|OT| Genshin Impact - Breath of the Elements

[Ascheroth]

Mika (4*)

Dehya (5*)

Leaked kits are out as well. Dehya sounds really exciting (to me at least).
She is not selfish on-field DPS #5, but instead a sort of off-field tank/shielder alternative with some off field damage (no idea how much, but application is fairly slow) and a short (apparently 4s) on-field stance change Burst. She can provide interruption resistance + tanks parts of the damage for the on-field character and has a self-heal whenever her HP fall under 30% (every 20s).
No numbers yet, but conceptually I'm really digging her kit since it also fits really well with her character and going off the descriptions alone her animations are probably gonna be rad.

 

[Line]

Dehya sounds fun, now to wait for the final numbers. Curious build, we've not seen it before.
Mika being Eula's little helper is unsurprising. Maybe we will get more physical characters in the future too?

 

[Ascheroth]

Still working my way through the new desert area, but so far so fun.

Lantern Rite was absolutely fantastic though. In terms of mini-games it's "fine". They're short, cute and fun. The story though was great. Legit made me emotional at times. Genshin is often a light-hearted JRPG romp, but sometimes it busts out really powerful stories. Overall my favorite incarnation of Lantern Rite by far.

Spoiler

I loved the music themes and the performance at the end (CN version is best). Cloud Retainer/Ping backstory and character development really hit me. Really heavy, but very good stuff.
And then the Epilogue was hilarious to lighten up the mood. The entire setup was great and there were so many good small and big moments between the characters, I loved it. Was fun to look for the characters in the world afterwards as well.

 

[Amzin]

I'm excited for any potential Eula support character finally arriving, she was my first 5* and has gotten basically 0 help since I started playing. Not that she's terrible, just physical in general is left behind with the release of dendro.

Still working my way through the new desert area, but so far so fun.

Lantern Rite was absolutely fantastic though. In terms of mini-games it's "fine". They're short, cute and fun. The story though was great. Legit made me emotional at times. Genshin is often a light-hearted JRPG romp, but sometimes it busts out really powerful stories. Overall my favorite incarnation of Lantern Rite by far.

Spoiler

I loved the music themes and the performance at the end (CN version is best). Cloud Retainer/Ping backstory and character development really hit me. Really heavy, but very good stuff.
And then the Epilogue was hilarious to lighten up the mood. The entire setup was great and there were so many good small and big moments between the characters, I loved it. Was fun to look for the characters in the world afterwards as well.

Same here,

Spoiler

really enjoyed learning more of the history there. Also the "hello, fellow stranger I have definitely never met before, how do you do" bit was great.

I like the new desert area but not totally feeling the writing with the new story in there. I liked the previous 800 hour long desert "side" quest a lot so a bit underwhelmed but the new stuff itself is really good.

I can't decide if I want Alhaitham or not. I originally wasn't going to but his attacks are so flashy looking I basically pulled for Wanderer just so I can look at his charge attack spam all day

 

[Line]

Waiting for tomorrow to complete the lantern rite quest and finish the minigames. They're fine... but I find the papercraft puzzle just baffling. No idea what's going on half the time, I find it super unintuitive despite having played puzzle games like this... I think the lemming aspect does not remotely work with such big "blocks".
Honestly I think it's a pretty boring festival, like all the others lantern rites. At least we have Cloud Retainer to save the day, because everyone else, especially the overworked girls? Man, if half of the characters like Ganyu didn't exist, I think I'd like it more.
Really happy we're done with Li Yue and Inazuma, I think I hate both more and more with each event. The fact that everyone is a nobody that hardly did anything ever, if they even appeared at all (like Hu Tao)? Hard to care about it all.

Thankfully Sumeru changed things, because damn.

Now I don't know if if wanna roll for Alhaitham, he looks so good, he feels smooth to play (well... maybe not the mirror system), but I have no place for him. Guess I'll see when he comes back.

 

[hersheyfan]

I'm excited for any potential Eula support character finally arriving, she was my first 5* and has gotten basically 0 help since I started playing. Not that she's terrible, just physical in general is left behind with the release of dendro.


