Liyue is hosting Moonchase again after a five-year gap, with Genshin Impact Version 7.1’s Silverwing in Pursuit of the Moon serving as the festival’s centerpiece. The event pairs a lingering-spirit tale featuring Lan Yan and the Wind Reader with three thaumaturge-inspired minigames. Progress in any activity contributes to one Festive Cheer total, which awards the free four-star sword Silver Light. Stages have opened in dated waves, and the last group is now available.
Quick answer: The event runs September 24 to October 12, 2026. The last wave opened on September 28, adding the fifth Great Chase and Banner Against the Dark stages plus Spiritshot Salvo’s later challenges, and 200 Festive Cheer unlocks Silver Light.
When it runs and who can play
Silverwing in Pursuit of the Moon is available from September 24 through October 12, 2026, and it becomes unplayable once that window closes. Entry needs Adventure Rank 20 or higher and completion of Archon Quest Prologue Act 3, The Song of the Dragon and Freedom. After meeting those requirements, Xiangling’s Letter appears in your inventory, which starts the unlock quest “Another Auspicious Moonlit Night Rolls Around.” Travel to Yilong Wharf in Chenyu Vale to meet Xiangling and open the rest of the festival.
The minigame stages become available according to a fixed timetable, and the last stages open at the end. Finish the story chapters that serve as gates for the food-fair and combat questlines to access all three activities.
| Date | Great Chase | Banner Against the Dark | Spiritshot Salvo |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 24 | Stage 1 | Stage 1 | Stage 1 |
| Sep 25 | Stage 2 | Stage 2 | — |
| Sep 26 | Stage 3 | Stage 3 | Stage 2 |
| Sep 27 | Stage 4 | Stage 4 | — |
| Sep 28 | Stage 5 | Stage 5 | Stages 3 & 4 |
The story behind the festival
Lan Yan, a young Lan-clan member descended from practitioners of Liyue thaumaturgy, joins Ningguang in helping the Millelith deal with spirits unsettled by Moonchase. What begins as a warding-figure errand takes an unexpected turn when they encounter a bewildered, white-haired elder who keeps saying the festival “isn’t right.”
That stranger is a partial soul. He is Lan Junming, known as “Mad Lan” or the Wind Reader, one of the ancient Three Hermits of Guizang and the inventor of the Soul-Binding Art. Long ago he bound a fragment of his soul to a rattan puppet to keep an annual Moonchase appointment with the bird adeptus Silverwing, whose living form was the swallows of Liyue. Zhongli explains that Silverwing spent her strength and memories flying across war-torn skies during the Archon War, leaving only instinctive flocks behind. Lan Yan eventually learns the full art, arranges the swallows into a pattern over Teatree Slope, and tells Lan Junming the truth, letting his soul disperse peacefully as golden swallows. The tale closes at Yilong Wharf in the epilogue “Next Year’s Moon, Just as Bright,” alongside a lighter cooking thread where Xiangling and Escoffier host a “World Food Fair” with guest chefs from Fontaine, Mondstadt, and Sumeru.
The Great Chase and Dispelling
This is the traversal mode. You steer a Lan Yan rattan figure down a fixed course, collecting Adeptal Energy while avoiding dark-purple miasma that costs points. Route choice matters as much as speed. The Protection skill sends the figure dashing through miasma for points but drains Battle Energy, so arriving at a corrupted stretch with no charge left means you cannot break through. Gates change what you get: Adeptal Energy gates add points, Battle Energy gates restore Protection charges, orange Absorption gates pull in nearby energy, green Empowerment gates let you cross miasma without a dash, and multiplier gates boost your score by amounts such as x1.5 and x2.
Liyue has five stage locations, and the score cutoffs for their ratings are 1,000, 2,000, and 4,000 points. In the last stage, Spectral Wilds Across Wuwang Hill, the beast form races by energy orbs amid the forest ruins near Wuwang Hill while dealing with spectral hazards. A clean attempt can pass all rating marks with ease; one example score is 5,437.
Clearing all three tiers unlocks the full reward set, including the outdoor furnishing Warding Figure: Silver Swallow along with Primogems, Mora, and upgrade materials.
