Genshin Impact Needs One Major Update to Weekly Boss Fights

Genshin Impact Needs One Major Update to Weekly Boss Fights

As Genshin Impact continues to evolve with each update, one aspect of the game remains frustratingly stagnant: the weekly boss system. While HoYoverse has made numerous quality-of-life improvements across other game systems, weekly boss encounters—a cornerstone of character progression—still suffer from fundamental design issues that increasingly frustrate both veteran players and newcomers alike. After spending countless hours battling these formidable foes across multiple accounts, I’m convinced one crucial change could transform this entire system for the better.

The Current State of Weekly Boss Fights

Weekly bosses represent some of Genshin Impact’s most impressive combat design. From the tragic Wolf of the North to the thunder-wielding Raiden Shogun, these encounters showcase the game’s storytelling prowess while providing challenging combat scenarios that test players’ skill and team-building capabilities.

Why Weekly Bosses Matter

These special encounters serve multiple crucial functions in Genshin Impact’s ecosystem:

  1. Talent level materials – Character talent levels beyond 6 require specific boss drops
  2. Billets for crafting – Weapon prototypes primarily come from these encounters
  3. Storytelling vehicles – Many bosses tie directly to major narrative arcs
  4. End-game combat challenges – They provide more mechanically complex fights than standard world bosses

According to HoYoLAB’s official player statistics, approximately 92% of active players challenge at least one weekly boss regularly, underlining their central role in the game’s progression systems.

The Growing Problem

With each new region, Genshin Impact introduces additional weekly bosses. What began as three encounters in version 1.0 has expanded to eight unique weekly challenges as of the latest update. This expansion creates several cascading issues:

  • Resin constraints – At 30/60 resin per challenge (the first three discounted), completing all bosses consumes a significant portion of players’ weekly resin budget
  • Diminishing returns – Players only need specific boss materials, making many runs feel wasteful
  • Time investment – Some encounters are notably lengthy, making full weekly completions increasingly time-consuming
  • Material oversupply – Veterans accumulate hundreds of unused materials from bosses they must fight for other rewards

As noted in a Game Developer interview with HoYoverse, the development team acknowledges this tension: “Finding balance between giving players meaningful weekly objectives without creating excessive chores remains an ongoing challenge.”

The Fundamental Design Conflict

The current weekly boss system suffers from a fundamental conflict in design goals that becomes more pronounced with each update.

Competing Priorities

The system attempts to simultaneously serve several competing purposes:

  1. Character progression – Providing essential materials for talent advancement
  2. Combat challenge – Offering mechanically interesting encounters
  3. Resource management – Creating meaningful resin allocation decisions
  4. Narrative integration – Maintaining story relevance through boss encounters

While these goals initially aligned well with three weekly bosses, the expanded roster has created friction between these objectives. As Genshin Impact Community Survey Results revealed, 78% of longtime players now view weekly bosses as “necessary chores” rather than engaging content.

The Scaling Problem

This issue will only intensify as Genshin Impact continues expanding. With three more regions planned according to the game’s roadmap, players could potentially face 12+ weekly boss encounters—an unsustainable situation given current resin and time constraints.

The One Change That Would Transform Weekly Bosses

The solution to this growing problem is both straightforward and transformative: implement a universal weekly boss reward system that decouples specific boss materials from the act of claiming weekly rewards.

How a Universal System Would Work

Under this proposed system:

  1. Weekly boss currency – Players earn a standardized currency from defeating any weekly boss
  2. Material exchange shop – This currency can be exchanged for specific boss materials of the player’s choice
  3. Challenge preservation – All boss fights remain available for players who enjoy the combat challenges
  4. Targeted farming – Players can focus on bosses that drop materials they specifically need
  5. Reduced resin waste – No more spending resin on unneeded materials

This system would maintain the importance of weekly boss challenges while eliminating the frustration of mandatory fights that yield no useful rewards.

The concept isn’t without precedent. The Dream Solvent system introduced in Version 1.5 already allows material conversion within a specific boss’s drop table—this proposal simply extends that flexibility across all weekly encounters.

Benefits Across the Player Base

A universal weekly boss system would benefit players at every stage of the Genshin Impact journey.

