|OT| Genshin Impact - Breath of the Elements

Li Kao

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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).
Hmm, Traveller / Amber / Kaeya / Fischl
I use the synergy between ice and electricity, and having a fire user on hand is always nice, but yeah, not particularly great.

But I didn't pull that much on the gacha, the game is stingy on orbs and I didn't buy orbs with currency yet, so my options are very limited. Outside of the plot characters I got Xingqui but as I said good luck ascending him now, and the Maid Knight (who at least break rocks easily, but yeah).

edit
Another issue of going in years later is that I have no idea who to pull for or if banners are good.
 
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Line

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Hmm, Traveller / Amber / Kaeya / Fischl
I use the synergy between ice and electricity, and having a fire user on hand is always nice, but yeah, not particularly great.
Note that electro+cryo does superconduct, which is by far the worst reaction damage wise, and it lowers the physical defense of the mob by 40% - which is good... if you do physical damage, which your team don't beside basic attacks.

But I didn't pull that much on the gacha, the game is stingy on orbs and I didn't buy orbs with currency yet, so my options are very limited. Outside of the plot characters I got Xingqui but as I said good luck ascending him now, and the Maid Knight (who at least break rocks easily, but yeah).

edit
Another issue of going in years later is that I have no idea who to pull for or if banners are good.
Really in this situation, you should go for Xingqiu, which is not hard to ascend, he is one of the original characters. His boss is the oceanid, on the very top of Li Yue, you'd then have either hydro+cryo to freeze targets, or hydro+electro with Fischl to do bouncing damage, or even hydro+pyro (with Amber it's dodgy, but you can get Xiangling soon to make a very good duo) - if you like Kaeya, pyro is even more obvious as you'd get both the vape reaction and the melt reaction for a lot of extra damage.

Also, you're not running a healer, which can be a real hassle early on. I don't know your adventure rank, but you get Barbara for free at rank 18, she would help a ton with Kaeya to freeze targets.

As for banners right now Ganyu is a no brainer, she's unga bunga cryo bow DPS. Baizhu is a good healer but certainly much less needed early.
Next week there's Yoimiya, also main bow DPS but pyro (more reliant on supports but also deletes Amber in all situations pretty much), and Yae Miko which is both main DPS and support DPS... but both are from Inazuma, so they are mega nope to ascend for a new player. Yae in particular, you have to complete the entirety of Inazuma and then complete Enkanomiya...

So I'd either dump it all into the Ganyu banner to get her or someone else, or... wait for 4 more weeks for the second set of banners in 3.7 for Alhaitham to get the best dendro DPS.
But that's still far away and weakens you quite a bit until then.
 

Amzin

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Hmm, Traveller / Amber / Kaeya / Fischl
I use the synergy between ice and electricity, and having a fire user on hand is always nice, but yeah, not particularly great.

But I didn't pull that much on the gacha, the game is stingy on orbs and I didn't buy orbs with currency yet, so my options are very limited. Outside of the plot characters I got Xingqui but as I said good luck ascending him now, and the Maid Knight (who at least break rocks easily, but yeah).

edit
Another issue of going in years later is that I have no idea who to pull for or if banners are good.
In addition to what Line said, just a bare-bones overview of elemental reactions because they're one of the best ways to get a little extra oomph out in mid game (which, as has been pointed out, is Genshin's worst time probably). Bold ones are the ones I'd suggest for trying to level:

Cryo + Hydro = Freeze, no damage but "stuns" enemies so is super useful if you're getting murdered by something (does not work on bosses outside of Oceanid)
Cryo + Pyro = melt (or reverse melt), does decent damage
Cryo + Electro = Superconduct, low damage but lowers physical resistance by 40%, useless unless you have someone with strong normal attacks

Hydro + Pyro = Vaporize (vape / reverse vape in the lingo), tons of damage, in most early situations this is going to be your highest damage reaction
Hydro + Electro = Electro-charged, does a few hits of damage to the target and also periodically arcs to nearby enemies, very effective in AoE situations (and any electro can mostly delete Oceanid)

Hydro + Dendro = Blooms, makes a dendro bomb on the ground that explodes after like 2 years in an AoE for dendro damage. Does 10% (?) damage to your own unit if nearby. Kind of bad on its' own.

Pyro + Electro = Overloaded, does damage in AoE and knocks back non-big enemies, decent unless you need enemies to stay close together (which later on you always do)
Pyro + Dendro = Burning, does damage over time to the target. Pretty weak but easy to maintain and if you're using these elements anyway it's just a slight bonus

Electro + Dendro = Quicken, this is complicated because there are multiple ways dendro + electro interact depending on order, if blooms are involved, etc. but it's probably the easiest reaction to just use and get a ton of free damage from


Geo + Anything besides Anemo/Dendro = Crystallize, this is bad, it creates a weak shield that doesn't stack and it eats whatever element you had applied
Anemo + Anything besides Geo/Dendro = Swirl, this is OK damage and spreads the element around in an AoE, but not something to prioritize for damage. Usually has specific uses.

For pulling for characters, they give roughly 60-80 free pulls per patch (~4 week period) if you do all the time limited events, but that can be difficult until you get later in the game, although they've added that Quick Start thing to try and allow more people to do them. If you only care about getting stronk characters, you for sure can over time.
 

Line

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I played quite a bit of the desert zones since the Sorush event required to complete part of the main questline (...thanks for the event quickstart option I guess, when it can't be used on the most recent content added but only the old - very practical thing Hoyoverse).

Very pretty, fun new mechanics. I think the lore was super effective against my brain and dealt a critical hit.
And the event doubles down on slow moving walls of text, what's not to love? I love left clicking on my mouse. Looking at Honkai Star Rail, it's pretty much the same, walls of slow moving text that are just completely irrelevant nonsense, but at least it both scrolls faster and and you mash skip faster, that's the best QOL issue addressed in the game really.

