Genshin Impact Beginner’s Guide
Introduction
Genshin Impact, a free to play open world game from Mihoyo will officially release for IOS, Android, and PC on September 28! This is a highly anticipated game for its incredible visuals; a massive open world in which you can run, swim, glide, and climb in; a plethora of characters with different elements; co-op and so much more.
Here is a beginner’s guide to warm you up to the world of Genshin Impact. This is a work in progress and will be updated regularly.
*Please note that all information is derived from the CBT’s and may not match the final version perfectly
Guide
Character Selection
Upon entering the world of Teyvat, you are given the choice of picking between two playable Main Characters, known as the Traveler The female character is Lumine and the male character is Aether. This will most likely not be changeable, and while it is an aesthetic thing, you are required to use your main character several times throughout the story, as such you must invest into them. It’s recommended that you choose the one that you prefer visually.
The World
The world in Genshin Impact is massive, as such you will most likely be spending hours upon hours exploring and looking for things to do. Make sure to look for the waypoints throughout the game as they are what unlocks the map.The game is littered with several puzzles for you to find chests and other rewards. It’s imperative that you get in the habit of doing these and not putting them off as you may never come back to them. Essentially everything you do in the world will increase your Adventurer Rank which is very important and will be broken down below. Every resource you find generally has some use, may it be for character ascension, cooking, crafting, it is all generally useful. This is a game that rewards hoarders and people who go out of their way to find materials. Note that it’s important that you stay within areas that are your level as you don’t want to open better chests until your World Level is higher. This is only for people who wish to OPTIMIZE.
Party Setup
In Genshin Impact, you can control four characters at once. You will be interchanging these a lot as there are so many different puzzles that require different elements, this is easily done at any time as long as you are not in combat. It’s good to use a different array of weapon and element types to take advantage of combos. This will be explained in a separate guide which will be linked, but for now you just need to know that you prioritize 1. Waifus/husbandos 2. Good elemental combos 3. Characters that have hidden passives (such as Amber who increases flight length) The game will give you several free characters that cover a lot of Elements, so don’t worry.
Adventurer Rank
This is probably the most important feature of Genshin. Adventurer rank is a gate to essentially everything important in the game. The cap on Adventurer Rank on the Beta was 60. Below is a table that lists important milestones, you are also given rewards each rank
Asides from this, you are unable to further progress the story without leveling up your Adventurer Rank. Get in the habit of doing things to level it up.
How to increase Adventurer Rank
- Do main story/side quests/hidden quests. These give a lot. Hidden quests: https://forums.mihoyo.com/genshin/article/14191
- Find Chests! Every chest will give you 10-50 EXP towards your Adventurer Rank. Defeat enemies, complete puzzles or just find them throughout the world. This is the single most important and easiest way to do it. These also give you Primogems the first time you open them. As far as we know, chests do not reset apart from common ones
- Do your Daily Commission Quests. These are unlocked shortly after you start, there are four to do each day and they also give you Primogems (Currency)
- Explore the world for waypoints. Each teleport waypoint will grant 30 EXP.
- Open Shrines from keys which are obtained usually through dungeons as a first time reward
- Hand in Amenoculus/Geoculus to a shrine.
- Anything involving Resin (This is basically Stamina used ONLY TO CLAIM REWARDS) will grant Adventurer Rank. This can be used on many things, bosses, dungeons, world missions etc. For whales this is the best way to level up Adventurer Rank is to just restore your resin as many times as you can each day. It’s still time gated though.
- GRIND! The only current way (to be updated) known to force grind Adventurer Rank is to spam Flight Missions that will grant you one chest every time you do it. This is a very monotonous task and it’s slow, but it is possible to force grind your Adventurer Rank doing this.
World Level
Your world level is essentially the difficulty of your game. This will naturally go up as you increase your Adventurer Rank and you are forced to increase it or you will not be able to increase your Adventurer Rank. It is very beneficial to have a higher World Level as it also increases the rarity and quantity of rewards you obtain, such as your artifacts. All Enemies and Bosses will have their levels raised each time you upgrade your World Level. The main thing to note with World Level is that when you go to play Multiplayer, people can only join your world if they are the same world level. If someone is a lower level, you must join them instead.
Co-op (Multiplayer)
Multiplayer is unlocked at Rank 16. You are able to play with people on all platforms as long as they are in your region (As far as we know). You are essentially joining their game and playing alongside them. For rewards, you cannot open other people’s chests, you can however do any activities that use resin and obtain rewards that way. So if you are struggling to fight a boss, this is a great way to get the rewards. Multiplayer is limited at 4 players, and depending on how many people are in the lobby depends on how many characters you can control. If it’s two player, you will both control two. If it’s 4, you will all control one etc. If it’s 3, then the host will control two. They have recently added Co-op events, so we can expect to see these more in the future.
Below is a video highlighting a new Co-Op event from the Final CBT.
