Imaginarium Theater resets on the first day of every month, and the reset swaps the three elements you are allowed to field. That single rule is why the mode feels trivial in one season and impossible in the next: the wall is not enemy damage, it is whether you own enough levelled characters of the right colour to fill the roster at all.
Season 28 opens on 1 October 2026 and runs to 1 November 2026, inside Version 7.1 "A Rekviem for the Underworld." Its elements are among the deepest in the game, which makes it the best month of the back half of 2026 to push a difficulty you have never cleared. This guide is current as of 26 September 2026, five days before the reset.
Quick answer: Imaginarium Theater Season 28 runs 1 October to 1 November 2026. Required Elemental Types are Hydro, Cryo, and Anemo. The six Opening Characters are Neuvillette, Barbara, Citlali, Kaeya, Wanderer, and Prune — own any of them and they gain a 20% HP, ATK and DEF Fantastical Blessing for the whole season, inside and outside the theater. The four Special Guest Stars are Ineffa, Yae Miko, Thoma, and Chiori, and unlike Opening Characters you must actually own or borrow them. New Thespian Tricks arrive for Dehya, Varka, Mualani, and Lisa, exchangeable from the NPC Wolfy. The hard gate is roster size: Lunar Mode needs 28 characters at Lv. 70, and only Lunar Mode pays the full 1,000 Primogems a season is worth.
When does Imaginarium Theater Season 28 start and end?
The schedule comes straight from the Version 7.1 update notice, section VIII: "After the Version 7.1 update, the first season of 'Imaginarium Theater' will be available on October 1." Version 7.1 itself went live on 23 September 2026, so the theater is the version's second wave of content rather than a day-one feature.
Season 28 ends when Season 29 opens on 1 November 2026. Both seasons are inside Version 7.1 — the mode is on a calendar month cycle, not a patch cycle, which is why two theater seasons fit inside one version. The wiki states the rule plainly: the theater resets on the first day of every month and the challenges and Elemental restrictions change with it.
Two practical consequences. First, progress does not carry across the reset — Season 27 (1 September to 1 October 2026, on Hydro, Electro and Dendro) ends the moment Season 28 opens, so claim what you can this week. Second, the mode does not overlap with the Abyss reset — the new Spiral Abyss season lands on 16 October 2026, two weeks into Season 28, so the two Primogem sources stagger rather than compete for the same evening.
What are the October 2026 elements and Opening Characters?
Required Elemental Types for Season 28 are Hydro, Cryo, and Anemo.
The six Opening Characters, again verbatim from the update notice, are Neuvillette, Barbara, Citlali, Kaeya, Wanderer, and Prune — two per element, one five-star and one four-star each:
| Opening Character | Element | Rarity |
|---|---|---|
| Neuvillette | Hydro | 5-star |
| Barbara | Hydro | 4-star |
| Citlali | Cryo | 5-star |
| Kaeya | Cryo | 4-star |
| Wanderer | Anemo | 5-star |
| Prune | Anemo | 4-star |
The notice adds: "When Imaginarium Theater is open, the corresponding Opening Characters will obtain Fantastical Blessings." In practice that is a 20% increase to Max HP, ATK and DEF for any Opening Character you own, and the wiki is explicit that it applies both inside and outside the theater for the duration of the season. It is a free month-long overworld buff on six characters, and almost nobody claims it deliberately.
If you do not own an Opening Character, you are not locked out — the theater offers Trial versions of them for the Principal Cast. What you lose is the 20% blessing, which only applies to characters you actually own. Note the other side of that rule: Opening Characters cannot be set as Supporting Cast, so you cannot borrow a friend's Neuvillette to cover the slot.
Who are the October Special Guest Stars?
Season 28's four Special Guest Stars are Ineffa (Electro), Yae Miko (Electro), Thoma (Pyro), and Chiori (Geo).
Guest Stars are the exception to the element rule — they can join even though none of them is Hydro, Cryo or Anemo. But they come with a condition the Opening Characters do not have: you must own them, or bring them in as Supporting Cast from a friend. There is no trial version. If you own none of the four, the exception simply does not exist for you this month.
There is a second, quieter reason to care. Blessing Levels grant +800 Max HP, +50 ATK, +50 DEF and +20 Elemental Mastery per level — and the wiki states that "the buff effects received by Special Guest Stars are increased by 100%." Guest Stars receive double the stat buff of everyone else on your roster. A Guest Star who arrives late in a run with a stacked Blessing Level is the single strongest unit you will field.