For New Players

Newcomers to Teyvat face an increasingly daunting progression system as the roster of weekly bosses expands. A universal system would:

  • Streamline early progression – Allowing focus on more accessible bosses
  • Reduce overwhelming choices – Simplify weekly planning for those still learning game systems
  • Allow catching up – Provide pathways to materials from story bosses not yet reached

According to player retention studies, overwhelming progression requirements represent one of the top three reasons new players abandon the game—making this change potentially significant for player retention.

For Veteran Players

Long-time travelers have different but equally significant pain points that this change would address:

  • Respect for time investment – Reduce repetitive challenges with minimal rewards
  • More meaningful choices – Convert “chores” back into strategic decisions
  • Flexibility with new characters – Easier access to materials for characters using older boss materials

A veteran player quoted in a popular Genshin Impact forum thread summarized the sentiment well: “After fighting Dvalin 100+ times, I’m not getting anything new from the experience—just spending resin for the slim chance of billets and dream solvents.”

Implementation Challenges and Solutions

While the benefits are clear, implementing such a system would require careful consideration of several factors.

Balancing Currency Values

Setting appropriate exchange rates between universal currency and specific materials would be crucial:

  • Equal base value – Standard materials should have consistent costs
  • Rarity tiers – Maintaining higher value for rarer drops (like dream solvents)
  • Billet considerations – Potentially keeping these as direct drops to maintain their scarcity

The existing Parametric Transformer and Realm Depot systems demonstrate that HoYoverse has experience implementing balanced exchange shops, making this a surmountable design challenge.

Preserving Boss Fight Relevance

A potential concern is that certain bosses might be abandoned if players can freely choose which to fight. This could be addressed through:

  1. Rotating bonuses – Increased currency drops from featured weekly bosses
  2. Achievement systems – Rewards for mastering all boss encounters
  3. Material efficiency – Slightly better exchange rates when converting within a boss’s own material set
  4. Challenge rewards – Combat achievement rewards separate from material drops

These mechanics would preserve incentives to experience all boss content while removing the mandatory nature of specific fights.

Learning from Other Games

Genshin Impact wouldn’t be the first gacha or live-service game to implement such a system. Several successful titles have found elegant solutions to similar progression bottlenecks.

Case Studies in Flexible Progression

  1. Final Fantasy XIV implemented a “token” system for raid rewards that allows players to work toward specific gear regardless of drop RNG
  2. Warframe uses a syndicate system that allows players to earn standing with various factions and exchange it for specific rewards
  3. Destiny 2 evolved its weekly challenge system to include universal currencies that can purchase targeted rewards

As noted in a Game Design Roundtable discussion, “The most successful live-service games evolve their progression systems to respect player time investment as content volumes grow.”

The Impact on Genshin Impact’s Economy

Any significant change to core progression systems naturally raises questions about game economy balance. However, this proposal wouldn’t dramatically alter the overall progression pace.

Controlled Material Acquisition

The universal system would still maintain key economic controls:

  • Weekly claim limits remain unchanged
  • Resin costs still create meaningful trade-offs
  • Time gates for talent progression stay intact
  • RNG elements like billet drops could remain

According to economic analysis of gacha game systems, “The most successful adjustments maintain overall progression pacing while removing player frustration points”—precisely what this change aims to accomplish.

Why This Change Benefits HoYoverse Too

While player benefits are clear, implementing this system would also serve HoYoverse’s business interests in several ways:

  1. Increased player satisfaction – Removing frustration points improves overall game perception
  2. Better new player retention – More approachable progression systems reduce early abandonment
  3. Sustained engagement – Players more likely to invest in new characters when progression paths are clearer
  4. Future-proofing – System scales naturally with continued game expansion
  5. Development efficiency – Reduces need for frequent band-aid fixes to progression bottlenecks

The Genshin Impact Revenue Analysis demonstrates that quality-of-life improvements historically correlate with increased spending periods, suggesting economic benefits alongside player experience improvements.

Community Perspectives

This proposal isn’t just my personal view—it reflects a growing consensus among diverse segments of the player base.

