New & Returning Player Guide (2026)

Genshin Impact's Patch 7.1 is right around the corner, and with it comes its 6th Anniversary and lucrative rewards for players. Genshin has released over 100 different characters of varied usefulnesses, and in many ways is unrecognizeable compared to its older iterations.

Whether it's new mechanics, powercreep, new endgame modes or character buffs, there is an incredibly wide breadth of information to keep in mind if you're just getting into the game or just getting back to it. With the release of Snezhnaya, we have our second round of modified Elemental Reactions and character buffs, with more very likely being around the corner, and it's only getting harder to sift through the fluff.

Learn what's important, how to best take advantage of what Genshin is offering, and how to optimize your account's ability to tackle endgame content from a meta and non-meta perspective.

6th Anniversary

There are a few distinct rewards obtained purely for logging in or completing certain tasks during the anniversary patch.

• A selector where you can choose a copy of any Standard Banner 5 star Character, accessible on log-in during the patch
• 7 days of logging in throughout the patch to obtain 10 Intertwined Fates / Wishes and various materials, including a Dust of Enlightenment (used for reshaping Artifacts)
• 1600 Primogems (corresponding to another 10 Intertwined Fates) and various materials, including a Sanctifying Elixir (used for crafting Artifacts)
• A selector that picks between 6 different Limited 5 star character, unlocked by completing Acts 3 and 4 of the Snezhnaya Archon Quest. Learn more about this and who to pick in the dedicated guide.
• Various Events, including the Moonchase Festival event that provides a free 4 star Sword.

Exploration

Most of the permanent Primogems in Genshin are obtained through permanent exploration content. Newer regions will also include various other material rewards, including Sanctifying Elixirs and Dusts of Enlightenment. These are sure to jumpstart your account and your Wishing and Artifact economy.

As of recently, exploring newer regions within 2 patches of their release will also award you with a few extra primogems. This will remain available for all of Patch 7.1 for the exploration released in Patch 7.0.

Snezhnaya

Exploration in Snezhnaya is more lucrative than most regions in terms of Primogems, and each region will also include a special Hidden Treasure Trove called the Shadow Realm Treasure Vault. Whenever you open a Precious or Luxurious Chest, you have a chance of obtaining a Remnant Incense Guide. Collect 3 of them for a singular region, and you will obtain a key to unlock that region's Shadow Realm Treasure Vault. Each one contains a Dust of Enlightenment and a few randomly rolled Artifacts.

Snezhnaya also includes a few new exploration mechanics. The most important is the introduction of Prime Ice Constructs, which are shared between player worlds and have various uses for exploration.

Exploring the region will reward you with Cryo Sigils. These are a special resource that you can consume at dedicated Meeting Points, unlocking some story quest and encounters with new characters, Primogems and other resources such as Standard Banner Wishes and a Sanctifying Elixir.

Older Exploration

Hidden Treasure Vaults were introduced in Natlan and also used in Nod-Krai and function identically to the Shadow Realm Treasure Vaults. In Natlan, each Vault will reward you with a Sanctifying Elixir rather than a Dust of Enlightenment, whereas Nod-Krai will have a Dust.

Natlan and Nod-Krai are similarly lucrative to Snezhnaya, but contain very different mechanics. Natlan is focused around movement through its Saurians and is a fairly spread-out region. Nod-Krai is highly condensed and laid-back, and besides the Moon, has few World Quest locks.

Meeting Points were introduced in Nod-Krai as a replacement for the reputation system, and carried over to Snezhnaya. Natlan has its own Reputation replacement system with the Tribal Chronicles.

Older regions are slightly less lucrative, and the earlier regions of Mondstadt, Liyue and Inazuma can be quite time-consuming. That said, they are still good sources of EXP and tend to be easier in terms of combat (although not puzzles).

Archon Quest

Genshin's Archon Quest nowadays provide additional Primogems when completed within a certain timeframe, usually within the patch they are released. They also provide more rewards in general, with a higher Primogem count per quest and 1 Intertwined Fate granted for each Act completion.

Snezhnaya Meta: Stellar Glimmer Reactions

The Stellar Reaction system is Snezhnaya's biggest meta point of reference. Stellar Reactions are radically modified versions of specific Cryo Elemental Reactions that unlock when a character with the corresponding Stellar Linchpin is in the team. There are currently two Stellar Reactions: Stellar-Conduct and Stellar Swirl. Several older character got buffed with the introduction of the Stellar system, most prominently Yae Miko, Wriothesley, Cyno, Qiqi and Diona.