Same here,

Spoiler

really enjoyed learning more of the history there. Also the "hello, fellow stranger I have definitely never met before, how do you do" bit was great.

I like the new desert area but not totally feeling the writing with the new story in there. I liked the previous 800 hour long desert "side" quest a lot so a bit underwhelmed but the new stuff itself is really good.

I can't decide if I want Alhaitham or not. I originally wasn't going to but his attacks are so flashy looking I basically pulled for Wanderer just so I can look at his charge attack spam all day

This video changed my mind, and I pulled (and got) Alhaitham yesterday.


Like... god DAMN, thats a truckload of damage. I normally don't pull for "meta", but Alhaitham fits in very well with my existing maxed guys and opens up a ton of team structures - the "ideal" team is a Spread team with Nahi, but he can run solo or with a lesser Dendro like Traveler or Yaoyao without issue. He can also carry a burgeon squad, or optimize the Nilou Kabloom team (Al, Nahi, Kokomi, Nilou).

I just cant get over how much damage he cranks out, its insane. Running an R3 Black Sword, 4/4/4 skills, and underleveled artifacts, he was already serving as the onfield carry at level 60 in a Spread squad (Al, Nahi, Kokomi, Yae), contributing a good share of total team DPS (edit: to be clear, everybody else was level 90 with maxed artis and leveled skills). He's also feature complete at C0 (recs are either C0 or C6, as the cons in between are apparently meh), so ideal if you dont want to spend a lot for a real bruiser.

 

[Amzin]

I mean yea I heard he's good - I'm not sure if he totally fits into any of my teams (I have a Nilou bloom but no kokomi or much interest, so much less hydro application with Barb). The other issue I have is I just checked and I have essentially 0 artifacts for him (I mean, some if I pull from 5 sets) and I've spent 2 months farming for wanderer and still have no attack sands with any usable substats (he still does a lot of damage with Faruzan + anything but so tired of farming artifacts).

I mean I probably won't be pulling on the next 2 patches either, so who knows. Still got some time to decide.

 

[Ascheroth]

Alhaitham seems pretty great indeed. Personally I'm good on Dendro teams for now with Nilou/Kokomi/Nahida/Collei doing Bloom things and Yae/Fischl/Tighnari/Jean doing Quicken things. Currently building up Yaoyao as well, which would open up even more stuff.
But more importantly my primos are for Dehya, Cloud Retainer, Bloodborne Girl, Fontaine Archon and possible other Fontaine chars based on the earlier design leaks. Gotta be picky

 

[hersheyfan]

I mean yea I heard he's good - I'm not sure if he totally fits into any of my teams (I have a Nilou bloom but no kokomi or much interest, so much less hydro application with Barb). The other issue I have is I just checked and I have essentially 0 artifacts for him (I mean, some if I pull from 5 sets) and I've spent 2 months farming for wanderer and still have no attack sands with any usable substats (he still does a lot of damage with Faruzan + anything but so tired of farming artifacts).

I mean I probably won't be pulling on the next 2 patches either, so who knows. Still got some time to decide.

Thats why I pulled for him, honestly - aside from his general OPness and lineup flexibility (lots and lots of dendro procs!), I have a lot of Gilded Dreams in stock due to farming for Nilou and Nahi. So its just a few pieces I need to max him out.

Dehya is also looking kind of mid at this point, though i still have enough to guarantee her if i feel like it. If I lose the Dehya 50/50 (I'm currently on a 4 banner winning streak lol), im calling it a day and saving up for the Fontaine guys.

Alhaitham seems pretty great indeed. Personally I'm good on Dendro teams for now with Nilou/Kokomi/Nahida/Collei doing Bloom things and Yae/Fischl/Tighnari/Jean doing Quicken things. Currently building up Yaoyao as well, which would open up even more stuff.
But more importantly my primos are for Dehya, Cloud Retainer, Bloodborne Girl, Fontaine Archon and possible other Fontaine chars based on the earlier design leaks. Gotta be picky

Ah, you have a built Tighnari! Then yeah, makes sense you wouldnt want another Dendro... though if you switched Yaoyao for Fish and C6 DTraveler for Jean in the Quicken lineup, I'd absolutely take Alhaitham over Tighnari in terms of pure DPS.

