On the day Genshin Impact 5.0 launched, the renowned Genshin UP main Reya was live-streaming while working on a guide.
When she reached the Pilgrimage of the Returning Flame Saint's Night, facing Easy Mode and Normal Mode, she first chose Easy Mode.
In Easy Mode, Natlan people wouldn't treat the player as the primary attack target—instead, they'd fight each other.
As long as the player had patience, they could even stand off in the distance watching the Natlan warriors beat each other down to low health, then swoop in at the last moment to steal the kills.
Moreover, the Natlan warriors in Easy Mode were only level 20—for these low-level small fries, there was no need to use limited 5-star characters from the banner; just a high-level Anemo Traveler triggering Swirl could wipe them out.
"There's nothing much to guide in Easy Mode—let's see what Normal Mode is like."
As Genshin's most famous guide-zone UP, Reya even made guide videos for main story quests, striving to resolve every difficulty other players encountered.
As Easy Mode was about to end, Reya chose to exit the game, then re-enter and select Normal Mode to challenge the Pilgrimage of the Returning Flame Saint's Night.
The moment he entered Normal Mode, Reya felt something was off.
"The gap between these two modes is way too big, right?" Just experiencing it for less than a few minutes, Reya felt like Easy Mode and Normal Mode were completely two different games.
Easy Mode: Enemies are all primitives who even infight each other—even a Traveler fresh out of Mondstadt could slaughter them randomly.
Normal Mode: Enemy levels scale with world level, equipped with machine guns, sniper rifles, cannons, and many have Visions—they can even trigger elemental reactions.
Though the damage wasn't super high, it couldn't withstand this horde of Natlan warriors endlessly charging over, plus they'd sneak attack.
Could you imagine: after you eliminate the enemies in front of you, your character takes a shot to the back of the head?
Then, before you can even react, another bullet comes flying, and it triggers an elemental reaction, straight-up killing off your squishy character.
"This difficulty feels off," Reya realized the anomaly.
According to Genshin's conventions, a mere main story quest should be so easy that players could clear it just with the free characters provided.
But in Normal Mode, the enemies' damage was a bit too strong—even players who had pulled could not necessarily win, let alone free-to-play players.
Was miHoYo punishing free-to-play players?
No, Reya believed it was just that she hadn't found the proper clearing method yet.
As long as she found the right method, even using the free characters would allow a smooth clear.
However, not all players had the same mindset as him.
Many, upon entering Normal Mode, got straight-up broken by the Natlan people.
[Fuck, are Natlan people this fierce? They even use machine guns on me—can't dodge even if I wanted to.]
[LOL, my Raiden never dies in the Abyss, but during a main story quest, she got piled to death by Natlan NPCs.]
[The NPC attack frequency in Normal Mode is too high, and they trigger elemental reactions—more disgusting than Ruin Guards!]
[Do the planners have brain damage? It's just a main story quest, and they make it this hard!]
[???]
[Didn't the planners also provide an Easy Mode? If you don't have the skill, you insist on Normal Mode—can't beat it and then curse the planners, are you okay?]
In an instant, controversy erupted among players regarding the Pilgrimage of the Returning Flame Saint's Night.
In the Genshin Impact world, seeing this, Rios couldn't help but clap his hands.
"Good, good, good—that's exactly it, blow up the players' mindsets."
What the players experienced in the Pilgrimage of the Returning Flame Saint's Night was naturally Rios's handiwork.
He had deliberately set Easy Mode to be extremely easy and Normal Mode to be extremely difficult.
No matter which mode players chose to play first, they'd be shocked upon trying the other that it was completely a different game.
Especially those players who suffered in Normal Mode—upon reaching Easy Mode and finding it basically a baby bus, who knows if their mindsets would explode, regretting not choosing Easy Mode from the start.
And if there were players who stuck to Normal Mode from beginning to end, and still just brute-forced with characters like before, then unless they had extremely good pulls, they wouldn't beat it.
Only by finding special strategies could they clear Normal Mode with lower-power characters.
And even if they found the special strategies, there were even more surprises waiting for them.
Player world.
"Got the hang of it."
After playing a few rounds with different characters, Reya finally figured out how to clear this with low-cost characters.
Just as she thought—as long as using the free characters, they could clear this Pilgrimage of the Returning Flame Saint's Night.
After a few attempts, the pattern she summed up was one word—run.
Though the Natlan warriors were besieging the player, they didn't all appear at once; instead, their numbers increased over time.
In other words, the longer you spent fighting monsters, the more monsters there would be.
The players' approach was to flee immediately, and once you ran to a distance, the Natlan warriors wouldn't increase anymore.
At the same time, the warriors, in order to compete for spots, would stay in place fighting their compatriots.
Once they had beaten each other down to low health, the player could jump out and harvest them—at that point, even with low levels, it could be cleared.
"The character for running is perfect with the free Kachina," Reya thought, her mind at ease.
Just as she imagined—as long as you use your brain, even just with free characters, you could clear Genshin's main story quests.
After using this tactic to cheese a few waves of Natlan warriors, Reya operated Kachina toward the Stadium of the Sacred Flame.
According to the game's prompts, as long as they reached that place, it counted as clearing the Pilgrimage of the Returning Flame Saint's Night.
On the way to the Stadium of the Sacred Flame, there were many devices to replenish Phlogiston, allowing the player-operated Kachina to keep the Skyward Drill active for traversal.
"Once I reach the Stadium of the Sacred Flame, I can make a guide to tell everyone how to play."
Just as Reya was thinking this, a red flash appeared on the screen, striking Kachina and sending her flying.
"What?"
Reya looked at the screen in shock, discovering that the red flash was actually a red-haired woman riding a motorcycle.
The motorcycle woman's damage was very high, nearly one-shotting the defense-stacked Kachina.
Fortunately, Reya had previously equipped Kachina with full-defense artifacts to prevent her from being killed by random enemies, thus dodging a bullet.
Otherwise, with that hit just now, she would've had to restart.
However, before she could even feel relieved, a purple lightning bolt struck Kachina, causing an Electro reaction while also triggering Overload with the lingering Pyro on Kachina, directly blowing her up.
"Again?"
Reya looked at the screen once more.
This time, the one who appeared was the white-haired little dwarf, everyone's old acquaintance Iansan.
She was currently rushing toward the Stadium of the Sacred Flame, but happened to be on the same path as Kachina and accidentally knocked her down.
But after knocking her down, Iansan didn't stop—instead, she continued hurrying toward the Stadium of the Sacred Flame.
"No way, you treating me like a speed bump?"