Is Genshin Impact’s Klee Worth Your Time And Money?

Genshin Impact has undoubtedly had an eventful first month of operation, with millions of players globally jumping into the world of Teyvat. With the passage of time comes the first change of the promo banner for Wishes and an introduction of a new five-star character, Klee.

Klee is the featured character on this new promo banner, titled Sparkling Steps. Though you may have already been introduced to Klee and her abilities in the quest “The Mystery of the Girl in Red’s Treasure,” this is the first chance you have to recruit her permanently.

The odds haven’t changed for Sparkling Steps compared to the previous banner–your chances of a 5-star roll are still quite low at 0.6%. But, as with the previous banner, if you do roll a 5-Star character, there is a 50% chance of it being Klee. The “Pity Roll” mechanics also come into play here, so if you really want Klee, you can pour all of your resources into Wishing multiple times to have a better chance. (Also, if you didn’t roll a 5-star unit on the last promo banner featuring Venti, the accumulated rolls from that banner will carry over onto this one, making a Pity Roll easier to trip.)

Unfortunately, if you missed Venti’s banner and wanted to recruit him, you’ll need to wait until he appears again on a banner sometime in the future. Since Genshin Impact currently seems more focused on introducing new characters to the roster, you might be waiting a while.

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Of course, the big question is: should you spend your resources trying to recruit Klee in the first place? Well, it depends. If you need to bolster your selection of Pyro elemental users, Klee is certainly a great character to get. Her specialty is doing Pyro damage in a wide area using explosives. Her elemental skill and elemental burst cover a big area and can do some serious damage, particularly when paired with other elements. She can also easily find items using her “All of My Treasures!” skill, which can help a lot in gathering the materials necessary for upgrading characters and completing Battle Pass objectives. And if you have more than one Pyro user in your party, her damage output increases substantially.

However, Klee is outclassed by elemental peers in a few ways. Her normal attacks are a bit lacking, and getting the most out of her combat abilities takes some practice. In comparison, Diluc is a very user-friendly five-star character who can be recruited on both the promo banner and the standard banner. He’s the best offensive Pyro unit in the game right now. There’s a chance you could roll him instead of Klee on the banner, which honestly might be the superior outcome.

Klee also feels like she doesn’t have as significant an advantage over lower-rarity peers as some other 5-star units. Xiangling and Bennett are very capable Pyro users who, at 4-Star rarity, are much easier (and potentially much cheaper) to obtain.

But what about the other featured 4-star units on the banner? You have increased odds of getting Noelle, Sucrose, and Xingqiu as 4-star units. Noelle is… well, if you took advantage of the Beginner’s Wish banner at the game’s launch, you got her and probably discovered she’s less than amazing. Sucrose and Xingqiu might be worth adding to your roster simply for the bonuses they give to crafting: Sucrose’s “Astable Invention” skill has a chance to double your crafting yields, while Xingqiu’s “Flash of Genius” can sometimes refund materials used for crafting character talent materials. In combat, however, the two are often outclassed by other units.

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To summarize: unless you’re hurting for halfway decent Pyro (poor Amber), you should think about saving your Intertwined Fates for someone better down the line. If you’re on the fence, you can give Klee and the other banner characters a playtest in the Test Run event to see how they work in combat. Of course, if you like Klee (or any of the other featured characters) for other reasons beyond her game utility, then, by all means, chase after her! She’s an adorable young pyromaniac with an explosive, infectious personality, and that alone will sell her to some players. But again, if top-tier is what you’re looking for, you should consider holding out for a while, or maybe just trying for Sucrose and Xingqiu, since–factoring in pity rolls–the odds of getting one of two is higher. It’s always handy to have crafting boosts, and those abilities will only get more useful as the game evolves.

Rick And Morty Is More On Schedule Than Ever, Says Creator Dan Harmon

Countless movies and television shows are have been delayed, canceled, or changed in significant ways as a direct result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Adult Swim’s mega-hit Rick and Morty, however, is doing just fine according to co-creator Dan Harmon.

