Alright, let’s talk about this whole “genshin absolution” thing I went through. It wasn’t some grand revelation, more like finally cleaning out the garage after years of putting it off. You know how it is with Genshin, right? You play a bit, do the dailies, maybe an event, and suddenly you look up and your quest log is longer than a grocery list before a holiday, and every region map looks like you barely stepped foot in it.
I got to a point where logging in felt heavy. So much red exclamation points, so many map pins I forgot why I placed. It was messy. I decided, enough was enough. Time to clear the slate, achieve some kind of absolution from this digital backlog.
Getting Started – The Mess
First thing I did? Took a hard look at the mess. I mean, really looked. Opened the quest journal, scrolled down… and down… and down. Archon quests unfinished, story quests piled up, world quests from regions I hadn’t seriously explored since they launched. Oof. Then I checked the map exploration percentages. Mondstadt and Liyue were okay-ish, maybe 80-90%, but Inazuma? Sumeru? Fontaine? Pathetic. We’re talking 40-60% in some spots. It felt like I’d just been cherry-picking primos and leaving everything else behind.
I told myself, right, let’s do this systematically. No more random wandering. It’s time to actually finish things.
Phase One: Quest Annihilation
I decided quests had to go first. They often unlock areas or other quests, seemed logical. I started with the main Archon line. Got that up to date. That already felt like a weight off. Then, I moved onto Story Quests. Just picked a character, and boom, powered through their story.
- Knocked out all the pending Hangouts too. Some were fun, some were… well, primos are primos.
- Then came the beast: World Quests.
Man, those Sumeru and Fontaine world quest lines are long. Like, really long. Aranara? The Pari? That whole underwater opera thing? Days. Weeks, actually. Just plugging away, following guides when I got totally lost (which was often), skipping dialogue I’d already accidentally heard bits of. It wasn’t always fun, felt like actual work sometimes. But seeing that quest list shrink, bit by bit? That felt good.
Phase Two: Combing the Maps
Quests mostly done, the maps looked a bit less daunting. Now it was time for pure exploration. Chest hunting, Oculi finding, puzzle solving. I decided to tackle it region by region, starting with the ones with the lowest percentage.
I pulled up those fan-made interactive maps – lifesavers, honestly. Put on a podcast or some music, and just started sweeping zones. Marked off chests, Seelies, Time Trials. Climbed every damn mountain, dove into every underwater cave. Found viewpoints I never knew existed. It was… meditative, in a weird, grindy way.
Of course, there were frustrations. That one Oculi you just can’t find even though the map says it’s right there. The puzzle that makes absolutely zero sense. Running around for 20 minutes looking for the last chest in an area only to find it sitting out in the open where you swear you looked ten times already. Classic Genshin. But I pushed through.
Hitting 100% – The Absolution?
It took a while. Longer than I expected. There were days I just couldn’t face it, logged in, did my dailies, and logged right back out. Burnout is real, even for digital chores. New events popped up, pulling me away temporarily. But I kept coming back to the cleanup.
And then, finally… I started seeing it. 100% exploration in one area, then another. The quest log showing only repeatable stuff or recent event quests. It felt… quiet. Peaceful, almost. Logging in didn’t come with that instant wave of “oh god, what do I need to do?”. It felt like I’d finally paid off a debt I didn’t realize was weighing me down so much.
So yeah, “genshin absolution”. For me, it was just clearing the decks. Getting rid of the clutter. Now I can actually just… play. Explore new stuff when it drops without feeling guilty about the mountain of old stuff I ignored. It was a grind, no doubt. But kinda worth it in the end. Makes the game feel fresh again, in a strange way. Now, the trick is not letting it pile up like that again. We’ll see how that goes.
