Genshin Impact Tips and Advice

by Formana

A) Introduction

• This will be a general “things to know and remember” guide.
• We won’t tackle specific stuff like how to get an early 5 star artifacts, tier lists, and game secrets or how to get to xyz and how to get things done.
• Always remember to take your time and play at your own pace.
• This guide will just help you plan out your progress roadmap along with the daily and weekly stuff so you can focus on enjoying the game.

B) Progression

• Your Mora reserves will be exhausted once reach AR25-30. It is recommended to focus on only three characters at the beginning for journal rewards.
• Always use up your Original Resin. They fully recharge in 16 hours.
• Always do your Daily Commissions and Battle Pass Missions.
• Always send your extra characters on Expeditions.
• Try to clear the weekly bosses (Stormterror and the Big Wolf) at the end of the week, when you might have a higher adventurer rank for better rewards.
• Plan ahead. Material dungeons for ascending weapons and leveling up talents only come three times a week depending on the type. I don’t recommend doing it on a Sunday since the drops are random.
• Boss Material are available at all times so they can be less of a priority.
• Mark everything as found using this Map. Especially the Anemonculi and Geoculi so you don’t have to backtrack.
• Collect Character Ascension Materials and Weapon Crafting Materials from the wild using the same map.

C) Team Composition

• Don’t sleep on 4 star characters. They can be better at max constellation compared to most 5 star characters and they will be much easier to max out, especially if you are F2P. You can theoretically get a maxed out Razor or Amber in 6-7 months if you buy them from the Starglitter Exchange every month.
• Focus only on one main DPS that you will max out first (including their weapon). This character will be the one who will be out on the field the longest. They usually have good Normal Attacks (can be ugpraded by their constellation, weapons, or artifacts) and spammable low cooldown Elemental Skills. They might also have an easy to charge Elemental Burst that buffs their Normal Attacks. Good examples would be Diluc, Razor, Jean, Keqing, Beidou, and Venti.
• Next you need will need two support characters that will complement your main dps. Support characters are usually the ones with drop and go Elemental Skills and Bursts like Fischl, Xiangling, Xingqiu, Qiqi. Or the long cooldown damage dealers like Sucrose and Klee.
• For your fourth character, it can be anyone that you can leave around 1-2 tiers behind your main team of three. Lets use Amber as an example. She is an archer that can hit weak points, she has Pyro charged attacks that can melt Ice Shields, and she can fulfill the second Pyro unit requirement for that bonus 25% atk.
• The second option for a fourth character is a healer. You’ll need one if you plant to tackle the Spiral Abyss, and two once you reach floor six. Now thankfully, the game gives us easy access to two – Barbara and Noelle and they’re pretty easy to gear up and use.

D) Weapons

• Same with your team, work only on three weapons at the beginning. One for your main DPS and two for your supports.
• There are a lot of good weapons so let’s focus on avoiding bad weapons first, mainly on your damage dealers. Avoid the ones with defensive stats like HP% and DEF%.
• While we avoid HP% and DEF% for damage dealers, they are the stats needed for some characters like Barbara and Noelle.
• As a general rule of thumb, most 3 star weapons at max refine will always be better than 4 star weapons at no refines with a few exceptions. A clean 5 star weapon, on the other hand, should be an obvious choice.
• You can also opt for crafted 4 star weapons like the Prototype Aminus since you will eventually get it to max refine.
• Here are my recommended 3 star weapons
• Sword – Fillet Blade (DPS), Harbinger of Dawn (DPS), Cool Steel (Support)
• Claymore – Skyrider Greatsword (DPS), Debate Club (DPS)
• Catalyst – Emerald Orb (DPS), Magic Guide (Support), Thrilling Tales of Dragon Slayers (Barbara)
• Polearm – White Tassel (DPS), Halberd (Support)
• Bow – Slingshot (DPS), Raven Bow (Support)

