Genshin Impact 7.0: August 12 maintenance time, compensation, and the pre-switch checklist

Version 6.7 "Luna VIII" closes its doors on August 11, 2026, six weeks to the day after it opened on July 1. 7.0 "The Merciless Eternal Winter" takes over on August 12, bringing with it Snezhnaya, the seventh nation of Teyvat.

Between the two comes a maintenance period. And for a French player, it falls at a time that causes confusion: HoYoverse announces its schedules in UTC+8, which shifts everything by a day in most people's minds. This guide gives the real time in France, what you permanently lose if you don't log in beforehand, and what compensation you receive.

The exact maintenance time in France

Server maintenance starts on August 12 at 06:00 (UTC+8) and lasts about five hours. Translated into French time (CEST, UTC+2 in August), that gives:

• Start: August 12 at 00:00, that is, exactly midnight in the night of Tuesday, August 11 into Wednesday, August 12.
• Resumption: around 05:00 on August 12.

In other words: your evening of August 11 is the last play window on 6.7. Servers all reopen at the same time, regardless of region — Europe, America, and Asia switch over simultaneously, so there's no advantage to be gained by changing server.

Pre-loading is the one thing you shouldn't put off until tomorrow. On both PC and mobile, the client offers advance download before the shutdown: launched the day before, it turns the five-hour wait into a five-minute file check. Launched after the restart, it puts you in the queue for a download server overwhelmed by several million players.

What you lose at midnight

The Raiden Shogun and Columbina banners

Phase 2 of 6.7 has been running since July 21 and stops dead on August 11. If your pity counter is committed to it, know that it is not lost: the counter and the 50/50 guarantee carry over to the next banner. What you lose is access to the characters themselves, until their next rerun — a date that has not been announced.

The practical consequence is simple: if you're still hesitating, the question isn't "do I want Raiden Shogun?" but "do I want her more than Odette or Arlecchino, who arrive in twenty-four hours?" Pulling now without being convinced means arriving in Snezhnaya with a counter reset to zero.

The "Sunlit Fontinalia in Summer" event

This is the real trap at the end of this version. The main event of 6.7 — which HoYoverse officially titles "Sunlit Fontinalia in Summer" — offers Charlotte · Eye for the Truth, a 4-star Cryo character, as well as her outfit "Hurlock Variations". Both are free, both disappear with the version.

The good news is that the event was never split into daily stages: everything can be unlocked in one go. If you haven't touched it yet, a serious session is still enough. Most of the activities take place aboard the Wingalet, Fontaine's boat whose aquarium you manage — capturing underwater creatures, filling the tanks, then collecting rewards. On top of Charlotte and her outfit, the rewards include primogems, a Crown of Insight, and ascension materials.

A Crown of Insight can't be farmed. Only a handful appear per year, exclusively through events and regional offerings. Missing one because you forgot means one fewer talent leveled to 10 for several months.

The Battle Pass and Resin

The Battle Pass follows the version's calendar: it too closes on August 11 and resets to zero on the 12th. Unclaimed tiers do not carry over. Checking the rewards tab takes thirty seconds.

As for Original Resin, it caps at 200 and regenerates during maintenance. Going to bed with a full gauge means giving five hours of regeneration to the void. Spend it before midnight — on Artifact Domains, if you don't have a specific goal — or condense it.

Primogem compensation

HoYoverse has applied the same scale for years, and nothing suggests it will change for 7.0: 300 primogems for standard maintenance, plus 60 primogems per additional hour if the downtime runs over the announced schedule.

Two points worth knowing. First: you must be at least Adventure Rank 5 to be eligible. Second: the gems arrive via in-game mail, and Genshin Impact mail expires. A player who doesn't log back in within thirty days loses their compensation. It's the kind of detail that causes frustration when you get back from vacation.

What awaits you when you wake up

Phase 1 banners

Phase 1 of 7.0 runs from August 12 to September 1. Two banners:

• Odette, the new 5-star: Cryo, one-handed sword, built for teams that exploit Astral reactions.
• Arlecchino, on rerun. Her kit is built around Life Devotion — the mechanic that the literal translation "life bond" wrongly refers to, and which remains, even today, the leading source of confusion about her build.

Phase 2 will follow from September 1 to 22, with reruns of Flins and Ineffa. A calendar point that matters if you're saving up: between August 12 and September 22, there is no dead window. Every wish spent on the 12th is a wish unavailable on September 1.

Alyosha, free, and the rest

Alyosha is given free to everyone: 4-star Electro, polearm, obtainable by progressing through Snezhnaya's Archon Quest. His burst summons his dog, Tugarin. There's nothing to pull, nothing to pay — just a quest to complete.

As for the region, Snezhnaya is centered around Snezhnograd, its metropolis, surrounded by tundra and villages, with a train-based travel system unprecedented in the series. A new exploration tool, the Eye of Graie, accompanies discovery. And 7.0 introduces a third-person shooting mode with firearms, the most radical gameplay addition since 2020.

Finally, two reactions shape the new meta: Astroconduction (Cryo + Electro), already introduced in 6.7, and Astrodispersion (Anemo + Cryo), arriving with 7.0. The French labels for several related sub-mechanics have not yet been published by HoYoverse: beware of guides that translate them with confidence — they're making it up.

What about primogem codes?

Every version special program releases three primogem codes. Those for 7.0 were announced during the livestream, and that's where you need to be careful: these codes generally expire within twenty-four hours of the broadcast. Lists still circulating a week later are, in the vast majority of cases, expired — copying them costs nothing but an error message, but don't count on them to fund your wishes.

The reliable source remains in-game mail, where maintenance compensation and version anniversary gifts land. Just remember to collect it: it expires after thirty days.

In summary

The evening of August 11 serves three purposes: finishing "Sunlit Fontinalia in Summer" to pocket Charlotte, her outfit, and the Crown of Insight; spending your Resin and Battle Pass; and starting the pre-load. The rest — wishes, builds, exploration — will wait until August 12 at 05:00. Snezhnaya has been promised for six years; it can hold out five more hours.