The wiki's own advice runs the other way, though, and it is correct: use Guest Stars early if the game offers them early, because they do not benefit from the season's Brilliant Blessing reactions, which are built around the three required elements. Off-element damage that cannot trigger the season's reaction buffs falls behind fast in the later Acts. Ineffa is the one to check first — our Ineffa build guide covers her kit, and she reappears on Season 29's Thespian Trick list in November.
How many characters does each difficulty actually need?
This is the number that decides your month, and it is the one most season previews skip. Every difficulty sets a minimum roster, a maximum roster and a level floor:
| Difficulty | Acts | Minimum roster | Maximum roster | Level required | On-field recommended | Off-field recommended |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Easy Mode | 3 | 8 | 10 | Lv. 60 | 2+ | 5+ |
| Normal Mode | 6 | 12 | 14 | Lv. 60 | 3+ | 8+ |
| Hard Mode | 8 | 16 | 20 | Lv. 70 | 4+ | 10+ |
| Visionary Mode | 10 | 22 | 26 | Lv. 70 | 6+ | 14+ |
| Lunar Mode | 12 | 28 | 32 | Lv. 70 | 8+ | 18+ |
Visionary Mode unlocks only after you clear Hard Mode, and Lunar Mode only after Visionary. You cannot skip to the top tier in your first season.
Read the maximum column as an opportunity, not a cap. Every character added to the Alternate Cast above the required number raises Blessing Level by 2, and each Blessing Level is worth +800 Max HP, +50 ATK, +50 DEF and +20 Elemental Mastery to the whole party. Taking 32 characters into Lunar Mode instead of 28 is +8 Blessing Levels, which is +6,400 HP, +400 ATK, +400 DEF and +160 Elemental Mastery — and double that on your Guest Stars. A fourth Lv. 70 body you consider useless is worth more parked in the Alternate Cast than left at home.
The other resource to plan around is Vigor. Each character has two Vigor, one spent per stage, restorable only through certain Mystery Cache options — and every stage demands four members even when three would clear it. Twelve Acts at four members is 48 character-stage slots against 64 Vigor: comfortable on paper, brutal if you burn your best units in the opening Acts.
Can you field 28 Hydro, Cryo and Anemo characters?
Probably, and that is what makes October the month to attempt Lunar Mode.
Counting the community wiki's playable-character listings as of 26 September 2026, and counting the Traveler once rather than once per element, Hydro, Cryo and Anemo together account for roughly 58 playable characters. Even an account that skipped half the banners in those elements has a realistic path to 28 bodies at Lv. 70.
Compare that with the wall waiting in November. Season 29 requires Hydro, Electro, and Geo — and Geo is the smallest playable roster in Genshin Impact, at about 15 characters, several of whom are limited five-stars. The complaint is a fixture of every Geo season, and it is a fair one. As one player put it during an earlier Geo rotation: "there are few geo characters in the game to begin with, not a single standard one, all the damage dealers are limited five stars you probably don't have, and all the four stars are niche supports."
That is the planning insight for this article: October is the roster-friendly month, November is not. If you have been sitting at Hard Mode because you could never assemble 22 or 28 eligible characters, Season 28 is the season to break through — and the Visionary clear you bank in October is what unlocks Lunar Mode for the harder November roster.
The cheapest way to fill the gaps is not pulling. It is levelling. Ascension to Lv. 70 needs no Crowns and no constellations, and a four-star support you will never use in combat still counts as a full roster slot and still raises Blessing Level by 2. Spend the week before the reset checking which Hydro, Cryo and Anemo characters are sitting at Lv. 60 or below.
Why is Lunar Mode worth 200 more Primogems than Visionary?
Because two of the twelve Acts are not Acts at all.
Lunar Mode is Visionary Mode's ten Acts plus two optional Arcanum Challenges, which unlock after Acts 3 and 6 and are claimed after you finish the Act 10 Performance Challenge. Each Arcanum Challenge pays 100 Primogems on the Performance Tour track and 150 Primogems on the one-time Debut Performance track.
Run the maths on a full season:
| Track | Acts 1 to 10 | Two Arcanum Challenges | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Performance Tour (repeatable every season) | 800 Primogems | 200 Primogems | 1,000 Primogems |
| Debut Performance (first clear only) | 1,500 Primogems | 300 Primogems | 1,800 Primogems |
So the widely quoted "1,000 Primogems per season" figure is Lunar Mode only. Stop at Visionary and the season is worth 800. Over twelve months that gap is 2,400 Primogems, or fifteen wishes, for two extra challenges a month.
The rest of a full Lunar season pays 600,000 Mora, 3 Toy Medals, 26 Sanctifying Essence, 28 Sanctifying Unction, 1 Transient Resin and 2 Sanctifying Elixir, plus twelve Teachings and six Guides each of Moonlight, Elysium and Vagrancy. The Crown of Insight sits on the Act 10 Debut reward and is claimable once, ever. Our free Primogems tracker lists what else is claimable this version.
