Awesome / Genshin Impact

Per wiki policy, Spoilers Off applies here and all spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned.

Promotional Materials

• In her Character Introduction PV, Klee does the "cool guys don't look at explosions" trope as multiple enemies get blown up behind her while she simply walks forward in slow motion. The final scene shows two Hilichurls approaching Klee, but then decide to step back, as if they're making way for her.
• In Cyno's Character Teaser, the stories that the fugitive scholar tells about him is so intimidating that the Eremites he hired ask him to stop telling ghost stories... then his husky voice is suddenly heard off-screen, causing them to jump:

  Cyno: Found you.

  • After the Eremites were swiftly dealt with, Cyno only needs to walk slowly towards the fugitive scholar to cause him to fall backwards in fear. As the scholar protests, Cyno gives him a terse response:
    Cyno: Save your energy, it's a long walk back. If you have any final words, save them for judgement day.
• Navia's Character Demo, "Unofficial Operation", has Navia chasing after a thief called the "Sea-Shadow", resulting in an amazing parkour sequence through the sewers and streets of the Court of Fontaine. Then, when Navia finally corners him, the Sea-Shadow sics a huge Gardemek on her, prompting Navia to obliterate it with a salvo of cannon fire.
• Xianyun's Character Demo, "Unfettered as the Wind", has the adeptus flying in to rescue a woman she was arguing with earlier when said woman is accosted by hilichurls. Before Xianyun arrives, she blesses the woman with her Starwicker, allowing the woman to jump to safety just before a mitachurl was about to chop her in half with its axe. Cue Xianyun swooping in and wiping out the hilichurls in seconds.
• In Chiori's Character Teaser, "Crimson-Woven Heart", a customer starts getting belligerent over Chiori's "first come, first served" policy and grabs one of her employees by the wrist, demanding preferential treatment. Chiori's response is to throw her fabric shears at him, tearing his suit without landing a scratch on him. Twice. She then locks the door to her boutique, walks up to him with utter menacing calm, and holds her scissors perilously close to his neck. The man's response is to break out of Chiori's window and run for his life. Chevreuse, who shows up afterward, can't even punish Chiori for it because Chiori didn't actually harm the man, nor did she verbally threaten him.
• Arlecchino's animated short, "The Song Burning in the Embers", features an exquisitely animated fight scene between Peruere (who would eventually become the Knave we know today) and the former Harbinger Crucabena. At first, the former Knave gets the upper hand, but then Peruere taps into whatever cursed power she has and smashes Crucabena up into the glass ceiling of the dome they're fighting in before utterly incinerating her and blowing up the entire building! Oh, and this was when Peruere was still a young teenager, and she's only gotten stronger since then!
  • What does the Tsaritsa do upon learning that this girl murdered one of her Harbingers? She promotes her to Crucabena's position.

General, Recurring, and Gameplay-Related Moments

• If you fire arrows from a long distance, you'd think they disappear a few seconds later like other games, right? No, they actually don't! It's actually possible to fire an arrow from a waypoint to another one's direction, then teleport to said waypoint^note The loading screen freezes the game's world, yet still catch a closer sight of the arrow you fired. It's also possible to fire charged shots from a high angle, teleport to a nearby elevated area, and watch as the color-coded arrows fall like comets.
• As the former Geo Archon, Zhongli's Elemental Burst is an appropriate spectacle. Most characters' are fairly simple, such as a Rain of Arrows in an area, or making their sword larger for a few seconds. Zhongli's? With nothing more than a Badass Armfold, a gigantic meteorite comes crashing down onto the battlefield, petrifying everything it hits in a massive explosion.

Archon Quests (Main Story)

Mondstadt

• The opening, in which the twin Travelers face off against the mysterious Unknown God, resulting in her giving them the Curb-Stomp Battle of their lives, warping them away from each other and kickstarting the playable Traveler's journey to reunite with their twin.
• It's a dark moment, but it's still awe-inspiring to see that your sibling is now the leader of the Abyss Order, an organization that's supposed to hate all humans.
• Every single time Dvalin (Stormterror) makes an appearance. Being a dragon, he certainly has a flair for the dramatic.
• The first time the Traveler takes on Stormterror to stop him from wrecking Mondstadt, they've just been given the glider. They get sent hurtling up into the sky, promptly flap their glider wings open, and proceed to go to town on Stormterror, hitting him with everything they've got.
• The final battle against Stormterror, chasing him down once again while he fires everything he has at the heroes in a Bullet Hell style showdown. Then the battle moves to the (floating) ground, at which point the heroes must destroy the purple spikes on his back causing his corruption. In return, he gets to save everyone of his own free will once the battleground crumbles beneath them.
• Signora has a villainous moment of pure awesomeness in her Establishing Character Moment when she gives Venti the beating of his life without even breaking a sweat. The reveal of Signora's backstory makes this moment much more significant in hindsight, as Signora beats Venti/Barbatos down as revenge for his inaction 500 years ago, causing her lover's death, the loss of her humanity, and the sheer pain and suffering she endured for all those years.

