New Area: Dragonspine & It's Features (Version 1.2)

Dragonspine is the new area that will be available after the version 1.2 update, a snowy mountain that comes with a new environmental mechanic related to the cold. In Dragonspine, you will not be able to use gadgets like treasure compasses that you obtained from a city reputation.

From the image, we can see that there are 11 teleport waypoints, 1 Statue of the Seven, 1 unknown domain area, and a Frostbearing Tree. This totals to 14 places that we can teleport to.

In Dragonspine, being in the cold area will accumulate the status called the "Sheer Cold." Once the bar is full, your character will start to take damage over time. This status increases even when you are just standing still.

From the gif shown, we can see that being in the area, or affected by the Sheer Cold, does not inflict the character with the Cryo element. This means that using Barbara as a healer might not be an issue, unless being affected by Hydro increases the buildup.

Certain actions like swimming will increase the Sheer Cold buildup.

A new weather condition, snowstorm. This will increase sheer cold buildup at an increased rate than normal.

Since the Sheer Cold will play an important mechanic in Dragonspine, it's best that you start to familiarize yourself with ways to reduce the buildup and make your situation more manageable.

Light up unlit torches that you find along the way using Pyro elemental attacks. Staying close to lit torches will start to reduce the Sheer Cold all the way down to 0.

There will be other sources of heat that you can find as well. Lighting up the fire from the campfire cooking pot, and warming seelie works as a heat source. Teleport waypoints, and Statue of the Seven(s) will also reduce the buildup.

There will be a new food that can reduce the rate of Sheer Cold by 900s (15 minutes) called Goulash. The materials required to make 1 are:

• 2 Chilled Meats
• 2 Carrots
• 1 Tomato

You can get Carrots and Tomatoes from outside of Dragonspine, but Chilled Meat is from Dragonspine only. Tomatoes can be bought from General Goods NPC in Mondstadt, next to the Timaeus with the crafting table. Carrots can be found in the wild, or from expeditions.

A new gadget obtainable from the Frostbearing Tree at level 4. Requires 2 Flaming Flower Stamen, which are fire flowers found in the wild, and 2 Dragonspine exclusive materials.

Obtained from crystals found in the wild. Scarlet Quartz will temporarily stop Sheer Cold from increasing. This will also be used to destroy "peculiar ice" that can be found in Dragonspine.

These objects cannot be destroyed using claymore or Pyro attacks, it requires scarlet quartz to destroy them.

Pyro characters will definitely play an important role in Dragonspine, and Bennett has pretty quick access to Pyro element because of his low cooldowns. His elemental burst can also heal your character at a pretty fast rate, as well as providing an attack boost, making him a very efficient character in your party.

Amber is a free Pyro character that everyone has. Her charged arrow shot is a Pyro element, so it's always a reliable way to light certain things on fire. She can also be a good damage dealer because of her passive, dealing high damage when you hit enemy weakspots.

Not the best for exploration because of her long cooldowns, but she can be quite a useful support. She provides a shield to block some damage, and she can apply Pyro to your character, which can cancel out any element your character might have by causing a reaction. Since there will be many Cryo type enemies in Dragonspine, applying Pyro to self could be useful.

Diona provides a Cryo element shield, which can absorb more Cryo damage than any other element. Her elemental burst can also heal your team. If you're struggling with the enemies in the area, using Diona's shield can increase your survivability.

Qiqi can outheal the sheercold damage when the status bar is full. This will allow you to keep traveling without having to look for any heat source while the skill's time is up.

Find Crimson Agates and submit them to the tree to level it up, similar to the Statue of the Sevens.

There are a limited amount of Crimson Agates that can be found in Dragonspine, but once you reach level 8, you will unlock weekly quests, that are available every Monday and Friday, to obtain more Crimson Agates to reach max level.

Each levels provides good rewards, but the important ones are at level 4, 10, and 11. At level 4, you will get the blueprint to craft the "Warming Bottle" gadget, used to reduce Sheer Cold status. Level 10 is the blueprint to craft a new 4 star catalyst weapon "Frostbearer." Level 11 gives Crown of Insight, which is used to level up your talents to max level.

Complete The Chalk Prince and the Dragon storyline to obtain the event-exclusive sword — Festering Desire. Completing specified quests during the event period will unlock new effects for Festering Desire, and the character that equips the cursed sword will receive some special buffs while exploring the Dragonspine area.

There will also be an event shop to get some rewards, which gives an item to refine the Festering Desire, as well as a Crown of Insight.

If you plan on getting the new characters, then you need to prepare the required materials to level them up. If you aren't sure what materials to farm because you don't know what you will get, you can always farm character, or weapon exp materials, as well as some Mora. You need around 1 million Mora to level a character to 90 with talent levels and weapons upgrades, and each character will need about 206 Hero's Wit.

For other materials, you can buy them from the general goods NPC in Mondstadt, next to Timaeus with the crafting table. The carrots can be found in the wild. The Flaming Flower Stamens are also found in the wild, you can use any interactive map to help find them.

There are new craftable weapons, and you will need the prototype materials in order to craft them. Prototype materials are obtained from the weekly bosses, and they are quite rare drops. If you haven't used them already, save the materials for later and see if they will be worth it or not.