Guide: Understanding the Character and Attribute Screens in Genshin Impact

You've read our entire Beginner's Guide and you already have some characters on your account. Now… what do you do with them? Are they weak and can't even beat a slime? Do you have any idea how all those numbers work?

So, your problem is over! Let's open the Characters screens together, explain them one by one, and answer the biggest questions about the game's characters. For this, my companion in Teyvat and the first character we got for our group, Amber, will help me!

Let's go to the screens!

This is the main character screen. Here you will see their numerical part, such as, for example, their attack, defense, health and other information about them. You see the character's level and can also upgrade them on this screen. In “Detailed Information”, you will have all the numbers in detail, such as damage and critical rate, resistance and elemental damage and other more specific information.

To evolve a character, you will need the XP books, the Wanderer's Advice, Adventurer's Experience and Hero's Wit. They can be obtained from Paimon's bargain shop, Expedition and Adventure Rewards, Blossoms of Revelation, Spiral Abyss Treasures, and Chests, among other sources!

In addition to these, when reaching levels multiples of 10 (the current maximum level is 90), you will need specific character ascension items! These items may vary depending on the Nation (a character who was born and lives in the Sumeru region will use materials from the Sumeru region) and the character's element. Next to the name, there is a button that shows the amount and types of materials you need to level up a character.

You can find these items in specific dungeons (these dungeons can be done in Solo or Co-op mode) where the prizes vary depending on the day of the week, they will drop from regional bosses and can also be dropped by enemies in the world. In addition to money, called Mora in the game, which is also necessary for the upgrade! When you reach the maximum level, the level button disappears and only the “Appearance” button remains.

Below, there is also the “Appearance” button to customize the character. Here you will equip different skins and gliders! Skins are given out at events and can be purchased. Gliders are earned throughout the adventure and can also be given as rewards in events. The “Appearance” button also appears in the form of a small hanger next to the leveling button.

Also, the friendship bar! The more you use the character in your adventure, the more friendship XP you earn! By earning friendship XP, you unlock more information about the character, such as lines and story. At level 10, you get a special character card to decorate your profile.

On this screen, you will equip your character with their weapon. This screen will only show the type of weapon the character is capable of equipping (i.e. you won’t see your swords on an archer's weapon screen). It shows the name of the weapon, its rarity (1 to 5 stars) and its characteristics, such as Primary Attribute, Secondary Attribute, Special Ability and Level. You can also read about the weapon's history on this screen.

In the case of the Hunter's Bow, a 1-star weapon, it doesn’t have any special characteristics or attributes. When you pick up the character for the first time, they will be equipped with this 1-star weapon.

You have the “Replace” buttons, which will open your weapon inventory so you can choose which weapon you want to equip, and the “Improve” button to strengthen the character's weapon. To strengthen it, you can use weapon EXP materials, called Enhancement Ore, Fine Enhancement Ore and Mystic Enhancement Ore. These items can be forged at a blacksmith or obtained out in the world through exploration and dropped from enemies.

You can also sacrifice other weapons as “food” to strengthen your desired weapon. The game allows you to automatically include up to 3-star weapons, but you can manually select 4- or even 5-star weapons to sacrifice if (for some reason) you want to do so. In addition to leveling up, you can also Refine your weapon. To do this, you must sacrifice weapons equal to the one you are refining. This will strengthen the weapon, increasing its basic and secondary attributes, as well as improving its special ability.

Weapons can be leveled up to level 80 and refined up to level 5.

Every ten levels, you will be required to use Weapon Ascension materials. Just like characters, these materials vary depending on the type of weapon and the Nation it comes from (a weapon forged in Liyue will use items that you can only get in the Liyue region). You find these items in specific dungeons (these dungeons can be done in Solo or Co-op mode) which vary the drops depending on the day of the week, will drop from regional bosses and can also be dropped by enemies in the world. In addition to money, which is also needed for the upgrade!

There are 3, 4 and 5 Star artifacts, with 3 being the weakest and 5 being the rarest and most powerful. Each type can be leveled up to 12, 16 and 20, respectively, and to make this upgrade you will have to sacrifice other sets of artifacts. The game allows you to automatically sacrifice artifacts up to 4 stars. There are also the items Sanctifying Essence and Sanctifying Unction, which strengthen the artifact by occupying just one strengthening slot.

The artifact sets are made up of five pieces, being the flower, the plume, the goblet, the sands and the circlet.

The main attributes of artifacts include:

- HP,

- % of HP,

- ATK,

- % ATK,

- % DEF,

- Elemental Proficiency (an attribute that determines how powerful the Elemental Reactions created by your character will be),

- % Energy Recharge (determines how often your character can use Elemental Bursts),

- % Elemental Damage for each of the 6 Elements,

- % Physical Damage,

- % Critical Rate,

- % Critical Damage,

- % Healing Bonus,

You will find artifacts in chests, investigations, defeating bosses, defeating enemies and in dungeons (these dungeons can be done in Solo or Co-op mode), but 5-Star artifacts will only start appearing for you in the most difficult dungeons and starting from Adventure Level 45.