Good grief Hoyoverse recruit some real writers, I almost feel like they're stuck in the 19th century and only have journalists paid by the letter...
 
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Li Kao

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Good grief Hoyoverse recruit some real writers, I almost feel like they're stuck in the 19th century and only have journalists paid by the letter...
To be fair that's every gacha, no ? I mean, I heard that Nikke storytelling is great and concise, but in general the 19th century popular literature comparison seems unfortunately perfectly appropriate for the genre.
 

Line

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To be fair that's every gacha, no ? I mean, I heard that Nikke storytelling is great and concise, but in general the 19th century popular literature comparison seems unfortunately perfectly appropriate for the genre.
While there are certainly gachas that are just not particularly interesting to follow and/or have meandering and long winded storylines (and even more that really get a botched translation); I think it's pretty unique to Hoyoverse to have such a presentation, since they tend to be third person 3D games - it means that you can only see so much of the text on screen since they can't really fill it up, it's not instant text either, and you have to wait for the little character emotes to complete before you can click on many, many lines of dialogues.

And it's not like they don't know it or cant do any better, when they put voice acting and actually fairly compelling and relevant storylines, even if it can get a bit wordy, it's fine, Sumeru was very good in general.
But wasting so much time on side events and characters in text form - or worse, having absurdly long minigame descriptions for what is "fly through rings and collect the shinies", it's just infuriating after years...
 
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Eila

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I'm really liking the Khvarena questline. They did really well with this and the Varanara questlines. I really like the whole Sumeru region, I think they did better than Inazuma.
 

Line

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All around I think Sumeru is well done, but we could have done with more voice acting and less obnoxious or plain racist mascots following us around.
I also finished Caribert, and yet again, more Hillichurl lore... "anyway, let's kill them all for dailies lol" is reaching insane levels of cognitive dissonance.

And now to wonder if I want to roll for a current banner or not? It's not I won't have the primos for Fontaine, over the course of Sumeru my stash has only grown... :thinking-blob:
 

Ascheroth

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I have both Miko and Yoimiya so I could only try a bit for Kirara and I didn't get her... got a C6 Yun Jin out of it though, so I guess it could have been worse.
Probably gonna grab Kazuha next and then hopefully Fontaine brings some good stuff.

Also, they went all out with TCG updates.

◆ New Character Cards: Venti, Zhongli, Raiden Shogun, Nahida, Shenhe, Tartaglia, Amber, Hu Tao, Yae Miko, Xiao, and their corresponding Talent Cards.

◆ New Character Cards: Cryo Cicin Mage, Abyss Lector: Fathomless Flames, Electro Hypostasis, and their corresponding Talent Cards. Their Tavern Challenges have also been added.
[...]
10 new gacha character cards + 3 new enemy character cards and a bunch of new event and support cards. Whew.
 

Line

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Well I ended rolling on Yoimiya to get new characters for fun, really.
Won the 50/50 but didn't get her in the first 10 pulls like I did Baizhu, also pulled 1 Kirara, 3 Yun Jin and 0 Chongyun that I already have at C6, so pretty good. Tons of random ass 4* weapons that took my precious constellations away though...

Also I was wondering why Yoimiya wasn't doing too much damage, only 10k or so on a crit. Yeah, I forgot her talents and they were lvl1. :bowblob:
 

Ascheroth

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Hit Rank 10 in the Card Game \o/

Been playing Raiden/Collei/Keqing for the last couple ranks and it's great fun.
Still tweaking support cards, but this is what I have right now:



Idea is to start with Raiden, use her Skill and then get her Burst up (it's possible to do Skill + Burst in the first round with the right cards). Then after her Burst swap to Collei -> Burst -> Keqing -> Burst (either needs an extra attack or an Energy card) -> Raiden -> Burst, etc. Lots of fast switch and Energy gen cards in there. Ideally you get Emblem on Raiden so that Bursting with Collei and Keqing refills Raiden back.
Maybe I'll replace the Rosaria cards with the 3 cost Paimon cards, I haven't really found myself using them.
 
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Line

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I really need to start the event at some point... looks kinda fun.

Also I'm closing on pity on the standard banner, I wonder what I will get. Or even if it's worth it right now since Fontaine will bring more to it? But eh.
 

Ascheroth

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Event's good fun. Nothing amazing, but fun character interactions and the payoff was overall pretty nice.

The Yoimiya quest though was fantastic. Beautiful.
I also finally did the Baizhu quest and that was excellent as well. All of the character quests that came out during this 3.x time have been fantastic.
Now I only need to do the Layla and Kaveh Hangouts and then I'm up-to-date with those as well.




In other news, I took the above Deck for a spin in the new Arena of Champians mode (win 5 PvP matches with at most 2 losses inbetween) and I won 5 times in a row, and I only went first one of these times. Some of the matches were pretty close. A lot of fun.

I appreciate the card game. I'm not almost in the mood for it (after all I only hit Rank 10 today), but sometimes I am and then it's just nice to be able to play a couple matches, get some new cards, tweak some decks,...
Somehow I spent a lot of time playing today, lol.
 
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Dandy

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It's Alhaitham/Kazuha day! I only have 130 wishes, but am going for Al first, and then the rest on Kaz. Hopefully along the way I get Yaoyao and some Xiangling constellations.
 

Dandy

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I ended up getting both Al and Kaz as well as Yaoyao and a C4 Xiangling. I am now fully out of gems though. Both times I lost the 50/50, but thankfully all the 5* were early(Diluc and Keqing).
 
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Line

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I ended up getting both Al and Kaz as well as Yaoyao and a C4 Xiangling. I am now fully out of gems though. Both times I lost the 50/50 twice, but thankfully all the 5* were early(Diluc and Keqing).
That could have been a lot worse, now to stack up on primos for Fontaine :blobcheer:
Or maybe you want that new physical DPS next patch? I think her name is End User License Agreement.
 
