Genshin Impact Beginner's Guide: The First Week Without Wasting Primogems

TL;DR

Three decisions decide your first month. One: Primogems go into limited character banners and nothing else — not the standard banner, not weapons, not Resin refills. Two: do not farm a single artifact domain until Adventure Rank 45; before then your Resin belongs to talent books, weapon materials and ascension gems. Three: level four characters, not eight, because Mora is the real bottleneck and it is tighter than you think.

What the game doesn’t tell you

Genshin hands you an enormous world and no sense of urgency, which is exactly what makes it dangerous for a new account. Three systems are quietly running whether you pay attention or not.

Adventure Rank is the gate on everything. It raises your World Level (enemies get harder and drops get better), unlocks Domain difficulty tiers, raises your character level caps and controls when the Serenitea Pot appears. You earn it mostly from daily commissions and quests. Here is the part that matters: daily commissions are worth 60 Primogems a day once four are available at AR12, plus the completion bonus. That is roughly 1,800 Primogems a month — about eleven wishes — for ten minutes a day. A player who skips commissions for their first two weeks has thrown away a 5-star’s worth of progress without noticing.

Original Resin is your real playtime limit. It caps at 200 and regenerates 1 per 8 minutes, so you get about 180 per day if you clear it regularly. You cannot bank it beyond the cap. This is why “log in, spend Resin, log off” beats a six-hour Saturday session: the Resin is the content.

Artifacts are an endgame activity and the game will happily let you waste a month on them. Domains of Blessing drop artifacts, and at the highest difficulty — available from Adventure Rank 45 — a 20-Resin run guarantees at least one five-star piece. Below AR45 you pay the same Resin for four-star pieces you will delete. The community rule is non-negotiable: no artifact domains before AR45. Everything you need before then, you will find in the open world and in chests for free.

One more thing the tutorial glosses over: the 50/50. Your first five-star from a limited character banner is a coin flip between the featured character and a random standard-pool five-star. Lose it, and your next five-star is guaranteed to be the featured one. HoYoverse has also added the Capturing Radiance mechanic, which officially improves your odds of getting the featured character after consecutive 50/50 losses — the exact numbers have never been published, so treat it as a cushion, not a plan. Plan for 180 wishes worst case.

The steps, explained

Why the Prologue comes first

The Prologue Archon Quest is the key that turns on the rest of the game: the Adventure Handbook, daily commissions, the teleport network, the Statue system, and Barbara by mail at the end of Act 3. Until commissions are running, your account is not earning Primogems. Push the story.

Why you empty the Beginner’s Wish immediately

Beginner’s Wish is 20 wishes at a discount, with a guaranteed five-star somewhere inside and a guaranteed Noelle on the first ten-pull. It cannot be saved for a better moment and it does not interact with the limited banner’s pity. Clear it on day one and then close the wish screen for a long time.

Why exploration beats combat in week one

Teleport waypoints, Statues of the Seven, Shrines of Depths and chests are free Primogems, free stamina and free Mora, and they cost zero Resin. Unlocking the map early also makes every farming route for the next year shorter. Spend your first few sessions running, gliding and opening things — it is the highest-value activity available to a new account and it is uncapped.

Why four characters

Mora is the bottleneck in Genshin, not EXP books and not materials. Levelling a character to the cap, levelling their weapon, and levelling talents all drain Mora, and a free account’s Mora income in week one is modest. Four characters: a main DPS, a sub-DPS who deals damage from off-field (Xingqiu or Fischl are ideal), a buffer or healer (Bennett, Barbara), and a shielder or crowd-control unit (Noelle, Anemo Traveler). That team clears everything the early game asks for.

Why Resin goes to talents, not artifacts

Talent levels and weapon ascensions are flat, permanent damage increases. Artifacts below AR45 are a lottery ticket you overpaid for. Order your Resin spending like this while you climb: character ascension materials from world bosses, then weapon ascension materials, then talent books on your main DPS only. Everything else can wait.