As stated, they also have a main attribute and 4 secondary ones, in addition to a special effect. Flower will always have the main attribute HP and the plume will always have the main attribute Attack. Other parts may vary. To find out which artifact set is best suited for which character, you should consult our Character Builds guides, which are and will continue to be published regularly here on the website.

The "Equip Now" button will automatically place the recommended artifacts on the character based on the players' usage statistics. This screen also shows which attributes most players use on an artifact, and which set is recommended through the filters.

Character constellations are special talents that you unlock when you get a Stella Fortuna. These special talents greatly improve the character and can really make the difference between a character being considered good or unusable by the community!

There are 6 levels of the character's Constellation and you can only raise them in the Gacha, through a Wish (we talk all about them here), a copy of the character you want to upgrade!

In other words, in the case of Amber in the image, it was necessary to obtain 3 Ambers to release her Second Constellation called “Bunny Triggered”. It’d be necessary to have 4 more Ambers to activate her sixth and strongest Constellation. The community refers to this as C + the number of constellations the character has. In this case, this is a C2 Amber.

“But it takes around 90 wishes to get a 5-Star character, which are the strongest, and there is a 50% chance that I won't get what I want and only in the next 90 wishes will I be guaranteed the same character. I mean, will it take a maximum of 1260 wishes to have the character and their 6 constellations?”

Exactly!

So, either you'll save a lot of primogems and wishes or you'll put your hand in your pocket if you want to have a 5-Star character in C6. 4-Star characters in C6 are easier to get, however, it’s completely random, and it can take you a while to get C6 for one of them, and you’ll have several other characters that you don't usually use in C6.

The only exceptions are:

- Traveler, who earns their constellations for free depending on the Nation and the game's story;

- And Aloy, who has no constellations (why? I have no idea!).

Talents are the characters' main abilities. In general, characters have 6 talents, with the first three ones being active and three being passive. The active talents are, respectively, Normal Attack, or Autoattack, Elemental Skill and Elemental Burst. These talents can be raised up to level 10. Constellations allow some talents to be raised above 10.

The three passives can vary depending on the character, being things like making it easier to find resources on the map, helping with exploration, increasing the items obtained in alchemy, improving cooking or lowering item prices. Passive talents cannot be elevated.

Some characters are exceptions or have some peculiarity in their talents, for example, Ayaka and Mona have an additional passive talent, the ability to run in elemental form. Hu Tao makes any food she cooks become “weird food” and Raiden Shogun cannot cook.

Raising these talents requires materials that (you guessed it!) vary depending on the character, element and Nation the character comes from! You will find talent leveling materials in chests, investigations, defeating bosses, defeating enemies and in special dungeons (these dungeons can be done in Solo or Co-op mode).

However, a special item is necessary to raise talents to level 10 and beyond (when allowed), which is the Crown of Insight. This rare material can only be obtained in special events or special conditions in the world. One can be purchased from Paimon's shop for 50 Masterless Starglitter every 30 days. So, make sure you choose carefully which character you’ll spend these crowns on, as you may need them later for another one.

This screen tells the Character's complete story. As you gain friendship XP with the character, for using him on your team and taking him with you on your adventures, you’ll unlock more information about them. It’s divided into two buttons:

Story

There are 5 excerpts that explain that character's entire life story up until the moment you met, an excerpt that talks about some particularity of the character and one that talks about how that character gained his Vision. These excerpts are released as your friendship level with the character increases. Several exciting stories about each of the characters you have are found here.

Voice

Here you can hear some of the character's lines and lots of extra information about them, such as what they like to eat most, what they think about a specific situation or about another character. Lots of fun and some sad information lies here. You’ll also be able to hear each of the lines that the character says during the game, such as when they launch an attack, find a chest, it starts to rain, among others.

It’s essential that you, as a beginner, pay attention to this!

When you get a character, to level it up you’ll need materials that can only be found in that character's original region! I said this several times during the article, but it's good to reinforce it here. And for what reason?

As a beginner, you will hardly have access to the character's Nation at the beginning of the game!

So, if you start now, during version 5.1 of the game, when this article is being written, the Limited Banner characters will be from the Natlan region, the sixth nation featured in the game! Which means it will take you a while (at least 4 hours if you rush through the Archon mission and ignore most of the secondary ones) to get to Natlan and start collecting materials for your character.

On the other hand, Genshin Impact is an open world game, so you can simply walk from Mondstadt to Natlan and start collecting items, ignoring all the story and quests. However, you will still need to play many quests and spend a few hours to unlock dungeons and bosses which drop the items necessary to increase talent and level.

Also, you can only get to Inazuma if you do the Story Mode missions, so you'll have to play them anyway. So, when you're starting out, think carefully before making wishes, as you could end up with a “dead weight” character on your account, without being able to level them for a long time.

There is still a lot of relevant information that we can share with you about the world, enemies, the map and much more! Always stay tuned here on the site, and we'll tell you everything about this incredible game!