Genshin Impact: Ultimate Beginners Guide to Learning the Game

In the free-to-play adventure game Genshin Impact, you get to explore a fantastic open-world that’s filled with new friends, secrets, and enemies.

Featuring cross-platform play, you can team-up with your friend who has a PlayStation 4 or Nintendo Switch while you might be on your phone or laptop, with the tips in this guide applying to all platforms of play.

Below, you will find the complete Genshin Impact guide, featuring top tips to help anyone who’s looking to start their journey in the world of Teyvat.

How do quests work in Genshin Impact?

As is the case with adventure games, in Genshin Impact, you’ll be looking to embark on quests and complete them to reap the rewards.

All of your quests can be found in the Quest Log, its icon looks like a banner with an exclamation mark and can be found under the mini-map’s left side. The icon of Paimon above it will open the menu, in which you can access the shop, characters, and more.

From the Quest Log, you can pick which quest you want to focus on next. Upon picking a quest, its location will appear as a yellow diamond on the map. You can then use the Navigate feature to show you the way there, which can be found in the Quest Log on the lower-right side of the screen.

Archon Quests explained

Archon Quests are the main story quests about the Traveller and Paimon as they travel the world of Teyvat. After you have finished the tutorial, the Prologue will start, which centres on the area of Mondstadt.

While doing the first act, The Outlander Who Caught The Wind, you will receive several rewards, with the biggest being three new characters. To unlock each of the next quests in the storyline, you’ll need to reach a set Adventure Rank (AR).

Story Quests explained

Story Quests are quests about a specific character and are named after the specific character’s constellation. During the quest, you may be able to play them as a trial character, even if you do not own them yet; this is the case for the first two story quests that you will encounter for the characters Amber and Kaeya.

Many of these quests require you to reach a certain Adventure Rank, and some also require the use of a story key to be unlocked. Story Keys will be received after reaching AR 26 and then completing eight Commission Quests.

Commission quests explained

Commission Quests are unlocked when you reach AR 12. Four of these quests appear daily on the map, identified by a purple diamond shape, with the location being randomised each day. They can also be viewed in the Quest Menu and the Adventurer Handbook.

You will receive rewards for the completion of each quest. After completing all of the four quests, return to the Adventurers’ Guild to receive bonus rewards.

Keep in mind that the completed quests will not roll over to the next day. So, you will have to turn them in on the day that you complete them if you wish to receive the bonus rewards.

World Quests explained

The World Quests will teach you more about Teyvat, its locations, and stories. To receive these quests, you’ll need to find the right NPC to give them to you. To help you get underway with a World Quest, head to Mondstadt Cathedral and speak to Viktor.

Essential tips for exploring in Genshin Impact

Genshin Impact is set in the vast open-world of Teyvat, with so much for you to do in the wild. There are treasures to uncover and materials to gather, so going out to explore is always worthwhile.

Here are the key aspects to exploring in Genshin Impact, and what you need to keep in mind while venturing out into Teyvat.

How to open chests

While exploring the world, you will sometimes stumble upon a chest. Some of these can be opened immediately, while others require you to complete a task before you can pry them open.

The task varies from chest to chest: it can involve slaying the nearby monsters, using a certain type of elemental attack, or finding a way to reach them first.

Understanding the stamina mechanics

Moving around in Genshin Impact will use stamina, which is shown as a small orange bar next to your character.

Using the dash will drain a larger part of the stamina bar, but when running around, dashing is actually faster than sprinting, so it’s a more efficient use of your stamina.

When climbing or swimming, dashing will make you move faster, but it drains your stamina faster as well. So, keep this in mind when you try to climb up a cliff or swim longer distances. You will also use up stamina flying around using your glider.

If you are starting to run out of stamina, while up in the air or on a cliff wall, use the lunge attack to land safely; even if this results in you losing health, it will be a lot less. The lunge attack is activated by using the attack button while mid-air.

If you are on a cliff wall, you will have to let go of the wall first and then perform the attack. An additional bonus to this method is that you can land on enemies and deal plenty of damage.

Another solution, if you are running out of stamina, is to use a food item that replenishes stamina – which you can read more about in the cooking section below. It is also possible to teleport to another location in the case of an emergency.

