Genshin Impact looks welcoming — bright open world, a cast of characters, a gentle opening. Then it quietly stops explaining itself. Nobody tells you how elemental teams actually work, the Wish screen is a slot machine dressed up as a menu, and a daily energy system you barely noticed is silently gating your progress. Get those three things right early and Genshin becomes one of the most generous games around. Get them wrong and you'll waste weeks. Here's the orientation the game should have handed you on day one.
Teams are reactions, not four favorites
The first instinct is to throw your four coolest characters into a party. Don't. In Genshin, damage comes from elemental reactions — combining two elements on an enemy — far more than from raw hits. A team that triggers one reaction consistently will out-damage a team of stronger characters that never combos anything.
Build your first team around a single, forgiving reaction and learn it cold before branching out:
- Vaporize (Hydro + Pyro) is the classic beginner engine. Applying Pyro onto a Hydro-soaked enemy multiplies that hit hard, and it's easy to set up.
- Melt (Cryo + Pyro) works the same way for burst windows and is just as beginner-friendly.
- Save the trickier reactions — Overload, Electro-charged, the Dendro reactions — for once you understand the basics.
Then fill four roles, not four favorites:
- Main DPS — your primary damage dealer, on-field most of the match. Level this character first.
- Enabler — supplies the second element so your reaction keeps firing.
- Buffer — inflates the damage (attack boosts, resistance shred, energy).
- Sustain — a healer or shielder to keep you standing.
A four-star team that nails these roles will clear everything the early and mid game asks of you. You do not need five-stars to progress — good five-star characters are luxuries, not requirements.
Wishes: the rules that stop you wasting pulls
Wishing is where new players torch their savings. The system is fair once you understand it, and brutal if you don't. The currency you spend is Fates: Intertwined Fates on limited character and weapon banners, Acquaint Fates on the permanent Standard Banner.
Learn the pity system before you pull:
- On the character banner, a five-star is guaranteed by 90 wishes. But the real odds spike from around wish 74 ("soft pity") — most five-stars land in the mid-to-high 70s, not at 90.
- Your pity counter and guarantee status carry over between character event banners. Forty pulls with no five-star means you start the next one at 41.
- The 50/50: your first limited five-star has roughly even odds of being the featured character versus a random Standard-banner one. Lose it, and your next five-star is guaranteed to be the featured character.
Now the beginner rules that follow from all that:
- Pick one banner and commit. Don't split pulls across two limited banners hoping for both — you'll likely finish neither.
- Don't pull unless you can reach soft pity. Wishing 20 times and stopping is how you throw Fates away. Either save toward ~80 pulls or don't start.
- Skip the weapon banner early. It has its own harsher pity (guaranteed by 80, soft pity around 63) and an Epitomized Path system whose points don't carry over between banners. Signature weapons are a late-game refinement, not a beginner priority.
- Do the Standard Banner's free early pulls, then save your primogems. The Chronicled Wish and events will hand you plenty over time.
The short version: hoard primogems, wish only when you can chase pity to the end, and never chase two things at once.
The daily loop: energy, commissions, resin
Genshin is a marathon paced by two daily systems. Ignore them and your characters simply stop getting stronger.
Original Resin is your energy for endgame farming — it's spent on domains and world bosses that drop character talent materials, weapon materials, and Artifacts (your gear). It refills slowly over real time and caps out, so any resin sitting full is progress you're wasting. The habit is simple: spend resin every day on whatever your main team needs next. Hold your Fragile Resin (a refill item) for later, when you know exactly what to farm — don't burn it aimlessly at low level.
Daily Commissions are four quick tasks that unlock at Adventure Rank 12. They pay out Primogems and, on completion, a chunk of Adventure EXP and Mora. Four commissions a day is the single most reliable Primogem drip in the game — this is how a patient player funds their next character. Do them.
A clean daily routine looks like this:
- Spend your Original Resin before it caps.
- Clear all four Daily Commissions and claim the completion reward.
- Grab your free Welkin/rewards if you have them, and check for event tasks.
- That's it. Ten to fifteen minutes keeps you progressing indefinitely.
What's actually worth doing early
Beyond the daily loop, a few priorities pay off far more than the rest:
- Explore for the free stuff. Opening chests, activating Statues of the Seven, and clearing puzzles rain Primogems and raise your Adventure Rank. Early exploration is the best "free wishes" grind in the game.
- Raise your Adventure Rank deliberately — it unlocks systems in order (commissions at 12, resin-gated domains later). Don't rush World Level increases faster than your team can handle; higher World Level means tougher enemies for the same rewards.
- Level one team, not everyone. Spreading Mora and EXP books across ten characters leaves you with ten weak ones. Fund your four-person team to the teeth first.
- Don't over-invest Artifacts early. Leveling gear costs resin; treat pre-endgame Artifacts as placeholders and save your serious farming for World Level 5+.
Do that and Genshin clicks into place: a team that reliably reacts, a Wish savings account you only spend at pity, and a ten-minute daily loop that quietly compounds. Play patiently, let the game hand you its (considerable) free rewards, and you'll be ready when the character you actually want finally shows up on banner.
