Earlier this week, Genshin Impact player and Reddit user Busy_Adhesiveness_73 made a simple, relatable plea to the game’s Reddit community: please be my friend. He didn’t know anyone in real life who played Genshin, so after years of going it solo and reaching Adventure Rank 60, he turned to the internet to meet some folks who could chat about the game. “Shamelessly admitting that I want friends,” the post title reads. 

That post ended up getting over 2,500 upvotes and 559 comments, and in an interview with GamesRadar+, Busy_Adhesiveness says he was shocked by the flood of support. In an update to the post, he confirmed that his Genshin friends list hit the cap of 100 before he even worked through all the friend requests. 

Busy_Adhesiveness said in his post and replies that he’s a 31-year-old guy who’s been playing on Genshin’s European server since update 1.3, just a few months after the game came out. I turn 31 in a few days, I started playing Genshin on day one, and none of my friends play the game either – instead, I get by just by making my editors read too many words about the game. Needless to say, this whole situation perked my eyebrows right up and I was eager to chat with Busy_Adhesiveness about this wholesome community rally. 

“I was extremely surprised by the response, yeah!” he tells me. “I thought one or two people might reach out, but the post ended up getting over 2,000 upvotes and hundreds of comments from people who either felt the same way, or wanted to reach out and try to help. Though it has been overwhelming trying to respond to everyone, I’m really glad that I made the post and I hope that it’s perhaps helped others who were in a similar situation.”

Has this massive friends list expansion led to actual co-op fun in Genshin? At the time, Busy_Adhesiveness said he “managed to play co-op with one person last night briefly, and they were really kind and fun to chat to! They ended up showing me a load of chests I hadn’t found and we talked in the process. I do hope to be able to play and chat with some more people as soon as I can.” This was all pretty well-timed given the recent suite of events. 

We generally get worse at making friends as we get older, but it doesn’t have to be that way. Often times, all you have to do is ask. In total, Busy_Adhesiveness estimates he got between 120 and 130 friend requests. “I just checked, and I still have 38 requests that I can’t accept,” he said. “I’m pretty excited about being able to talk to people!” 

Two new playable Genshin Impact characters announced for update 5.2: Chasca and Ororon.