“We’re more on schedule than we’ve ever been,” Harmon said during a virtual panel for PaleyFest NY 2020. “It kind of makes you have to focus on the whole process when you don’t have this office environment anymore. Everyone has to run this bee colony remotely, so the honey just gets made more consistently. It’s working for us.”

Harmon said that the team is “very late into the process of writing Season 6” even as he reviews animatics for Season 5 episodes. He also told the panel that the writers don’t map out the seasons ahead of writing them, despite being on Adult Swim’s books for at least a sixth and seventh season.

“If we simply just keep writing in real time as fast as we can write…that puts us years ahead of the air date of the most recent episode. The last thing we’d want to do in an environment like that is have a plan. We are the plan because we are the future. We’re the guys who wrote the stuff that they’re now drawing, so we make a tremendous effort to stay in the moment and never box ourselves in,” Harmon said.

Harmon did drop a few hints about what we can expect for Morty Smith and Rick Sanchez, though.

“There’s an episode in Season 5 where Morty has a relationship with another female character that’s not Jessica. It’s just a great little story,” Harmon said. Rob Schrab, a long-time collaborator of Harmon’s, wrote the episode. Harmon also said that he’s looking forward to fleshing out the relationship between Rick and Morty’s dad, Jerry.

“These guys are not murdering each [other] for a reason,” Harmon said. Harmon doesn’t want the relationship to pigeonhole either character, so we can look forward to some additional complexity for that relationship in Season 5, too.

Rick and Morty Season 5 does not yet have an air date, but Seasons 1-3 (with 4 coming soon) are available on HBO Max.

Now Playing: The Rickest Moments From Rick And Morty Season 4!

How To Play Among Us As A Horror Game

I usually try to hop on Among Us once a week to link up with my friends back home and get rowdy either trying to get away with virtual murder or ratting each other out. But they like to keep things spicy. So, they put together a sort of alternate game mode by customizing the in-game rules and getting us to follow certain gameplay etiquette. And with the vewy scawy Halloween season right around the corner, this makeshift game mode is quite fitting and helps freshen up the traditional paces of Among Us.

Basically, think Dead By Daylight, or any similar game, but in Among Us. Here’s the setup: you have one imposter and nine (or however many) crewmates, but the imposter announces who they are right at the beginning of the match. The imposter counts to 10 while the crewmates scramble to get out of sight, complete tasks, hide, and make mad dashes to dodge the imposter once they start hunting down the crew–there’s no voting phase necessary, just survival.

What makes this style of play work is the tweaking of the custom rules. Here, you’ll want to have the imposter’s kill cooldown timer set to the lowest possible (10 seconds) so they can really act like a serial killer. However, you’ll have to limit their vision range as low as possible (0.25x) to make it challenging for them to actually find crewmates. To make things a lot more thrilling, we set all players’ movement speed higher (at least 2x, but 3x works too).

There are a few rules that can’t be hard-coded into the game, so you need to make sure players mind some general manners. The imposter cannot use any sabotages. They also should not vent (not that it would help them much anyway). Crewmates cannot call emergency meetings or report dead bodies–this wouldn’t really help anyone because there’s nothing to discuss since the imposter is revealed from the start. However, everyone can communicate with each other at all times during the match. Not only is it funny as hell to hear everyone wild out when they spot the imposter chasing the team down, it’s also helpful for keeping tabs on the killer’s position.

The goal remains simple: For crewmates, complete your tasks before the entire crew is killed. And of course, for the imposter, kill everyone before they finish their tasks.

Halloween 2019 promotional art for Among Us.
Halloween 2019 promotional art for Among Us.

By twisting the traditional rules of Among Us, you get a pretty unique thrill seeing the imposter running by or chasing after you. You know you can get out of sight since they have limited vision, but you’re well aware that they’re mashing that kill button while hunting you down. Especially when you’re preoccupied with a task and only hear your teammates screaming position callouts that are nearby, it creates a different type of tension.

Depending on the group you’re playing with or the map you’re on, you can (and should) tweak the rules a bit to find a good balance for both sides. What I outlined works well for my friends and is likely a good starting point for others, but switching up the number of long and short tasks can help balance things out.