Nod-Krai Meta: Lunar Reactions and Hexerei

Nod-Krai also brought forth its own new mechanics in the form of Lunar Reactions and the Hexerei buffs.

Lunar Reactions, like Stellar Reactions, are modified versions of base Elemental Reactions, though Hydro ones instead of Cryo ones. There are 3 Lunar Reactions: Lunar-Charged, Lunar Bloom and Lunar Crystallize. They're a bit more of an insular system compared to Stellar Reactions, with each archetype having its own dedicated units and Columbina rather than the flexibility of units like Odette and Traveler (Cryo).

Hexerei character were the first batch of buffed characters. When two or more Hexerei characters are in the same team, each one will unlock additional abilties. These range in competence, but the buffs have made several older units sigifnicantly more relevant: this includes units like Mona and Fischl.

Endgame Modes

There are currently 3 distinct Endgame Modes in Genshin, with highly different requirements and rewards.

• Spiral Abyss: The oldest endgame content, present since 1.0. It refreshes on the 16th of every month and gives 800 Primogems for a full 9 star completion. Each reset contains 4 Floors, from 9 to 12, with 12 being by far the hardest one. Each Floor contains 3 Chambers, split in two. You will need two teams to tackle it, and usually, content shifts to favor certain archetypes much more than others.
  
• Imaginarium Theater: Introduced in Patch 4.7 and refreshing on the 1st of every month, IT is the easiest mode by quite a bit, at least provided you can enter it: each IT rotation has 3 different Elements that can enter the challenge, and you require a certain amount of characters to be able to start the challenge. The hardest tier, Lunar Mode, requires at least 28 characters of those Elements. Completing it will grant 800 Primogems, completing the additional Arcanum Challenges will grant an additional 200 Primogems, and completing the "Stella" challenges present in every stage will reward you with various materials, including up to 2 Sanctifying Elixirs.
  
• Stygian Onslaught: The newest distinct mode. Released in Patch 5.7, Stygian Onslaught refreshes once per patch and features a 3-boss challenge. There are 6 different difficulty tiers, with the first 3 being incredibly easy and containing 450 Primogems total. The other 3 difficulty tiers do not have Primogem rewards: Difficulty tiers 4 and 5 significantly ramp up the difficulty and will each reward you with a Dust of Enlightenment upon completion. Difficulty Level 6 is significantly harder than even Level 5, and only provides cosmetic rewards upon completion. You can learn more about each rotation of Stygian Onslaught in our dedicated guides.

Difficulty and Powercreep

Genshin's endgame modes have gotten considerably harder over the last couple of years, and character power has increased accordingly. Besides raw damage requirements, most new bosses or endgame scenarios will generally significantly favor a few specific teams or character over others. Most prominently, bosses released so far during Snezhnaya and upcoming ones are far friendlier to Stellar DMG than anything else, and arguably Cryo in general. This trend is unlikely to stop, so Stellar units will serve you well.

Whenever an older character gets a rerun banner, content also adjusts accordingly. To account for Skirk and Escoffier's rerun banners, the infamous Cryo Secret Source Automaton is back next patch; for Arlecchino's rerun in 7.0, Stygian Onslaught contained the Operative boss; so on and so forth. Content made for older character will tend to be easier to brute force than newer content, but might still be difficult without the specified favored setups.

Future Considerations

There is a high likelihood that we see further character buffs in the near future, as well as various other Reaction modifications sooner or later. Considering the Hexerei buff batch was focused around Mondstadt characters, it stands to reason that Liyue characters would be next, and likely not too far in the future. There is presently no information about this and we have no idea what form the buffs will take, but it is worth keeping in mind.

Patch 7.1 Characters

The new characters released in 7.1 are both 5 stars and both are running in the first half banners of the patch.

• Vesna is an Anemo Stellar Swirl on-field DPS. She deals Direct Stellar Swirl DMG instead of Anemo DMG and has built-in flight in her kit. She uses her Normal and Charged Attacks to build up a resource that she spends with her Enhanced Skills to deal her Stellar Swirl DMG.
• Vodyanitsa is a Hydro Support for either Cryo/Hydro teams or Stellar Swirl teams. She provides RES Shred and adds damage to either Cryo/Hydro damage instances or Stellar Swirl damage instances. She cannot do both at once however.

