Can you ice bridge to Inazuma early?

Genshin Impact's new island Inazuma is out and players are already trying to get there unconventionally by using ice bridges.

As spotted by Kotaku Australia, players are using the famed ice bridge technique in which you use the cryo swordsman Kaeya's abilities to freeze the water while switching characters rapidly to form temporary bridges in an attempt to get to the island. To actually get to Inazuma, you have to reach Adventure Level (AR) 30 and complete the Archon Quest, "Autumn Winds, Scarlet Leaves."

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In the past, players have used this ice bridge technique to reach out-of-bounds or far away locations. Knowing this, miHoYo planned ahead and limited the technique to stop you from using it to bypass the level restrictions to reach Inazuma. "Bummer to get teleported back after half an hour of pressing E, but it's not like I expected we could get in just like that," a player on the Genshin Impact subreddit wrote, "I went in knowing it'd all be for naught."

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Once you get to a certain point close enough to Ritou, you’ll start to get personally electrocuted by Baal, the Raiden Shogun and ruler of Inazuma. Many players have been toasted by her surprise attack, and while not fatal, its knockback can make walking on Kaeya’s ice bridges a pain. And even if you survive Baal’s barrage, you eventually reach a point where the game kicks you to a loading screen and sends you back to the upper part of the map — although the chances of this happening seem to be inconsistent. Countless players have tried to figure out a traditional way past this, but it seemed that Mihoyo really didn’t want anyone cheating their way to the new content.

However, the studio didn’t account for a bit of manipulation with how this always-online game works. Dezeadmf employed a method that’s not unheard of in MMOs: using a lag-inducing program, or manually disconnecting your device from the internet for several seconds to disrupt the game into giving you near-unlimited stamina. Essentially, Genshin Impact takes the loss of connection as a lag spike, but doesn’t rubber-band you backward when it reconnects. This allowed dezeadmf to swim through Baal’s lightning attacks and Mihoyo’s loading screen attack all the way to their destination without their character drowning from fatigue.

I managed to reach Inazuma at AR 9! from Genshin_Impact

In their instructions on how to perform the feat, dezeadmf noted that their entire trip took six to seven hours due to their mishaps, and said, “Good luck to whoever has the patience to do it.” They also noted that although they were vastly underleveled for the intended way into Inazuma, the game’s scaling made it so that enemies weren’t unkillable, and they were able to pick up World Quests and find treasures just fine.

This is the kind of determined achievement that Genshin Impact players are known for. When the gacha systems of the game hold you back from progression, you make that progress yourself, even if it might get you banned.

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