We’re a little over a month away from the release of 5.8, which means we’re coming up on the end of our year in Natlan, and we’re on the cusp of whatever comes next. If you haven’t been playing Genshin much lately, this might be an exciting (but overwhelming!) time to get back into it.
First of all: Don’t stress. I may be really into Genshin’s lore, but you do not have to be to enjoy the story. They will explain everything that needs to be explained, and they will remind you about things you might have forgotten. Chances are, if you’re confused about something, you are supposed to be confused about it.
Second of all: Don’t rush. We’re still a few months away from Nod-Krai, and there is no requirement to catch up with everything as fast as possible. If you have quests to finish or areas to explore, it is always better to take your time and enjoy things at your own pace — rushing through stuff just to finish it is not a recipe for a good time, and it’s not actually going to set you up well for future updates or make you excited to play again.
Now, if you’re ready to get ready for Nod-Krai, I’ve compiled everything that I think is worth checking out right here. You don’t need to read or watch all of it — it’s just here so you don’t have to go digging for it yourself if you’re interested.
The story so far
If you’d like a recap of what happened in Natlan before we move on, I recommend Ashikai’s video. It’s just over an hour long, and it covers the entire Natlan Archon Quest.
Jillian
I definitely recommend catching up with the Archon Quest and finishing the “Little One” world quest series. The latter probably isn’t required to advance the main story, but it provides a lot of context about the ancient dragon race in Teyvat that I think will be relevant in Nod-Krai.
Absolute bare minimum TL;DR
- The next nation we are going to, in 6.0, is Nod-Krai
- Nod-Krai is an “autonomous region”
- It is still basically part of Snezhnaya
- The theme of Nod-Krai is the moon
- This part of the story is called “Song of the Welkin Moon”
- Nod-Krai is going to feature some special kind of moon-related power, rather than Cryo
- We’re going to see people from a lot of different factions in Nod-Krai — some old friends, some people we know but have never met, and some new people entirely
- Highlights: Varka, Alice, Dottore
- There will be a Nod-Krai Prologue quest in 5.8
A little more
The Teyvat Chapter Storyline Preview goes from Act V in Natlan to Act VI in Snezhnaya. Now, in between those two acts, we’re going to have the “Song of the Welkin Moon” chapter in Nod-Krai.
Hoyo put out a web event as a teaser a few months ago with our first hints at what’s to come. The web event is still up for you to check out if you haven’t already, but I’ve also compiled the content here so you can quickly read through it. It briefly tells the story of the three moon sisters and lists a bunch of the factions we’re going to see in Nod-Krai.
The Nod-Krai preview teaser also gives a quick look at what’s coming up:
Diving deeper
Event hints
As usual, the last time Liben showed up in Mondstadt, he started giving us hints about our next destination. You can read the full dialogue here. He introduced Nod-Krai to us as a place “in the southernmost part of Snezhnaya, where people from all over Teyvat gather,” and mentioned the Voynich Guild.
In one of Jean’s birthday letters, we heard that her mother (a Knight of Favonius) was ordered to return to Dornman Port in Mondstadt with a few other knights, while Varka and the rest of his expedition headed to Nod-Krai. And much more recently, in one of Thoma’s Travelers’ Tales anecdotes, we found out that his mother (also a Knight of Favonius) was just called out to Nod-Krai to join Varka’s expedition.
In the “On the Trail of Behemoths” event, we met a kid named Helka who had a lot to say about Nod-Krai. Helka also left us with some notes, which you can read here.
Helka: Well, about that… Nod-Krai is actually part of Snezhnaya, and once upon a time, they performed lots of large scale development in the area.
Helka: But you can’t find hide nor hair of that nowadays — unless you’re talking about the mechanical scrap you can see everywhere.
Helka: But maybe that’s precisely why Nod-Krai’s become the bustling place it is today.
…
Helka: If I had to describe it, I’d go with “a dangerous yet lively place”? It’s been leaning toward the former in recent days, though.
Helka: Before I left, the Fatui had moved a lot of construction materials in. Word was that a Harbinger — or Harbingers — were present, too. As for what they intend, I couldn’t say.
Helka: I’ve heard bad things about the situation to the north as well. The Abyss’s influence has been expanding… Katya even warned me not to return via the northern paths.
Helka also mentioned the Frostmoon Scions, and says they live in the wilds on an island and worship a moon deity, with statues they’ve made all over Nod-Krai (I have a feeling these will be our Statues of the Seven alternative). The island the Scions live on supposedly also has a lot of ancient relics that resemble the Secret Source Automatons from Natlan — which, as we know, are left over from the dragons.
I’ve seen relics of a similar style in Nod-Krai. Perhaps the little island we live on is like a big ship, and was once linked to Natlan, only to be dragged off northward by some gargantuan deep sea creature with its fins, claws, or tentacles… or something, which might explain why the area in which we can find similar things is so tiny.
Artifact sets
The two newest artifact sets, Long Night’s Oath and Finale of the Deep Galleries, both have some Nod-Krai lore in their descriptions. Those two pages have the full description text, plus some of my messy notes about them.
Jillian
Keep in mind that while artifact sets released around the time of a new nation usually give us some interesting lore to chew on, it’s also usually impossible to know what the stories are actually about. Nymph’s Dream ended up being about something very different from what I imagined, and the Natlan artifact sets gave us a shape of the nation’s history but obscured a lot of important context that we learned later on.
That said, we can at least start to piece some things together — like the different places and factions we might encounter in Nod-Krai and what their history might look like.
Developer video
Here’s a 20-minute video from the Hoyo devs about Nod-Krai that’ll give you another preview of the region + some hints about what might happen there:
Moon stuff
Lastly, since Nod-Krai seems to be very moon-themed, I’m trying to sweep the cobwebs away from the moon page here and compile a lot of the interesting moon lore we have so far. But I don’t think you’ll really need to brush up on any of that stuff to enjoy the upcoming region — Genshin generally does a good job of telling & reminding you of what you need to know when it’s relevant.
Pre-6.0 checklist
Aaaaaand here’s everything compiled into a nice little to-do list for you:
- Finish the Natlan Archon Quest
- Finish the Paralogism Interlude Quest
- Review Song of the Welkin Moon
- Watch the Nod-Krai preview teaser
- Bonus: Finish the “Little One” world quests in Natlan
- Bonus: Watch the “Behind the Scenes” Nod-Krai video
- Bonus: Review Long Night’s Oath & Finale of the Deep Galleries
👋 See you in Nod-Krai!