Stella sit on a separate track, earned from each Act's Star Challenge and paying out at 3 Stella (8 Sanctifying Unction), 6 Stella (1 Transient Resin), 9 Stella (1 Sanctifying Elixir) and 12 Stella (1 Sanctifying Elixir). You can retry a stage specifically to claim its Stella, during or after the clear.
What else changes in Season 28?
Four characters gain new Thespian Tricks — photo poses bought from the concierge NPC Wolfy with Toy Medals: Dehya, Varka, Mualani, and Lisa. Toy Medals drop from Acts 3, 6 and 8, three per season, so you cannot buy all four in one month.
Two structural notes worth knowing before you queue. After you clear a Battle: Climactic Showdown, the game now offers 1 Principal Cast member out of 3 options rather than a forced pick, which is a real team-building lever late in a run. And in Lunar Mode that 1-of-3 choice applies after clearing Arcana Challenge events too.
Season 28's Primary Antagonists have not been published yet. The season is still five days out and neither HoYoverse nor the community wiki lists them, so anyone posting a boss line-up for October today is guessing. We will update this page once the roster is live.
What should you do before 1 October?
- Finish Season 27. Unclaimed rewards vanish at the reset. Our September Theater guide covers the outgoing Hydro, Electro and Dendro season.
- Count your eligible bodies. Filter your roster to Hydro, Cryo and Anemo and count how many are at Lv. 70 or above. That number tells you which difficulty is realistic.
- Ascend the gap. If you are at 24 or 26 eligible characters, two ascensions buy you Lunar Mode. Nothing else in the game converts Hero's Wit into 200 Primogems that efficiently.
- Check the four Guest Stars. If you own Ineffa, Yae Miko, Thoma or Chiori, they are usable regardless of element — and they take double Blessing Level buffs.
- Set your Supporting Cast. You can set up to 7 characters, usable 15 times per season by friends, and they cannot overlap with your own Alternate Cast. Pulling on the live Version 7.1 banners before the reset also widens your eligible pool.
Frequently Asked Questions
When does Imaginarium Theater Season 28 start in Genshin Impact? It opens on 1 October 2026 and runs until 1 November 2026, both inside Version 7.1. HoYoverse confirmed the date in the Version 7.1 update notice: "After the Version 7.1 update, the first season of 'Imaginarium Theater' will be available on October 1."
What are the required elements for Imaginarium Theater in October 2026? Hydro, Cryo, and Anemo. Every Alternate Cast character you bring must be one of those three, with the sole exception of the four Special Guest Stars — Ineffa, Yae Miko, Thoma and Chiori — who ignore the element requirement but must be owned or borrowed.
Do I need to own the Opening Characters? No. Trial versions of Neuvillette, Barbara, Citlali, Kaeya, Wanderer and Prune are provided for the Principal Cast. Owning them is what unlocks the Fantastical Blessing — a 20% boost to Max HP, ATK and DEF that lasts the whole season and applies in the open world as well. Opening Characters cannot be taken as Supporting Cast.
How many characters do I need for Lunar Mode? 28 at minimum, up to 32, all at Lv. 70 or above, plus one Supporting Cast invite. Lunar Mode only unlocks after you clear Visionary Mode, which itself needs 22 characters and a prior Hard Mode clear.
How many Primogems does Imaginarium Theater give per month? 1,000 Primogems per season on the repeatable Performance Tour track — but only if you clear Lunar Mode. Acts 1 to 10 pay 800, and the two Lunar-exclusive Arcanum Challenges add 100 each. First-time clears additionally pay 1,800 Primogems across the Debut Performance track, including a Crown of Insight at Act 10.
What is the unlock requirement for Imaginarium Theater? Adventure Rank 35 and completion of the quest "Unbegun, Unending Story." The Theater Lobby is inside the Mondstadt Library at the Knights of Favonius Headquarters, where Wolfy acts as concierge.
Is November's season harder than October's? For most accounts, yes — but for roster reasons rather than enemy strength. Season 29 runs 1 November to 1 December 2026 on Hydro, Electro, and Geo, with Opening Characters Yelan, Aino, Flins, Fischl, Zhongli and Kachina and Guest Stars Qiqi, Odette, Vesna and Jahoda. Geo is the game's smallest playable roster, so the 28-character Lunar requirement bites much harder in November than in October.
You can find more Genshin Impact guides — version breakdowns, banner coverage and Primogem tracking for the rest of Version 7.1 — across the Timesaver blog.
