Yesterday, the developers of Genshin Impact posted the latest edition of the RPG’s online newsletter, which usually details fun statistics about the behaviours and experiences of its massive playerbase. Usually, they’re fun facts such as the number of times players have drowned, or the number of players who have maxed out the game’s weakest swords. This latest edition, however, contained something a little different. Now, for the first time, we know the identity of the most dangerous boss in all of Teyvat. And of course, it’s Azhdaha.
Players originally meet Azhdaha during the main questline. While he was originally a benevolent old dragon who was pals with our buddy Zhongli, his mind has eroded over time. By the time that we fight him, he’s no longer the protector of the realm. Instead, he wants to break out of his mountain prison and exact his revenge on the world. Worst of all, he has the brawn to back it up.
While HoYoverse didn’t reveal the exact number of players who were slaughtered by the dragon, absolutely nobody who plays Genshin is surprised that he’s Teyvat’s most prolific killer. Azhdaha has multiple tricks to wipe you out, he’s immune to invincibility frames, and he changes his element every time that you fight him. Genshin has plenty of difficult weekly bosses (ask me how I fare against Signora every week) with huge AoE attacks, but Azhdaha is special for another reason: His elemental attacks will chip away at your health over time unless you’re being protected by a shield. The playable geo character Zhongli makes the fight significantly more survivable, but I keep dying to Azhdaha whenever I leave him off the team. Even with my best shielder, though, the earth dragon continues to be my least-challenged boss in the game.
It’s also not practical to simply avoid fighting him. Azhdaha is a weekly boss that holds exclusive upgrade drops, which means that fighting him is required if you want to max out certain characters. Currently, there are nine characters that use Azhdaha’s drops to improve their abilities: Dori, Ayaka, Yanfei, Eula, Electro Traveller, Yoimiya, Kazuha, Sayu, and Yelan. I managed to avoid fighting him until I pulled Ayaka from the gacha. Ever since then, I’ve always fought him first. After all, you gotta eat your vegetables before partaking in dessert.
Some players spend thousands of dollars to show their devotion to their favourite character. For us Ayaka and Kazuha mains, we express our love by challenging Azhdaha every week.
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