Hey folks. I'm currently writing this while in the hospital, which is also why some recent articles have been delayed or not yet published in case you're wondering. But I was planning on writing this eventually anyways, so I figured that I'd at least work on the stuff that doesn't require the full capabilities of my computer.

But enough about that. At the start of this month last year, I made my first “real” post, the (first) October 2023 tier list update. It wasn't much, but it marked the start of my time writing and producing content for snowbreak.gg, and an entire year has passed since then. It's kind of crazy for me, thinking about it. I never expected that someone like me could achieve the kind of success I have and become such a trusted and respected figure within a community this large. Honestly, before this undertaking, most “projects” I “committed” to had a habit of imploding or otherwise being abandoned within a few months at most. But don't worry, I’ll be sticking around for the foreseeable future. I don't plan on going anywhere. Except hopefully out of the hospital soon. [Future vic here, I am in fact out of the hospital and doing fine. Please don't worry.]

So then, as snowbreak.gg celebrates its first birthday, let's take a look back at how all of this came to be, and what’s in store for the future ahead.

Oh, and it wouldn't be a proper birthday celebration without a present, of course. I commissioned this to celebrate the occasion, featuring everyone's favourite two poster girls (and a cameo appearance from Yao).

The full-resolution image is available to download here, in case you'd like to use it as a wallpaper or just to admire.

Part 1: Past

The story of how I ended up writing for snowbreak.gg might seem a little hard to believe, but I promise you it's real.

I initially wasn't even that interested in this game, to be honest with you. I'd only heard about it from a friend back when it was still called “Project Snow,” and decided to sign up for the last closed beta session for fun, not even really expecting to be selected. But, in what was the first in a series of plot armour moments for lack of a better term, I got into the beta. So I downloaded the beta client, made an account, and logged in to try it out.

And you know what? It was pretty darn fun.

I was hooked on crafting the best team comps possible to fully clear out Jotun Tunnel with the limited amount of account progression available in the beta. I'd play Gigalink even after getting all of the weekly rewards to see how fast I could clear it on my own. And even after getting pounded down time and time again, I'd return to Neural Simulation to take on the bosses of the week in epic minutes-long duels. The graphics at the time weren't amazing and you weren't able to properly develop your account due to the test period, but it was (at the risk of sounding incredibly cringe) the “Genshin with guns” game I never knew I wanted.

I really got into it. So much so, that I eventually decided that I wanted to write up a tier list rating all the characters available in the closed beta. Past me was a huge nerd, I'd totally shove him into a locker. The result was a very long Google Doc containing all of my thoughts and opinions on who was good to use and who to avoid. I actually still keep it updated, so if you don't feel like checking the one here, you do have an alternative.

So with my nerd document written and shared with fellow beta testers, I thought that would be the end of it. I'd get to say I wrote a cool tier list, the beta would end, and I'd move on with my life while waiting for Snowbreak's official release date. Except that's not what happened. Somehow, someone from a game guides website (not this one, we'll get there) saw the doc and approached me asking if they could publish it on their website. I, not really having anything to lose, said “sure why not,” and basically only requested that they put my name on it so I could show it off to my friends and say “hey look what I did.”

At this point, I was already pretty happy with my fortunes. That silly tier list I wrote got put on a website! A real website! Not Google Docs! It gave me some extra motivation to continue working on the tier list when the game released, but I was still thinking about quitting while I was ahead and riding off into the sunset. Except as luck would have it, getting the tier list hosted on that site attracted some very special eyeballs, those belonging to Seasun specifically. I was contacted by the Snowbreak content creator program manager at the time. They were impressed with what I’d put together, and offered me a direct invite into the content creator program. Even back then, you normally had to first apply and meet certain follower counts on social media platforms to be accepted in. I certainly wouldn't have been able to pass those requirements - I was just some random dude who wrote a funny document (and in many ways, I still am). But sometimes life gives you not a lemon, but a golden ticket instead.

It was at about that point that I decided to really start going all-in on this. And so, I dug up the password to my ancient Twitter account and started posting news and various guides that I'd make, including one for a particularly challenging Jotun Tunnel period. Good times. But one of the bigger things that I'd started doing was producing full event overviews, in threads on Twitter and in Google Docs, later moved to a Notion mini-site. And it's there that the last miracle occurs. Once again, I'd been noticed, but this time by my now-boss who offered me a position writing guides and articles for his new website: snowbreak.gg.

You could say that the rest is history.

Part 2: Present

So how are things these days? I'd say that things have come a long way from when I first started writing stuff for the site. Or at least I'd hope so. A lot of stuff on the site has evolved over time, whether it's providing more information or shifting the format in which it gets posted. For example, the redemption codes page was something that I pitched to my boss, who was very much on board with it. There was no single place you could go to look up the available redemption codes for the game, so it was an easy thing to implement with big usefulness. It was, however, originally created shortly before Seasun went on a giant hiatus on handing out new redemption codes after November 2023, which made things a little awkward for a while. Thankfully, it seems they're back at it, so this is now a plug to go check the codes page and see if you've missed any.

Another thing that I really pushed for was having some sort of events schedule available on the homepage where people could check to see when a gacha banner would be available, or how much time they had to do their weekly Neural Sim runs.

The first iteration of this was essentially just a giant wall of timers for all the relevant things happening in the game. This worked great, but it was also a lot of effort to maintain, requiring me to manually update regularly resetting events like Jotun Tunnel and remove any expired events myself. For a long time, the first thing I did every weekly reset was not to log into the game, but to update all the timers on the site instead! It was far from ideal, but as far as I knew, it was the best solution available. That is, until I saw the insanely cool events timeline that sister site wutheringwaves.gg had on its homepage. Honestly, they just get all the sick new website tech in general. I'm a little jealous. I begged my boss to add it here too, and after some initial setup and troubleshooting, it took the place of the timer wall.

