Genshin Impact Guide – How to Acquire More Characters, Level Up, Farm Talent Upgrade Materials and More

MiHoYo’s Genshin Impact is a pretty stunning free-to-play title and a very fun action RPG. However, at the end of the day, it’s also a gacha game. While you receive four characters free, each corresponding to a single element, additional characters require special types of currency to “Summon”. These are Acquaint Fate and Intertwined Fate, and are used at the “Wish” menu. The former is used for Standard Wishes while the latter is for limited time or event Wishes.

When starting the game, you’ll have enough currency for the Beginner’s Wish. This is a specific pool of characters and items that costs 20 percent less Acquaint Fate and contains Noelle (a four star character who can use Claymores and has strong defense). Summons come in two flavors – 1x Wish and 10x Wish Set – and it’s better to use the latter since this provides better characters and weapons.

Go for the 10x Wish Set to get Noelle guaranteed and then maybe use the second 10x Wish Set to get another four or five star character. Just be aware that the drop-rates for four and five star characters is pretty low at 0.6 percent and 5.1 percent respectively.

After using 20 Wishes in the Beginner’s Wish banner, it will expire and no longer be available. Now you’re meant to grind out Acquaint Fate and Intertwined Fate by playing the game (or spending money but try to avoid that). Fortunately, there are a few methods to farming Fate in-game. First, go to the Shop menu and look at Paimon’s Bargains – you can exchange different currencies for Fate here. Primogems are one such currency – check out the various ways to farm them below.

Various quest completions and achievements will also net you Fate. When spending Fate on any character banner, check the drop rates and who’s available in the pool. Keep this in mind for future banners as well and try to avoid spending Fate until you’re absolutely sure there’s a character you want.

How to Level Up Characters

Genshin Impact is interesting in how it handles level-ups. While you can gain EXP by defeating enemies, you’ll quickly find that using Character EXP items is a much quicker way to power up. These can be obtained from the open world but also drops frequently from the Blossom of Revelations (which costs Original Resin to activate). Quests can also give some good EXP while also contributing to one’s Adventure Rank.

First of all, however, prioritize who you want to level up. Find your core group of characters that you’ll be using throughout the game. Build up a decent inventory of Wanderer’s Advice (1,000 EXP), Adventurer’s Experience (5,000 XP) and Hero’s Wit (20,000 EXP) to power them up when you need to. Kaeya and the Traveler aka player character are good characters to start with. Others, like Amber and Noelle, take lower priority in terms of damage output. If you happen to pull a character like Diluc, Jean or QiQi, level them up as quickly as possible.

We’ll cover character Ascension in greater detail in another guide. Each character requires different materials for Ascension, which essentially raises their level cap and allows for further upgrading a character’s stats. Getting to Ascension Level 2 is necessary for leveling up talents and these also require specific materials for upgrading.

How to Farm Talent Upgrade Materials

You’ll find talent upgrade materials via two dungeons – Forsaken Rift and Taishan Mansion. Each offers different materials on a rotating cycle. Here’s the full list of materials they provide, starting with Forsaken Rift (which requires Adventure Rank 27 to access):