E) Artifacts

• Upgrade 3 star (blue) artifacts and above only.
• Feathers will always spawn base ATK and Flowers will always spawn HP.
• Caps, Cups, and Clocks can spawn either ATK%, HP%, and DEF%.
• Caps can also spawn Crit Chance and Crit Damage.
• Cups can also spawn Elemental Dmg% bonus.
• Clocks can also spawn Elemental Mastery.
• This early into the game, the simplest advice I can give you is just to keep all the 4 stars from any set and 3 stars from a good set with a good main stat.
• Early game offensive sets include (2) Crit Rate +12% and (2) Atk +18%
• Don’t bother min/maxing the random substats this early in the game. Focus only on the main stat of the artifact.
• Once you reach AR20 you will be able to tackle Domain of Blessings but I don’t recommend farming them until you reach AR30 for a chance to drop 4 star artifacts.
• Once you reach AR30 you will be able to farm at the Domain of Blessings: Frost I.
• This Domain drops the Martial Artist set (2) Normal/Charged Attack Damage +15% (4) Normal/Charged Attack Damage +25% for 8s after using an Elemental Skill. A very good set to have in the early game for your main DPS. It is relatively easy to farm as it starts out as 3 star rarity.
• This Domain also drops Defender’s Will set (2) Base DEF +30% which is good for Noelle. You can also net some Crimson Witch of Flames set items which is the best artifact set for Diluc at the moment.
• Now how do you go about building your artifact sets? As I mentioned earlier, Feathers and Flowers will always spawn with ATK and HP so they will be the easiest to fit in.
• For example, if you want to build a 2 set for an artifact set that starts at 4 star rarity, once you get a Flower and Feather, you’re pretty much set. For the remaining three, you will need to farm the exact stat that you need. In most cases in the early game – it will be attack.
• Remember that Cups can spawn with Elemental Damage%, which includes Physical. In most cases, this will be better than just having raw attack can be a strong boost for your main DPS. Cups are the hardest to get a specific roll on since it can spawn with every possible element in the game along with ATK%, DEF% and HP% so keep your 4 star and 5 star cups even if they are from a terrible set because they can be the (1) for your gear.
• Be careful in feeding your artifacts! Equip your good ones to your random characters as a pseudo-storage. I do hope we get a favorite system in the future.

F) Team and Character Build Sample

• The following is just a sample of you what you can efficiently start with in the beginning.
• Diluc (Main DPS) – This build has good Physical but low Pyro Normal Attack Damage when you Elemental Burst)
  • Weapon – Skyrider Greatsword 3 star Refine 5
  • Feather – Martial Artist 4 star
  • Flower – Martial Artist 4 star
  • Clock – Martial Artist 3 star ATK%
  • Cap – Martial Artist 3 star ATK%
  • Cup – Random Set 5 star Physical Damage%
• Fischl (Support)
  • Weapon – Raven Bow 3 star Refine 5
  • Feather – Thundering Fury 4 star
  • Flower – Thundering Fury 4 star
  • Clock – Resolution of Soujourner 3 star ATK%
  • Cap – Resolution of Soujourner 3 star ATK%
  • Cup – Random Set 5 star Electro Damage%
• Xiangling (Support)
  • Weapon – Halberd 3 star Refine 5
  • Feather – Witch’s Flower of Blaze 4 star
  • Flower – Witch’s Flower of Blaze 4 star
  • Clock – Resolution of Soujourner 3 star ATK%
  • Cap – Resolution of Soujourner 3 star ATK%
  • Cup – Random Set 5 star Pyro Damage%
• Barbara (Healer)
  • Weapon – Thrilling Tales of Dragon Slayers 3 star Refine 5
  • Feather – Scholar 4 star
  • Flower – Scholar 4 star
  • Clock – The Exile 3 star HP%
  • Cap – The Exile 3 star HP%
  • Cup – Random Set 3 star HP%

G) Spiral Abyss

• Now this is where things get tricky. Once you reach Spiral Abyss 5-1, you will be needing two teams, and in most cases, two healers. I haven’t cleared chamber 7 and 8 yet but I plan to tackle them once i reach AR35.
• The first problem with needing two teams is having to gear up and level up two healers. The good thing is, having a Level 40 Barbara and Noelle with a basic gear set will be good enough as long as you practice your dodging as well.
• The next problem is the need to have another DPS that can do decent Normal Attack Damage. In my case I chose Xiangling as my second DPS and I just built another set of Martial Artist. I do, however, need more levels on her as she doesn’t deal enough damage as Diluc yet.
• How should you go about building your two teams? In theory you would need 1 Main Dps, 1 Support, 1 Healer, and 1 Filler for your team.
• You will be able to view what enemies you will be facing so you can adequately prepare. Do you need to melt Ice shields? Bring Pyro. Fire shields? Barbara should be the healer for that team. Stone shields? Noelle is a Claymore user and should be your healer. For the fillers, just add in Amber as the second Pyro unit for the attack bonus or Lisa as the second Electro for the faster energy recharge.
• I’ll fill out this section more as I progress through the game.

H) Spending

• The Battle Pass and the Monthly Gems are worth it.
• If you want to progress faster, recharging your Original Resin once per day for 50 gems is worth it.
• If you absolutely want a banner five star character, save up for 180 summons. The first pity of 90 summons will only have a 50% chance of getting the banner character. You might get it earlier, of course, but this is just a precaution to avoid getting shafted.
• For weapons, it is worth it to do single rolls until you get to the first 4 star for a good chance (75%) of getting a banner weapon. This won’t take more than 10 rolls.
• The same goes with characters. If you just want a 4 star banner character, you can do single rolls until you get one. This won’t be more than 20 rolls.
• If you want to whale, do it for a character that you like. Some characters are better than others at certain roles but each one is definitely viable.