miHoYo's sudden shift from a light-hearted cartoon cel-shaded rendering style to tinkering with a dark Gothic realistic style truly surprised many people.
I believe many people, after watching the "Primordial Knot" trailer at the Gamescom 2026 Opening Night Live, must have had the same question pop into their heads as I did—with this dim, gloomy tone and this realistic fantasy art style, is this really a game from our old miHoYo?
So here, I will use the most straightforward, direct, and unambiguous plain language to shatter your illusions—yes, our old miHoYo is starting to dive into making premium co-op multiplayer games.
On the first day of Gamescom 2026, the weather in Germany was clear and slightly cool. A gentle breeze blew along the Rhine River, making it a perfect day for walking and exploration. In the morning, I was still feasting on pork knuckles and sausages in the hotel lobby, but by afternoon, miHoYo had pulled me into a mysterious dark room to serve as sausage fodder for monsters.
Our fellow countryman Qiongqi
For this demo, we only needed to overcome three major challenges: the first level featured a Giant as the opening instructor, and the third level had a classic Western fantasy Black Dragon plus a Dragon Knight for the closing act.
What? You're asking what the second major challenge is? In this foreign land, who else could it be but a fellow countryman—Qiongqi from the "Classic of Mountains and Seas" has also crossed the ocean to join the battle. Given that we both grew up in the same landscapes, it was truly a case of "fellow countrymen meeting, tears welling up."
Upon entering the demo venue, we were greeted by towering, jagged rock formations. Thick ropes rooted into the earth, seemingly trying to lock away some vicious beast, while the entire hall was deliberately plunged into chaotic darkness. Scared, I quickly followed the crowd toward the only bonfire area lit with flames, finding a sliver of psychological comfort in the presence of others.
In plain language, the area was so dark you couldn't see your hand in front of your face, so we just followed the crowd using auto-pathing.
At the "Primordial Knot" venue, players were grouped in fours, allowing us guinea pigs to freely compile team configurations and role assignments. The demo version didn't release many characters: two Archers, one super-powered Greatsword Bro, and the protagonist—a character who can assist with healing using a scepter or switch to a one-handed sword for damage output. Given that the other big brothers in the team looked like they exuded an aura of strength, they naturally took the DPS roles, so I silently chose the Healer position, shielding everyone in front.
But coincidentally, the Healer in "Primordial Knot" is indeed a powerful character quite suitable for action game novices, or even for veterans carrying newcomers.
Let's first discuss why it's suitable for beginners.
The Healer's main weapon is a Scepter, capable of dealing Frost damage, with a Staff Energy bar responsible for releasing various skills. Due to the short demo time and lack of testing areas on-site, it was hard to gauge the depth of damage type effects. However, given miHoYo's mature elemental reaction mechanics in previous titles, we can certainly look forward to the official release.
The Healer's skill set is straightforward and brutal: Q is a small AoE instant heal, R is a targeted high sustained heal on a single target, and E is a targeted long-chain ice spike wall—similar to the piercing shot mechanic in "Monster Hunter," allowing you to deal multi-hit damage by manually choosing the skill's starting point.
Just from the setup of the common skill set, many people might have already spotted the clue: the Healer role in "Primordial Knot" is clearly a brainless, brute-force healer. Just stay alive and keep healing, and you create margin for error for the team.
I thought so too. After actually entering the game, my positioning and role leaned towards the backline. I didn't deliberately move forward to deal damage, pull aggro, or tank, nor did I focus much on the monsters, instead keeping a close eye on the HP of my teammates in the carry positions.
It wasn't until the Tank in our team—let's temporarily refer to the Greatsword Bro as the Tank—got slapped out of the party by the Stone Giant novice instructor and never returned, that I, the Healer, suddenly transitioned into a Heal-Tank.
The monsters in "Primordial Knot" seem to have a basic damage-based aggro mechanism—simply put, they prioritize attacking the highest damage dealer. Remember what I said earlier about the long-chain ice spike wall? It can deal multi-hit damage via hitboxes, with each hit dealing over a thousand damage.
When the Tank, Greatsword Bro, was still around, I mainly focused on basic attacks and healing, so I didn't really notice the insane stats of this mechanic. But now, having to shoulder the front-line duty, a burst of damage from the ice spike wall often pulls aggro instantly.
Although aggro switching among monsters in "Primordial Knot" is very frequent, and honestly, the Tank's stability doesn't last as long as the Greatsword Bro's, charging up a bar of staff energy to slam down an ice spike wall can still save teammates from dire situations, interrupting aggro locks and giving others some breathing room.
Moreover, as a class quite suitable for beginners—information obtained while chatting with the developers—the Healer's Q skill, a small AoE heal, grants invincibility frames at the moment of activation. Based on my personal experience, you can use these invincibility frames to traverse skills and heal when teammates are knocked away by the Boss, or dodge AoE attacks with invincibility frames to save teammates when they make positioning errors and face execution. Since our team was down to three people, the pressure against the Boss was extremely high. Leveraging the powerful advantage of the Q skill providing both healing and invincibility frames, I truly shone in many critical scenarios.
Specifically, the design of the Healer—the protagonist—perfectly aligns with the development team's philosophy of "low barrier to entry, high skill ceiling."
Relying on the Healer's stable healing recovery capabilities, combined with the numerical value and burst of the ice spike wall, players can choose to play aggressively, engaging in close-quarters tango with monsters. However, since healing and damage share the same Staff Energy bar, deciding when to deal damage and when to heal requires considerable experience and awareness.
This is also the main reason I mentioned earlier that the Healer is surprisingly suitable for veterans carrying newcomers through training.
