Genshin Impact Version 1.2 will introduce the “Chalk Prince and the Dragon” event, but like all others before it this event will only be around for a limited time. Unlike previous events there isn’t a Resin cost attached, but you will have to progress the new story to fully unlock all the activities and rewards from The Chalk Price and the Dragon event.
During the event the Albedo Story Quest “Princeps Cretaceus Chapter” can be unlocked at Adventure Rank 20. It must be completed to access The Chalk Prince and the Dragon event; after the event concludes on January 5th, 2021 the quest will require Adventure Rank 40 and a Story Key to unlock. The event itself will feature four acts, each becoming accessible on a set date. Act I opens with the event on December 22nd, Act II December 25th, Act 3 December 28th, and Act IV December 31st.
The major reward attached to The Chalk Prince and the Dragon is the Festering Desire, a powerful sword that is improved with items earned during the event. Certain items are locked behind explicit acts, though Rime-Worn Fragments and Rime-Worn Crystals will be available as soon as you unlock the event. All activities take place in the new Dragonspine zone, and zone-specific powers for the Festering Desire will only work there. Once the event concludes those powers will be removed. Enhancing the Festering Desire will grant you Weapon Ascension Materials, so even if you don’t care for the zone bonuses, the extra weapon leveling materials will prove worth the grind.
Full details for the Chalk Prince and the Dragon event are listed below with American server times, if you want to skip the mini-guides for each Act.
The Chalk Prince and the Dragon Act I Guide
The first Act is very simple: clear the Albedo Story Quest “Princeps Cretaceus Chapter” to unlock the Chalk Prince and the Dragon event, and return to Albedo at his camp in Dragonspine to get started. He will “gift” you the Festering Desire sword, and ask you to perform an experiment with it. I.E. kill all the things with the sword equipped. Once you’ve done this you’ll wrap up the story portion of the Act and unlock the event page. From here you will have a checklist of tasks to complete within Dragonspine, and completing them all will progress your Festering Desire’s unlocks up to Rank 1 (out of three).
These checklist items and their rewards are:
- Collect 60 Rime-Worn Fragments (dropped by regular enemies)
- 30 Primogems, 20000 Mora
- Collect 120 Rime-Worn Fragments
- 30 Primogems, 20000 Mora
- Collect 30 Rime-Worn Crystals (dropped by larger and elite enemies)
- 30 Primogems, 20000 Mora
- Collect 60 Rime-Worn Crystals
- 30 Primogems, 20000 Mora
- Enhance Festering Desire to Rank 20
- 3 Festers of Dandelion Gladiator, 3 Heavy Horn, 2 Recruit’s Insignia
- Enhance Festering Desire to Rank 40
- 3 Chains of the Dandelion Gladiator, 12 Heavy Horn, 8 Recruit’s Insignia
The Rime-Worn Fragments and Crystals are easy to acquire: kill anything that so much as moves within Dragonspine. These will drop whether you have the event fully unlocked or not, so as you progress the Albedo Story Quest “Princeps Cretaceus Chapter” you’ll collect these. Explore Dragonspine and kill everything to finish these objectives off.
Enhancing Festering Desire is also simple. The weapon has a 1.5x experience multiplier during the event, and all the Ascension materials you’ll need to advance it are given to you as rewards for each step. Essentially, don’t waste your Resin farming up these materials. Just use enhancement crystals to reach Rank 20 and 40, then redeem the rewards from the event page to ascend Festering Desire. I recommend holding off on any further ascension until Act 2 goes live, since the next tier of Ascension materials will likely be within the rewards table as well.
Act 2 Guide
Return to Albedo and complete the second quest in the Chalk Prince and the Dragon event. You’ll have to kill a handful of Treasure Hoarders and Fatui agents, but like the first quest it isn’t anything complex. Once you complete this short quest you’ll unlock the Act 2 activity: the Testing Grounds. It’s a red “T” icon on the map, and in the world it looks like a combat challenge.
The Testing Grounds works like a Resin-free Lay-Line. Interacting with it will trigger a combat challenge, and there will be three Ruin Braziers you’ll need to defend. Sheer Cold accumulates rapidly during the Testing Grounds challenge, so you want this braziers alive to stay warm. After clearing out all the enemies a chest will spawn. Within the chest are Glimmering Essence, with are used within the Event Shop to purchase an enhancement item for the Festering Desire (Festering Dragon Marrow), in addition to various weapon Ascension materials, Mora, and Mystic Enhancement Ore.
The Festering Dragon Marrow is used to refine the Festering Desire, and is the most expensive item in the event shop. Unlike Act 1, there’s not enough Ascension materials in the shop to push Festering Desire further up without some grinding. The Chains of Dandelion Gladiator will remain usual to grab, but at this point you’ll need to actually farm the rest of the materials on your own time (and with your Resin).
