Genshin Impact's Hidden Treasure: Chenyu Vale's Vase System and Its Impact on Character Building

As players in 2026 continue to explore the ever-expanding world of Teyvat, many still look back fondly on the subtle yet impactful additions from the Genshin Impact 4.4 update. While the patch introduced the highly anticipated human form of Cloud Retainer, Xianyun, and the fiery new 4-star character Gaming, alongside the breathtaking expansion of Liyue into Chenyu Vale, one unadvertised feature quietly became a game-changer for resource management. Amidst the Lantern Rite festivities and new story content, a hidden mechanic involving simple pottery offered players a surprising solution to one of the game's most persistent frustrations: the scarcity of Local Specialties for character ascension.

The Unspoken Treasure of Yodie Valley

Nestled within the misty peaks and tea plantations of Chenyu Vale lies Yodie Valley, an area rich with Adepti ruins and forgotten lore. Here, observant travelers discovered something peculiar: scattered throughout the landscape were ordinary-looking vases with a faint, telltale glimmer. Unlike the destructible crates found elsewhere that yield common crafting materials, these ceramic containers held something far more valuable. When struck, they would shatter to reveal precious Liyue-specific resources that players had previously spent hours meticulously farming across cliffsides and riverbanks.

The loot table from these vases reads like a wishlist for any player building Liyue characters:

• Cor Lapis (used by Zhongli, Keqing, Yanfei)

• Jueyun Chili (essential for Xiangling, Hu Tao)

• Violetgrass (required for Qiqi, Xinyan)

• Qingxin (used by Ganyu, Shenhe, Xiao)

• Noctilucous Jade (for Beidou, Ningguang)

• Clearwater Jade (a Chenyu Vale specialty)

This system operated like a resource geode, cracking open to reveal concentrated deposits of materials that normally required extensive traversal. For veteran players, it felt like discovering a forgotten pantry in a grand estate, stocked with ingredients they had been painstakingly foraging one by one.

Why This Mechanic Matters: The Local Specialty Dilemma

To understand why these vases represented such a significant quality-of-life improvement, one must examine Genshin Impact's longstanding resource economy. Local Specialties operate under strict limitations:

Character	Required Material	Total Needed	Available Nodes	Farming Cycles Needed
Hu Tao	Silk Flower	168	17	~5-6
Nahida	Kalpalata Lotus	168	66	3
Beidou	Noctilucous Jade	168	169	2
Xiao	Qingxin	168	~75	3

The Problem: Each node takes 48 hours (2 real-world days) to respawn after collection. This creates several pain points:

1. Time-gated progression: Players cannot ascend characters quickly even with dedicated farming

2. Route memorization: Efficient farming requires learning complex paths across vast regions

3. Competition in co-op: In early versions, players would "steal" resources from friends' worlds

4. Margin for error: Missing even a few nodes extends the farming process significantly

The vases in Chenyu Vale addressed this by providing bonus materials outside the normal respawn cycle. While not infinite—players reported approximately 44 vases total in Yodie Valley—this extra supply could mean the difference between waiting another two days or immediately ascending a character after a farming session. For characters like Hu Tao who require exactly 168 Silk Flowers but have only 17 nodes available, these vases offered crucial supplemental materials.

Limitations and Missed Opportunities

However, the system wasn't without its flaws, which players quickly noted:

❌ Inconsistent Loot Quality

While most vases dropped valuable Local Specialties, some contained less useful items:

• Horsetail (abundant near water sources)

• Butterfly Wings (easily obtained elsewhere)

• Common mushrooms and berries

These filler items diluted the value proposition, especially considering the vases didn't respawn after being broken.

❌ Non-renewable Resource

Once all 44 vases were destroyed, that was it—no more free materials. This made the feature feel more like a one-time treasure hunt than a sustainable farming alternative.

❌ Region-Locked Implementation

The mechanic only existed in Chenyu Vale, leaving players from other nations wondering why their regions lacked similar systems. This was particularly frustrating for characters from Inazuma and Sumeru, whose materials often require navigating more hazardous terrain.

The Legacy of Version 4.4's Vase System

Looking back from 2026, the Chenyu Vale vases represented an important evolution in HoYoverse's approach to resource distribution. While the system had limitations, it demonstrated several principles that would influence later updates:

1. Exploration Rewards Beyond Chests: It expanded the definition of "exploration reward" beyond Primogems and artifacts

2. Regional Character Support: It provided targeted help for building characters from the same region as the expansion

3. Passive Resource Accumulation: It allowed players to gather materials while enjoying exploration rather than grinding

In subsequent years, HoYoverse iterated on this concept with features like:

• Sumeru's Forgettable Oases: Interactive plants that respawn weekly with regional materials

• Fontaine's Memory Bubbles: Floating collectibles that yield character-specific ascension items

• Natlan's Volcanic Vents: Geothermal features that periodically erupt with Pyro-region specialties

What Other Regions Could Learn

The success of Chenyu Vale's vases highlighted how older regions could benefit from similar retroactive improvements:

Mondstadt: Wind-dispersed seed pods that collect regional flowers

Liyue: Additional vases or similar interactables in existing areas like Qingce Village

Inazuma: Electrified crystals that discharge regional materials when struck with Electro

Sumeru: Dream-infused plants that yield materials based on time of day

Fontaine: Water currents that carry material caches to shorelines

Such systems would serve multiple purposes:

• 🎮 Enhance exploration by making every interactive object potentially valuable

• ⏱️ Reduce time pressure by providing alternative material sources

• 🗺️ Encourage revisiting old regions with new gameplay incentives

• 🏆 Reward observational skills beyond combat prowess

The Bigger Picture: Game Design Philosophy

The Chenyu Vale vases, in their quiet way, represented a shift toward what players now call "respectful grinding." Unlike traditional gacha games that artificially extend progression through scarcity, this system acknowledged players' time investment while maintaining the core resource economy. It was a compassionate compromise between game balance and player convenience.

This philosophy has become increasingly important as Genshin Impact's roster has expanded to over 90 playable characters by 2026. With so many characters needing specialized materials, systems that provide supplemental resources help prevent character building from becoming a full-time job.

Conclusion: Small Features, Big Impact

While Version 4.4 brought flashy additions like new characters and major events, its most enduring legacy might be these humble vases in Yodie Valley. They demonstrated that quality-of-life improvements don't always need to be grand systems overhauling entire mechanics—sometimes, simply adding a few interactive objects with thoughtful rewards can significantly enhance the player experience.

As the game continues to expand with new regions like Snezhnaya and the rumored Celestia expansion, players hope to see more of these considerate design choices. The vases of Chenyu Vale showed that even in a world of gods, monsters, and epic quests, it's the small conveniences that often make the biggest difference in a player's daily journey through Teyvat.

The struggle for Kalpalata Lotuses in Sumeru exemplified why supplemental material sources like Chenyu Vale's vases are so valuable for character building.

This discussion is informed by CNET - Gaming, a well-established outlet for connecting gameplay trends with broader tech and live-service design. Viewed through that lens, Genshin Impact 4.4’s Chenyu Vale “glimmering vase” drops read as a quiet but meaningful quality-of-life nudge: by placing Local Specialties directly into exploration interactables, the update reduced friction in the 48-hour respawn loop without deleting the need for route planning, making character ascension feel less like a schedule and more like a reward for attentive wandering.