Rifthounds are fast and powerful foes in Genshin Impact, but many fans are upset they’re now in the Spiral Abyss. This came in the 2.3 update, courtesy of miHoYo, bringing quite a few hounds into the area. They aren’t impossible to beat or anything, but the addition of these for people tackling Spiral Abyss makes the experience far less enjoyable. There’s nothing wrong with a challenge, but it sounds like the Rifthound addition in Genshin Impact makes it frustrating instead of just moderately challenging. 

Spiral Abyss is where the toughest of the tough go to find a challenge in Genshin Impact, so adding the Rifthound pulls sounds reasonable. At least, on its face. The Rifthound enemies can appear on Floor 12 of Genshin Impact’s Spiral Abyss. This recent change does bring up the topic of Powercreep in Genshin Impact. It can feel like some that this change only really rewards people who have the latest, most powerful characters – the people who are spending money. 

One user on Reddit had this to say about the Powercreep in Genshin Impact and the addition of the Rifthound. “I’m a low spender with highly invested in characters, and I sometimes struggle with the wolves… not because I don’t have the DPS required to beat them, but because the whole experience can get so frustrating that it makes me go “Well, I just got out of work, do I REALLY want to go through this sort of stress?” They are beefy, they fly a lot, they apply corrosion, and on top of that, you’re in abyss trying to do everything in a couple of minutes. I’m sure challenge is something some people enjoy, and so do I to some extent, but for me challenges are supposed to be rewarding or interesting?”

Powercreep is the notion of new additions to a game – characters, cards, DLC, outstrips the previous content in terms of power. Every new character feels stronger than the rest, making them far more important. The Rifthounds are already hard to hit for melee units – they fly around the area and apply corrosion. Corrosion can melt even the tankiest of characters, making it even harder to get through this content in the time limit.

The above user feels like less than a full pull of Primogems for dealing with this isn’t worth it. Sure, it’s hard, but it’s not fun, and that’s an important part of any game. Challenging content should feel fun, and the Genshin Impact players are unhappy with the Rifthound change. Other players complained about the hitboxes of the Rifthounds and how they also can phase through solid walls – by glitching out. Not only is it incredibly difficult to deal with them, but it makes an already challenging event not fun and unreasonable, but on top of that they glitch out. 

Other users feel that it’s just time-gating, and that’s not a fun kind of challenge. “Hard as in being time-gated is no fun to me at all. I can spend hours getting my ass whopped by a boss in Sekiro but still find it much more absorbing than this kind of time-gated hard.”

We’ll have to see if miHoYo has anything to say. Not everyone is against this change, but there is an incredibly vocal amount of the playerbase that feels that it spoils Spiral Abyss’s challenge, making it go from difficult to just plain not fun.