But yes, Cloud Retainer and the Fontaine gang look sick! Dehya looks... uh, questionable, but maybe I just need to have faith that HYV know what they're doing.

 

[Ascheroth]

Ah, you have a built Tighnari! Then yeah, makes sense you wouldnt want another Dendro... though if you switched Yaoyao for Fish and C6 DTraveler for Jean in the Quicken lineup, I'd absolutely take Alhaitham over Tighnari in terms of pure DPS.

But yes, Cloud Retainer and the Fontaine gang look sick! Dehya looks... uh, questionable, but maybe I just need to have faith that HYV know what they're doing.

Yeah, I got Tighnari from a lost 50/50 on Nahida's banner. Really happy about that actually, because I ended up liking him a lot. His passive that shows the local specialities on the map is obviously super useful, his playstyle is fun and he also pairs extremely well with Yae, and I really like Yae. Pairs better with her than Nahida imo. At least in an Aggravate-heavy team where you run Anemo for extra res-shred. Nahida's Dendro application is too strong to swirl electro reliably. And you really want double Electro with Yae, to battery her.
Yae/Fischl/Tighnari/Jean is my current desert exploration team.

Dehya does indeed not look great right now (except her animations, those are fire), but I'm sure she'll end up just fine anyway by release. Even if not I'd probably still get her cause I can, lol. I have enough pulls for 2.5 guarantees right now, I'm not really worried about not getting upcoming characters I like at this point in time.

 

[Line]

It's new banners day!
Won the 50/50 again for Yelan, glad I had like 45 rolls already because all the 4* have been C6 for a long time. Having to spend 75 more rolls would have sucked a lot.

And with the free fates from levelling her up, I got Shinobu C6.

Nice banner
39k primos left in the bank. Not sure what to do will all that at this point.

 

[hersheyfan]

It's new banners day!
Won the 50/50 again for Yelan, glad I had like 45 rolls already because all the 4* have been C6 for a long time. Having to spend 75 more rolls would have sucked a lot.

And with the free fates from levelling her up, I got Shinobu C6.

Nice banner
39k primos left in the bank. Not sure what to do will all that at this point.

Congrats on your Yelan 50/50 win!

As for what to do with your almost 250 wishes, go after Dehya like the rest of us! EMBRACE THE MEDIOCRITY!

The plan for me is to get Dehya then just wait around for the Fontaine folks.

 

[Ascheroth]

There's a new follow-up world-quest to the 3.4 Dirge of Bilqis questline and its follow-ups since Monday.

Well.
There's probably still darker stuff somewhere in the lore, but I think this has been by far the darkest Genshin has gotten in actual "present time" stories.
Very tragic, and very violent.

 

[Ascheroth]

I got the fight against Maguu Kengou in the parry event down to 1 minute on the hardest difficulty.
Quite satisfied!

 

[Line]

Dehya on the standard banner in 3.6 then...
Welp, dunno what to do then. Maybe roll some on Shenhe's banner? And Keep the rest for Fontaine...

Also right now the beetle fight event is more than I expected, it's a lot more responsive than I thought and rewards your timing nicely with crit damage.
And Itto is always good.
Pretty nice, curious about the upcoming Pacman minigame, I like that, even more in multiplayer.

 

[Ascheroth]

Welp.
Yeah dunno what to do. I'm about ~30 wishes away from soft pity, so maybe I'll gamble for the 50/50 and hope for the best, sicne getting her in the future will be a complete crapshoot. But also there's always going to be this voice in the back of my mind telling me "you could have gotten a limited character from that 50/50" in the future, especially if I ever get her off-banner. And if I don't get her there will be a voice in my mind telling me "you should have pulled her when she had a banner, now it's to late". Lose-lose scenario. Ugh.
Currently have 320 wishes in Primos and Fates + 135 in Stardust wishes and the earliest a new character I could want could pop up is 3.7 since 3.6 is most likely gonna be Baizhu, who I don't really want.

At least the bettle fighting is indeed fun.

