So I've been away from Genshin for a while. Wish I could say it's by choice but the truth is...
My account got hacked and sold.
Long story. TLDR, I regret not paying attention to account security and learned my lesson the hard way. Genshin's recovery process was...extremely exhausting. Trust me when I say it's a stress-inducing nightmare, all of which could have been avoided if only I were more careful. Hackers have ways of gaining access to our accounts, and staying safe takes more than just avoiding the obvious "free primos" scams and not giving away your login info.
*For updated info about account security and what to do if you get hacked, visit the GenshinHacked subreddit.
*A good read on how to secure your account: Reddit Thread
Some advice:
Never ever save passwords on internet browsers. Configure settings to auto delete cookies after closing tabs or use incognito mode. There are malwares that steal passwords from cookies and that's how your email/genshin gets hacked.
Be wary of sites/links offering free software downloads/primos/genshin private servers. If something is too good to be true it probably is.
Set long passwords with a random combination of upper & lower case/special characters/numbers/letters.
If you link any 3rd party to Genshin (twitter, facebook etc.), ensure they all have 2fa enabled. The linked email for each 3rd party account should also be different.
Create a brand new email with 2fa enabled and only use it for your Hoyoverse login. Do not use it for anything else to lower chances of it being compromised in a data breach. This email is probably the most important thing to safeguard. It is pretty much GAME OVER if this email gets hacked as the hacker can easily use it to unlink your email and change your Hoyoverse password.
Check if your email was found in a data breach: https://haveibeenpwned.com/
Don't get involved in account trading. Buying and selling accounts is against Hoyoverse's ToS. This is not going to stop people from doing so but just be aware that there are many hacked and stolen accounts on the market. There's always a chance of the original owner recovering it, causing the buyer to get "scammed" by the hacker/seller.
If ever you get hacked, do not trust anyone other than Hoyoverse's support team to retrieve your account. You might get messages asking you to DM "someone" on instagram/twitter for help (see below pic). Do not respond to these lowlife scammers and block them immediately! Also do not attempt to contact the hacker/buyer as they may trash your stuff out of spite.
It is easy to blame the hacker and Hoyoverse for my predicament but I admit that ultimately it was my fault for getting hacked. And no, I did not fall for any "free primos!!111" or "genshin giveawayyy@#!&" scam, and I have never shared my login credentials with others.
The hacker gained access to my Hoyoverse and the email linked to it. With those alone the hacker was able to unlink my email, change the password and delete all login devices/phone number. How did the hacker get my login details? Well...
My first mistake was saving passwords on my web browser. I was using 2 browsers back then. Firefox was configured to delete cookies after closing and it's what I use on the regular. I set up another browser (Opera) for quick access to my unimportant socials and various sites by storing passwords in the browser and NOT deleting cookies. So really in hindsight, my biggest mistake was being a lazy dumbass. I'm sure that a cookie stealing malware was what got me coz my obscure twitter was spamming crypto tweets and the only place I ever use it on was the Opera browser. I also had my Genshin login saved for redeeming codes (arghhh). Probably had the email linked to Genshin saved on it too since it was the only compromised email.
My second dumb mistake was downloading software from a dodgy site. I think it was when I was looking for a pdf editor and downloaded malware instead. I remember it being a rar file, and extracting it triggered the malware alert of my antivirus. I deleted the file immediately but guess it was too late. This was likely how the cookie-stealing malware found its way onto my PC. Should have known better, really.
My third mistake was ignoring signs of a security breach. The first warning sign was the antivirus alert. The next was the twitter spam. These things happened a day or two before my Hoyoverse actually got hacked. There was time for me to stop it but I failed to do so. What I should have done immediately when there was suspicious activity: scan for malware, change every password and NEVER save passwords on browsers EVER AGAIN!
My fourth mistake was setting a bunch of weak passwords for Genshin and emails. Easy to remember, but a risky move since it'll only take an hour for a computer to crack them!