There remain challenges to complete in order to increase the Festering Desire’s event Rank to 2. The challenges are:
- Refine Festering Desire to level 2 (use the Festering Dragon Marrow from the event shop)
- 30 Primogems, 20000 Mora
- Accumulate a total of 600 Glimmering Essence (you will complete this alongside the first challenge)
- 30 Primogems, 20000 Mora
- Accumulate a total of 1800 Glimmering Essence
- 30 Primogems, 20000 Mora
- Complete the Testing Ground challenge 8 times
- 30 Primogems, 20000 Mora
- Complete the Testing Grounds challenge 16 times
- 30 Primogems, 20000 Mora
- Complete the Testing Grounds challenge 5 times without any Ruin Brazier being deactivated
- 30 Primogems, 20000 Mora
The Glimmering Essence shop contains:
- Festering Dragon Marrow
- 600 Essence
- Chains of the Dandelion Gladiator (6 total)
- 25 Essence
- Debris of the Decarabian’s City (6 total)
- 25 Essence
- Boreal Wolf’s Cracked Tooth (6 total)
- 25 Essence
- Lustrous Stone from Guyun (6 total)
- 25 Essence
- Mist Veiled Mercury Elixir (6 total)
- 25 Essence
- Piece of Aerosiderite (6 total)
- 25 Essence
- Hero’s Writ (20 total)
- 20 Essence
- Mystic Enhancement Ore (60 total)
- 10 Essence
- 10000 Mora (30 total)
- 20 Essence
Act 3 Guide
Act 3 follows a similar formula as the first two acts: you’ll knock out a quick quest and gain access to a new activity. Albedo will once more have a new task for you, but this time he can be found outside the base camp “talking” to Cyrus. After a lengthy cutscene you’ll make your way up the mountain, kill some Hilichurls, then glide around Dragonspine. It’s a brief quest, and the final segment where you kill Hilichurl while following a seelie to keep warm is a preview of the Draconic Pilgrimage activity.
After wrapping up the quest the Draconic Pilgrimage activity will become available. Testing Grounds will remain on the map as well within Dragonspine, so you can continue to farm Glimmering Essence as required. Draconic Pilgrimage has a seelie icon, and the activity itself is similar to Testing Grounds, albeit with one minor difference. Instead of defending Ruin Braziers you will follow a warming seelie, all while killing enemies. Complete the Draconic Pilgrimage to earn Warming Essence.
The challenges for The Chalk Prince and The Dragon Act III are:
- Refine Festering Desire to level 3 (using Festering Dragon Marrow from event shop)
- 30 Primogems, 20000 Mora
- Accumulate a total of 600 Warm Essence
- 30 Primogems, 20000 Mora
- Accumulate a total of 1800 Warm Essence
- 30 Primogems, 20000 Mora
- Complete the Draconic Pilgrimage challenge 8 times
- 30 Primogems, 20000 Mora
- Complete the Draconic Pilgrimage challenge 16 times
- 30 Primogems, 20000 Mora
- Complete the Draconic Pilgrimage challenge 5 times without accumulating more than 20% Sheer Cold
- 30 Primogems, 20000 Mora
The event shop for Act III contains:
- Festering Dragon Marrow
- 600 Essence
- Hero’s Wit (20 total)
- 20 Essence
- Adventurer’s Experience (20 total)
- 5 Essence
- Mystic Enhancement Ore (120 total)
- 10 Essence
- 10000 Mora (30 total)
- 20 Essence
Act 4 Guide
Act 4 kicks off at Albedo’s camp in Dragonspine, but the young alchemist isn’t there. Instead, you’ll meet up with Sucrose, who becomes fascinated by the Festering Desire. You’ll head down the mountain to kill a handful of slimes, then some Fatui agents, followed by a boss-fight against a rather powerful Cryo Regisvine. Once you knock those fights out you’ll complete the quest and unlock the next activity: Frostborn Miracle.
The Frostborn Miracle is the Cryo Regisvine boss-fight, but now you need to kill it . . . 15+ times for all the event shop items. Considering there are talent books on offer this isn’t a terrible idea, the event objectives aside. There’s also a talent crown up for grabs, and the last item needed to refine Festering Desire to Rank 5. Problem is: the boss puts up a helluva fight.
If you haven’t been running with a Pyro character up to this point you’ll want one. Amber is actually a solid choice, even if she is low level, because her charged shots can be used to stun the boss from a safe distance. This is vital, because the boss deals heavy damage and can one-shot. For a full written guide to the fight check out the article here. Complete the fight for Miraculous Essence.