 

[Amzin]

I want Mika so I'll probably through a few summons at Shenhe's banner as I have Ayaya already. Otherwise mostly a skip patch for me. Maybe 3.6 is a skip as well - inadvertently saving for Fontaine seems like. I'm assuming the Fontaine archon will look cool and be strong so a reasonable thing to save for.

 

[Ascheroth]

Grabbed Dehya after all. I do not trust my standard banner luck, so better be safe than sorry.
I took her for a spin through Abyss 9-11 (didn't have time for 12 yet) at level 60 and she's legit good in the Burning team I wanted to try. (Dehya/Bennett/Nahida/Venti).
I was running Bennett/Nahida/Venti last cycle as a test and while that worked it was extremely fragile and quite clunky. Dehya solves both issues, so I'm quite happy.
If you bring Nahida along as well, she also lets you run a comfy Burning Melt Ganyu team in the overworld, that isn't depending on Bursts, which I'm quite happy with, cause my Ganyu has unfortunately been somewhat benched lately.

The rational takes from TCers (that are currently drowned out by all the doom and gloom) seem to be that at C0 her worth is in her defensive utiltiy as a skill bot, with her Burst not really something you should focus on. It can be used situationally as a gap filler in rotations or an oh-shit button for the Interruption Resistence, but it's not worth it to aim for 100% uptime and include it in every rotation.
With constellations her damage increases and Bursting becomes more viable.

 

[Line]

Rolled some, got Diluc C1
Not gonna roll more with that atrocious 4* lineup. Plus I'm never going to run any of her comps, even less so since they're so Bennett focused and I'm never, ever using him.

Now I'm waiting for Baizhu I guess. Depends on how he turns out, but at least I like him.

 

[hersheyfan]

I finally hit pity on the Standard banner after several months, and got Tighnari! Some good luck for once, should be a big help in farming the (many) troublesome Sumeru specialties.

Of course, I then got it in my head to try for Dehya, because I'll probably never get her through a 50/50 loss. 75 pulls later, I got 4 Barbs, 3 Bennys, a Collei (C6), two Widsiths, a Favonius Lance... and another Mona (C1). After two and a half years of not getting Mona, I suddenly got two in quick succession.

That broke my will to keep rolling, I couldnt justify potentially burning another 60-80 wishes for someone so mediocre, while also getting terrible returns on the 4 star rolls. My Genshin playing friend who already has Dehya was pushing hard to stop me from rolling at all (based on his own experience), but I didn't listen. I'll just grab Mika then wait for Baizhu or whoever comes next.

 

[Ascheroth]

Plus I'm never going to run any of her comps, even less so since they're so Bennett focused and I'm never, ever using him.

So after trying out more Dehya things I gotta say she isn't Bennett focused at all. Bennett is a good choice, but she really works just fine with any healer.
I've been trying Melt Ganyu with Yao Yao, Overburn with Shinobu and I've seen her used with Jean in Wanderer teams as well.
I didn't think about it all, but Yao Yao is actually an awesome option for Melt Ganyu, because it combins both Dendro application and healing in one slot (which is usually Nahida + Bennett), so you have another flex slot, where you can for example use Shenhe

 

[Ascheroth]

3.6 Livestream on Friday:

Haven't really been following leaks, but afaik we'll get a new area. Nahida Story Quest Act 2 with a new Weekly Boss (following the "Archons get a rerun with a new story quest and a weekly boss" pattern that started with Zhongli) and possibly Faruzan or Candace as a free 4 star

 

[Line]

I'd take a Faruzan, don't have her.
But I really want a C6 Candace one day, I'm sure she'll be good with a Hydro DPS with the right timers. Sure hope Fontaine will bring the perfect party for her.

 

[Ascheroth]

Yeah I'm happy with either, but I'd prefer Faruzan cause I don't have her yet (and really want her).
I don't really have an anemo DPS to pair her up with (other than Heizou I guess), but I've seen her played on-field with Burning or Aggravate and both sound fun.
Basically playing her as Anemo Ganyu

 

[hersheyfan]

I already have a C2 Faruzan, but noped out on Candace (to my great regret), so I sadly have to hope for a Candace instead of a Faruzan as the free four star (if there is one).

Faruzan is niche but great - best with Xiao or Wanderer, but Heizou can go as her anemo driver as a solid alternate.

