Genshin Impact Beginner’s Guide: Everything you need to know to get started

Make a Wish upon a star

If you want to acquire different characters and more powerful weapons, you’ll eventually want to dive into the Wish system, which is this game’s summon mechanic. Thanks to the massive amount of pre-registered players, miHoYo awards everyone with some free summoning material upon reaching various Adventure Ranks. You’ll most certainly have enough to do two to three pulls by the time you reach Adventure Rank 10.

When you do decide to summon, I would highly suggest summoning from the Beginner’s Wish banner. Not only is it discounted by 20%, but it also guarantees you the 4-star character Noelle on your first 10 pulls. That means you’re only using 16 Acquaint Fates (summoning material) instead of 20, giving you an extra 4 you can then save until you have enough for another 10, or simply use up as you want.

One key caveat to the Beginner’s Wish banner is that it only allows you to pull 20 summons, once those are up, the banner disappears forever.

Furthermore, miHoYo is doing players a solid by offering some character completely free, assuming you’re reading this guide around the game’s launch.

Those who can reach Adventure Rank 20 before the game’s first patch 1.1 will get Hydro hero Barbara for free. While we don’t know when 1.1 is scheduled for, it’s safe to assume players probably have a couple of weeks to do this.

Furthermore, after reaching AR20 and unlocking Abyss dungeons, players who can clear Floor 3, Chamber 3 of the Abyss Dungeon will unlock the Pyro hero Xiangling for free.