Of course, we aren’t the ones who came up with this mode, as you may have seen other streamers or content creators play Among Us in this way–I’m sure that’s where my friends got it from, too. But you can be the one to introduce it to your friends if you have a good group to play with. Admittedly, it’s also best if you’re able to communicate through voice chat apps like Discord, but this mode does make things more approachable since you don’t have to engage in discussions or the lying/blame game aspect (especially if you find that a bit uncomfortable).

I really do miss when folks would come up with emergent styles of play and make up rules to create an experience that was never intended to be in the game. (I often think back to playing Project Gotham Racing 2 on the original Xbox and hopping into lobbies for the made up “cat and mouse” mode.) Among Us in particular gives room for these kinds of modifications to spice things up–and if there are any styles of play that you’ve tried, or if you already played this Friday the 13th-style spin on the game, we’d love to hear about it!

For more on the breakout multiplayer game, be sure to check out all our coverage of Among Us below:

Now Playing: Among Us – Steam Release Trailer (2018)

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Borat 2’s Many Incredible Disguises Ranked

Borat 2’s Many Incredible Disguises Ranked – GameSpot

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Rob Zombie’s Halloween: 37 Things You Didn’t Know About The Slasher Remake

Rob Zombie’s Halloween: 37 Things You Didn’t Know About The Slasher Remake – GameSpot

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Disclosure: ViacomCBS is GameSpot’s parent company


More Xbox Series X Questions Answered & PlayStation Store Changes | Generation Next

The new consoles are almost here and both Sony and Microsoft are preparing for their arrival. What does this mean? For the former it means making some tweaks to the way its existing services work in order for the transition to PlayStation 5 to be a little more smooth. For the latter it means dishing out new information on the ways Xbox Series X/S owners will be able to make the most of their brand new hardware.

On this episode of Generation Next, Lucy, Jordan, and Tamoor tackle the aforementioned tweaks Sony is making. More specifically, they talk about the changes to the PlayStation Store, which has been redesigned somewhat. Tune in to find out what’s new, what’s changed, what’s gone, and what it all means. There’s also a quick analysis of what the future could hold for PlayStation’s Trophies, which look like they may start dishing out rewards in a different way.

For the Xbox part of the discussion, techspert Michael Higham returns to answer some of your burning questions about the X/S. These range from whether you can run apps off an external hard drive and whether the hard drive that Microsoft endorsed as made for the Xbox Series X works with the new consoles, to Kinect 2 compatibility and how new platforms will work with setting a home console.

Generation Next is GameSpot’s weekly video show all about the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X. Each Friday, join PlayStation Pro Tamoor Hussain, Xbox Xpert Jordan Ramée, and Console Connoisseur Lucy James as they discuss the biggest stories about the new consoles.

Apex Legends On Switch Delayed To 2021, Steam Version Launches Next Month

Electronic Arts has provided an update on Apex Legends for Nintendo Switch and PC via Steam, confirming when the battle royale launches on both platforms.

Apex Legends hits Steam on November 4. Origin players can switch back and forth between that and Steam, letting you transfer all progress and unlocks between the two. Meanwhile, Steam players will get free Half-Life and Portal gun charms for logging in during Season 7. The new Apex Legends season also starts on November 4, the same day the game hits Steam.

EA said the Nintendo Switch port of Apex Legends has been delayed to 2021. An exact release date or window has yet to be announced. Game director Chad Grenier said the “unexpected new challenges” of this year impacted the game’s development on Switch. Whenever the game drops on the console-handheld hybrid, it will come with “full feature parity with the other versions of the game,” including cross-platform support and the latest seasonal content.

Look at these super-cute Apex Legends gun charms.
Look at these super-cute Apex Legends gun charms.

Check the specs below to see if your PC can handle Apex Legends.