Banner Against the Dark
The combat activity, Banner Against the Dark, has five stages, each split into two phases. Begin by defeating groups of lesser fiends to build the spirit-quelling banner’s Energy Level. At intervals, the banner then calls in allied units while you attack a boss and deplete its HP bars. Each bar emptied contributes to your score and your clear count. Choose Fearless difficulty for an ×18 score multiplier, which enables top runs to hit the higher thresholds.
The final stage, Flames Roar, And Demons Are Purged From the World, leans on reaction damage. Its buff raises Normal Attack DMG by 75%, and triggering a Vaporize or Melt gives every party member a 75% Elemental DMG Bonus for the elements involved. After clearing waves of Lawachurls to build the Overlord banner, the fight focuses on the Gluttonous Yumkasaur Mountain King, so a Melt or Vaporize team keeps the bonuses running.
On Fearless with the ×18 multiplier, a strong run can post a score above 254,000 with roughly 470 boss HP bars depleted, well past every scoring threshold the stage sets.
Spiritshot Salvo
This third activity is an arcade-style block-breaker. An orb spirit travels on its own through successive waves, smashing descending blocks and spirit cubes before a boss shows up. Bouncing off walls boosts its speed and strength, so choosing the shot angle is more important than firing directly. Defeated enemies drop Spirit Power, letting you level up and acquire additional elemental Spiritshots; during a run, these can merge into hybrid types. Battle Talismans provide stacking passive bonuses, including quicker projectiles and an increased firing rate.
The stages include The Shrouded Path, Miasmic Haze, and Lair of Evil, as well as Endless Onslaught, the survival mode. In Lair of Evil, break the brick targets and defeat the wave boss in the arena; the fastest recorded run can be as short as 04:54.
Finishing the stage opens its reward menu, with the clear time posted on the completion screen.
Endless Onslaught unlocks after the earlier stages and drops the timer for a wave-based survival run. You pick a spell setup before you start, then stack talismans between waves as elite enemies arrive in Pyro, Hydro, Anemo, and Electro combinations.
Later waves turn into full boss fights amid dense block formations, and the talisman stacks you built early are what keep the orb hitting hard enough to survive.
A run that pushes through Wave 5 can post a score near 13,845 before the clock or a defeat ends it, after which the rewards menu opens.
Losing all Vitality does not always stop a Normal Mode board, but it can lock you out of some rewards, so surviving each stage still counts.
Silver Light and the Festive Cheer track
Story and food quests, plus clears across all three modes, fill a shared Festive Cheer meter. Reach 200 Cheer to get the four-star sword Silver Light straight into your inventory—no Primogems or wishes required. Its in-game description identifies it as a longsword once wielded by Wind Reader, one of Liyue’s Three Hermits of Guizang. At level 90, it has 510 Base ATK and a secondary stat of 41.3% ATK. The Radiance on the Water passive grants 52 Elemental Mastery for 12 seconds after you use an Elemental Skill, and can stack twice.
Tea-Scented Tassel, used to refine the weapon, is also awarded along the Cheer track. After claiming Silver Light, keep earning Cheer until the weapon reaches maximum refinement.
| Festive Cheer | Reward |
|---|---|
| 200 | Silver Light (4-star sword) |
| 400 | 30 Primogems, Tea-Scented Tassel, Philosophies of Prosperity ×2 |
| 600 | 30 Primogems, Tea-Scented Tassel, Philosophies of Diligence ×2 |
| 800 | 30 Primogems, Tea-Scented Tassel, Philosophies of Diligence ×2 |
| 1000 | 30 Primogems, Tea-Scented Tassel, Moonlit Splendor Along Every Way blueprint |
| 1200 | 30 Primogems, Crown of Insight, furnishing blueprint |
The full event offers around 950 Primogems, plus Mora, Hero’s Wit, Mystic Enhancement Ore, talent and weapon ascension materials, and the outdoor furnishing Whopperflower King. Weapons from the event receive 1.5x Weapon Enhancement EXP, meaning Silver Light needs much less Mystic Enhancement Ore to level before October 12 than it would normally. If you’re short on time, prioritize Silver Light and all Tea-Scented Tassels: those rewards disappear with the festival. You can then collect the replaceable Primogem and material tiers.