Find and pin Anemoculus

While exploring the world of Genshin Impact, you will come across Anemoculus in various locations. These can be offered up to the Statues of The Seven in the world, which will give you various rewards.

The most important of these potential rewards in return for Anemoculus is the gift of more stamina, which is a permanent boost to your stamina bar.

Even if you yourself don’t spot the Anemoculus, it will appear on the mini-map as a four-tipped star when you are near one.

Anemoculus are very important, and it’s recommended that you mark the locations where you have found them, as it will make it easier for you to find them all later.

To pin a location, open the map and click the location that you wish to mark, with the recommendation being to use the star-shaped pin to mark Anemoculus locations.

If you need help finding some Anemoculus, you can make use of the Interactive Map to find their remaining locations. Alternatively, you can use the map to mark all the locations and then visit them all in turn and remove the pins.

Find, mind, and pin material locations

While you are running around or climbing, you will come across flowers and items like apples and mushrooms, as well as animals that you can kill for meat. Collect these materials as you go because they will be very useful for cooking food, with food being how you replenish your character’s health (HP).

You will also come across mining nodes, seen as shining rocks, of various kinds. To mine these, you will have to break them by using attacks. The characters that are efficient at doing this are the ones that feature the Geo element. A Geo character that you can get early on is Noelle, who can be received via the Beginners’ Wish.

If you find a place with a lot of mining nodes, pin the location on the map so that you can easily find the spot again once the resources have respawned. The same goes for areas with a lot of food resources as well, for example, locations with a lot of boars.

What do you do with Seelies?

Seelies are small green spirits that can be found at many different locations around Teyvat. Your goal is to escort the Seelie back safely to its pillar, which is its home. Upon doing so, you will receive a reward.

At times, more than one Seelie will need to be escorted before a reward is given; you’ll know that this is the case if there is more than one pillar present in the area.

What are Teleportation Waypoints?

While exploring, you will come across Teleportation Waypoints, which you need to interact with to activate. When they are activated, you can easily revisit the location by clicking on the Teleport Waypoint on the map.

As a top tip, if you ever find yourself in a tough spot, you can teleport away by using the Teleportation Waypoints: this even works in the middle of combat.

How to cook in Genshin Impact

By consuming food, you will be able to replenish your character’s HP. While you can just eat apples and Sunsettia, there are many other materials in the game that can be used for cooking.

Cooking materials can be found in the world while exploring and can also be bought from NPCs – if you’re in need of a specific material, it’s best to check out some of the Vendors in Mondstadt.

To cook, you will have to find a lit campfire in the game. If a campfire is unlit, you can relight it by using a Pyro character such as Amber, who can shoot it with a fire projectile.

Throughout the game, you will be able to find and buy new recipes, which can all be found in your cooking menu. Every time that you receive a new recipe, you can then learn it by going into the cooking menu.

There are different kinds of dishes that you can cook; many of them give health, but some also grant special effects, such as greater damage, or will replenish your stamina. Some dishes, like the Teyvat Fried Egg, can also bring your characters back to life.

Here is an example of a learned recipe called Satisfying Salad which increases the critical hit rate of the party.

When you click the cook button, you will enter a new menu that shows the dish, as well as a cook button at the bottom. While in this menu, you can find the Character Bonus down the right side.

Depending on the dish, each character can give you a bonus when they cook the dish. For example, as seen above, Xiangling has a chance to receive double the product when cooking an Attack-boosting dish perfectly.

How to cook a perfect dish in Genshin Impact

To start cooking a dish perfectly, you’ll need to become proficient at cooking that dish. While you cook, a bar will appear on the screen, with your goal being to stop the moving spatula in the darker golden area to cook the dish perfectly.

You’ll then need to repeat the process to become proficient. For example, by cooking the Satisfying Salad ten times, you will be proficient at the dish, so it’ll be cooked perfectly for you automatically.

Under the knife and fork is something called ‘Process.’ Here, you can make materials into more processed ingredients like cream and sausage. You can also buy processed ingredients from vendors, but it is cheaper to make your own.

