Genshin Impact's Version 7.2 Trailer Sends Every Archon to Stop the Nails of Retribution
HoYoverse's official trailer for Hour of Ruin reveals Mitya, Valeriy and a buried Snezhnayan city as all seven Archons unite against a new threat.
HoYoverse has released the official trailer for Genshin Impact Version 7.2, subtitled "Hour of Ruin," and it frames the update's story as the biggest stakes the game has pitched in months: every nation on Teyvat called in to stop a single, spreading catastrophe. The nearly four-and-a-half-minute trailer leans hard into cinematic spectacle rather than gameplay clips, but it confirms the two new playable characters, the shape of the new area, and the scale of the threat players will spend the version chasing down.
A Trailer Built Around a Shared Crisis
The trailer opens on the Nails of Retribution, an ancient phenomenon scattered across Teyvat that has begun to awaken on its own. Their energy fluctuations trigger what the story calls the Holy Soil phenomenon, pillars of light erupting in multiple nations at once and throwing each one into crisis. Rather than isolating the threat to Snezhnaya, the way recent Archon Quest chapters have, the footage cuts between locations to show the Tsaritsa summoning representatives from all seven nations to coordinate a response, with the Traveler working alongside the Archons and Neuvillette rather than a single regional cast.
It's a structural shift from the slow-burn Snezhnaya arc HoYoverse has been running since Version 7.0 opened the nation, and the trailer plays it for scale: wide shots of Archons standing together, quick cuts between Sumeru, Natlan, and Snezhnaya all affected by the same event. The official site frames Version 7.2 as a turning point for the ongoing storyline rather than a self-contained side chapter.
Meet Mitya and Valeriy
Mitya headlines the update as a new 5-star Electro Catalyst user. His passive converts his party's Superconduct reactions into Stellar-Conduct reactions, boosting the team's damage from that reaction while he's active. His Elemental Skill stores energy that can either be released in a burst of periodic Stellar-Conduct damage to nearby enemies or held to trigger a string of enhanced Charged Attacks, letting him swap between supporting from off-field and stepping in as a main damage dealer. His Elemental Burst adds an area Electro hit and regenerates more of that stored energy. Outside combat, his detection device uncovers hidden paths in parts of Snezhnaya and unlocks a cosmetic reward tied to exploring them.
Valeriy, the 4-star Electro Sword unit releasing alongside him, is introduced as a Major of the Armory Palace. His kit is built to support Stellar-Conduct-focused teams, handing out shields and boosting the party's Electro damage rather than competing for the spotlight. Both characters debut in the Version 7.2 Phase 1 wishes alongside a rerun for Furina, with Zibai and Linnea returning in Phase 2 together with a Chronicled Wish built around Natlan characters.
Novokitezhgrad and the Eastern Reaches of Snezhnaya
The new playable area sits in eastern Snezhnaya and centers on Novokitezhgrad, a subterranean city built entirely from Kresnik Kristall and the nation's main source of the material. A rail line connects the city to the surface, and the trailer teases a colossal creature waiting in the waters nearby for players willing to go looking for it. East of the city, Wingspan Peak is shaped like an enormous wing and is home to Old Kitezhgrad, Snezhnaya's first settlement, founded by the Belyi Tsar long before the current capital existed. Mitya's own introductory quest is tied to the nearby Teplo Oasis, where he's shown investigating the soil disturbances that open the version's story.
It's a denser slice of world-building than a typical quarterly update gets, and it suggests HoYoverse is using the detour east to fill in Snezhnaya's history before the main Archon Quest arc eventually moves on.
Release Details and What's in It for Players
Version 7.2 is already live. HoYoverse pushed the update on November 4 across PC, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, iOS, and Android, with the trailer having gone out alongside the version's special program broadcast on October 23 to preview what was coming. Players who clear the new Archon Quest chapter within its event window receive 560 Primogems and ascension materials for Mitya on top of the usual rewards, and a limited-time event lets them bring a 4-star character of their choosing along for the ride. A filming event set in Snezhnaya and a separate mining challenge in Natlan round out the version's side content.
None of that is unusual for a live-service update on this cadence, but the trailer's framing is: HoYoverse rarely puts every nation's Archon in the same cold open, and doing it here signals that "Hour of Ruin" is meant to read as a hinge point rather than another detour. In-game notices and HoYoverse's own update post carry the full patch breakdown for anyone catching up before diving into the new story chapter.
Where to Watch and Play
The trailer is streaming now on Genshin Impact's own YouTube channel, and the update itself is available through the game's official storefronts, including the App Store listing on iOS. Given how much of the footage is dedicated to setup rather than payoff, expect HoYoverse to keep drip-feeding character and story trailers through the rest of Version 7.2's run.
Official links
Mira leads previews at Gamers6. She has spent fifteen years playing co-op shooters badly and writing about them well, and she still keeps a spreadsheet of every weapon reload animation worth the frame count.