Amenoculus and Geoculus
These are essentially collectibles you can find in the map. They are marked with a white star on the map so you know when you’re around one. They can often be hidden behind walls or at random heights you have to fly from to reach them. It’s important that you don’t skip these as they are a good source of Adventurer Rank EXP but they are also how you increase your base stamina which is used for sprinting and flight. Get in the habit of looking for them!
Abyssal Domains (Dungeons)
These are scattered throughout the world and can be broken up into categories of what they give.
- Character and Weapon ascension materials (Used to limit break)
- Artifacts (Equipment you place on characters)
- Story Dungeons/Quest dungeons
Every Dungeon has a first clear reward that is generally a large amount of exp, primogems and sometimes shrine keys. These are repeatable but the rewards cost Resin to claim so be careful with which you want to do! Their main purpose is to farm for Ascension mats and gear. These are adventurer rank locked and will unlock more as you progress.
Bosses
So far there are only a few bosses, but they are worth fighting for Ascension Materials and Rare Artifacts. The rewards will also use resin to claim. These scale with World Level, they need to be a higher World Level to obtain the better rewards. They can be found ingame in a tab to direct you to them easier, but the main ones you will want to fight are:
- Elemental Cubes (Electro/Ameno/Geo) These give a rare material that is used to ascend your characters, they can also drop rare artifacts
- Andrius, The Wolf. He is unlocked through a sidequest with Razor as you progress, make sure to unlock it soon as not only is it fun, but it also can drop a rare boss artifact set.
- Stormterror. Unlocked at the end of Act 1, drops rare artifacts.
Spiral Abyss
Spiral Abyss is a special kind of dungeon that is monthly, and has monthly rewards. You can view it like your ‘tower event’ from other gachas. Each month, depending on how many stars you get from completing time trial missions, you will be rewarded with Primogems (Around 200-400 a month). Each stage has a first clear reward that is generally some form of artifact.
The abyss is divided into 12 floors and each stage has 5 chambers. Each chamber has three challenges, you need to obtain at least 10 stars in order to progress to the next floor.
Each floor will randomly grant you a blessing or benediction. These are essentially buffs that help you clear the stage. Pick one that syncs well with your team, as a general rule of thumb anything that increases your damage, specifically elemental damage is very helpful. Some benedictions can last for more than one floor so keep that in mind.
There are several restrictions you need to pay attention too while inside. You cannot:
- Eat food
- Change Party Members, ascend or level them up.
- Change Artifacts or Weapon
Each floor will also have a Ley Line Disorder, which can give buffs and debuffs to specific characters, enemies, or both. These are significant bonuses so make sure you take advantage of them.
The rewards are worth it so make sure to give it a shot, your progress will be saved each floor.
Monthly Rewards:
Do’s and Don’ts
- Reroll. We understand not many people like doing this, but the gacha rates are not spectacular. You want to save up enough rolls to pull a pity as well, so it would be incredibly beneficial to start off with what you want early while you accumulate currency. This is not a meta based game and it does feel quite balanced. It is more about how you synergize your party together. I would recommend trying to pull either a character you WANT TO PLAY or a Natural 5* as their rates are very low. Some of them are incredibly useful/powerful as well.
- Do not single pull and make sure to only go in when you can do a full pity rotation. Chasing characters in this game will be hard, and 4*s are incredibly valuable since it’s a mixed banner of weapons and characters. Guaranteeing a 4* is really good early and the dupes are always nice.
- Everything uses Mora. Watch how much Mora (Gold) you have. Investing in characters and weapons is expensive. If you run out, you’re gonna have a bad time. Pay attention to just exactly what you are investing into and don’t waste it on random bad weapons.
- Level your party in a balanced manner. Dungeon entry points take your average party level, as such you need to level them together. It’s important to have a balanced roster to take advantage of elemental combos properly as well. It is okay to mainly invest in one unit you like but don’t leave the others behind, it is not a solo carry game, you are not Kirito (unless you play Xiao then you literally are Kirito both in VA and how absurd you are). The game is quite balanced. While some characters are better than others, it’s not a meta based game. You should enjoy characters for their gameplay, as they are all quite enjoyable in their own way.
- Do not neglect collectables in the map, the game encourages you to explore. You need to explore or you will not be able to progress the story, so get in the habit of looking around. The map is mostly locked at the start until you progress the story til the end of Arc 1.
- Prioritize finding way points so your map is opened up and you have an easier time exploring.
- Use Companions that have hidden passives:
8. Do not neglect cooking and potions, the stat boost you get is HUGE. Most of the best recipes are obtained from quests.
9. Do your Adventurer Handbook Quests (F1 on PC). This will also show you where all bosses and things to do are.
10. Bring a Greatsword character around to mine chunks of ore faster.
11. Make sure to use the correct weapons and Artifacts. There are many set bonuses (tl;dr elemental mastery OP). Guide upcoming.
12. Do Hidden Quests: https://forums.mihoyo.com/genshin/article/14191
by Shaun & Noona
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