Also, I finally managed to cop one of those Genshin Impact soundtrack box sets - the first one, the Monstadt version. I always wanted some kind of "premium" merch to remember Genshin by after it inevitably peaces out (hopefully in the far future) - this will do nicely!

 

[Ascheroth]

Quick impressions from the new 3.6 stuff:

• Nahida story quest was good. Not amazing, but good. New weekly boss is on the easier side, but as usual is super cool visually and has a banger theme (though it's definitely more on the straightforward side compared to other themes. Still good though)
• Absolutely loving the new area. Super cool landmarks and the exploration gimmicks are great.

---

Also new 4* for 3.7:
Kirara (Dendro Sword)

Her kit seems fun. Shielder with a Hold Skill that seems to basically turn her into old Adol

Really need to see that in action, lol.

 

[hersheyfan]

Quick impressions from the new 3.6 stuff:

• Nahida story quest was good. Not amazing, but good. New weekly boss is on the easier side, but as usual is super cool visually and has a banger theme (though it's definitely more on the straightforward side compared to other themes. Still good though)
• Absolutely loving the new area. Super cool landmarks and the exploration gimmicks are great.

---

Also new 4* for 3.7:
Kirara (Dendro Sword)

Her kit seems fun. Shielder with a Hold Skill that seems to basically turn her into old Adol

Really need to see that in action, lol.

The Solid Snake box move of Kirara (hold E) also climbs up cliff sides. So entertaining

 

[Amzin]

The animation showcase from the leaks for Kirara look absurdly detailed and good, the 4 star animations have been insane lately.

 

[Ascheroth]

Man, I can't wait for Fontaine (and whatever they're doing for the Summer islands this year, it's apparently not gonna be Golden Apple Archipelago 3.0).
The new area has been breathtaking, maybe my new favorite area. They just keep upping their game, it's crazy.
So many gorgeous landmarks, Sorush adds a whole new dimension to exploration (heh) as a controllable, flying companion. Really good quest with a whole lot of awesome lore and imo it's their best attempt at combining guided exploration via a big questline and free-form exploration.
You need to start the quest to get access to the exploration gimmick of the area, but after that you can pretty much explore everything on your own and even collect quest items in advance if you happen to find them.
And when you thought you saw it all and continue the quest it leads to a whole new bunch of subsections and there's even more awesome stuff (Like super-cool "holy shit!" stuff).
And have I said that the new area is just absurdly gorgeous? And also super varied?
10/10 would explore again.

 

[hersheyfan]

 

[Ascheroth]

I managed to pry myself away from Star Rail for a bit today and started the event, and I laughed so much when they introduced him like that.
Event's very fun.

 

[hersheyfan]

I managed to pry myself away from Star Rail for a bit today and started the event, and I laughed so much when they introduced him like that.
Event's very fun.

Yup! I also lol'd when they doubled down on it shortly after, by making it his canon cover name.

At that point, I knew I had no choice but to trade in my name changing thingo, and do the necessary.

 

[Li Kao]

Ok, I'm in deep shit. After starting Star Rail I decided to give Genshin another chance.
I'm beginning to get hooked.

At the start the story is uninteresting and the first few hours and characters are not great. Then you get other characters, not always great in the tiers, and they all play differently. Combine that with the overwhelming element mechanic and it's fucking good.

 

[Line]

Story is pretty whatever for a long time, it does its job but that's more of an afterthought to the exploration and the combat.
It's probably much better now with Dendro and the triple reactions too... who you got going as a team?

The one constant in Genshin is improvement though, Sumeru is a huge, huge leap forward in both story and level design over the simple Mondstadt and Li Yue, so if you think it's a bit flat and straightforward early, you'd be right and it becomes increasingly better.

Don't rely too much on tier lists though, it's more of a thing when you have entire teams at your disposal and too focused on specific content (I certainly wouldn't recommend playing Nilou everywhere when you start...).

 

[Li Kao]

Story is pretty whatever for a long time, it does its job but that's more of an afterthought to the exploration and the combat.
It's probably much better now with Dendro and the triple reactions too... who you got going as a team?