Full Apex Legends Steam System Requirements

Minimum:

  • Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
  • OS: 64-bit Windows 7
  • Processor: AMD FX 4350 or equivalent, Intel Core i3 6300 or equivalent
  • Memory: 6 GB RAM
  • Graphics: AMD Radeon HD 7730 or Nvidia GeForce GT 640
  • DirectX: Version 11
  • Network: Broadband Internet connection
  • Storage: 22 GB available space

Recommended:

  • Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
  • OS: 64-bit Windows 7
  • Processor: Ryzen 5 CPU or equivalent
  • Memory: 8 GB RAM
  • Graphics: AMD Radeon R9 290 or Nvidia GeForce GTX 970
  • DirectX: Version 11
  • Network: Broadband Internet connection
  • Storage: 22 GB available space

Respawn has begun teasing the content coming to Apex Legends in Season 7, including the new hero Horizon. While we don’t know much about her, it’s said she can manipulate gravity.

While players wait for Season 7 to start, a Halloween-themed event is now live. Titled Fight or Fright, it adds a Shadow Royale mode that incorporates Titanfall’s wall-running mechanic.

Apex Legends is available on a variety of platforms, including PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Those interested in the game should consider the Champion Edition, a $40 package that features unlocks, cosmetics, rewards, and immediate access to every character up to Horizon.

Now Playing: Apex Legends Champions Edition Trailer

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How to Watch UFC 254: Khabib vs Gaethje

UFC 254 is set to kick off this weekend, in what could be an eventful night of MMA action. In the main event, Khabib Nurmagomedov will be taking on Justin Gaethje. This is after Khabib beat Dustin Poirier at UFC 242 last September, but a return to the ring for ‘The Eagle’ was then hampered by COVID-19 when he had to pull out of his fight with Tony Ferguson, originally scheduled for May of this year.

Gaethje promptly stepped in instead to face Ferguson, winning the fight and promptly setting up a fight between him and Nurmagomedov this weekend. It’s set to be an intense encounter, with Nurmagomedov currently sitting 28 wins and no losses, meaning he holds the longest active undefeated streak in MMA.

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UFC 254: How to Watch

The main event of UFC 254, Khabib vs Gaethje, will start at 4 PM ET on October 24, and the only way to watch it is through ESPN+, the current and exclusive home of UFC pay per view events. To be clear, you’ll need to be paying for an ESPN+ account, and you’ll also need to front the cash for the pay-per-view fight.

If you haven’t got an ESPN+ account, you can either pay the $4.99 monthly fee or sign up for an annual subscription. Right now, you can actually get a package deal on ESPN+ and the PPV fight at the moment, with ESPN offering you 25% off versus when buying them separately. This works out at $84.98, or you can pay $64.99 for just the fight itself.

If you’re an existing user you can even convert your subscription to an annual one to get a hold of that 25% discount on the Khabib vs Gaethje fight. Remember, ESPN+ is a fully integrated part of the ESPN app, so if you’ve got ESPN on your Roku, or other smart devices, you and find the ESPN+ content near the top of the page.

UFC 254: Full Event Details

ufc 254

Currently, some of the fights scheduled are subject to change, especially since the Umar Nurmagomedov vs. Sergey Morozov fight has been canceled. Other fights may be shuffled around to accommodate this.

UFC 254 Main Card at 2 PM ET

  • Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. Justin Gaethje
  • Robert Whittaker vs. Jared Cannonier
  • Alexander Volkov vs. Walt Harris
  • Jacob Malhoun vs. Phil Hawes
  • Cynthia Calvillo vs. Lauren Murphy
  • Magomed Ankalaev vs. Ion Cutelaba

UFC 254 Prelims at 12 PM ET

  • Stefan Struve vs. Tai Tuivasa 
  • Alex Oliveira vs. Shavkat Rahkmonov 
  • Da-un Ung vs. Sam Alvey 

UFC 254 Early Prelims at 10:15 AM ET

  • Nathaniel Wood vs. Casey Kenney 
  • Liana Jojua vs. Miranda Maverick 
  • Joel Alvarez vs. Alexander Yakovlev

Where to Watch: ESPN+ via the ESPN App

All the fights mentioned can be streamed on ESPN+ through the ESPN app. Alongside the UFC content, you’ll also be getting access to a lot more sports content, including NHL, MLB, MLS, and a lot more.

This includes some of the biggest sporting events around the world in November, such as the FA Cup, The Masters, and UFC 255 featuring Figueiredo vs Perez on November 25.

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Robert Anderson is a Commerce Writer for IGN. You can follow him @robertliam21

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