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Dandy

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That could have been a lot worse, now to stack up on primos for Fontaine :blobcheer:
Or maybe you want that new physical DPS next patch? I think her name is End User License Agreement.
I'm definitely saving for Fontaine now... or I'm going to burn all of the primos I earn on the weapon banner hoping for either of the featured swords.
 

Ascheroth

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I'm definitely saving for Fontaine now... or I'm going to burn all of the primos I earn on the weapon banner hoping for either of the featured swords.
Please don't.
Weapon banners are completely unnecessary for everything other than making the hardest Abyss stuff a bit easier, but that's really not worth the cost.
Also Genshin's weapon banner works different than Star Rail (it's worse).
 
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Line

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And both Kazuha and Alhaitham are not really reliant on their dedicated swords either.
Mistsplitter is a better bet if you want to roll for a 5* sword.
 
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Line

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Reached pity on the standard banner at 80, it's so damn slow to get anything from it... and I got a surprise, definitely not expected:


Didn't have him, don't have a Dendro DPS, welcome to the team I guess!
Also got a Candace con.

They really need to do something for that banner, it's just not exciting to never really roll on it and to just random stuff. Getting a 5* every six months is certainly not making want to roll more in general.
 
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spindoctor

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Okay first post in this thread I guess. Like others, I've been thinking about going back to Genshin after playing Star Rail for a while. Although in my case, 'going back' is nothing more than a technicality. I played the game for a few days when it came out almost 3 years ago but unfortunately I got very, very sick just a few days after release and had to stop playing it. Turns out, I never went back to the game after that (and never got better either). So my account is still at adventure level 13 which is probably like half a day worth of playing for most people. I figured it would be easy to get into the game after Star Rail since they share so many systems and UI and all but when I actually started the game yesterday I was almost completely lost. I have forgotten basically everything I did and I don't know anything about what I'm supposed to do.

So my plan is to first watch a youtube walkthrough of the game from the beginning just to refresh the story and see the tutorial again. I'm currently in Mondstadt city in the game and I'll at least watch the story until that point and then continue playing by myself.

I have some beginner questions;

First of all, I saw there are 4 banners running right now. 2 event character banners, 1 weapon banner and 1 standard one. For some reason the starter/beginner banner is gone from my game. That should only happen once you use it up completely right? I cannot remember if I ever did that but my gut feeling is that I didn't because at the time I didn't know anything about anything and I likely would not have messed with the lootboxes. Also I didn't have any 5 star characters which has to mean I didn't complete it right? Does the beginner banner expire after a while or is it hidden away somewhere?

I had 7 standard wishes and I used them up on the standard banner and somehow got three 5 star characters. That was surprising...

I got 2 copies of this character


and one of this one


So this is what my roster looks like right now


So next question is which of these characters should I start leveling up? Since it doesn't work like Star Rail where you need a full party, do you focus on one character at a time or do you level multiples? Is there any character from the ones I have that fulfill any important role like tank/healer? I'm sure it doesn't really matter at the start of the game where I am but as I get further in, can anyone suggest which ones I should focus on leveling? Are there any activities in the game world I should prioritize?

Also I have 20 special wishes and about 8000 primogems for now. Is there any character I should try for from the current lot or should I wait for a rerun of any particular character that might be soon? I know there's a big expansion due in a few weeks. Is it worth waiting till then to use wishes?

I'm sorry I know these are all completely newbie questions. I would appreciate any help and tips on what I should do.
 

Dandy

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I'm not a Genshin expert, so I can't answer all of your questions. I do know that Bennett is widely considered one of the best units in the game(he buffs attack and heals with his ultimate), And that Dehya is considered bad.
 
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Line

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So this is what my roster looks like right now


So next question is which of these characters should I start leveling up? Since it doesn't work like Star Rail where you need a full party, do you focus on one character at a time or do you level multiples? Is there any character from the ones I have that fulfill any important role like tank/healer? I'm sure it doesn't really matter at the start of the game where I am but as I get further in, can anyone suggest which ones I should focus on leveling? Are there any activities in the game world I should prioritize?

Also I have 20 special wishes and about 8000 primogems for now. Is there any character I should try for from the current lot or should I wait for a rerun of any particular character that might be soon? I know there's a big expansion due in a few weeks. Is it worth waiting till then to use wishes?

I'm sorry I know these are all completely newbie questions. I would appreciate any help and tips on what I should do.
:peekwaveblob:
So, most things are very much the same as they are in Star Rail, so progression in general should be pretty straightforward for you (weapon is light cone, artifacts are relics, talents are traces), just follow the story (the quest on top of your list), do side quests, explore the world as you see fit - that's the largest difference, if you need more account XP, you can just do... stuff and go open chests.

The beginner banner is different, you can only roll 20 times on it in Genshin, and you have Noelle (you always get her there), so you did them, there's no 5* character guaranteed on it unlike Star Rail.

Now the character progression focus is a bit less obvious, because as you say, you should focus more one DPS character first, but it's not like you should neglect your other three party members too much, because synergy is a lot more important than it is in Star Rail, you really want characters that have elemental synergies with one another - the likeliest one for you this early will be "burning" with applying Pyro (fire) and then Dendro (plant) - or the opposite way around, doesn't matter - to inflict a DoT on ennemies.