Skirk and Escoffier will be the second half rerun banners. Vodyanitsa is a decently strong increase for Skirk and other Escoffier teams, and despite the onslaught of powerful new Cryo characters, Skirk has been able to hold her own against difficult endgame content. This is especially true for players who have mastered her more advanced combos.

Recently Released Characters

• Sandrone: a Cryo on-field DPS that can deal both Stellar-Conduct and Stellar Swirl damage, although the former makes for her much stronger teams as of right now. Released in Patch 6.7, she has a relatively high skill floor but with decent room for optimization, and could be presently said to be the strongest on-field DPS in the game thanks to her damage, teammate flexibility and team Elemental makeup.
• Odette: a Sub-DPS and Support for Stellar Glimmer teams. She deals significant damage of whichever type there is currently a Stellar Radiance active for, and provides excellent buffs to her team while doing so. Could be likened to what Columbina provides to Lunar teams.
• Traveler (Cryo): the Cryo iteration of the Traveler is a fantastic unit. They take on the role of an on-field DPS in Stellar-Conduct teams or an off-field Support in Stellar Swirl teams, and they're very good at both.
• Alyosha: an Electro 4* released in patch 7.0, Alyosha is one of the strongest supports for Stellar-Conduct teams with his C6 but fairly mediocre otherwise.

Upcoming Characters

There are a few confirmed upcoming character with some information revealed about them through various means.

Mitya and Danica are both holders of Electro Stellar Linchpins, and thus almost certainly 5 stars. This means they will be focused the Stellar-Conduct reaction in some manner. It is most likely that one of them is an on-field DPS and the other an on-field support, as there is no dedicated Electro Stellar-Conduct DPS presently.

Valeriy is a holder of an Electro Vision. This makes it likely he's a 4 star, as typically 5 stars would be holders of Linchpins and 4 stars would be holders of Visions. He is likely some sort of support for Stellar-Conduct teams, which would cause some overlap with Alyosha.

The Tsaritsa

Anastasya Feodorvna Snezhnaya, the Cryo Archon, is slated to be released soon; likely in patch 7.3 or later. As the region's Archon, the Tsaritsa is sure to be one of the (if not outright the singular) strongest unit released in the patch cycle. It is unknown what her kit will provide, however it is certain she will be related to Stellar Reactions.

Judging by other Cryo Stellar characters, she will most likely be able to be used in both Stellar Swirl and Stellar-Conduct. Judging by previous regional Archons, it is also likely she is able to be both an on-field DPS and an off-field Support. Stay tuned for further information on Anastasya.

Pulling for Meta

If your goal is to have a strong account capable of clearing most (or even all) of the hardest endgame content, you need to be aware of how endgame modes function and how to use your wishes most efficiently. Typically, Stygian Onslaught is by far the biggest roadblock and the mode that one would pull around in order to pull for what is 'meta'; if your characters are able to clear Stygian's higher difficulty tiers, they will be able to comfortably able most Spiral Abyss setups and will perform very well in any given IT stage.

Limitations, Requirements, and Expectations

Pulling around Stygian Onslaught comes with certain caveats.

• There will be encounters that even the best characters can't brute force without vertical investment, particularly in Dire difficulty.
• • Flins and Ineffa were the most recent re-runs, in 7.0's second half. Flins typically gets strong matchups into many encounters, but lacks the raw strength to brute force most unfavorable matchups.
• Different rotations will significantly favor whatever is currently on banner, but there is no guarantee that an older character will receive the same favor in the future.
• • Arlecchino was on-banner for the first half of 7.0. She is excellent into the Operative Boss and is a capable brute forcer with some vertical investment, but as a character nearing 2.5 years in age, it is unlikely she receives too many solo banners of her own. She will have to play into content that favors Pyro broadly; this isn't necessarily an issue, as Pyro is an excellent element.
• Newer characters will likely be able to clear many more encounters than older characters, by virtue of raw strength. As DPS goes up, brute forcing ability goes up.
• • Sandrone, arguably the best DPS in the game, is able to demolish all bosses of the current Stygian Onslaught rotation in Fearless and comfortably beat them in Dire difficulty. Knuckle Duckle will require some vertical investment, but far less than most other non-Flins / Lunar-Charged characters.
• There is a baseline level of skill required to brute force. This skill includes mechanical ability, but also knowledge of game mechanics and interactions. Different characters reward these differently.
• • Mavuika and Skirk are examples of characters that scale phenomenally with player skill. Mavuika in particular has a uniquely loaded kit, able to play a multitude of different archetypes and possessing several unique properties that allow her to tackle content that could be difficult for most other Pyro units. An example is the Moon Gecko. After Zibai and Linnea, Mavuika was the best unit into it despite not being Geo. This is because Mavuika's attacks have significant Blunt DMG, which depletes Geo Shields.