Liyue

• During the Traveler’s battle with Childe, they hold off his attack with their Anemo powers, which is followed by the Traveler slamming their foot onto the floor, and use their Geo powers at the same time.
• EVERYTHING about the final act of Liyue, which manages to be even more over-the-top than the Stormterror fight. Highlights include Childe going One-Winged Angel on the Traveler, a gigantic ancient god that the Adepti fight with divine ballista, a Curb-Stomp Battle of epic proportions against the Fatui thanks to the Adepti empowering you, and then slamming the entire Jade Palace onto the god to seal it away once again. And then it's revealed that the entire thing was orchestrated by Zhongli, who is actually Rex Lapis in human form, to test the mortal subjects of Liyue to see if they could take care of themselves without him.
• While helping find the last few materials for the Jade Chamber, it's clear that something's going on behind the scenes. Bubu Pharmacy has received a massive order for medical supplies, Cloud Retainer cryptically mentions that she's watching how Ningguang will deal with an approaching "storm", and Xiao can be found near the Subrosium, ready to act as a safety net for what is all but stated to be an incoming attack. When the reborn Jade Chamber takes off, the reason becomes clear: Beisht, Osial's wife, has decided to take her revenge, starting with the hated object that defeated her husband. What follows is a demonstration of how far Liyue has come since Osial's attack:
  • Last time, the battle waged was a desperate defense thrown together at the last second against a threat that had crept on them without anyone noticing. This time, Beidou saw the warning signs in advance, and they spent those few months preparing a plan of attack. Not defense. Attack. Provoking Beisht with the reborn Jade Chamber, she gets lured into a crossfire between the Jade Chamber, Millelith forces led by Keqing in Guyun Stone Forest, and the Alcor.
  • Previously, their only means of offense were a few experimental copies of the Guizhong Ballista, which required some adjustments from Cloud Retainer and for the three Zhenjun to operate in order to hurt Osial. This time around, the prototypes have clearly gone beyond the experimental phase and into production, as both the Millelith forces at Guyun Stone Forest and the Alcor are armed with substantial numbers of the siege weapons. While they don't display anything close to the Wave-Motion Gun that the Zhenjun unleashed, they're also presumably being manned by ordinary humans, which itself is pretty impressive. Cloud Retainer has to admit that they did a pretty good job with these weapons.
  • The fight against Osial was largely carried by the Adepti and the Traveler, and even the sacrifice of the first Jade Chamber involved the Traveler channeling the power of six Adepti to turn it into a bomb. Here, much of the heavy lifting is done by Liyue's humans; the Traveler is actually among the last to know about the crisis, and the adepti agreed to stand back and evaluate their efforts (and step in as a last resort, if needed). Even Ganyu doesn't raise her bow except in preparation to freeze a tsunami, which is instead taken care of by Shenhe. And they did an impressive amount of damage; when Shenhe and the Traveler chase Beisht into the deep, the head she was previously fighting with is down to a third of its health. Admittedly, it was ultimately Shenhe and the Traveler who pummeled her until she decided revenge could wait, but the forces Ningguang and the others assembled still had plenty of fight left in them at the end.
  • The days following the Rite of Descension saw tensions between the Qixing and the Adepti at an all-time high, and they were practically at each other's throats before Osial's escape forced them to set aside their differences. While relations between the two groups haven't exactly improved to the point of friendship, it's clear that there's been some kind of correspondence, as the adepti not only agreed to use this as a way of testing the Qixing's performance, but Cloud Retainer herself sent Shenhe to help with the Jade Chamber, evidently knowing the part it would play in the upcoming battle.
• Escaping the strange space featured in Perilous Trail. Yelan and Xiao combine their powers to activate the Fantastic Compass, which is the key to their escape. Xiao dons his mask and uses the artifact to deploy a magic elevator, which begins ascending to reality. However, some form of dark energy begins coalescing, as if in response to their flight, and begins to close in. Yelan, Yanfei, and the Traveler jump into action, fending off the malice as it closes in, but it slowly gains ground before Xiao kicks things into overdrive and flies them away to safety. The Traveler looks up and sees the end of the tunnel...and then the platform cracks. Xiao's mask then shatters, as the Guardian Yaksha's strength is at its limits. Out of options, he waves his hand, and the party is engulfed in green light...all except for Xiao, that is. Before they can stop him, he sends them towards the surface. The platform breaks, and Xiao closes his eyes as he falls, content that the others are safe. That's when suddenly a light in a familiar Geo gold dives towards him, pulling him back to reality at the last second. Above, a familiar set of coattails wave in the wind before their owner, satisfied that the matter is resolved, turns his heel and leaves. The God of Contracts does not abandon his faithful.