From you chars:
  • The obvious choice is Tighnari as main, he's a strong Dendro DPS.
  • You have constellation (eidolon) 1 Dehya as Pyro support to apply burning in an AoE and do a bit of damage with her burst while also being defensive support (she will absorb some of the damage received by your other chars).
  • Bennett is a good healer that comes combined with the best ATK buff in the game (think Natasha+Tingyun all in one), he's outright broken (and with 2 Pyro characters in the team, you activate the Pyro "elemental resonance" which is a free +25%ATK for your team at all times - there are different resonances for different elemental combos).
  • Last slot is more flexible, you could use Noelle to give a shield to Tighnari, since he uses a bow and charged attacks, he can be staggered easily by ennemies sometimes and a shield avoids that.
You could use Beidou, an Electro offensive support for more damage, plus Pyro+Electro explodes and staggers/send enemies flying which is also useful for Tighnari to stay safe.
Kaeya is also a decent offensive support but requires characters in melee range which is not ideal for Tighnari, and he is also Cryo (ice) and there's no synergy between him and Dendro chars like Tighnari.
Ideally you'd want to complete the team with a Hydro (water) character for the triple reaction of Hydro+Dendro=dendro cores+Pyro=Burgeon (it creates effectively floating mines that explode with fire), but that's just hypothetical and you'll do just fine with two characters for now, you have three that have obvious synergy both offensive, defensive and healing all together, so you can do what you want really, it's not like Genshin is very difficult early. Just focus on a main first like Tighnari, then some on your other party members, but it's not you'll get stuck.

Now for content, you can kinda do what you want, but even more than Star Rail the game pushes you to do events when available for primogems, they will not stick around unlike HSR.
But you're in a big hurry to complete everything anyway, take your time and enjoy the game, you'll unlock more things along the way like housing, fishing, and the card game, you can ask more questions when you reach that point.

As far as rolling goes... it's all about getting who you really like, but of course early on, easier said than done.
Right now there's Alhaitham, top-of-the-line Dendro DPS... but you already have Tighnari, so if you don't like him, his role is already filled.
The other banner is Kazuha, an amazing Anemo (wind) support, he is also exceedingly strong, but be warned that he will require materials that you cannot get for quite some time, you'll need to have reached Inazuma (the third region). Certainly not a waste in the long run, but he will be locked to lvl40 for a while, depending on how fast you progress.
One way or another, do their trials (in the main activity menu with other events) to check them out and get some basic materials for them.
My advice would be wait for next patch, and maybe wait for Fontaine after that. Or get Kazuha now if you think he will of use to you soon? No rush though.

Oh and three five stars in seven rolls on the standard banner is astonishingly lucky, odds are probably of one in many millions :cold-sweat:
Tighnari is also the best DPS on there, while Dehya is widely seen as the worst... but that's not the case anymore with an extra copy since her damage then scales with her HP, which makes her a far more competent support. :blobnerd:
 
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Line

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The stream for 3.8 is over on Twitch, will be on Youtube in an hour.
A summer adventure in a magic carnival, that's different.
Also the first little preview of Fontaine!

And here are the codes, they expire fast so add them
 
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Ascheroth

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I have some beginner questions;
Wow, that is some insane luck. Congrats!

Don't really have much to add to what Line already said. Tighnari, Dehya and Bennett should be a solid core for now.

Regarding banner characters, ultimately most of the game is really easy, so you can really just pull for characters you like for whatever reasons (design, story presence, gameplay, etc), though you still want basic synergies and not just randomly throw things together in the end.

Kazuha is definitely a solid pick and next update will also have Kokomi who is a really good healer/hydro enabler.
The "Divine Ingeniuity" Event is also still going for a few days and unlocks after you reach AR 20 and finish the Mondstadt main quest and it might be a nice way to try out characters you don't have. It's basically Mario Maker and it lets you use trial almost every character currently in the game. Though there will still be more opportunities to get a feel for who you might like.




Trailer:

Fontaine teaser :blobeyes:

Banners:



Klee costume (paid):


Kaeya costume (free during 3.8):


And we'll get a free Layla as well.


And most importantly, Shimmering Voyage Vol. 3



As usual, the summer update looks great. Hopefully the new area can match up to last year's Grand Apple Archipelago 2.0, it certainly looks fun though!

Fontaine looks nice. Not blown away by the environments quite yet like the initial Sumeru reveal (though they look good of course), but lots of detail look really interesting (robots? dog with a top hat? Hell yeah) and I'm extremely hyped for underwater content.
 
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Dandy

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I love Kaeya's outfit! Glad it's going to be free.

I think I will likely save my Primogems, even though Kokomi/Wanderer is tempting.
 

spindoctor

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Thank you Line for your extremely detailed and thoughtful reply. I really do appreciate it.

The beginner banner is different, you can only roll 20 times on it in Genshin, and you have Noelle (you always get her there), so you did them, there's no 5* character guaranteed on it unlike Star Rail.
Okay this makes sense. I really was wondering what happened to the starter banner. I tried looking at the history of the regular banner but even that only goes back 6 months so it was empty.

Now the character progression focus is a bit less obvious, because as you say, you should focus more one DPS character first, but it's not like you should neglect your other three party members too much, because synergy is a lot more important than it is in Star Rail, you really want characters that have elemental synergies with one another - the likeliest one for you this early will be "burning" with applying Pyro (fire) and then Dendro (plant) - or the opposite way around, doesn't matter - to inflict a DoT on ennemies.

From you chars:
  • The obvious choice is Tighnari as main, he's a strong Dendro DPS.
  • You have constellation (eidolon) 1 Dehya as Pyro support to apply burning in an AoE and do a bit of damage with her burst while also being defensive support (she will absorb some of the damage received by your other chars).
  • Bennett is a good healer that comes combined with the best ATK buff in the game (think Natasha+Tingyun all in one), he's outright broken (and with 2 Pyro characters in the team, you activate the Pyro "elemental resonance" which is a free +25%ATK for your team at all times - there are different resonances for different elemental combos).
  • Last slot is more flexible, you could use Noelle to give a shield to Tighnari, since he uses a bow and charged attacks, he can be staggered easily by ennemies sometimes and a shield avoids that.
You could use Beidou, an Electro offensive support for more damage, plus Pyro+Electro explodes and staggers/send enemies flying which is also useful for Tighnari to stay safe.
Kaeya is also a decent offensive support but requires characters in melee range which is not ideal for Tighnari, and he is also Cryo (ice) and there's no synergy between him and Dendro chars like Tighnari.
Ideally you'd want to complete the team with a Hydro (water) character for the triple reaction of Hydro+Dendro=dendro cores+Pyro=Burgeon (it creates effectively floating mines that explode with fire), but that's just hypothetical and you'll do just fine with two characters for now, you have three that have obvious synergy both offensive, defensive and healing all together, so you can do what you want really, it's not like Genshin is very difficult early. Just focus on a main first like Tighnari, then some on your other party members, but it's not you'll get stuck.
Thank you for this detailed breakdown. Looks like I'll have to look up elemental synergies to understand the combat properly. For now I'll take your advice and focus on Tighnari, Dehya and Bennett to start off with. I did have a couple of questions;