Oh I just started a few days ago, still very much in Mondstadt and pretty sure I didn't unlock every daily or weekly things right now. So yeah, I don't have a team, the early content is easy enough to be yolo pick whomever. Like, I got the guaranteed Knight Maid, supposedly bad, but she is fun enough.
I may have lucked out because I also got Xingqiu, who is supposedly very good.

I did the trials for the new (?) characters, and yep, their mechanics look great.

 

[Line]

Oh yeah, if you're just in the beginner banner, you got Noelle... she's not that bad, but you want her powered up to constellation 6 (so only get her six more times ) before she's truly useful, and that's probably going to take a good long while. Decent at making a shield and healing you a bit at least... but you'll get Barbara soon, and she's a dedicated healer so she tends to replace her.

Xingqiu is a big win, he's one of those supports that work all the time, and with no need for anything special unlike some others.

Also note that you can change the Traveler's element by talking to a statue of the seven (the big teleport thingies) in another region, you could take a trip to Sumeru right now and get them as Dendro element - they are actually surprisingly strong with it, much more than the starting Anemo. Also works well with Xingqiu, actually.

For the available characters though... the banner changes later today, so if you want you can try to get one of them, but it's not super likely
A good thing in Genshin and Star Rail is that the pity is kept between banners, so you lose absolutely nothing by rolling a bit on one, it will just carry for the next.
I'd recommend Nahida right now, THE dendro support. Nilou is just extremely limiting for a new player (she can only be played with other hydro and dendro chars to even use her basic mechanics...).

 

[Amzin]

One thing with the traveler is they're often your best access to triggering that element for puzzles/exploration until you get to like adventure rank 20 or pull a lot. There are no free Anemo characters for leveling up, so anemo puzzles require that attunement for a while. Geo can also be hard to activate until you get like Gorou or Ningguang randomly. All the other elements you get a character from leveling up that works well for those puzzles (including dendro with Collei). Also there or puzzles that more or less require Geo traveler unless you have a 5 star Geo.

For what it's worth, I have a pretty huge roster right now and there are like... 2 of the characters I haven't used in a real team at some point. All the 4 star characters are a lot stronger with constellations but they work fine for basically anything even without that.

If you want to coast through even the middle, sometimes tougher parts of the leveling / adventure process, leveling up a dendro + electro character will get you super far because those reactions are strong and you can use them against enemies that are immune to one half still (more or less). But the nice thing about Genshin is you really can play how you want - you do run into enemies immune to one type of damage but you should usually have a way through that in any team.

 

[Line]

Well, fuck.
I wanted Baizhu and Candace cons, and I find Kaveh to be very fun in its trial.
So what do I get when I'm at zero pity?

Spoiler

 

[Li Kao]

Is Baizhu fresh off the oven ? I didn’t find him in the tiers list I take glances at.
I know those are not the end all be all, but in a game with a ton of characters, might as well take it into consideration.

 

[Line]

Yep he's the new guy, Dendro shield/healer hybrid, it's going to take a little while to know where he really stands (and supports like him tend to be badly misjudged, like Kokomi was).

If you're not too sure about him, you can roll for Ganyu, she's about as safe as it gets (even if pretty boring to play) for general AoE DPS and also Cryo support if needs be.
That's a thing to consider beside excessively synergetic characters that don't work very well early - some are much better for some type of content and not really in general, Ganyu works anywhere and in almost any team, while some rely on their bursts which make them very annoying in the open world.

 

[Li Kao]

For my second ten pull on the starter banner I got… a trans dimensional german chuuni ? I think ?

 

[Line]

Fischl?
She's one of the very best 4* in the game too, great Electro support (and can also do well by herself later), also happens to pair well with Xingqiu and any Dendro character.
She's on the currently running Baizhu/Ganyu banner too, getting copies of her is not wasted considering how strong she is at constellation 6.
Much more practical to use than Lisa for puzzles too.

Pretty good start

 

[Ascheroth]

3.7 livestream tomorrow

Since there are no Chibis in the image I'm assuming it will be Da Wei + devs, sooo.... possible Fontaine teasing incoming?

