Chinese gacha gamers are reporting Hoyoverse to the government after a recent Genshin Impact Neuvillette nerf in version 4.8. This change, which the company is framing as a bug fix, comes months after the character’s initial release and particularly affects the game’s mobile players.
Since his release in September 2023, Genshin Impact’s Neuvillette has remained one of the most powerful DPS characters in the game, cementing his popularity in the fandom thanks to his combination of utility, plot relevance, and husbando material. However, as Genshin Impact players booted up the game after its recent patch, we discovered that Hoyoverse has issued a ‘bug fix’ for Neuvillette’s charged attack, significantly nerfing his damage potential.
The fix in question stops Neuvillette from spinning at an “unusually high speed” during his charged attack, which allowed players to deal huge amounts of damage to enemies in a large area with ease. From our own testing, pulling this technique off is a lot easier on mobile than on console or PC thanks to touchscreen sensitivity and the limitations of joystick and mouse movement, so this ‘fix’ disproportionately affects mobile-only players.
So why are Chinese players reporting Hoyoverse to the government for consumer fraud over this? It comes down to two things: nerfs and buffs are extremely rare in gacha games once a character has launched due to consumer protection laws, and if this ability was truly a bug, then why has Hoyoverse waited so long to fix it?
Due to the way the Chinese government views spending on gacha games, nerfing characters post-release is extremely taboo as it is seen as removing a feature or downgrading a product after people have spent their money on it. Games like Genshin Impact and Hoyoverse’s other titles have beta builds specifically to avoid post-launch balance changes, ensuring that a character’s kit is working as intended and balanced compared to existing units before shipping them to the public version of the game for players to spend their hard-earned or purchased primos on.
Zhongli’s balance changes immediately come to mind when thinking about Hoyo’s previous run-ins with these laws, but those changes improved his kit dramatically after players were disappointed in his kit and claimed false advertising. Meanwhile, Neuvillette’s change actively nerfs a character who’s consistently ranked SS on Genshin Impact tier lists.
If you look at videos of the ability pre-nerf, it does seem like a bug or an exploit, but players assumed that it wasn’t when Hoyoverse didn’t immediately patch it when Neuvillette first came out last year, or even after his banner rerun in April of 2024. That’s why the phrasing and timing of this change feel particularly suspicious and is causing the Chinese Genshin community to take legal action. Many suspect that the nerf is to make the upcoming hydro characters for Natlan, like Genshin Impact’s Mualani, more appealing to consumers and therefore boost microtransaction sales. This is all speculation, of course, but the change is certainly raising eyebrows across the internet.
That’s everything we know about the Genshin Impact Neuvillette nerf. If this change truly is to promote the new region, then you’d better check out our Genshin Impact Natlan and Genshin Impact’s Kinich guides next. Make sure you follow us on Google News for all the latest gacha gaming updates, too.