It should be noted that some ingredients take up to 20 minutes to process, and this time will count down even if you are offline. Once the ingredient has been processed, you can obtain it from the same menu to use in your next cook.

How Genshin Impact’s Adventure Rank (AR) works

As you explore the world, you will gain adventure experience that goes towards your Adventure Rank. Your Adventure Rank is separate from your character’s experience and can be thought of as an account level. Doing story quests and opening chests while exploring are the main ways of getting adventure experience.

Unlocking the Adventurers’ Guild

At the Adventurers’ Guild, you will be able to claim rewards for each new AR reached. Upon reaching AR 12, you will be able to do Commission quests and turn them in for bonus rewards to the Adventurers’ guild. Characters can also be sent out on Expeditions from the guild.

Sending characters on expeditions

At AR 14 you will be able to send characters out on expeditions through the Adventurers’ Guild. A character, excluding the Traveller, can be sent out for four, eight, 12, or 20 hours – hours which are counted down even when the player is offline. Depending on where the character is sent to, they can return with different rewards.

Since the 1.1 update, characters sent away on expeditions can be brought into your party. You have the option to recall any character on an expedition; however, you will not receive the rewards for any elapsed time.

Using Genshin Impact’s characters and elements

When you start Genshin Impact, you will get to pick a female or male hero referred to as the Traveller, who will play as your story character. Each character in the game has an assigned element, and through character switching, you can combine these elements to create different effects and deal more damage.

Later, you will receive Amber, Lisa, and Kaeya by completing more of the storyline, allowing you to have a full party of four characters. With these four characters, you’ll have access to four different elements, which you can then combine to great effect.

The initial four characters that you get have the following elemental alignments:

• Traveller: Wind
• Amber: Pyro
• Lisa: Electro
• Kaeya: Cryo

Using the Traveller and Amber, an elemental reaction called Swirl can be produced and will spread the effect of the attack.

If you combine Lisa and Kaeya, a Superconduct effect will form, which deals area of effect cryo damage, and reduces the target’s physical resistance.

The environment can also be of help to create elemental effects. For example, if it starts to rain, Hydro (water) will affect enemies, and you can then use another element to create an elemental reaction.

Practice changing between characters mid-combat and use their unique skills to perform these elemental effects.

How to get new characters in Genshin Impact

In Genshin Impact, outside of completing story missions, you can get more characters from in-game events. These events change regularly, so you’ll need to keep a lookout on the Events Overview page to see which ones are currently active.

Another way is to get new characters is by spending Wishes. To get a Wish, you’ll need to spend your Fate currency, which you earn by playing the game.

However, you’ll need to keep in mind that spending your Fate on Wishes doesn’t guarantee that you’ll get the character that you want from the promotion.

When buying Wishes, you will also receive the currencies Masterless Starglitter and Masterless Stardust, which can be used to purchase rare resources like Fate from the shop.

Levelling-up your characters in Genshin Impact

Levelling in Genshin Impact works a little bit differently from other role-playing games. While you do receive experience from killing different enemies in the world, defeating foes isn’t your primary method of levelling-up. Instead, you will need to collect Character EXP materials, which come in the form of Wanderer’s Advice, Adventurer’s Experience, and Hero’s Wit.

To use these materials, go into the Character Menu and find the Level Up button in the lower-right corner. Here, you can see the experience bar, the materials that you have available, your current level, and how many levels the character will increase by if you use the highlighted material. Using these materials will also use up Mora (the coin value of the game).

Setting up your party

Once you’ve started to collect a few characters, you’ll be able to switch between them, which can be done through the Party Setup icon found in the menu.

On the Party Setup page, you can remove and add characters to your party. You can also create four pre-set parties which switch around all the characters at once when used. When you have enough characters, it’s a good idea to build an exploring party and a fighting party, as different characters are stronger in different parts of the game.

To the top-right of the Party Setup screen, you’ll be able to see its ‘Elemental Resonance.’ This is an indicator of the different effects that your party can use based on the elements of the characters involved. To activate different elements, you’ll need to add a character with those elements to your party.

As a new player to Genshin Impact, make sure that you collect all of the shiny objects that you can get your hands on, explore every part of the world, slay the occasional monsters, and try out different characters to find your favourites.