Genshin Impact: 2.8 Beta shows a castle, possible leaks of a Fischl return

Last Updated on: 5th July 2022, 09:52 pm

The latest round of Genshin Impact beta leaks are in, and this time around 2.8 seems to include a castle in the Golden apple archipelago, and a possible return of Fischl.

The castle in Golden Apple archipelago return of patch 2.8

If you weren’t around for the Golden Apple archipelago when it first debuted in Genshin Impact, you missed out on a few new things at the time, including the then-upcoming Inazuma puppet swordsman boss Maguu Kenki, the boat mechanic now added to the game at large, and featured a fun little side story centred around Klee.

However it seems like you might not miss out on the overall area, because the latest Genshin Impact beta version for 2.8 had some details leak, and they seem to imply we’ll be returning there soon, with a fair number of changes having happened in our absence, including a wholesale castle making an appearance.

We don’t have a whole lot to work with out of this image regarding the castle, as apparently inside was ‘placeholdered in the beta’ – meaning there was little to nothing to share from it at the time. As someone who was there for the original visit to the GAA though, I can safely say that there was no castle the first time around, so this is new.

It’s unclear entirely what’s going on here, as there are also some buildings visible at the base of the cliff face the castle is depicted being built onto, but we’ll find out on our next visit to the Golden apple archipelago in all likelihood. It’s entirely possible that HoYoverse are testing yet another new game system, or just wanted to rework the archipelago into its own whole sale area to keep it in the game for good this time around.

Judging by other 2.8 leaks we’ve seen so far, it’s likely that the islands are to become permanent with these changes, but we’ll have to wait for the actual Genshin 2.8 patch preview to have that confirmed – It’s worth noting that they have been added to the map menu that also features Enkanomiya and the Serenitea pot in the beta, implying they will be an off-map area that is here to stay though.

Is Fischl returning in Genshin Impact Version 2.8?

It’s been quite a while since we heard from Fischl in Genshin Impact. Actually, if you missed the version 1.1 Unreconciled Stars event, you might have never met her in-game yet – that’s right, unless you were playing all the way back at launch, you still haven’t seen met her as a character.

Still, whatever issues were preventing an appearance from Fischl have been resolved recently it would seem. She had a 8-month gap from her most recent rerun with Klee back in the middle of 2021 to her appearance in the Yae Miko Introduction banner. Before Klee, she had been rerun around every 3 months.

This made her one of the characters who have had a huge gap between appearances even in banners, nevermind in the story. Though if that around three-month pattern between appearances is returning, appearing in version 2.8 wouldn’t be far off that trend.

Additionally, we know she’s meant to be receiving a skin alongside Diluc from a long-running leak in the Genshin community, both of which are rumoured for version 2.8 as well, thanks to the Beta.

So we have a Fischl skin, her banner rerun average time lining up, and an event area that had many characters involved, featuring a castle this time around in the version 2.8 beta. I see you HoYoverse, bring on the Prinzessin der Verurteilung in the story already, she’s waited long enough. As far as we can see from the Genshin 2.8 leaks, it’s looking pretty likely, but isn’t confirmed just yet.