Secure & Recover
After discovering I got hacked, I did everything to secure my PC again like running several anti-virus scans, uninstalling Opera for good, activating 2fa wherever possible and changing every single password to complex ones. Thankfully it seems like nothing else was hacked.
Then I submitted the HoYoverse Pass form (aka "Hacked Form") to recover my account. This is the form you'll need to fill to "prove" you are the true owner of said account. On it are a list of questions like username, email, linked third party, first login method, first and most played devices, registration date, first purchase method and receipts. There's also the option to recover Genshin, Honkai or Tears of Themis but luckily you'll only need to submit the form for one game to get all the others back. Recovering through Honkai or Themis is supposedly faster as the player base is smaller but unfortunately I did not note down the UID of my Themis account so that option was...not an option for me (sighhh).
The CS team forewarned it'll take up to 20 business days for a reply (it was the norm to wait 30-40 days in total). It literally takes a whole month for the recovery process with no guarantee you'll get it back at the end of the long wait.
Meanwhile I kept a close watch on my account through an alt and on Hoyolabs. The hacker deleted my friend list and changed my in-game nick to a number. A few days later it was again changed, this time to a Jp name. It looked like my account got sold.
Whale Watching: The "Buyer"
Based on my observations, I could guess that the buyer was some Japanese dude who likes Kazuha (a lot), not a fan of Tartag (keeps switching out his bow and giving it to others smh), makes questionable choices for abyss, might be a whale or at least a dolphin (character count increased, some new constellations, pulled on the weapon banner yikes), logs in almost everyday and plays the events. I did wonder if I should be relieved about my account being in the hands of an active player who somewhat knows what he's doing as opposed to a bored troll who trashes accounts. But the most frustrating thing about it all was noticing the gradual increase of my chasm exploration % on Hoyolabs and being unable to do anything about it.
The 2.8 Update: A Depressing Livestream
Days passed (really slowly) with no reply. The buyer was still active on my account when the 2.8 livestream dropped. After losing access, I intentionally avoided genshin-related news to cope with the situation but tbh I really missed the game. So I ended up watching the stream. It announced the return of the summer islands, the new Diluc skin (the one consistent thing i asked for in every survey no kidding T_T), and even had a Sumeru teaser at the end. It was supposed to be exciting but I felt nothing but despair. I was looking forward to Sumeru and dendro but I wasn't sure if I will ever get the chance to experience it.
Day 30: The Response
On the 30th day, I received a response from CS.
The recovery attempt was unsuccessful. The information I gave was "incomplete" and "inconsistent". They wouldn't say what was incorrect and I was left guessing.
I thought I had lots of proof and knew everything about my account but somehow still fell short. Felt a mixture of disbelief and sadness. All that time spent waiting, and it was for nothing.
The 2nd Attempt: Persistence & Patience
It was really hard dealing with the rejection after a month-long wait. I even considered moving on to Tower of Fantasy but in the end I decided to keep trying. I wasn't ready to give up on something I was invested in for almost 2 years. I refused to let the hacker/buyer win. On the subreddit I read stories of players who only got their accounts back after one year of continuous rejections. I was ready for that. I was prepared for the worst.
For the 2nd attempt I was a lot calmer and spent some time organizing my info and reviewing the first form to figure out what went wrong. I changed the registration date to my first login date instead. The form lets you use the first login date if you can't remember the registration date so this time I went with the login date which I was confident of. Then I changed the first login device and UID first started platform to my other device. I was in a tricky situation as I wasn't sure if I first logged in with mobile or PC. I had issues with both at the start and was trying them out at the same time (lag and update issues). For most players the registration device would be the same as the login device/UID first started platform but I think it was different for me. So anyway in the second form I wrote down the device I used that successfully played the first cutscene with the unknown god. It was not the same device I used to register for Genshin. I then explained my situation and why I was unsure about the first device in the additional info section.
Those three were the only answers I changed. Then I added every five star pull dates in the additional info (before i only listed the characters, no dates given). Also I used a different email from my first attempt to submit the form. This time the email was the one I used for purchases (this email address was visible on my paypal receipts).