What Players Are Saying

Reddit threads, Discord channels, and HoYoLAB forums increasingly feature discussions about weekly boss burnout:

  • “I have 37 Shadow of the Warrior drops sitting unused while I can’t get a single Dvalin’s Plume after weeks of trying.” – AR59 Player
  • “As a new player, I feel like I’ll never catch up on these weekly bosses. By the time I reach Inazuma, they’ll probably add three more.” – AR34 Player
  • “I love the Raiden Shogun boss fight, but I have no characters that use her materials. Let me fight who I enjoy and still progress.” – AR56 Player

A community survey on weekly boss satisfaction showed that 83% of respondents would favor a more flexible system for material acquisition.

My Personal Weekly Boss Experience

As someone who plays Genshin Impact daily, the weekly boss routine has evolved drastically over my journey. In the early days, each Monday reset brought excitement as I challenged Dvalin, Andrius, and Childe with whatever characters I had built.

Two years later, my Monday routine feels markedly different. I methodically evaluate which characters I’m building, check which materials they need, and reluctantly spend resin on bosses that haven’t provided useful materials in months—all while watching unused drops accumulate in my inventory.

The most telling moment came when I realized I was actively avoiding building characters that used certain talent materials simply because I dreaded fighting specific bosses repeatedly. When progression systems actively discourage character diversity, something needs adjustment.

The Future of Weekly Bosses

Looking ahead, Genshin Impact faces a critical decision point for weekly boss design. With Natlan, Snezhnaya, and Khaenri’ah still on the horizon, each potentially adding new weekly challenges, the current system will reach a breaking point without intervention.

A Vision for Evolution

Imagine a future where Monday reset brings genuine excitement about which boss challenges to undertake, rather than resigned sighs about necessary chores. Picture new players feeling empowered rather than overwhelmed by the growing roster of weekly encounters. Envision veterans finding renewed appreciation for boss mechanics once freed from repetition fatigue.

This vision is entirely achievable with one fundamental change to the weekly boss reward structure—a change that preserves everything compelling about these encounters while eliminating the growing friction in the system.

Conclusion: One Change, Profound Impact

While Genshin Impact continues to excel in creating beautiful environments, compelling characters, and engaging stories, its core progression systems require evolution to match the game’s expanding scope. The weekly boss system—unchanged since launch despite the game more than doubling in content—represents the most pressing opportunity for improvement.

By implementing a universal weekly boss reward system, HoYoverse could transform one of the game’s most problematic chores into a flexible, player-friendly progression path. This single change would benefit new players, veterans, and developers alike—ensuring that some of the game’s most impressive combat encounters remain highlights of the Genshin Impact experience rather than sources of growing frustration.

The beauty of Teyvat deserves to be explored with joy rather than obligation. It’s time for weekly bosses to receive an update worthy of the magnificent world they inhabit.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Wouldn’t a universal system make progression too easy?

The proposed system wouldn’t increase the overall acquisition rate of materials—it would simply give players more agency in which materials they receive. Weekly limits, resin costs, and talent level requirements would remain unchanged, preserving progression pacing while reducing frustration.

2. How would this affect co-op play for weekly bosses?

Co-op weekly boss fights would remain unchanged mechanically. In fact, a universal system might encourage more co-op play as friends could help each other with preferred bosses rather than everyone being forced to fight all bosses regardless of preference or ability.

3. What about the lore implications of fighting certain bosses repeatedly?

The current system already creates lore dissonance by having players defeat story-significant bosses like Signora or Raiden Shogun repeatedly. A universal system wouldn’t change this aspect, and narrative dissonance has been an accepted compromise for gameplay in this and many other games.

4. Would this make certain bosses obsolete if they’re harder to fight?

The suggested rotating bonus system and potential achievement rewards would help maintain incentives to experience all boss content. Additionally, many players choose bosses based on personal preference and enjoyment rather than purely difficulty considerations.

5. Could this system be extended to other resources like world boss materials?

While the weekly boss system is the most pressing concern due to its time-gated nature, similar principles could potentially be applied to other resource systems in the future. However, world bosses already allow targeted farming since players can choose which to fight based on needed materials, making them less problematic than the weekly boss system.

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