The launch ofGenshin Impact‘s newest rival,Wuthering Waves, has been anything but smooth. Players quickly found themselves dealing withall manner of bugs,errors, andgame crashes. So much so, that developer Kuro Games isoffering free pulls onWuthering Waves‘ gacha mechanicto apologise for it all. However, there’s been one issue that I think most players wouldn’t mind seeing stick around; one that’s allowed them to play as a new character before they officially launch.
Over onReddit(as spotted byIGN), user PisangMinyakRebus shared several gameplay clips fromWuthering Wavesoriginating from BiliBili, which showed people playing asfive-star character Yinlin. This is despite the fact that Yinlin won’t be added to the game until June. According to PisangMinyakRebus, this exploit was very simple to do; all it required was players manually setting the time to June 15, which is during the period Yinlin’s banner is set to run.
From the sound of things, this exploit doesn’t mean you permanently unlock Yinlin. It just grants you access to a trial version that will be officially available from June 12 to July 3. However, it still gives you more time to spend playing as her than Kuro Games planned, and could theoretically be replicated with any other future additions. As such, Kuro Games will no doubt have this exploit patched out sooner rather than later. In fact, more recent comments on the Reddit thread say a patch has already arrived, though only in China, so it may still work in the Western release.
There’s something almost nostalgic about exploiting a game’s mechanics by messing with its in-game clock. It reminds me of the time travel exploit from theAnimal Crossinggames, which allowed players to replay seasonal events or catch out-of-season fish and bugs.
Some may consider such exploits a form of cheating but, in the case ofWuthering Waves, it’s a single-player game with no competitive features. Plus, as explained earlier, this exploit isn’t bypassing the gacha mechanic entirely; you’d probably still lose access to the character once the trial period ends. Regardless, it’s a fun and mostly harmless exploit while it lasts, though Kuro Games will no doubt verify it never rears its head again in the future.
