The Lantern Rite event in Genshin Impact brings with it a new minigame activity – the Theater Mechanicus – and if you want to earn the Peace Talisman event currency you’ll need to master this tower defense challenge. Unlocking the new event isn’t as simple as logging in, however: you’ll need to spend an hour or two completing quests before you can prove your tactical mastery.
Unlock the Theater Mechanicus minigame in Genshin Impact by completing “The Origin of Lanterns”, then the quest “Liyue: Theater Mechanicus.”
The Theater Mechanicus minigame in Genshin Impact is a part of the overall Lantern Rite event, so to access it you must first unlock the event. To do so you’ll need to be Adventure Rank 23, have completed the first Act in the Liyue story, and have finished the new Xiao story quest. Then you can accept the actual quest that unlocks the Lantern Rite event in Genshin Impact. It’s a whole to-do, and it will take players who are fully caught up a couple of hours to knock out both the Xiao and Lantern Rite quest. A full break down on how to unlock the Lantern Rite event can be found in our guide here.
Once you’ve completed “The Origin of Lanterns” you’ll have access to the entire suite of Lantern Rite event activities, once you complete their quests of course. The Theater Mechanicus quest – “Liyue: Theater Mechanicus” – can be started by talking to Ruijin in Liyue Harbor (she’s near where you completed “The Origin of Lanterns”). This quest is simply a tutorial for Theater Mechanicus, and completing the trial will unlock full access to the minigame in Genshin Impact.
You’ll need to spend one Xiao Lantern per Theater Mechanicus attempt after the trial, and it’ll be consumed whether you succeed or fail. These are easy enough to craft though, which you can read about in our guide here. Clearing Theater Mechanicus challenges is the only way to earn the Lantern Rite event currency, Peace Talismans, so if you want to grab a free character from “Stand By Me” and all the items in the Xiao Market event shop you’ll need to spend some time in the new activity.
Thankfully it’s pretty simple to wrap your head around, and it doesn’t take too long to clean up the challenges. It’s only been a couple of hours since the Lantern Rite went live (at least as of publication), and I’ve already reached the maximum level for my towers for the day, capped the upgrade currency, and completed all the Theater Mechanicus challenges that can currently be cleared in Genshin Impact. Every day a new difficulty will become available, and in effect more challenges can be completed, so check in daily if you only want to spend as little time as possible within the new Genshin Impact activity.