Inazuma

• Thoma is captured and about to have his Vision taken. Right when the Raiden Shogun starts pulling it in though, the Traveler leaps into action and catches it before turning around and disposing of Thoma's guards. The Raiden Shogun doesn't take this disturbance lying down however, and wastes no time pulling the Traveler into a Pocket Dimension for their very first fight against one of the Seven. And it shows that the full power of the Archons are not to be trifled with.
  • The Traveler takes on the Electro Archon in her personal space and manages to hold their own against the Raiden Shogun, even ignoring her power to shut down Visions due to not possessing one of their own. Then the Raiden Shogun decided to put an end to their little skirmish by administering the Divine Punishment: Musou no Hitotachi, which the Traveler responds by challenging it head on much like Kazuha's friend in the past. The Shogun won the exchange, but the Traveler managed to 'survive' the strike and live another day. This caused the Archon to apply a second strike to her Divine Punishment on the Traveler specifically the next time they meet in the battlefield.
  • Thoma gets one after the Shogun defeats the Traveler. As the Shogun prepares to deal the killing blow, Thoma desperately attempts to undo the rope binding his wrists on the spear of a guard that the Traveler defeated and as soon as he got free, he grabbed the spear and threw it at the goddess, forcing her to switch targets and deflect the spear. The force threw the unconscious Traveler into Thoma, who then takes them and flees the scene.
• The Traveler later goes off to confront Signora once more after learning of her involvement in the chaos overtaking Inazuma. The last time, Signora delivered a Curb-Stomp Battle to both the Traveler and Venti at the same time without breaking a sweat. This time, however, the Traveler defeats the Harbinger, even after she unleashed her true power as the Crimson Witch of Flames, and she does NOT take it well. Reduced to flailing and screaming in rage, Signora can do nothing but attempt one last attack that immediately fails against the Shogun's Musou no Hitotachi, completely obliterating the Harbinger in a single blow and reducing her to ashes. It's one thing to defeat a Fatui Harbinger, but actually killing them is another. It becomes even more awesome in hindsight when it's revealed that the Raiden Shogun never had her Gnosis on her to begin with, which means she's just that freaking powerful.
  • Additionally, is the Traveler proceeding to challenge Signora with how bold, yet calm they sound saying the line.
    Traveler: I challenge you... to a duel before the throne!
• After finishing off Signora, the Raiden Shogun allows the Traveler to leave the place alive, in recognition of their honor. However, all parties are well aware that she's going attack them as soon as they leave. Sure enough, the second that the Traveler steps foot outside and meets with the Resistance, the Shogun suddenly teleports behind the Traveler and is about to cut them down with her Musou no Hitotachi. However, Kazuha manages to resonate with the Masterless Vision allowing him to wield the power of two Visions and successfully deflect the attack.
• The subsequent proper battle against Raiden Ei definitely qualifies. Initially, while it seems that Ei uses her Power Nullifier again to gain the upper hand, the Traveler pulls out the charm given by Yae to summon Yae herself to the battlefield. After a quick pep talk, the Visions that had been taken by the Raiden Shogun manifest to empower the Traveler enough to outright cancel out the Vision Hunt Decree's effects, and fight Ei on equal footing, and eventually defeat her. Having been defeated and convinced, Ei abolishes the Vision Hunt Decree, bringing true peace to Inazuma once again.
  • Speaking of the empowerment, who else appears during said cutscene? Teppei, that's who. Despite not claiming a Vision, his ambitions live on to help the Traveler defeat the almighty Shogun. Heck, he even speaks for all of the Visions' stead.
    [flashes of Teppei appear over the Traveler as they rise up]
    Teppei: "Abolish the Vision Hunt Decree!"
  • Also, bonus points for the Traveler dropping an awesome Pre Ass Kicking One Liner.
    Traveler: "I'm not here to debate your ideas. I'm here to demolish them."