How To Invest

There are two main ways of investment, and there will inevitably be at least some overlap when trying to optimize one's wishes.

• Horizontal Investment: this is the type of investment that describes pulling a breadth of characters that tackle many different types of content, typically without many Constellations or Weapons.
• Vertical Investment: contrast to Horizontal, Vertical Investment means the player is pulling for Constellations or Weapons for specific characters or teams rather than spreading their investment out. Depth instead of breadth.

While neither is necessarily wrong, the hardest endgame content in the game will generally require at least some level of vertical investment. Pulling enough horizontally without significant spending makes it very difficult to keep up with the resources required to defeat Dire Stygian Onslaught.

Fearless difficulty and all other types of endgame content instead arguably favor horizontally investing. Their difficulty is not high enough to prohibit the use of most of characters, and neither do they require a high skill floor.

What fits your account best depends on your goals with meta achievements.

• If looking to consistently get Dire clears, you need to be able to learn characters intimately and likely to invest time and effort and wishes into them. The more vertically invested a character is, the better they become at clearing content that isn't specifically favoring them. Sandrone, Mavuika, Nefer, Arlecchino and more are examples of characters that become significantly stronger brute forces with a few Constellations.
• If looking to do Fearless for the actual rewards and comfortably beat Abyss and IT, you're comfortably able to take either investment path.

Pulling for your Favorites

Instead of pulling purely for meta and for whatever is meta optimal on your account, you might be looking to invest your wishes into improving your favorite units. Whether it's through new Supports, Constellations or any other form of investment, more or less every unit in Genshin is able to become a strong part of endgame clearing if they have enough resources thrown at them.

Usually, doing this will still require pulling for newer units. Newer units are typically stronger at a baseline and have stronger vertical investment. You might get lucky and your favorite units might receive buffs soon, but otherwise, you want to look at how to improve them with newer releases. For examples:

• The Raiden Shogun is a unit widely beloved and is one of the most popular characters in the game. She is also not a particularly strong unit, hardly able to be the 4th best Electro DPS in the game. She does, however, have an amazing Constellation 2 and a very good Constellation 3, as well as a strong Signature Weapon. These will significantly improve her performance, and might let her catch up to newer Electro carries like Clorinde and Varesa at a lower investment.
• • The new Hexerei support releases in Nicole and Durin have significant synergy with Ei. They also have very strong Constellations. A team of Raiden Shogun - Chevreuse - Durin - Nicole might be quite mediocre at C0 and unable to tackle even most Fearless difficulty content, but with Constellations, it becomes able to tackle even many Dire scenarios.

This is the type of logic one must apply in order to effectively improve their favorites to a state in which they're able to become meta effective.

• Whether you're new or returning, doing the newest content is more Primogem efficient. Explore the new regions, finish the new Archon Quests, do the current events, etc.
• Newer characters are both generally stronger and easier to build around. They're also favored by the current endgame content, so you'll have an easier time clearing what's available.
• • This will stay true for upcoming characters. The Tsaritsa is almost certain to be the strongest character in the game at the time of her release, and a centerpiece of the Stellar ecosystem.
• Catch up and familiarize yourself with new mechanics; neither Stellar nor Lunar are particularly difficult to interact with, and character buffs are mostly straightforward. Learn how to make use of older characters if you have them.
• Decide how to invest your wishes. If you're looking to make a strong account, optimize your teams and know how to use them to tackle endgame content. You can do this to some extent by focusing on your favorites, but you will have to specialize far more in order to make a non-meta unit be able to consistently clear difficult endgame.