HoYoverse’s first out of five stops of its World Tour 2023 started in Los Angeles at the sold-out Anime Expo with an incredible multi-game booth that drew excited fans every day.

Here’s a quick look at their World Tour schedule if you happen to be at these locations:

• July 1-4, 2023: Anime Expo 2023 (Los Angeles)
• July 13-16, 2023: Japan Expo 2023 (Paris)
• July 27-31, 2023: Gamers Con 2023 (Taipei)
• August 23-27, 2023: Gamescom 2023 (Cologne)
• September 21-24, 2023: Tokyo Game Show 2023 (Tokyo)

At Anime Expo, I spent time specifically at the Genshin Impact and the Honkai: Star Rail sections of their 4-game booth on a less crowded weekday (Monday). As a 2+ year Genshin and HSR player since almost launch, I was most excited about these two games and not so much for Honkai Impact 3rd or Zenless Zone Zero.

Once you enter the Entertainment Hall, you can’t miss it as it’s the first booth you encounter!

Taking Part in Paimon’s Food Fest at the Genshin Impact Booth

You step into Liyue at the Genshin Impact booth, and Katheryne is appropriately waiting to answer any Traveler’s questions at the Adventurers’ Guild information desk. She even has the appropriate folded hands pose! I went there first to see how the mini-events worked and how to obtain SWAG.

Since they focused on the Liyue region, it only makes sense that their events revolved around food, so the theme was “Paimon’s Food Fest” since she’s always hungry and claims she’s not emergency food. 

Exclusive freebie swag included slightly puffy chibi character stickers and drooling Paimon balloons. Here’s a look at all the stickers you could get:

To get them, you could participate in two activities. I participated in transforming into Foodie Paimon. Here’s what it looked like:

The staff member manning the Paimon picture activity didn’t have my coveted Zhongli or Kazuha sticker, so I got a Childe one instead. However, you could take it to Katheryne and she could trade it out for a sticker you DO want (while supplies lasted), which is how I achieved getting Zhongli. 

To get the drooling Paimon balloon, you only had to take a picture at Liyue Harbor, which included Ninguang and Shenhe at the time. Since I didn’t like the angle of my picture, here’s an official group photo of the others:

Their longest line was the official merchandise area, which included acrylic character stands, character badges/button pins, and more. The other activity to get stickers was a food quiz called Teyvat Cook-Off Challenge. Travelers randomly flipped a panel on the Delicacies Wall to reveal a picture of in-game food and had to answer correctly what region it originated from. 

More Genshin Impact Sightings

Aside from their official booth, plenty of Genshin Impact cosplayers and other merchandise can be seen on the show floor and outside Anime Expo. 

Exploring the Honkai: Star Rail Booth

HoYoverse’s space fantasy turn-based RPG recently launched at the end of April and had a major presence at Anime Expo. This was also where I successfully got more swag since they seemed to have more options.

Set in the region of Xianzhou Luofu, Trailblazers will find themselves in the Central Starskiff Haven area under the red bridge. There was a stage where hosts dressed up as March 7th and soon-to-be-released Kafka held Memory of Chaos speed run competitions.

Volunteers from the crowd got chosen to get up on stage to participate in speed runs of Memory of Chaos stages 13 and 14. Once the hosts said, “Go!” Trailblazers got to pick their teams to try and beat the stages the fastest. Since laptops were used in the competition, it was a disadvantage to Trailblazers who play mobile (like myself). But the winner and the defeated both got prizes, so getting up on stage for potential humiliation wasn’t a total loss. The winner got a cool-looking JingYuan box (does anyone know what’s in it?), and the defeated Traveler got a large acrylic stand which also looked very cool. 

Exclusive booth freebies included character fans, a “passport” with the Honkai: Star Rail World Tour 2023 stamp, a Wubaboo balloon, various character stickers, and a postcard.

Honkai: Star Rail in the South Hall Lobby

There was more Honkai: Star Rail exposure at the South Hall Lobby floor with a photo opp area with the Astral Express train. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to see their official PomPom mascot posing with it, so here’s what it would’ve looked like, along with someone cosplaying as the next character release, Blade. 

While Anime Expo 2023 may be over, stay tuned for more anime goodness at Anime Expo chibi on November 11-12, 2023, in Ontario, California, focusing on an Exhibit Hall and Artist Alley. Anime Expo 2024 will come back next July 4th weekend as usual.