The event challenges for Act IV: of The Chalk Prince and the Dragon are:
- Refine Festering Desire to Rank 5 (using the two Festering Dragon Marrow from the store)
- 30 Primogems, 20000 Mora
- Accumulate a total of 600 Miraculous Essence
- 30 Primogems, 20000 Mora
- Complete the Frostborn Miracle challenge 10 times
- 30 Primogems, 20000 Mora
- Complete the Frostborn Miracle challenge 15 times
- 30 Primogems, 20000 Mora
- Hit the Cryo Regisvine 10 times using Scarlet Quartzes in one Frostorn Miracle challenge round
- 30 Primogems, 20000 Mora
- Defeat the Resurgent Cryo Regisvine within 300 seconds at your World Level
- 30 Primogems, 20000 Mora
The event shop for Act IV contains:
- Festering Dragon Marrow (2 total)
- 400 Essence
- Crown of Insight
- 600 Essence
- Guide to Freedom (9 total)
- 20 Essence
- Guide to Resistance (9 total)
- 20 Essence
- Guide to Ballad (9 total)
- 20 Essence
- Guide to Prosperity (9 total)
- 20 Essence
- Guide to Diligence (9 total)
- 20 Essence
- Guide to Gold (9 total)
- 20 Essence
- Hero’s Wit (20 total)
- 12 Essence
- 10000 Mora (30 total)
- 12 Essence
Act 5 Guide
Yes, Act 5 does exist, but it’s only a cutscene and you have to have completed Act 4. Since the event has concluded you won’t see this final act if you failed to wrap up the last one. There’s also no additional event shop for excess essences, but the event shop will remain available until the 12th.
The Chalk Prince and the Dragon event details.
Event Duration
- Event Gameplay Duration: After the Version 1.2 update – 2021/01/05 03:59:59
- Event Shop Duration: After the Version 1.2 update – 2021/01/12 03:59:59
Eligibility
- Reach Adventure Rank 20 or above.
- And complete Prologue: Act II “For a Tomorrow Without Tears.”
Prerequisite Story Quest
- Complete Albedo’s Story Quest “Princeps Cretaceus Chapter” to unlock “The Chalk Prince and the Dragon” event.
- During the event, the “Princeps Cretaceus Chapter” will not require a Story Key to unlock.
- “Princeps Cretaceus Chapter” Opening Time: After the Version 1.2 update
- “Princeps Cretaceus Chapter” Unlock Criteria: Adventure Rank 20 or above
- Once the event ends, the “Princeps Cretaceus Chapter” Story Quest will require Adventure Rank 40 or above, the completion of Prologue: Act II “For a Tomorrow Without Tears,” and a Story Key to unlock.
The Chalk Prince and the Dragon: Act I
- Opening Time: After the Version 1.2 update
- Travelers may complete “The Chalk Prince and the Dragon” storyline to obtain the event-exclusive weapon Festering Desire (Sword).
- After the Dragonspine area is unlocked, Travelers can find Rime-Worn Fragments and Rime-Worn Crystals in Dragonspine.
- After Act I opens, collect Rime-Worn Fragments, Rime-Worn Crystals, and complete the related quests to obtain Primogems, Mora, and other rewards.
- Enhance Festering Desire to obtain Weapon Ascension Materials and other rewards.
- Once the event ends, exploration will no longer yield Rime-Worn Fragments or Rime-Worn Crystals, and quest materials in your Inventory will disappear.
- Rime-Worn Fragments and Rime-Worn Crystals are event-exclusive items, and will disappear after 2021/01/06 03:59.
The Chalk Prince and the Dragon: Act II
- Opening Time: 2020/12/25 04:00:00
- After Act II opens, Travelers can obtain Glimmering Essence through the Testing Grounds challenge.
The Chalk Prince and the Dragon: Act III
- Opening Time: 2020/12/28 04:00:00
- After Act III opens, Travelers can obtain Warm Essence through the Draconic Pilgrimage challenge.
The Chalk Prince and the Dragon: Act IV
- Opening Time: 2020/12/31 04:00:00
- After Act IV opens, Travelers can obtain Miraculous Essence through the Frostborn Miracle challenge.
Event Details
- Glimmering Essence, Warm Essence, and Miraculous Essence can be exchanged for rewards in the event shop.
- Completing all quests in each of the first three Acts will unlock one of Festering Desire’s special abilities each time.
- During the event, the special weapon effects will only take effect in the Dragonspine area of the open world, and will not take effect in Domains.
- Enhancing Festering Desire during the event period yields a Weapon Enhancement EXP Bonus.
- The amount of Essences gained from challenges will scale based on Travelers’ World Levels.
