Genshin Impact is Chinese developer miHoYo’s stab at an open-world free-to-play action RPG, and as a first stab goes, it’s an incredibly impressive effort. The visual style, reminiscent of Breath of the Wild, feels extremely ambitious for a game with this economic model, and the gameplay is refreshingly innovative even as it borrows from some of the genre’s forebears and exemplars. There’s no doubt that you should check out Genshin Impact if you’re reading this; it’s a free-to-play game, so you won’t need to worry about investing anything other than your time. Once you’ve started playing, we think that won’t feel like a massive trade-off.
However, Genshin Impact can feel a little intimidating. As an open-world game, it doesn’t necessarily present its world to you all at once like other open-world games do, but that doesn’t mean you won’t feel a touch overwhelmed with the size and scope of what the game is offering. What follows is a first-timer’s guide to getting started in Genshin Impact; all the things you’ll need to know, pay attention to, and follow if you want to get moving in this gargantuan game. Without further ado, here is our beginner’s guide on how to get started in Genshin Impact.
Get to grips with the gacha system
Genshin Impact uses a gacha-style system for unlocking new content. The game’s loot boxes are renamed to “Wishes”, and they can contain new characters and weapons to help you in your quest. Remember to use this system as often as you can; it’s always worth collecting new characters to find your favourites, and you never know when a new and powerful weapon will change your play style completely. Hot tip: always save up your Wishes and open them when you’ve got 10. If you open 10 Wishes, you’ll definitely get a four-star character or weapon, second only to five-star characters and weapons. Save up your Primogem currency for Wishes, too; don’t spend it on anything else.
Choose characters wisely – and keep them leveled
Characters are the cornerstone of Genshin Impact’s combat. You’ll need characters with certain elemental properties if you want to make the most of the game’s world and battle its enemies successfully. The combat revolves around combining elements to deal damage, so it’s important to make sure you have a wide range of elements available to you. Keep all of your characters leveled and equipped with good weapons, too; when you’re exploring dungeons, switching characters will prove invaluable, but you’ll quickly feel the lag if you’re playing with a character that’s not quite up to speed. Don’t just sit on your protagonist and assume that’ll be good enough to carry you to the end of the adventure.
Keep a good pace going
In open-world games, it’s far too easy to get bogged down by exploring and to forget about the main quest. Some games – Skyrim, we’re looking at you – benefit from this distraction factor, but Genshin Impact’s narrative is well worth experiencing. With this in mind, don’t allow yourself to become too distracted by side activities and ambient puzzles. Always pencil in some time to advance the main plot in Genshin Impact, because that’s how you’ll come across new regions, new experiences, and new quests. If you’re feeling stuck or bored by the game, it might be because you haven’t advanced the main plot in some time.
Level up a lot
Genshin Impact isn’t really an MMORPG, but it does share some things in common with that genre. One of those things is that most of the really good content – dungeons, daily quests, and other things – doesn’t unlock until you reach a certain level. With that in mind, it’s not a good idea to linger around endlessly cooking dishes or taking in the sights, as enjoyable as those activities might be. Stick to the main quest, kill as many monsters and solve as many puzzles along the way as possible, and never neglect an opportunity to get some Adventure Rank experience. Genshin Impact becomes a totally different game once you’re a higher level.
Learn exploration systems
If you haven’t played The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, some of Genshin Impact’s traversal systems may not be as intuitive to you as to someone who has. Put simply, you can climb any surface in Genshin Impact, provided you have the stamina to do so. Similarly, you can leap off any tall cliff and make it safely to the bottom thanks to your Wind Glider (basically the Sailcloth from Breath of the Wild). These two interlinked methods massively open up the game’s world, so always keep them in mind when you’re exploring and don’t forget that cliffs aren’t an impediment to your movement. It’ll help when you’re looking for new puzzles to solve.
We hope that these beginner tips for Genshin Impact help you on your way to understanding the game a little better. Once you get started, it’s a dizzyingly deep and rewarding experience. Have we missed anything important? How did you get your bearings when you first started?