Sumeru

• While not mentioned much, Tighnari gets one during his meeting with Il Dottore. Dottore arrives to take Haypasia with him back to Sneznayha, and Tighnari curtly tells him the requirements for a transfer and refuses. Keep in mind that Dottore is the second ranked Fatui Harbinger, and Tighnari's level in power is very low compared to him. While it does bite Tighnari in the back when he's later attacked by Scaramouche, you still have to give him credit for standing his ground as a Forest Watcher.
• In Act V of Sumeru's Archon Quest, Alhaitham proves his strategic skills are nothing to laugh at as he, Cyno, Dehya, and the Traveler successfully orchestrate their plan to free Nahida and take down Grand Sage Azar. Alhaitham uses a Batman Gambit to get close to Azar so he could swap out the knowledge capsule of the anti-public performance decree and the Traveler can get close enough to awaken Nahida, by faking going mad and getting the Traveler put in confinement where they can reach Nahida. Then Nilou puts on a dance on the front porch of the Akademiya itself, causing Azar to unknowingly send out the tampered decree that sends off all the Akademiya's guards on a false alarm that Kusanali has escaped. Then Isak disguised as Kusanali lures them all to the Grand Bazaar where Dehya and Rahman's forces take them all down. Then when Azar figures out the tampering and heads to the Sanctuary of Surasthana, he's met by a very pissed Cyno who arrests him for his vile treason and forces him to release Nahida. Using the Sages' arrogance and complacency against them, Alhaitham, Cyno, Dehya, and the Traveler have changed the political landscape of Sumeru for good. The icing on the cake? Azar is forced to confess his treason to the highest of courts: The God of Wisdom herself.
  Cyno: I've at least confirmed that you are guilty of insurgency against the Archon, a serious crime.
  Azar: So what? Did you do all of this so I would plead guilty in front of you, General Mahamatra?
  Cyno: No. I want you to plead guilty in front of the Archon herself. You once said that I had no standing to judge you. So now, how about judgment in the name of a God?
  • In a way, Nilou's dance in front of the Akademiya is basically her giving Azar and his "no arts" decree a proverbial middle finger. Even if the plan hadn't worked out, she didn't care and was willing to risk getting arrested just to spite the man who shut down the Sabzeruz Festival.
• The battle against the Balladeer's mecha god form, Shouki no Kami. It starts out with the would-be god's upper body using every element to attack you in the first round and then it gets worse when he shifts into his full Giant Mecha form and it becomes a Hopeless Boss Fight. All your attacks only scratch him, with the Traveler eventually getting smashed down and the Balladeer preparing to extract Nahida's Gnosis... only for Nahida to calmly put her hand on the Balladeer's wrist and say that the data collection is almost complete. Then the walls shatter, revealing that Nahida trapped him in a dream before the start of the fight and has been running it for 168 loops, the same number the people of Sumeru were forced to go through at the Sabzeruz Festival. Passing the sum of all the fighting experience to the Traveler, Nahida passes on the knowledge of the battle to the people of Sumeru so they can lend their help via the Akasha. The rematch has the Traveler taking the false god down for good alongside Nahida and her mobile Akasha terminal, tearing through Shouki no Kami's shields and tanking every attack he throws at you. With the mecha down, Nahida rips out Ei's Gnosis, ending the fight for good.
• Just when it seems the arc is over with the Balladeer's defeat and the curing of the Eleazar, the Doctor finally intervenes in the ending aiming to collect the Electro and Dendro Gnoses, knocking Paimon and the Traveler out, but not Nahida. What follows is an impressive battle of wits. In order:
  • The Doctor is the second ranked of the Fatui Harbingers and appropriately powerful, and Nahida isn't the fighting type; he succinctly points out that he could just kill her and take the Gnoses. Nahida fires back by threatening to destroy the Electro Gnosis, since its destruction might awaken the Heavenly Principles and invoke the Gods wrath on whoever or whatever allowed a symbol of Teyvat to be damaged. The Doctor is shocked that the God of Wisdom is willing to gamble on that, and since the Fatui would definitely have to deal with some divine retribution if she's right, this gets the Doctor to back off.
  • The Doctor then changes tact, making an attempt to negotiate for the Gnoses. Nahida, realizing the Doctor's intelligence makes him a threat, has spent a good while studying him and discusses what makes him so powerful: he has many bodies of varying age, essentially being timeless, though the creation of those is noted to be a difficult and expensive process. Her price for the Electro Gnosis? Destroy all of those bodies right now. The Doctor agrees. With this bargain, Nahida has taken one of the strongest antagonists in the setting off the board for a long while. Well played, God of Wisdom.
  • Not to be outdone, and despite now being on the wrong end of the power scale, the Doctor makes his own bargain for the Dendro Gnosis: knowledge. Being the God of Wisdom who is connected to the Irminsul, Nahida is naturally incredulous, but the Doctor isn't bluffing. What he offers is not the poisonous Forbidden Knowledge, but knowledge of "the world above the skies of Teyvat" — the world the Traveler hails from, something Irminsul can't have. Nahida doesn't like more power ending up in the Fatui's hands but ultimately decides that, yes, that is worth a Gnosis. Well played, Doc.
  • This culminates in the Sumeru storyline's postgame, where if the player visits Nahida, we learn what this knowledge of the other world was. Firstly, we now have a catch-all term from the Fatui for beings who have come from another world: "Descender", and because they come from outside Teyvat, Irminsul has no record of them. Secondly, the Traveler is the fourth Descender, and the Heavenly Principles were presumably the first. Thirdly, and most shockingly, we learn that the Traveler's lost sibling ISN'T a Descender - Irminsul actually has records of their life in Teyvat starting from the Khaenri'ah disaster 500 years ago. The Traveler, Paimon, and Nahida herself are all rightfully baffled by this, and when Nahida attempts to access records of the sibling's life, she finds that something - or someone - is obscuring them. Regardless of the setback, her Self-Deprecation, and having to give up two Gnoses to do it, Nahida has managed to finally give us our first real clue to the game's biggest mystery. "Truth Among the Pages of Purana" indeed.