 

[Li Kao]

Damn, Genshin is fucking mediocre when it comes to new player onboarding. I just dinged the first world level increase and there was suddenly a shit ton of new things to do, with zero explanation. Well, to be fair it was a perfect storm with their new web event.
I just wanted to chill and have fun and somehow I had a battle pass with an introductory video, a potion making web event new dungeons, world bosses, allusions to some card game, etc. Zero context, take this shit.

Where I’m at : I can continue the plot or go to Luyang, which seems to be half a world away. I guess it is plot then.

My question : Do the MSQ gives you a dendro character ? I crossed path with my second dendro pillar, feels bad to ignore them.

 

[Line]

Hah, yeah, it must real underwhelming with everything unlocking. Note that you can pretty much ignore web events, it's not like they are worth much (if cute).
The card game you can do later too, it's not like you're in a hurry. After all, the limited time event for the card game only comes out next patch
The battle pass you'll do naturally playing the game (though it's definitely too late to get much in the current one).

For Dendro characters, you can get Collei for free by reaching the fourth floor of the Spiral Abyss (the endgame dungeon of Genshin - you should be able to click on it near your resin on the map? Else, it's the island to the far east of Mondstadt), you can also get a free Xiangling for reaching floor 3.
Those are not too, too difficult.
You could also get the Dendro main character by going to Sumeru, anytime. Bit annoying to switch elements since you have to go back to statues of the Seven, it's a lot faster in Star Rail.

 

[Dandy]

Honkai Star Rail has also sucked me back in to Genshin! I haven't played in a loooong time. I was one of those people who didn't upgrade their gear properly while playing through the story, and as a result my World Level went up and suddenly the game stopped being fun.

Now I'm trying to get myself properly geared up, which is tedious and time-consuming. Having to kill bosses that are 10 levels higher than me(while sucking at video games in general!) in order to ascend while under geared is not fun. I did co-op one of them with a stranger which was awkward. Then I decided to tackle the Oceanid alone which took 2 attempts. Those boars are a pain in the ass when your DPS sucks! Seeing them heal to full broke me.

 

[Line]

When you need a power spike, the easiest is first your artefacts (you usually have mountains of them lying around from exploring - I expect that this might become a problem in Star Rail actually, since it's nowhere near that easy to get relics...), then your weapon level, then your talents, then your character levels, those are extremely minor for most (except the Anemo ones that scale heavily from levels).

This order also helps alleviate potential roadblocks, as it does not require you to do kill bosses, or lets you do so with the autogroup feature, some bosses are very nasty when you don't have the right team.

 

[Li Kao]

Yeah, I don’t feel I’m grasping the leveling in this yet, but I also don’t play Genshin regularly enough, so that may be on me. I clearly don’t dps enough and even at measly adventure level 1 or 2 the enemies are a little too much in the spongey category.

One surprising downside to using the gacha characters is that some need mats that seem to be half a world away to upgrade

 

[Ascheroth]

I'm not really a fan of Genshin and Star Rail "mid-game" either. The beginning is great cause you can just experiment and things are cheap all around, then the resource constraints limit you a lot and you'll have to get over that hump before things get chill again. But once you are there, it will be chill forever at least.

Yeah, I don’t feel I’m grasping the leveling in this yet, but I also don’t play Genshin regularly enough, so that may be on me. I clearly don’t dps enough and even at measly adventure level 1 or 2 the enemies are a little too much in the spongey category.

One surprising downside to using the gacha characters is that some need mats that seem to be half a world away to upgrade

Inazuma characters are really problematic because it's story locked, all other areas are at least accessible all the time.

For levelling it's what Line said. Really don't shy away from levelling some purple artefacts. Especially the Feathers are very good value early on, because the flat ATK they give is worth more relatively. For the other slots just look at main stats that benefit a character based on their kit. ATK, Crit and matching Elemental Damage% Goblets are probably safe bets unless the character has explicit different scaling mentioned.

Also what characters are you running? Character synergies and elemental reactions can make a big difference (but honestly early on it's probably mainly gonna be stats from gear).

 

[Dandy]

Right now I am using Bennett, Xingqui, and then rotating between Venti, Fischl, and Ganyu depending on the situation. I really hate bows, but all of my good characters seem to use them.