1. Is the main character (the traveler) not very powerful? In Star Rail the trailblazer is a very good, multi-role 5 star character. I assumed these games make the main character very useful, at least for beginners.
2. How does combat flow in this game? Do you basically hotswap between characters during a fight? So perhaps you start with one character and use their abilities and then switch to another while the first character is in cooldown and continue like that, buffing and healing along the way?

Now for content, you can kinda do what you want, but even more than Star Rail the game pushes you to do events when available for primogems, they will not stick around unlike HSR.
But you're in a big hurry to complete everything anyway, take your time and enjoy the game, you'll unlock more things along the way like housing, fishing, and the card game, you can ask more questions when you reach that point.
My feelings on this currently is that I'll just play the game casually for now. I know there are like 3 continents full of story and content to get through so there's no rush at all. Maybe if I play enough to catch up I'll consider paying for the monthly $5 pass. I'll see what events I can do in the mean time and not worry if I miss out on anything (since I've already missed out on so much). It's the opposite of Star Rail for me right now where I'm keeping up with everything that's happening in that game.

As far as rolling goes... it's all about getting who you really like, but of course early on, easier said than done.
Right now there's Alhaitham, top-of-the-line Dendro DPS... but you already have Tighnari, so if you don't like him, his role is already filled.
The other banner is Kazuha, an amazing Anemo (wind) support, he is also exceedingly strong, but be warned that he will require materials that you cannot get for quite some time, you'll need to have reached Inazuma (the third region). Certainly not a waste in the long run, but he will be locked to lvl40 for a while, depending on how fast you progress.
One way or another, do their trials (in the main activity menu with other events) to check them out and get some basic materials for them.
My advice would be wait for next patch, and maybe wait for Fontaine after that. Or get Kazuha now if you think he will of use to you soon? No rush though.
Yea I think I'll just hold on to the primogems I have now and accumulate more as I play through the game. I assume the game is similar to Star Rail where every notable NPC becomes a playable option so I'll just see which characters I like and consider trying to get them when their banners re-appear or whatever. And I'll keep an eye on this thread in case some important character banner appears and you guys can let me know whether to try for them. Since yesterday for example, Twitter has lit up about some (frost?) character that is coming back after 15 months and it's a big deal.

Oh and three five stars in seven rolls on the standard banner is astonishingly lucky, odds are probably of one in many millions :cold-sweat:
Tighnari is also the best DPS on there, while Dehya is widely seen as the worst... but that's not the case anymore with an extra copy since her damage then scales with her HP, which makes her a far more competent support. :blobnerd:
Yea this really was super lucky. Getting a 5-star every other pull was so surprising. Mathematical odds must be stupendously low.

I would love to have this kind of luck in Star Rail which is a game I am a lot more invested in right now of course. I hope these games don't share a loot goblin and that this kind of nutty luck here doesn't ruin my chances there :p

Thanks for sharing your thoughts as well Ascheroth
 

Line

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Thank you Line for your extremely detailed and thoughtful reply. I really do appreciate it.

Okay this makes sense. I really was wondering what happened to the starter banner. I tried looking at the history of the regular banner but even that only goes back 6 months so it was empty.

Thank you for this detailed breakdown. Looks like I'll have to look up elemental synergies to understand the combat properly. For now I'll take your advice and focus on Tighnari, Dehya and Bennett to start off with. I did have a couple of questions;

1. Is the main character (the traveler) not very powerful? In Star Rail the trailblazer is a very good, multi-role 5 star character. I assumed these games make the main character very useful, at least for beginners.
2. How does combat flow in this game? Do you basically hotswap between characters during a fight? So perhaps you start with one character and use their abilities and then switch to another while the first character is in cooldown and continue like that, buffing and healing along the way?
:blobcheer:
To answer those questions, the Traveler (main char) is pretty bad in Genshin, early, anyway.
You can change elements at the Statues of the Seven, the big round teleports on the map. Each region has a different element. You start with Anemo(wind) which is plain bad, in Li Yue there's Geo(earth) which is not much better... but might be needed to solve puzzles requiring the element (it can summon a big rock that activates switches), Inazuma brings Electro(duh) which is arguably even worse...
The only one worth something is Dendro(plant) in Sumeru, that one has its uses, and it's more of a support, so it can work.
We don't know if Hydro(water) in Fontaine will be good, we'll see.

The combat flow will usually be something like this: use the skills (generates energy like in HSR)/bursts (spends energy like in HSR) that are supportive in nature (like Bennett's burst creating a +ATK/Healing zone, then Dehya's skill which puts down a Pyro field to do damage and interact with further elemental attacks from other chars, or Noelle's shield to protect your team), swap to your main DPS and use their skill/burst/normal attacks depending on how they work to do maximum damage with reactions - like said pyro field, or summoned minions attacking at the same time, etc.
Once that all the effects are done, you can repeat the rotation if the cooldowns are available, and that's where gear will matter because not everyone generates enough energy to get their burst back every time. Here you will have to learn and adapt over time really, because it's different for every team.

Just consider than in general, not everyone has a reason to use their normal attacks: in Dehya's case, you want to use her skill before anything else happens, but her normal attacks are pretty worthless, while her burst does damage over a period, so you'll want to keep it for when you have downtime with Tighnari, whereas Bennett will want to use his burst as often as possible while also using his skill right after it to generate as much energy as possible, but his normal attacks are also barely worth using (... usually, all of those meta elements are for later).