Fontaine

• Chapter IV, Act II:
  • The fight near the Opera Epiclese. The Traveler, having lost consciousness, wakes up to see Navia, Silver and Melus trying to fight off a small army of Gardemeks. As the fight goes on, Navia sees Clorinde behind the Gardemeks, and the player thinks she may be leading them. A second later, Clorinde cuts one down, making it clear she's there to help. Cue Clorinde cutting an utter swathe through them, Parrying Bullets with her sword as she goes.
  • Childe is found guilty by the Oratrice, despite that Neuvillette proclaimed him innocent of any charges. Childe, being the Blood Knight that he is, tries to fight his way out despite not having his Vision. He does well via his Delusion, but just as he's about to use his Foul Legacy Transformation, Neuvillette puts his foot down and knocks out the Harbinger with one strike.
    • Credit has to be given to Childe, though, because even though Neuvillette hit him while his back was turned, he somehow managed to land a cut on the Iudex's face.
• Chapter IV, Act IV:
  • After learning the Primordial Sea is locked beneath the Fortress of Meropide, the Traveler and Paimon rush down as alarms are going off. They arrive just in time to see the seal on the Primordial Sea literally burst open, prompting Wriothesley to freeze a large wave of the water. This only provides a brief moment of respite, forcing Wriothesley and Clorinde to fall back and seal a number of secondary doors, with Wriothesley narrowly sliding under the last one before freezing it to buy time. Considering that simply touching the water could've killed him, Wriothesley showed some serious balls there.
  • Just when Wriothesley and Clorinde can't hold back the Seawater any longer, Neuvillette arrives and, in a display of power rivalling what an Archon can do, forces the water back and creates a new seal. It won't hold forever, but he's bought Fontaine more time. Shortly afterward, we learn just how he was able to do that: he's the current Hydro Sovereign. That's right, he's basically a dragon-god in human form, which explains how he was able to one-shot Childe.
• Chapter IV, Act V: Where to even begin?
  • Navia has fallen into the Primordial Sea despite the Traveler's best efforts to save her. She wakes up in a dream world with the people who had been melted by the Primordial Sea at Poisson, who all take her to the courthouse for a "trial", which is in fact a bizarre Assimilation Plot to force her to merge with the rest of the collective. Navia unfortunately is still not sure what's going on due to forgetting what happened to her, but Melus and Silver quickly remember what's actually going on and immediately spring to her defense, calling the "court" out for trying to steal away Navia's individuality. When the other citizens, revealed to now be Oceanids, attempt to take Navia by force, Neuvillette intervenes, calls out the Oceanids for the utterly absurd and nonsensical "trial", and helps Navia escape, as Melus and Silver offer one last goodbye to the mistress they faithfully served and protected even beyond death. When she awakes, Neuvillette reveals that two Oceanids had protected Navia just long enough for Neuvillette to save her from being dissolved.
  • When the All-Devouring Narwhal comes bursting into the Opera House, overpowering Neuvillette and about to eat a crowd of running Fontainians, Childe's theme kicks in as he comes out of the same portal the Narwhal used, already in his Foul Legacy Transformation, and preventing it from doing so. Childe and Neuvillette then proceed to tag-team the Narwhal, with Childe going melee while Neuvillette blasts it with hydro from afar, before ending it with a Combination Attack that manages to repel the Narwhal. Bad. Ass.
    • The Reveal that Childe had been fighting the Narwhal for at least 45 DAYS from Teyvat's perspective and possibly even longer than that given the time difference in the Abyss, keeping it busy and preventing it from getting to Fontaine even sooner than it did, reminds us after his defeat at Neuvillette's hands (and while still lacking his Hydro Vision) that yes, Childe is still a monster in combat who deserves respect.
  • The true Hydro Archon, Focalors, was one of the original oceanids granted a human form by Egeria and was later named her successor. However, she disagreed with Celestia's judgement that the people of Fontaine were to be dissolved for bearing Egeria's sin of creating humans and decided to defy them. She created the Oratrice and split her memories and divinity from her humanity, creating Furina, a normal human whom she instructed to play the part of the Archon to avert the prophecy. Furina then spent five hundred years pretending to be an Archon, despite the agonizing loneliness. Meanwhile, Focalors gathered Indemnitium in the Oratrice, eventually gaining enough to destroy the entire seat of the Hydro Archon. Despite the pain, Focalors's plan goes off without a hitch and she successfully averts the prophecy and returns all of the stolen power to Neuvillette.
    • It should probably be emphasized that this is a spectacular middle finger to Celestia, defanging their prophecy, destroying her own throne and eliminating one of the Archons from the world permanently, and handing her power back to the Hydro Sovereign, one of Celestia's ancient enemies who intends to use his fully restored powers to enact justice upon them. Considering how Celestia tends to behave when their will is defied, the fact that she got away with this plan and had the last laugh without any consequences for herself or Fontaine itself (at least none that she didn't plan for) speaks volumes.
  • Thanks to Focalors's cunning plan, Neuvillette's power as the Hydro Sovereign is restored. The first thing he does is turn all the Fontainians into true humans, a totally illegal act of creation by Celestia's standards that rivals their own power. This makes the people of Fontaine immune to the effects of the Primordial Sea and saves everyone from the supposedly inevitable prophecy, defying Celestia twofold. He is even able to keep the entire city running without the Oratrice thanks to his total control over the Hydro element. Lastly, he freely hands the Gnosis off to Arlecchino, knowing it brings misfortune and having absolutely no use for it.