Why Floor 3 of the Abyss matters

Spiral Abyss Floor 3 Chamber 3 gives you Xiangling, who is one of the strongest damage dealers in the game regardless of rarity and who stays relevant for years. The Abyss unlocks at AR20 and Floor 3 is clearable with a basic team. Do it the day it opens.

Why AR35 is a milestone

The Serenitea Pot unlocks at Adventure Rank 35. It generates Mora and materials passively, has a Realm Currency shop, and solves the exact bottleneck that is limiting you. Treat AR35 as the moment the early game ends.

What not to spend

Primogems on Wanderlust Invocation. The standard banner is permanent, its characters are all obtainable later, and you earn Acquaint Fates for free from Adventure Rank rewards, the Battle Pass free track and events. Spending Primogems there converts a limited resource into a free one.

Primogems on weapon banners. A well-refined four-star weapon covers most of the gap to a signature five-star. Characters are the thing you cannot substitute.

Primogems on Resin refills. The first refill of the day is cheap and each one after costs more. 160 Primogems is one wish. Your Resin shortage resolves itself tomorrow; a missed character does not come back for a year.

Fragile Resin before AR45. Fragile Resin from the Battle Pass and events is a bank of artifact runs. Spent at AR40 it buys you four-star artifacts; held until AR45 it buys you five-stars at the same price.

Talents past level 6 on anyone but your main DPS. Levels 7 to 10 need Crowns and weekly boss drops that are hard-capped by the weekly reset. Your main DPS gets them. Nobody else, not yet.

Mora on levelling characters “to try them out.” Try characters at their base level in the open world. Commit Mora only after you know the character has a slot in your four.

Enhancement Ore on four-star weapons you will replace. Early on you will be handed better weapons constantly from chests and quests. Level one weapon per built character and no spares.

Starter tier list

Four-star rankings move with every release, rerun and new artifact set. The list in the frontmatter is a week-one snapshot, built on one question: what should a free account put its Mora into right now?

S — Xiangling and Bennett. Xiangling is free from the Spiral Abyss and is a top-tier damage dealer outright. Bennett is a healer who is also one of the largest attack buffs in the game. If your account has these two built, you have a core most new players take a month to reach.

A — Xingqiu, Fischl, Barbara, Noelle, Kaeya. Off-field damage and sustain, which is exactly what a beginner team is missing. Xingqiu and Fischl in particular punch far above their rarity and will stay in your teams long-term.

B — Lisa, Yanfei, Collei, Anemo Traveler. Fill a hole, nothing more. Anemo Traveler’s crowd control is genuinely useful early and gets replaced once you own a real Anemo support.

C — Amber, Geo Traveler. Amber is a utility tool: bow shots for puzzles, torches for braziers. Keep her, do not invest.

Your first week, day by day

Day 1. Prologue Archon Quest until daily commissions unlock. Clear the Beginner’s Wish. Start unlocking teleport waypoints around Mondstadt.

Day 2. Commissions first, then Archon Quest toward AR20. Collect Anemoculus for Statue levels and stamina. Spend Resin on your main DPS’s ascension boss.

Day 3. Spiral Abyss opens at AR20 — clear Floors 1 to 3 and take Xiangling. Build her. Keep commissions going.

Day 4. Liyue. New map, new waypoints, new Statues, a large Primogem payout from exploration alone. Keep Resin flowing into talent books for your main DPS.

Day 5. Weapon ascension day: pick one weapon per built character and finish it. Clear a weekly boss if you have unlocked one.

Day 6. Reputation board in Mondstadt and Liyue — weekly bounties and requests are repeatable Mora and Primogems that most new players never open.

Day 7. Audit: AR 25 to 30, four characters at the cap for your Adventure Rank, main DPS talents at 6, commissions done every day, Primogems untouched, artifact domains never entered. That last one is the test most accounts fail.