My feelings on this currently is that I'll just play the game casually for now. I know there are like 3 continents full of story and content to get through so there's no rush at all. Maybe if I play enough to catch up I'll consider paying for the monthly $5 pass. I'll see what events I can do in the mean time and not worry if I miss out on anything (since I've already missed out on so much). It's the opposite of Star Rail for me right now where I'm keeping up with everything that's happening in that game.



Yea I think I'll just hold on to the primogems I have now and accumulate more as I play through the game. I assume the game is similar to Star Rail where every notable NPC becomes a playable option so I'll just see which characters I like and consider trying to get them when their banners re-appear or whatever. And I'll keep an eye on this thread in case some important character banner appears and you guys can let me know whether to try for them. Since yesterday for example, Twitter has lit up about some (frost?) character that is coming back after 15 months and it's a big deal.



Yea this really was super lucky. Getting a 5-star every other pull was so surprising. Mathematical odds must be stupendously low.



I would love to have this kind of luck in Star Rail which is a game I am a lot more invested in right now of course. I hope these games don't share a loot goblin and that this kind of nutty luck here doesn't ruin my chances there :p

Thanks for sharing your thoughts as well Ascheroth
Those games are always better played casually really.
And yeah, as Ascheroth linked the new banners for the upcoming patch were just shown, starting with Eula, she's nominally Cryo but actually Physical (which is not an element in itself in Genshin, but still a damage type) and she's been unavailable for ever.
That's where your taste will come in play, she's the best Physical DPS. She's also one of only two and the only 5*, and Physical damage is generally quite bad, I like her but she's not exactly a must have :cold-sweat:
Then it's Klee, a decent Pyro DPS but pretty clunky to play.

Since Genshin now has double banners they change every three weeks, so after that it's Kokomi's turn, a Hydro healer/support, she's a powerhouse for many teams and even anyone else in general for progression. You do have Bennett though... she's not a waste that's for sure, but you will get Barbara for free soon, and she fits the same archetype, but nowhere close to be as effective.
Then it's Wanderer, a pretty good Anemo DPS that is also super useful for exploration (he can fly over short distances).

Anyway, you'll try them and see how they work out for you. As far as Fontaine is concerned, we don't know much at all, only that the Archon (the ruler ofthe country) will probably be yet again a top tier character.
Archons are usually what you want, and they should be back relatively soon, Zhongli the Geo shielder (he makes all the story content faceroll), Venti the Anemo support, and Raiden Shogun the DPS/Electro Support/Energy regenerator (yeah she's a bit strong and versatile), they tend to be the characters you want to target as a new player.
 

spindoctor

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Okay so it took much longer than I thought it would to catch up with the part of the story I had completed at launch. I had actually done more back then than I remembered. Anyway I did some quests and ran around the world a bit to get a feel of the combat and all. Progress seems slower than I would expect but that's fine.

However, I have run into an issue now;



I cannot ascend this guy in the region I am currently playing in. What should I do now? I'm currently using Lisa to play the game but yeah, she does nowhere near the kind of damage that Tighnari seems to with the elemental combos and all. Also having at least one ranged/bow user seems very useful.

Also is it worth it to use a guide to collect those thingies which you offer to statues to increase your stamina bar? I think it would be but I had a look at a map and there are so many of them littered around the whole world map.
 

Ascheroth

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I cannot ascend this guy in the region I am currently playing in. What should I do now? I'm currently using Lisa to play the game but yeah, she does nowhere near the kind of damage that Tighnari seems to with the elemental combos and all. Also having at least one ranged/bow user seems very useful.
You could do a side-trip into Sumeru to gather some. Tighnari makes that easier cause he will show them (and other regional specialities) on the minimap when he is in the party and there's nothing stopping you from going there whenever.

Also is it worth it to use a guide to collect those thingies which you offer to statues to increase your stamina bar? I think it would be but I had a look at a map and there are so many of them littered around the whole world map.
Some people do that and/or use the interactive map to check them off, but personally I think that kinda sucks away some of the fun from exploration. I just mark them on the map myself whenever one pops up and I can't immediately collect it. I get most of them that way and pick up the last few stragglers with the craftable items you eventually get access to via the reputation system.
 

Line

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Okay so it took much longer than I thought it would to catch up with the part of the story I had completed at launch. I had actually done more back then than I remembered. Anyway I did some quests and ran around the world a bit to get a feel of the combat and all. Progress seems slower than I would expect but that's fine.

However, I have run into an issue now;



I cannot ascend this guy in the region I am currently playing in. What should I do now? I'm currently using Lisa to play the game but yeah, she does nowhere near the kind of damage that Tighnari seems to with the elemental combos and all. Also having at least one ranged/bow user seems very useful.
You can go straight to Sumeru to get a few materials, it's true that standard characters don't have free mats like the limited ones with their trials.... that's an odd omission.
If you're in Li Yue, it's just a little trip to the West.

Also is it worth it to use a guide to collect those thingies which you offer to statues to increase your stamina bar? I think it would be but I had a look at a map and there are so many of them littered around the whole world map.
Just get what you can, and much later use the locators for oculi and chests if you want to get them all.
 

spindoctor

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Alright well I'm still in the first region so I'll use him for as long as it seems viable and after that I'll see about making a trip across the map. Thanks guys.
 

Line

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Alright well I'm still in the first region so I'll use him for as long as it seems viable and after that I'll see about making a trip across the map. Thanks guys.
Also, if you're using Lisa, it's not bad to have some Dendro support for her, so if you go to Sumeru, you could change your Traveler for the Dendro version.