After submitting the form I sent an additional email to support_os with a link to my google drive. Tbh this was prob unnecessary and I don't know for sure if it helped at all but at the time I was eager to provide as much proof as I could. The google drive had excel spreadsheets of the following:
Chronological list of all my five stars and their exact pull dates (including standard banner five star pulls)
Full purchase history in chronological order where I listed the transaction ids/purchase methods/file name of the receipt screenshot on my google drive for reference
Devices I used to play Genshin (again i explained about my first login device "issue" and also listed my latest most played devices and the date I started using them).
I added another folder for screenshots that had every receipt and some early in-game screenshots with my UID visible (including screenshots of my first 20 pulls on beginner banner...the hacker/buyer will never know of this since wish history only shows records from the past 6 months).
Basically I only included things I was sure of and everything was presented in a clear and organized format. Dates were written as YYYY/MM/DD, same as how it is in-game and I clearly stated my country and timezone in big bold font (emphasizing this since I could tell the hacker/buyer was located in another country). Lucky for me (and i'm so glad for this!) I kept records of every banner pull date to keep track of my primos and also had every receipt in a separate email that was not linked to Genshin. Although I had tons of screenshots and video evidence, I didn't include much as they are generally not considered as "good evidence". I can see why since media can easily be stolen off the internet so I only attached the unique event participation ones.
The Waiting Game 2.0
Playing the waiting game 2.0 was a lot tougher than the first. Already 30 plus days have passed since I last logged in, I have missed the Xiao and Itto events, possibly will miss the summer events as well and who knew how much of MY resources the buyer had already spent/squandered or how far he had progressed for the story quests. It didn't help that I was also missing out on the Themis events (my fav Marius' bday and the anniversary sighh). I was constantly checking my Hoyolabs profile, watching the buyer completing events, max refining weapons I do not want refined, switching out Childe's artifacts/weapons (once again Childe was messed with LMAO). It got to a point where the anxiety level was just too much and I had to stop the whale-watching. Instead it became routine every morning, afternoon and evening to check my email and try the "forget password" method (entering the new email I gave to see if it got linked by the CS team). Everyday I got used to the same feeling of disappointment that followed.
In short, the wait was tormenting.
Day 34 of 2nd Form: End in Sight?
It was day 34. Noon time I checked my email and tried the forgot password method. Still nothing as usual. Later that day just as I ended work, I checked my phone and straightaway I noticed the notification for an email from support_os. I jumped to open it and got this:
Nearly two months. It was finally over.
I got my account back!
State of My Account
I was able to login before the summer events ended although the buyer had already completed the story. But just listening to the familiar soundtrack of the islands brought back good memories of the first time I explored the map and I didn't know how much I missed Genshin until that moment.
Thankfully nothing of importance was trashed. Some artifacts were moved around but none of the good ones were destroyed. I found myself with welkin, battle pass, new characters I had no intention of pulling, some constellations including lost 50/50s, two 5-star weapons (1 was a dupe sighh) and some max refined 4-stars (pain). All Archon and character story quests were done and that probably upset me the most since I had plans to record the cutscenes to make videos. Other than that I was surprised to learn the buyer spent some time in my teapot adding random furniture and collecting realm currency (a lot of realm currency, um thanks?). And of course Kazuha was chilling there. I was prob right about maple boy being his fav.
The buyer was some kind of whale who spent quite a lot in 2 months, more than I ever did in a year. Having all this "bonuses" after getting hacked sounds like a win but the buyer might request a refund anytime so I'm feeling really uneasy about having all this "extra" stuff. There's nothing I can do now except to wait it out and hope my primos don't turn negative.
All this time I did not make any contact with the buyer so I will never find out how or why he bought my account. I will also never know if he knew the account he bought was a stolen one. Still, I don't feel sorry for the dude at all, not after what I had gone through for the past two months.
Lesson Learnt
If you are still reading this, don't be like me, please safeguard your account from hackers. Genshin's popularity makes it an attractive target for scumbag hackers and account traders. It is easy to blame Hoyoverse for the lack of security and loopholes but as players we should also do what we can to ensure our info doesn't get stolen that easily. Most importantly, do not download from unreliable sites and do not save passwords in your browsers. Always delete cookies or use incognito browsing mode. And always set a strong password!
