Enjoying Genshin Impact as a F2Per

I’m a sucker for vast fantasy stories told amongst a cast of intricate characters. It’s one of the reasons I’ve gotten more into visual novels as of late. Oftentimes with such titles, the storytelling and character development are at the forefront of the gameplay. If my 3500 hours on Final Fantasy XIV Online are anything to go by, I may have a slight problem when it comes to getting lost in massive worlds.

Enter Genshin Impact, a game I’ve heard come up a lot in the gaming sphere over the past couple of years, but one I never thought much about besides that. The game has seen a rise in player count over the past month, and spending weeks going on X (formally known as Twitter) and seeing fanart of the new playable character that looked suspiciously like my character from a Dungeons & Dragons game I’m in was enough to make me try the game for myself and add myself to that number.

In short, my time with Genshin Impact has been enjoyable; diving into the lore of Teyvat and learning more about its characters has been a pleasant experience. The combat is also a strong suit, as you combine various elements together until you have an alchemical concoction powerful enough to kill God.

That being said, the game obviously has its caveats; the most obvious being that Genshin Impact is a gacha game, meaning that the character & party-building side of gameplay is entirely up to chance. Unlocking any character is up to chance. Getting high-level weapons is up to chance. Item sub-stats and upgrading characters are up to chance. This “chance” can be mitigated by spending money on in-game currency in order to get more pulls on in-game banners, and with how incentivised this is to fully experience the game, this can be something to put many people off. I thought I would be one of these people but through my time with the game, I’ve found a system and way of thinking that has helped me enjoy myself much more. This is by no means a foolproof system, but if you’re looking at getting into Genshin — or maybe already have — and are worried about the monetisation of the game, I’ve compiled my thoughts on how to still have a fulfilling experience without draining your bank account or getting slapped in the face with FOMO. 

The first and most important step for me personally is to not look up guides for using a character. At most, look up what sub-stats you want on artifacts for them, but don’t look up team compositions, best-in-slot weapons, or guides on different ways to build them. Almost any resource on how to use a character will suggest other characters that they synergise with, but given that the chance of getting any character when you make a wish is 5.1%, trying to aim for a specific character out of the 75 available in the game is an exercise in insanity. This goes hand-in-hand with another rule I’ve been employing: to play the characters I like out of what I have rather than trying to min-max. 

I ended up making this mistake when I managed to luck out pulling the current (and most recent as of writing) five-star event character, Furina, and in looking up how to best use her, found that she basically needs a full-party healer in order to be viable; giving examples of characters I don’t easily have access to without trying my luck at The Gacha Wheel, and even the characters I did have required them to be a higher Constellation level, which again would require trying my luck once again. I had been excited to get Furina, given that seeing her all over my X feed was what convinced me to try the game out in the first place, but I hadn’t banked my experience on that and, thankfully, was able to find a way to use her that worked with my limited selection of characters. 

That being said, give yourself a goal for the future of someone you want. After getting Furina, I found myself sitting on all my Primogems and not knowing what to do with them; do I save them, or do I sink them into Furina’s banner to try and get an upgrade for her before she rotates out? When considering how to go about this, I thought back to a challenge event that was running when I started the game that allowed me to trial some characters at a higher level, including characters I did not have unlocked. Through this, I found myself liking the playstyle of Yae Miko. Yae was run quite recently in an Event banner, which means she won’t reappear for quite some time. In this, however, lies opportunity. If I were to stockpile my Primogems from in-game now, there’s a very decent chance I’ll have enough to guarantee getting her the next time her banner is run. Rather than driving myself mad trying to get a character on the next event banner I may not even like or want, aiming for something I know I’ll enjoy and can near-guarantee I will receive thanks to the Pity system gives me something to look forward to and makes sure I don’t feel I’m missing out by saving my Primogems instead of spending them.

The moment you start trying to theory craft the best build possible right away, you’re most likely going to come away disappointed at the fact that you won’t be able to achieve it in any timely fashion. Whether due to not having the right characters, missing a crucial weapon, or needing someone at a higher Constellation level before they unlock a critical ability. Play with what you have, set an aspirational goal, but don’t revolve your playstyle around it. Do not try to min-max and do what you find most enjoyable with the tools you have.

My parting advice is one that sounds obvious on paper but rings more true for Genshin than almost any other game I can think of; go exploring. Go off and smell the flowers, seriously. Pick a direction and hold the W key for 10 minutes just to see where you end up. I’m still in the early stages of the main quest, but have explored most of the map by just wandering around. What started as a personal quest to get to Fontaine (the game's most recently added area) so I could ascend Furina became a hike that took several IRL days as I found myself discovering various nooks and crannies and getting distracted at almost every turn. Not only is exploration beautiful in this game, but it’s very rewarding. 

I came across a wide range of sidequests and puzzles on my way to Fontaine, and whether I was taking an hour to scale three separate mountains in Liyue or accidentally falling into a pit in Sumeru and spending the entire afternoon exploring an abandoned temple, the sheer scale of this game warrants for exploration. This exploration is honestly where most of my enjoyment has come from, which is impressive given that this drive to explore came from the need to gather upgrade materials, which would usually be a chore in other games. Just last night, I noticed a spot in Mondstadt that I hadn’t actually uncovered and discovered a brand new area complete with its own slew of puzzles, quests, and even location-specific mechanics that I had to contend with as I explored. When I think of Dragon Age: Inquisition, I don’t fondly recall the times I spent entire evenings scouting for a specific metal or cloth, but in Genshin Impact exploration is so expertly woven into the gameplay it’s rewarding on both a mechanical and an aesthetic standpoint.

From my short time with it, Genshin Impact is an incredible game, so long as you have the self-control and the caution to not get sucked into its game of chance. Focus on what you have, rather than what could be, play for your own enjoyment, and accidentally discover an ancient, abandoned temple over a cross-country jog for a water flower.