Story Quests (Character-specific)

• Diluc wielding his fiery greatsword and tearing through the Abyss Order's forces without even getting out of breath. He even manages to take down two Cryo Abyss Mages in a single swing.
• An Offscreen Moment of Awesome for Klee, who, according to multiple accounts, is so powerful that she blew up the Stormbearer Mountains.
  • And in one of her birthday messages, she ran off, went very deep into Liyue, and then killed a Primo Geovishap without breaking a sweat. And her only concern was that she needed assistance finding her way back.
• In Tartaglia's story, he fights multiple Ruin Guards in a span of 70 seconds. In the final 10 seconds, he uses his Foul Legacy Transformation and decimates the remaining enemies before Teucer can finish counting to 10. Those who know how horrifying Ruin Guards are as a group will truly find this beyond impressive.
• The first time the player sees Eula is in a cutscene. In this cutscene, she blocks a bullet with her claymore, climbs a tower in three jumps, defeats the sniper who shot, and finally lands on solid ground.
• Zhongli:
  • In Zhongli's first story, he ventures into a tomb holding the lost treasures of the fallen Goddess of Salt with the Traveler, a so-called archeologist named Wanyan, and a greedy Fatui ambassador named Kliment. He bounds the latter two to a contract where each takes exactly one artifact they find before the other. When Wanyan gets an artifact of higher quality than Kliment, he gets greedy and rejects the contract.
  Zhongli: So you are saying you want to break the contract?
  Kliment: So what if I break it? Now that I've seen how mechanisms in this ruin work, I no longer need you. Let's not forget who hired who here. Why should I let YOU make the rules?
  Zhongli: Because you agreed to a contract. Rex Lapis once said "Ones who break their contracts shall suffer the "Wrath of the Rock."
  Kliment: That is one of your Liyue Gods. I am from Snezhnaya, I-
  Zhongli: -will suffer the Wrath of the Rock. You may find it rather unpleasant.
  • Zhongli's second Story Quest has him and the Traveler trying to locate a bunch of miners that have gone missing, which were used to undo the seal of a mighty beast called Azhdaha beneath the Dragon Queller Tree in Nantianmen culminating in an epic battle. With the help of the Traveler and Kun-Jun, Zhongli was able to subdue and redo the seal on the Lord of Vishaps.
• Ei:
  • Ei reveals that the then-current head of the Kujou Clan first secured the position of Tenryou Commissioner for the clan by beating Ei in a duel, and she will only allow the position to change hands with a similar duel. With everyone from the Takatsukasa Clan cowed into submission, Kujou Kamaji steps up and asks to fight her. He knows he stands no chance of restoring the Kujou Clan after its disgrace, or even beating the Shogun, nor does he even want to; he's so ashamed at the events of the past year, both what was caused by his clan's greed and what he allowed to happen by his own inaction, that he thinks it a fitting end for himself and the Kujou clan as a whole if he, as its acting head, met the end at the Shogun's hands, the same way the Kujou's story started. Impressed by his courage, Ei allows it, and while the duel is as one-sided as expected even with Ei clearly going easy on him, Kamaji does not give up, getting back up every time. In the end, Ei has to beat him black and blue into unconsciousness, and even then, the last thing Kamaji does before finally passing out from his injuries is reach for his sword. Though he was no great warrior, Ei is heartened that something of the Kujou clan's former courage and moral integrity survived into the present.
  • In the climax of Ei's second story quest, Ei faces off against the Shogun puppet in Makoto's realm of consciousness. Because it took place in a realm of consciousness, will and resolve is a major factor in the fight; keep in mind that the Shogun is made to resist erosion, and thus her will should surpass that of any living being. But Ei manages to keep up and fight her to a stalemate for centuries, their battle so great and epic that the energy used is enough to destroy countries and vaporize the oceans, and in the end Ei won, showing just how powerful her strength and determination could get when she truly puts her mind into it.
    • This is also awesome gameplay-wise as it uses Gameplay and Story Integration to the fullest: you fight the Shogun puppet solo with Ei and no one else. In the first round, Ei passively gathers energy which allows you to spam her Burst, and if she gets knocked out she'll revive to full health to show her determination; not to be outdone, the puppet can revive herself twice in the first round. In the second round, both Ei and the puppet is going all-out: Ei is now permanently using the Musou Isshin, making her damage skyrocket, while the Shogun enters her One-Winged Angel form, unleashing new and devastating attacks which includes a One-Hit KO if the player is not careful. It is an exhilarating battle fitting for a clash between gods, and winning it feels amazing.
• Neuvillette:
  • Seeing the people of Fontaine band together to protect Kiara, a Melusine, once word gets out that she's being threatened, is both awesome and heartwarming, considering the extremely rocky start the Melusines had in the past. 400 years of effort from both Neuvillette and the Melusines to coexist with the people eventually paid off incredibly well, with many citizens offering to protect Kiara, demanding who would dare to threaten such a sweetheart like her. In short: do not mess with the Melusines, or Fontaine will make you pay.
  • While it's a bittersweet moment, learning that Vautrin outright hunted down and executed every single racist bastard that drove Carole to suicide is highly cathartic, with many people in the court even agreeing that what Vautrin did was very justified.
• Wriothesley:
  • Learning of Wriothesley's past and then seeing how he deals with Dougier is an awesome moment in hindsight. As a teenager, Wriothesley murdered his foster parents upon learning they were human traffickers who would dispose of those who didn't sell or caused trouble. He admits to the Traveler that he was impulsive and young when he did it, thinking a less extreme approach wouldn't have worked. Now, when faced with Dougier, who was doing something very similar to his foster parents, Wriothesley spares his life when he could've easily snapped the man's neck and gotten away with it, showing he's gotten far wiser and more merciful than he once was.
  • There's also how Wriothesley walks confidently toward Dougier after destroying his Gardemeks while the latter is firing a pistol at him, with two shots passing an inch by the former's face, and Wriothesley doesn't even flinch. It's only when Dougier turns his gun on the Traveler that Wriothesley disarms him.
• Navia:
  • When a rival group sets off a series of explosives that cause a huge rockslide which threatens to destroy Poisson, the Traveler uses their Geo abilities to deflect some of the boulders, but this only buys a few seconds. Then Navia shows up and, using her parasol and cannons, blows up all of the oncoming boulders rather than trying to block them.
• Chiori:
  • Even when Uther slanders her name and all her providers pull their support for her, Chiori doesn't quit and does everything in her power to not just participate in Fashion Week, but also to expose Uther's crimes. And when Uther tries to kill her for snooping around in his factory, she gives him an excellent "The Reason You Suck" Speech before slashing a bullet he fires out of the air and then whupping his ass.
• Arlecchino:
  • When Arlecchino announces her intent to punish the children of the House of the Hearth for betrayal, Lyney, Lynette and Freminet all decide to fight her, despite knowing they are hopelessly outmatched against the Fourth Harbinger. The Traveler, knowing Arlecchino wanted them to intervene, fights alongside them... and Arlecchino STILL wins the ensuing fight without a single scratch. To top it off, the Traveler tries to get in her way, prompting her to stare them in the eye with her Killing Intent, an act that scares the Traveler shitless and leaves them too afraid to move.