And that is it for my sob story with a happy(?) ending. Ever since I got my account back I have been spending most of my time exploring Sumeru (soundtrack is gold!). Still some catching up to do as I have missed tons of story stuff (gonna have to watch all of it on youtube sighhh).
Kamisato Ayato's Demo Trailer: Fathomless Swirls in the Forest
I knew it...
I hardly know the dude but I was just thinking how it feels oddly out of character for him to be doing nothing during the entire Inazuma arc while his little sis was involved in it...
Had this random thought while in the middle of a Bennett hangout playthrough.
I kinda wish there was a Genshin slice of life type anime with Bennett as the main protagonist. It will just be a retelling of his daily misfortunes adventures where nothing ever goes right and his struggles to recruit new members into his team as narrated by Benny himself because even hiring a narrator is hard, then at the end of each episode always without fail and unbeknownst to him will be a scene showing something good that came out of all his accumulated bad luck and it will be hilarious but wholesome as heck.
...is how I will describe my entire experience with questing and exploring in Enkanomiya.
WARNING: The rest of the post contains major Enkanomiya Spoilers from version 2.4 of Genshin Impact.
My Time in Enkanomiya:
Got sent on a mission to the depths to retrieve bloodbranch coral. Was told there will be a trial BUT WAIT! No one knows the details.
Met a guy named Enjou there. A bit dodgy considering he looks like a regular citizen from Inazuma yet made it past all the monsters alone BUT WAIT! He's helping us out and tells us about the golden bridle and stuff so...
Entered Dainichi Mikoshi, activated evernight. Met a sinshade called Aru. He explains the next step which is to collect 3 fragments to restore the reins of revival. The questline becomes clearer now (but wait??).
Collected the 3 fragments, expects to receive coral as reward BUT WAIT! The coral is with da vishaps!
Defeated the vishaps. BUT WAIT! Oh that's just Enjou. BUT WAIT! Who would've guessed he's not one of Kokomi's ppl and now he has transformed into a...pyro abyss lector!
Defeated "The thing calling itself Enjou", picked up coral and handed it over to Tsuyuko.
All done!
BUT WAIT! There's still unfinished quests!
Went around unlocking quests. Thinks wow, this Aberaku guy's backstory is pretty tragic. Those dudes at the prison as well, being left behind like that. Mihoyo goes BUT WAIT! Have you heard about the...Sunchildren? You know, those tombstones with names on them? Yea...those.
Did a bunch of puzzles, looked everywhere for the last 2 books of the collection quest but can't find them. Thought I have unlocked everything BUT WAIT! The achievement page ain't 100%! Where's the last 3 waypoints?
Gave up and googled for a guide. Turns out I missed a quest. Quest says BUT WAIT! And opens up 3 new islands. THREE.
Fine. Cleared the islands and collected all the books. Thinks ok, well, wish the books were actual readable books. I'm really curious why Enjou was so bent on looking for that one book. Returned books, waits for quest to end BUT WAIT! A portal opens up? It leads us to somewhere and we collect the actual readable mindboggling books.
Ok. That has to be it right???
BUT WAIT! Watch the 2.5 livestream. Trailer starts and it's... Enkanomiya part 2.
Gawdammit mihoyo.
...
Jokes aside, Enkanomiya is incredible with its map/environment design, music, storytelling and overall sombre vibes that is reminiscent of my other favorite game, Dark Souls.
It's obvious I had low expectations going into the story thinking there will only be one main quest and like 2 side quests but I'm surprised by the number of hidden details and secrets scattered all over the map.
And yes, after all of the but waits I finally got the achievement and completed most of the major quests. Can't say for sure that I've done everything there is to do there. But at least I can say...I'm ready for the 2.5 update.
BONUS:
This is an actual screenshot of in-game dialogue during the quest. The but wait theme is real.
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