototypes, players should make sure they're at least exhausting all possible options. If a Traveler can only challenge 2 of the 3 possible Weekly Bosses, they're missing out on another precious opportunity to stock up on Prototypes. So at the very least, players should be sure to progress far enough into the story to challenge Dvalin, Andrius, and the quicksilver Tartaglia, if they're really gunning for a quick Northlander Sword Prototype.
Genshin Impact is available now on the App Store, Google Play, PC, and PS4, and is currently in development for PS5 and Switch.