In other news, it's July, so fates are on sale, I barely had enough to get the 10 of them... will probably be out of juice next month if there's no new interesting banner to me. Do I even want Wanderer? Eh.
Got C2 Yaoyao and C6 Gorou, that's not bad at all, I'd say it's even fantastic for my geo boys team, free +40% crit damage all the time, thanks Gorou :thumbsupblob:
 

Line

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Fontaine floodgates have openend

That's a lot of characters shown in one go!
Helps diffuse the leaks, I guess, it's smart. Also gives people a bit more info about what they can expect, not unlike the Teyvat chapter video. I like that a lot better than the way they reveal things in HSR and H3, which is late and prone to leaks.

I'm all in for Arlecchino, for the rest we'll see. Hope she'll be available before the end of the Chapter, zero doubt we'll see Signora come back at this point.
 

Ascheroth

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They absolutely know what they're doing, lol.
Interest in the game at its lowest at the end of the 1 year cycle? Just gotta drop next region teaser and a hype character/story trailer and everyone's back.

Loved the trailer. Really like the general vibes and aesthetics of the Fontaine characters and it's nice to just have something concrete to save for.
Based on design first impression I want Arlecchino, drill hair girl, gun girl and the Archon.



And we got our 4.0 drip marketing as well.



 

Dandy

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Based on another image on ResetEra, Freminet is Cryo. Shame, cause there are no Hydro claymore users, are there?
 

Ascheroth

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Based on another image on ResetEra, Freminet is Cryo. Shame, cause there are no Hydro claymore users, are there?
It's in this image as well :p


And no, there are no Hydro Claymores just like how there is no Cryo Catalyst right now (but Charlotte will seemingly be one so that position is gonna be filled soon-ish).
 

Dandy

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New code for 60 primos + 5 exp books:

NS92PG6DB52M

Redeem here:

 
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Line

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That new event is lovely, as usual for summer content. It's good to see those characters, but Kokomi is a bit :thinking-face:

And now the leak fountains are open, so much upcoming stuff. The Hydro Traveler might be the most bizarre toolkit yet. What a strange choice.
I love Lynette though, and Lyney is pretty too but charge attack bow character so probably not for me.
 

Dandy

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That new event is lovely, as usual for summer content. It's good to see those characters, but Kokomi is a bit :thinking-face:

And now the leak fountains are open, so much upcoming stuff. The Hydro Traveler might be the most bizarre toolkit yet. What a strange choice.
I love Lynette though, and Lyney is pretty too but charge attack bow character so probably not for me.
The animations for the twins are so good. My only issue with Lyney is that he uses a bow. He should have had a catalyst!
 

Ascheroth

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This event is definitely continuing the trend of the summer events being bangers.
Loving it.
Lovely story quest so far, fun setting and music. I unironically love the Choo-Choo Carts. Though doing the "test" tracks made me feel a but queasy, lol. My condolences to those who get motion sick easily.
 

Line

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Also I forgot to mention that, but spindoctor you should do the current event at some point (I mean you have 40 days so it's not an emergency), not only because it's good, but also because it can get you the materials you need for Tighnari.
There's both fungus to kill for their spores and nilotpala lotus in the water.

You'll see characters that you haven't met yet, but it doesn't spoil anything for the rest of the game, and you even get teleported there from Mondstadt so no run needed either.
It might give hints for Fontaine though, like the last year did tease a bit about the events of Sumeru (and since the events never come back for now...).
 

Amzin

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I'm taking advantage of the absence of new characters I want (well, I'd be happy to have Klee or Cyno or Koko or Itto but I don't need them for anything and Fontaine looms) to build up some of my unused / weaker characters. I finally got the 4th Pale Flame piece for Eula, I'm trying to get better pieces for Albedo but that new set might make me pause because he's way under built right now. Keqing for sure I'm trying to make a better build, I want to have Raiden in EM mode so need an on field electro sometimes.
 

spindoctor

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Also I forgot to mention that, but spindoctor you should do the current event at some point (I mean you have 40 days so it's not an emergency), not only because it's good, but also because it can get you the materials you need for Tighnari.
There's both fungus to kill for their spores and nilotpala lotus in the water.

You'll see characters that you haven't met yet, but it doesn't spoil anything for the rest of the game, and you even get teleported there from Mondstadt so no run needed either.
It might give hints for Fontaine though, like the last year did tease a bit about the events of Sumeru (and since the events never come back for now...).
I was meaning to post an update on the thread with how things were going but I got lazy :p . Been seeing a lot of excitement on Twitter for the new patch and new Fontaine info that was released in the last few days. Also tons of fanart of Furina already.

I finished the Mondstadt story a few days ago. I had this sort of vague idea in my head that I could maybe catch up with the current content in time so that I could experience Fontaine along with everyone else. This was when Fontaine was still releasing 'at some point in the future'. Now I understand that it is apparently expected in 6 weeks. It seems difficult and probably inadvisable to try and get through 3 years worth of content in 6 weeks just to be able to catch up. And this notion totally died when I came up against the same issue that bothered me in Star Rail which is that there are minimum adventure rank requirements to continue the story. I finished Mondstadt at AR19 and the requirement for the next quest to go to Liyue was AR23. I'm still not a fan of this kind of gating but the shock was less than it was when it happened in Star Rail. Although, I can sort understand it here a bit more because the content is supposed to last for much longer and there's always stuff you can go and do in the open world to move things along. It still took several days because the most effective way to increase rank is still the daily commissions and I was hoping to play this game a bit more casually (meaning no daily commitments). So progress will be slow and catching up is probably out of the question.

So I spent the last few days just pottering around the Mondstadt map. I did check a youtube video to see the location of all the anemoculus thingies and it actually took way less time to gather them up than I thought it would. More time was spent getting distracted by going for puzzles, quests and chests I had missed while I was wandering around the world looking for these things. I reached AR24 by doing this.

I'm currently doing some quests in that mountain area to the South-West of Mondstadt. Unfortunately some of the fights there are really hard and this is affirming that playing with Tighnari locked at level 20 is not really viable anymore. That's a shame because I have not found another combat combo effect as potent as dendro+fire yet. The other characters are at level 40 but have under leveled weapons because apparently you can only get weapon ascension materials on specific days (which is crazy in my opinion).

