DuringGenshin Impact’slatest seasonal event, “Of Ballads and Brews,” players have the opportunity to participate in a variety of events in Mondstadt as part of Weinlesefest, an annual wine festival. From running a charity stall for the Knights of Favonius to seeking out hidden treasure throughout Mondstadt, there’s no shortage of things to do. This guide will summarize all available activities and quests in “Of Ballads and Brews.”
Genshin Impactis an open-world action RPG developed and published by miHoYo. The story follows the Traveller, a mysterious being who traversed countless worlds before becoming trapped in Teyvat by an unknown God and was separated from their sibling in the process. With the aid of the mysterious floating foodstuff Paimon, they travel across the seven nations of Teyvat, discovering its history and becoming embroiled in its many mysteries.
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Beginning “Of Ballads and Brews”
In order to start the “Of Ballads and Brews” event, players must be at Adventure Rank 21 or higher and then head over to the Adventurer’s Guild in Mondstadt. This will trigger an event where the Traveller and Paimon hear about a letter sent to the Knights of Favonius by Varka, the Grandmaster of the Knights and leader of the oft-mentioned expedition.
After heading over to the Knight’s Headquarters and hearing the letter read out, Lisa asks for help broaching a sensitive subject with Razor. Apparently,Varka knew Razor’s parentsand held onto a box of mementos to give to Razor someday, and he asked Lisa to give the box to Razor in a note on the letter he sent to the Knights.
The player will need to go fetch Razor by tracking electro elemental traces from a trap in Wolvendom and then head back to Lisa to find out what is inside the box. After this, players should use the time change function in the menu to skip ahead two days and meet Razor at the Weinlesefest opening ceremony. After an encounter with a certain tone-deaf bard, the first quest of the event is completed, and the various event activities open up.
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Autumn Crisis
Autumn Crisis has players teaming up with hunters from Springvaleand a scholar from Sumeru to deal with a sudden influx of boar and other wild animals. They’ve been causing trouble for farmers and growers of crops in the area, so they need to be driven back. There are three stages to Autumn Crisis, these being Expulsion, Capture, and Uproot.
During Expulsion, players must make use of various hunter traps and the Traveller’s sword to help reduce the number of boar in the area around Springvale. Different species of Boar will give a different number of points when taken out, with Snowboar being the most valuable. Since the more valuable boar have more health, using hunter traps is essential to getting a high score. Grab Hunter’s Shields to restore stamina and create a spinning damage aura around the Traveller that can tear through Boar health bars effortlessly or get their attention and lure a group into a hunter trap to instantly defeat all Boar in range of the trap.
During Capture, players must use stealth and a hunting net to capture animals in the area around Dawn Winery. Hitting a lure with a thrown hunting net will draw animals in close for easier group captures, but players should watch out for dry branches and leaves, which will startle animals when stepped on. This challenge is fairly straightforward as long as players stick to the dense foliage and aim their traps well.
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Highwind Trial
In the Highwind Trial, players are tasked with completing 5 consecutive combat challenges for each test, earning an excellent assortment of rewards for doing so. To aid in this, sublime Anemograna have been scattered around the combat area and will provide a powerful bonus when collected, though the bonus differs in each test.
In the Fierce Combat Test, attacks that strike multiple targets are king, as the Sublime Anemograna will create whirlwinds to suck enemies in whenever the player switches character. Hitting the grouped enemies with reactions such as overload or bloom/burgeon will tear through them easily.Excellent units for dealing AOE damage include Klee, Yanfei, and most Anemo units. Supporting a Pyro unit with an Electro unit like Fischl can also be very potent in this challenge.
In the Ambush Test, the Sublime Anemograna instead enhance the jumping power of the player, allowing them to launch high into the air and strengthening their plunging attacks. If Xiao is an option, he’s probably the best unit to bring to this test, with Kazuha also being an excellent choice. If neither are an option, players should still have a fairly easy time crushing the enemy with plunging attacks and in regular combat, thanks to the buff. The boss of this section has weak points that can be most easily exploited using a bow, so bring along a bow-wielding unit to hit those weak points for massive damage.
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Charity and Creativity
In Charity and Creativity, players are tasked with hagglingto amass supplies and opening up their own Charity Stall at the Weinlesefest. During the first step, players will need to gather items to trade for the currency that can be used to open and run the Charity Stall. The goal is to make 32,000 as an initial investment to set up the stall, so players should gather and trade any items possible with the Angel’s Share and Cat’s Tail shopkeepers at the Weinlesefest venue.
Players should also open up the event menu and head over to the “Charity and Creativity” section to find commissions from other businesses looking to purchase supplies, as these will provide a ton of extra currency for little effort. When bartering, it’s usually safe to lower the initial price by around 2k, but experimenting with the exact number a little while the seller’s mood is still good can be very profitable.
Running the Stall
Once the stall is open for business, players are able to adjust how the stall is run during each business phase. It’s important to meet the target value for all three areas during each phase, but doing this with money alone can get expensive after a while. Luckily, after completing the first “Unexpected Situation,” players will gain access to Shop Strategems, which can be used to modify the starting values of Product Quality, Business Efficiency, and Holistic Service in various ways.
A useful thing to know is that The Cost of Artisanry, The Price of Speed, and the Hospitality Levy will offset each other’s downsides if equipped together, effectively functioning as a small increase to all three stats.Once better Strategems become available, like Freestyle Reception or A Steady Hand, swapping over and shuffling the Strategems around based on current needs becomes a great way to reduce costs.
After completing customer cycle 10, players gain access to the Charity Alliance, requiring them to manage three different stalls in order to continue Charity and Creativity. All the stalls use the same system of management, so just keep making good use of strategems as necessary. It’s also worth inviting a friend as a helper to get an additional bonus on a stall.
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Fecund Blessings
The final challenge available to players in Of Ballads and Brewsis the Fecund Blessings, a series of hidden treasures scattered around Mondstadt, which must be tracked down by using the clues provided in the menu. These will test players' knowledge of Mondstadt to locate every last treasure. They contain a variety of prizes, including new decorations and furniture for the Serenitea Pot, along with messages from the people of Mondstadt.
Genshin Impactis available for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, IOS, and Android.
