Genshin Impact: NPCs That Ignore the Paimon Menu Pause

Opening the Paimon menu in a solo world is supposed to stop everything. Enemies hold still, ambient animations halt, and NPCs freeze mid-step until you close the menu again. That is the rule almost everywhere in Teyvat, which is why a handful of patrolling NPCs who simply keep walking through the pause stand out so much.

Quick answer: A few patrol-route NPCs, including Raymond in Mondstadt, a Melusine officer and a civilian in the Court of Fontaine, and the Millelith guard Hongyi in Liyue Harbor, continue moving while the Paimon menu is open instead of freezing like every other NPC.

How the Paimon menu pause normally works

In a single-player world, the Paimon menu acts as a true pause. The game world stops advancing, character animations lock into place, and every NPC on screen holds whatever pose they were in when you opened it. Close the menu and everything resumes from that exact frame.

That behavior is what makes the exception visible. If a walking NPC keeps stepping forward while the menu overlay is up, they are running on a path that the pause is not touching.

NPCs that keep moving while the menu is open

The behavior is not limited to one region or one type of character. It shows up across three nations, on both named quest-relevant NPCs and generic background civilians.

Region	NPC	What happens with the menu open
Mondstadt	Raymond	Walks straight past the paused screen without stopping
Court of Fontaine	Background civilians in the plaza	Continue their ambient movement across the square
Court of Fontaine	Melusine officer on patrol	Keeps following her patrol route, fully animated
Liyue Harbor	Hongyi (Millelith)	Carries on with his guard patrol without pausing

Traveler running across the snowy Court of Fontaine plaza with the party roster on the right — Running through the Court of Fontaine plaza, where background NPCs keep moving through the pause. Image: HoYoverse, footage by @MMOJACKX57

The common thread is a patrol path. Vendors and idle NPCs standing in one spot behave normally and freeze as expected. The ones that slip through are walking a looping route when the menu opens.

How to reproduce it yourself

Load into your own single-player world. Co-op sessions do not pause the world at all, so the test only means something when you are playing solo.

Find one of the NPCs listed above and follow them until they are clearly mid-walk. Raymond in Mondstadt and Hongyi in Liyue Harbor are the easiest to track because they hold consistent routes.

Position your camera so the NPC stays fully in frame, then open the Paimon menu while they are walking. Do not move the camera afterward, since a static frame makes the difference obvious.

Traveler standing still in the snowy Fontaine streets with the exploration HUD visible — Holding position in Fontaine before opening the menu on a passing civilian. Image: HoYoverse, footage by @MMOJACKX57

Watch the NPC’s feet and body position behind the menu overlay. Your own party members will be locked in place, so any continued walking animation is coming from the NPC alone.

The Traveler approaching Millelith guard Hongyi on his patrol route in Liyue Harbor — Tailing Hongyi through Liyue Harbor, one of the guards who keeps patrolling with the menu up. Image: HoYoverse, footage by @MMOJACKX57

How to confirm it worked

You have found the behavior when the NPC visibly changes position on screen between the moment the menu opens and the moment you close it. A frozen NPC will be in the identical pose and identical spot; an unaffected one will have moved several steps down their route, sometimes walking out of frame entirely.

If nothing moves, the usual reasons are simple. The NPC was already stationary, you caught them at a pause point in their route, or you opened the menu after they had finished a walking segment. Reposition, wait for them to start walking again, and try once more.

Why the Asmoday framing gets used

The joke leans on Asmoday, the Ruler of Space among the Four Great Rulers, whose authority over space is the closest thing Teyvat’s lore has to freezing something in place. She is the god who blocked the Traveler and their sibling as they tried to leave Teyvat, trapping each twin inside cubes and sealing the Traveler for five hundred years.

Nothing about the walking NPCs is a lore event, though. It is a quirk in how certain patrol routines are handled when the world pauses, and it has no effect on combat, quests, or anything you can interact with. It is a fun thing to spot in Mondstadt, Fontaine, and Liyue, and that is the whole of it.