I had a look at the event once the update went live but I can't actually take part in it. It requires a few pre-requisite quests to be completed which I haven't done and I have no idea how far away from them I actually am. I know the event lasts for the whole patch duration so we'll see if I can complete the requirements in that time.
 

Ascheroth

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I had a look at the event once the update went live but I can't actually take part in it. It requires a few pre-requisite quests to be completed which I haven't done and I have no idea how far away from them I actually am. I know the event lasts for the whole patch duration so we'll see if I can complete the requirements in that time.
There's no way you're gonna meet the requirements regularly in time.
Click the "Quickstart" button. As Line said, there aren't gonna be any story spoilers, just a few characters you haven't met yet.
 

Line

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So I spent the last few days just pottering around the Mondstadt map. I did check a youtube video to see the location of all the anemoculus thingies and it actually took way less time to gather them up than I thought it would. More time was spent getting distracted by going for puzzles, quests and chests I had missed while I was wandering around the world looking for these things. I reached AR24 by doing this.
Yep, early Genshin expected you to do quite a bit of exploration/side quests to reach the new content. More so than dailies. You can also do Li Yue, it's canonically here to explore before the "story" that happens mostly far more to the south than the rest of the country.

I'm currently doing some quests in that mountain area to the South-West of Mondstadt. Unfortunately some of the fights there are really hard and this is affirming that playing with Tighnari locked at level 20 is not really viable anymore. That's a shame because I have not found another combat combo effect as potent as dendro+fire yet. The other characters are at level 40 but have under leveled weapons because apparently you can only get weapon ascension materials on specific days (which is crazy in my opinion).
Yeah... Dragonspine was added after the end of the Li Yue chapter, so it's actually a lot harder and much, much less approachable than the rest of Mondstadt. I'd come back later if I were you, or you can soldier on, you do have Pyro characters at least (newbies bumbling around with none but Amber at best will have a miserable time there).
The random limits for ascension materials... don't ask me why, that's just weird. At least Sunday has everything I guess...

I had a look at the event once the update went live but I can't actually take part in it. It requires a few pre-requisite quests to be completed which I haven't done and I have no idea how far away from them I actually am. I know the event lasts for the whole patch duration so we'll see if I can complete the requirements in that time.
Like Ascheroth says, you'll need to use the Quickstart option if you don't intend to spend your days on Genshin. The required quests include Chapter 3 Act 5, all the way to the end of Sumeru, and a bunch of other character quests that you can't even unlock for a long while.
But indeed, no particular spoilers and no need to run to Sumeru to do the event, so it's alright to just start it when you want.
 

spindoctor

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Yep so I'm the dummy who didn't see the big Quickstart button right there on the event page :notlikethisblob:. I'll check it out next time I have some time for the game.

I just played for a while right now and it felt like I was banging my head against the mountain. There's this one quest where you have to thaw out some frozen things. First part of that quest requires you to fight a giant robot before you freeze to death and it was really hard. The only way I managed to do it is by glitching the robot into the world geometry and slowly chipping away at it's health while going back to the teleport thingy to remove the freeze effect on me. The next part of this quest is even harder. You have to finish a fight inside a cave in 180 seconds with icicles falling from the roof and water below you and enemies freezing you and I just cannot do it no matter what I try. Any video you check for this part shows people who are level 50-60 barely completing it. Now I understand why. Properly fed up of this mountain and I'll probably take your advice and just head to Liyue harbor instead.

While I was doing this I hit AR25 and unlocked the reputation stuff so I went back to the city to do some of those things. And then I accidentally went and did the dungeon that increased my game to world tier 2. Accidentally meaning I didn't actually realize what I was doing. Just following the quest log and I figured it's another dungeon and when I finished it I realized I've made the game harder for myself. Now the mountain will be an even bigger pain in the ass.

How does co-op work in this game? I got a couple of requests to join when I was doing that icicle cavern thing and I thought maybe it'll be better with some help but the people who joined never actually came to where I was. As far as I can tell they were just off in another part of the world doing their own thing. I have no idea what sense that makes. Is there any way I can actually get people to help with that quest I'm stuck on?
 

Dandy

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I'm in Sumeru and only barely touched the ice mountain place in Monstadt! Just seemed like more busy-work with the added layer of annoyance from the freezing mechanic. I think there are some decent rewards for completing it, but there's so much other stuff to do!
 

Line

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The next part of this quest is even harder. You have to finish a fight inside a cave in 180 seconds with icicles falling from the roof and water below you and enemies freezing you and I just cannot do it no matter what I try. Any video you check for this part shows people who are level 50-60 barely completing it. Now I understand why. Properly fed up of this mountain and I'll probably take your advice and just head to Liyue harbor instead.

While I was doing this I hit AR25 and unlocked the reputation stuff so I went back to the city to do some of those things. And then I accidentally went and did the dungeon that increased my game to world tier 2. Accidentally meaning I didn't actually realize what I was doing. Just following the quest log and I figured it's another dungeon and when I finished it I realized I've made the game harder for myself. Now the mountain will be an even bigger pain in the ass.

How does co-op work in this game? I got a couple of requests to join when I was doing that icicle cavern thing and I thought maybe it'll be better with some help but the people who joined never actually came to where I was. As far as I can tell they were just off in another part of the world doing their own thing. I have no idea what sense that makes. Is there any way I can actually get people to help with that quest I'm stuck on?
So for coop, you can join people at the same world level or lower than yours. Why people joining you did their own stuff on the side... I assume they were actually stealing materials they needed :cold-sweat:
Ideally you want to chat to know a bit more about them, you could put a message in your profile and ask for help or something?
But note that you cannot complete quests in coop. BUT that specific challenge in Dragonspine is not technically part of the quest. So we could just join you if you want to post your ID here :blobnerd: