Zhongli, also known as the Rex Lapis reincarnate, and Geo Archon, was one of the more highly anticipated Genshin Impact characters. Following in the footsteps of the Hydro hotshot Tartaglia, he recently joined the game’s roster of playable characters with his own Special Character Banner.
Travelers were excited to meet the new Geo Vision wielder, as Genshin Impact currently lacks a variety of Geo options for players to choose from. With few Geo characters available altogether, a new polearm user who could wield the element was welcomed by most — until players started noticing Zhongli’s Constellation, that is.
In short, Zhongli was released as a sub-par five-star who can become an S-Tier powerhouse once enhanced by his full constellation. “Full Constellation” effectively equates to summoning the character six times, so this basically means that players who summon Zhongli, which is already an incredibly lucky incident, will need to luck out four or five more times before having a five-star character with true five-star capabilities. MiHoYo responded to fan concerns by doubling down on its release, and claiming that Zhongli is actually fine as is, but now it seems that the developer has started to backpedal on that.
Players recently began sharing instances of odd “bugs” that seemed to imply Zhongli's stats were off, or that his abilities were working slightly differently. Now, upon community corroboration and the establishment of video proof, fans are fairly certain that this “bug” is a stealthy buff that was applied to certain users’ Zhonglis.
Fans speculate that this may be a case of “AB testing,” which basically means that miHoYo would be introducing a particular update or adjustment to a select pool of players (while keeping other players the same as a constant), and then comparing those players’ stats before determining if the update is effective. In this case, it seems miHoYo is already toying with the notion of improving Zhongli, which is thrilling most fans, given the rather inflexible response to player concerns.
One specific change players affected by the buff are noticing is a full second increase to the length of Petrification caused by Zhongli’s abilities. While one second may seem minimal, the difference is very notable when you’re working with such small numbers — 3s to 4s in this case. Small adjustments like these are precisely what fans expect could result from voicing their concerns over a character, so needless to say, players on Genshin Impact social media seem to be relieved by news of this bug.
Hopefully, this “bug” does in fact turn out to be a sneaky concession to players, rather than an actual flub, but nonetheless, affected players can enjoy their enhanced Zhonglis while they last. With Dragonspine and its new bosses and weapons arriving shortly, there’ll be content to keep busy regardless. Though admittedly, a strong Zhongli would help with mining the new Dragonspine minerals.
Genshin Impact is available now on the App Store, Google Play, PC, and PS4, and is currently in development for PS5 and Switch.