Events

• Shadows Amidst Snowstorms:
  • When fake!Albedo attacks the Traveler and Eula, all three put up an incredible fight against each other, and even when Amber and Bennett join the fray against the impostor, fake!Albedo still matches them... until the real Albedo stabs him from behind.
• A Parade of Providence:
  • The final round of the Interdarshan Championship has Layla, Faruzan, Kaveh, Wanderer, Tighnari, and Cyno all fighting each other for possession of the Diadem of Wisdom, with Wanderer taking on everyone else (except Kaveh) at once. He snatches the Diadem from Layla through her shield, damages Faruzan's robotic helper, avoids a volley of arrows from Tighnari, and clashes head-on with Cyno, all within the span of seconds. The only reason he loses the race to the finish line is due to Kaveh getting extremely lucky and snatching the Diadem when it is struck from Wanderer's grip.
• Muskets and Roses:
  • When Chevreuse corners Morris in a warehouse, she scares the piss out of him to make him confess to ordering Elisa's assassination. Throughout the whole scene, Morris thinks that Chevreuse is going to murder him, believing Chevreuse already shot Yoimiya, but she reveals at the end that the whole thing was staged to get a confession out of him. Then, once Paimon has gotten the confession on Kamera, Chevreuse whirls around just in time to block a bullet from Veronique that was aimed at Morris's head and force her into a standoff. Chevreuse also has this golden line just before she fires a blank round at Morris after the latter tries to bribe her:
    Morris: No, I'm begging you... I have money... Just name your price, please!
    Chevreuse: You can keep your Mora. And you can go to hell.
• Vibrant Harriers Aloft in Spring Breeze:
  • During the third part of the Lantern Rite festival, Gaming performs his Wushou Dance in the bay of Liyue Harbor, walking on water, kicking Xiao Lanterns around, and eventually running up one of the towers until he's standing on top of a stack of lanterns above the crowd.
  • When everyone starts flying their kites, the wind suddenly dies down. Just when the kites start falling, Xianyun activates her own kite, which generates a powerful updraft that causes the kites to soar after hers. Way to show everyone who's boss, Cloud Retainer.

Character Backgrounds

• Many characters have quite the feats recollected in their background that the player can unlock as they develop their bonds with them, but easily one of the most impressive ones is Beidou managing to defeat Haishan, a leviathan that chased her ship, and against which Beidou fought throughout four entire days, only to reach a stalemate after the beast retreated into the water, whereas Beidou patiently waited for its return, predicting it so. Just from feeling a change in the sound of the waves at dawn, after waiting for the creature for ten hours while enduring hunger and freezing coldness, she anticipated the beast's attack... she split the Haishan's head open in a single strike! By the way, did we mention that this was the moment that earned her a Vision? That's right; she didn't get it until after she'd already slain Haishan, with nothing but human abilities.
• Diona has her own feat as well, which is having - at what we can only assume to have been an age younger than her current one - braved a days-lasting storm that had forced her father into hiding, rescuing the man and carrying him herself, a little girl, all the way back to their village, and even after that, still have the energy and will to help nurse him back to health.

Webcomic

• Venti appearing in the gladiator arena to help Vennessa when she was in a pinch against Ursa the Drake. At that moment, Vennessa learned that her newly-found friend is actually the Anemo Archon, who then lent his wind powers to help her deal a fatal blow. Ursa is so shocked that it fled. As for Lord Lawrence, he was humiliated when Venti casually reminds him to keep his promise of granting freedom to Vennessa, her people, and Mondstadt. This incident marks the day when the tyrants are overthrown from their rule.

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