Genshin Impact players have been celebrating the arrival of spring lately, with a special Lantern Rite Festival event that introduced the game's newest five-star character, Xiao. Though players can no longer Wish for Xiao from the Special Character banner, the new additions continue to roll in with a special new rendition of "Epitome Invocation," the game's weapons-only banner.
Travelers may be used to spending Primogems to summon popular Genshin Impact characters, but it should be noted that players also have the option of Wishing upon powerful weapons instead. Of course, weapons can be obtained from the game's other banners, but the newest and most powerful arms are reserved for the so-called Epitome Invocation, which only grants weapons.
While many players were disappointed that Xiao would be followed by Keqing, an already-introduced five-star character, some may be delighted to discover that several new weapons have arrived instead. If novelty is the goal, then players can simply focus on Wishing for new weapons until a character like Hu Tao makes their way into Genshin Impact, and replaces Keqing as a featured character. As per the official announcement, the upcoming Epitome Invocation banner will introduce three brand new weapons: two polearms and a claymore.
The Staff of Homa (five-star) and Lithic Spear (four-star) are the two new polearms, while the new claymore is dubbed the Lithic Blade (claymore). All three of these weapons will be exclusive drops from the upcoming Epitome Invocation banner, which is predicted to begin on February 23, 2021. This also means they won't be available from the standard "Wanderlust Invocation" banner that requires Acquaint Fates.
The Lithic Spear and Blade both share the same abilities and offense-geared stat boosts - their Main Stat is ATK %, while their Secondary Stat is Base ATK. Aside from this, these weapons possess a special Liyue-themed ability. This makes for a particularly neat weapon in parties featuring Zhongli, Ningguang, Xiao, and the like.
For every Liyue native in their party, the character using the weapon will gain a 7 percent ATK increase and a 3 percent CRIT Rate increase. The effect can stack up to a maximum of four times, which makes sense considering a party can only consist of four people. The above numbers also represent a completely un-enhanced weapon. Once the weapon is fully Refined, the stat boosts are expected to rise to 10 and 6 percent, respectively.
The Staff of Homa, on the other hand, provides polearm specialists like Xiao with an incredibly unique weapon. Its Main Stat is CRIT DMG, and its Secondary Stat is Base ATK, and its ability boosts Max HP, and further amplifies ATK with regard to the user's HP. Aside from a 20 percent Max HP boost, the Staff of Homa will grant its user an ATK Bonus equivalent to 0.8 percent of their Max HP. In addition to this, the Staff will increase the ATK Bonus by an additional 1 percent of Max HP whenever the user drops below 50 percent HP. Of course, the above numbers only represent an un-enhanced Staff of Homa - when fully Refined, it will offer higher stat boosts and greater passive bonuses.
Genshin Impact is available now on the App Store, Google Play, PC, and PS4, and is currently in development for PS5 and Switch.