Besides the regular skill sets, the characters in "Primordial Knot" each have their own Ultimate abilities—if I remember correctly, before accepting quests in the game lobby's gathering area, players can specifically change weapon loadouts and Divine Grace skills. For example, the Ultimate I chose for the Healer was a Piercing Light Cannon, which deals massive damage when fired straight into a monster's head; meanwhile, the Archer guy next door chose a transformation skill, turning into a giant white wolf for a frenzy of bites; and the second Archer in red—widely recognized at the demo as the "wheelchair" (easy mode) character—has a Divine Grace skill that involves soaring into the air and firing light feathers, quite imposing.
Unfortunately, due to the tight schedule, I really didn't have time to dive in and study it thoroughly.
Let's talk about the monster design in "Primordial Knot." In fact, the overall combat flow of this demo also highlights the developers' craftsmanship.
The Stone Giant novice instructor doesn't require much description; it's basically a slightly advanced elite mob. With NPC characters tanking on-site, it was essentially a case of everyone rushing in and beating it to death with chaotic punches.
The second Boss is Qiongqi, who crossed the ocean to visit us. It started with a ground slam entrance similar to Mizutsune, instantly shattering the Stone Giant novice instructor, prompting everyone to shout "World Police" has arrived. Qiongqi's boss fight revealed quite a bit of information. First, Bosses are hostile to each other and may suddenly join the battlefield while players are fighting other monsters. Second, Qiongqi transitions zones at the end of phases, dragging players into new arenas.
Looking at Qiongqi's skill set, this boss heavily emphasizes team coordination and overall positioning. Specifically, after Qiongqi transitions to Phase 2, every move applies a stacking bleed debuff. If you don't interact with the blood orbs on the field in time to remove them or hoard enough healing resources, Qiongqi will grind you down to death.
There are two standard solutions to this situation. One is to dodge without taking damage, go all-out with DPS, and brute-force through the phase, mainly relying off-field character skills to lifesteal from Qiongqi. The other is to maintain team positioning, let the Tank hold aggro steadily while the Healer heals, allowing the DPS to output damage—a very standard MMO-style raid strategy.
Our group assigned me the heavy responsibility of Heal-Tank, pulling aggro while healing my teammates.
The third Boss, the Black Dragon Calamity Omen, can be considered the ultimate challenge of this demo.
First, this guy loves hanging in the sky to dive-bomb with triple explosive fireballs. Its action module in normal mode is more aggressive and dynamic than Qiongqi and the Stone Giant, with fast-slow attacks and tail stabs occurring frequently. Second, Calamity Omen is the only dual-Boss configuration in this demo. Specifically, after players deplete the Black Dragon's first health bar, the Dragon Knight inside its belly will land with a dragon lance to start Phase 2, with even Phase 3 and Phase 4 later on. The action modules for Calamity Omen and the Dragon Knight change significantly in each phase, with the final fourth phase even featuring the evil dragon and knight fighting together.
To be honest, if the first two Bosses hadn't allowed our temporary three-person team to gel properly, facing such a strong enemy as Calamity Omen would have made completing the challenge on time uncertain—this is no exaggeration, as several teams on-site still hadn't defeated the final Black Dragon within the 30-minute demo time.
Fortunately, as the team's Heal-Tank, I had no issues with pulling aggro, dodging, and topping up health. Although I made a few positioning mistakes, my teammates helped redirect the monster's aggro in time. The only critical moment when two teammates were downed was saved by my Q skill's invincibility frames. Thus, despite being short-handed and lacking DPS, we successfully cleared the stage within the 28-minute time limit.
In retrospect, the brief 30-minute demo of "Primordial Knot" has already revealed so much exciting information.
First, the Boss designs feature rich action modules—Qiongqi has field interactions and large-scale lifesteal, the Black Dragon and Dragon Knight engage in coordinated attacks with multi-phase progression, and even the Stone Giant, serving as the novice instructor, will occasionally deliver a ground-shattering slam to send careless players flying. Furthermore, monsters fight each other; Qiongqi, our fellow countryman in this demo, even transitions between zones across phases, showcasing meticulous craftsmanship.
Moreover, during conversations with the developers after the demo, I uncovered even more good news.
First, "Primordial Knot" has been in development for over two years, with core members being long-time fans of action and multiplayer games. They know exactly how to craft a great co-op action game. Therefore, regarding specific combat aspects, there are still many details I didn't have time to experience or notice.
For example, the Weakness Break mechanism—players can destroy monster parts through interaction to increase extra material drops. Then, players can use these resources outside of battles to strengthen and forge better weapons.
There's also the QTE Parry system—since I played as the Healer wielding a scepter, I basically only needed to dodge and deal damage, rarely encountering parries. But if you play as a purer melee class like Greatsword Bro, parrying is arguably the core defensive counter-attack and damage-dealing capability.
Finally, there's the Joint Execution briefly shown in the PV. I did trigger this several times during combat; through specific interactions, you can enjoy a cinematic cutscene while dealing massive damage. However, it's unclear what specific damage or special debuffs cause a monster to enter the execution state, and the developers didn't reveal much—deep research will likely have to wait for more content exposure in the future.
Even more surprising is that the Boss lineup of the Giant, Black Dragon, and Qiongqi in this demo was just an appetizer. The development team told me their goal is multi-cultural synergy, with historical cultures from around the world serving as the material library for "Primordial Knot"—so, more familiar figures will join the hunt list in the future.
Although this demo was rushed, leaving no chance to switch characters, farm bosses multiple times, or dig into the game's details, the mere glimpse of information revealed is enough to reassure us eager fans.
Simply put, the basic systems of "Primordial Knot," such as team composition, monster details, and action elements, are largely complete, making it difficult for major issues to arise in the actual gameplay experience.
Thus, the only thing we probably need to worry about is how long we'll have to wait.