One particularly big shift that I've been making recently is giving character reviews their own dedicated article. This allows me to really get into the details about characters, how they play, how to optimise their loadouts, and their various strengths and shortcomings. Previously I'd written all this both into their entry on the tier list and in whatever other game update article I had scheduled at the time. This meant writing essentially two reviews of the same character (though I guess you could say it's more one and a half with how much gets reused), and also having to wait until the rest of that article was fully complete before being able to ship it out.

I actually don't know why I stuck with that format for so long, it really doesn't make a lot of sense in hindsight. But this shift does mean that I've been able to get articles out earlier, with the Vidya - Agave review being posted just a week and a half after her release. Of course it's only a sample size of one, and the articles on this update's characters are still nowhere to be seen (though hopefully you all are understanding of the unusual circumstances this time around).

The review articles themselves have also become more detailed over time, now being accompanied with extra goodies like logistics optimization calculators. I've stepped things up even further with the upcoming Katya and Marian articles, which will feature more visual graphics to showcase important aspects of each character, and even a full character “cheat sheet” to provide everything you need to build a character in one handy infographic.

Of course, all of this takes time to produce. I've admittedly never been the quickest to put out content, and I likely won't ever be. Thanks to flipping my sleep schedule to cover news in the lead-up to an event, I always spend the first few days of events “jet-lagged” and tired, which is never a great start. But silly excuses aside, I've always preferred to take the time and produce the best quality content possible, even if it means being slower. News articles get fact checked and supplemented with insights from my contacts at Seasun where possible, translations get reviewed multiple times, and everything has to meet my own standards of being the best it can be before I hit the “post” button. And that's my promise to you - I won't always be the first to get a news post or character review out, but when it comes, it’ll be worth the wait.

Part 3: Future

To make a long story short, I have a lot of stuff planned. There are so many interesting rabbit holes about this game, and I have a whole series of deep-dives on the world of Snowbreak that I want to write. Please look forward to them when they eventually release. I also want to go back and produce guides for older characters so that they can have their own dedicated article as well - while the vast majority of them aren’t meta-relevant anymore, a lot are still fun to play in less serious game modes and can make for an enjoyable “side project” of sorts.

But again, all of this takes time, and I do have to prioritise newer content when it comes out, not to mention handling all the site upkeep as many things need to be continually updated. But like I said earlier, I don't plan on going anywhere. So please stick around, we're only getting started.

Shoutouts And Special Thanks

While you're reading this, I'd like to introduce you to some of the other great content creators that Snowbreak has to offer. Please do check them out.

• Nonpon and I first met during the closed beta, and we've been friends ever since. He still produces Snowbreak content on Youtube, and you can stop by his streams where he'll sometimes be racing marbles to give out Snowbreak redemption codes. Or mentally traumatizing me with misinformation.
  Twitter | Twitch | Youtube
• FluxKairos is the other big “has a website” type guide maker in the English-language Snowbreak scene. The two of us work together on a lot of stuff behind the scenes, and I'm sure many of you are familiar with the iconic coda.io link to his comprehensive character guides. But mark my words, you've got competition now that I've started further increasing the depth of my own character articles.
  Twitter | Twitch | Youtube
• If you aren't aware of ArchiveRisen, this is a wake-up call. He is genuinely one of if not the smartest person in the Snowbreak community, and I regularly message him at ungodly hours in the night to ask about a specific game mechanic interaction or to sanity-check a weird calculation (sorry). He deserves all the success in the world.
  Twitter | Youtube
• For anyone looking for team comps and techs for your own Neural Simulation runs or who just wants to watch a boss get obliterated in record time, there are a multitude of Youtube channels that can provide VODs of clears at various investment levels.
  • My personal nepotism-based shortlist of runners to check out includes ryeo, Kaz, and Tanegi (I also post my own runs every week, if you're interested).
  • Additionally, I'd also like to feature Aoi, a Japanese player with the admirable mission of staying competitive while only using standard banner DPS units, pushing them to their absolute limit.
  • Finally, it would be wrong to not mention 淡言sama, the Chinese god of Neural Simulation who most likely has the world record on every single boss, which is only to be expected considering that he regularly pulls 10+ hour streams in the name of getting his clear times as fast as possible.

As well, I'd like to give a big thanks to everyone who's helped me along the way. None of this would be possible without the help and support of a lot of people. They say it takes a village to raise a child, and… I actually don't know where I'm going with this but you get the point I think.

First and foremost, I want to thank boss man for providing me with this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to write for a real website and not a fake one or a Google Doc.

Thank you to that guy who first took interest in my silly little Google Docs tier list and put it on their website.

Thank you to everyone at Seasun and my various contacts for supporting me along the way. I look forward to continuing to work together in the future.

Thank you to paep3nguin for all the work you did in the early days of Snowbreak, you taught me so much about the game. I hope you're enjoying life at whatever retirement home you're in now.

Thank you to Scateo, scrabble, Momo, and everyone else in the Yggdrasil Research Department. You guys keep me (relatively) sane while I'm losing my mind about whatever dumb game mechanic Seasun has most recently added.

Thank you to L, my longtime lifeline for anything regarding the game's various files and inner workings, and all the data that can be gleaned from them.

And of course. Thank you, the reader. None of this would be possible without your support. Thank you for being here and choosing to trust snowbreak.gg as a source of news, reviews, and everything in between. Thank you for trusting in me.