Yeah I was thoroughly thrown off by it as a chronic dodger especially 😂

Same! I guess it's another reason it's so common for people to become super reliant on having a good shielder 🤔

YES characters that can use a good physical build are actually perfect for early game or ones that can do great elemental dmg/reactions with skill - not burst-reliant reaction teams that require a ton of ER for every character because before AR 40, you won't have many 4* artifacts, let alone ones with enough ER However, the issue too is that a lot of the bosses you fight for ascension require different elements than you might've built - so sometimes you have to build a couple characters you don't want to simply because you need to farm for the ones you want to build! Plus, when I started a 2nd account, I realized how much easier it is to approach enemies because I'm already familiar with the feel of fighting them, but on my main account, I remember being freaked out with ruin guards and I avoided a lot of elite enemies whereas now on my new acct I go looking for them to get the artifact drops lol

@@trashbuilds8351 Yeah exactly! I still prefer skill-only teams for the overworld for much the same reasons, even though the burst-focused characters are often more fun IF the enemies don't die too quickly to actually use them. And yeah that's a great point too - I kinda miss the days when ruin guards were terrifying to fight... I'm generally not a fan of games which go really hard on difficulty (Elden Ring for example), but for some reason Genshin's combat style made the challenge really fun early on!

@@raptori Great point I get so disappointed when everything dies just by using kazuha skill before I even have a chance to use the DPS in overworld lol That's why Navia is so fun since you can just shoot everything with her skill and not even bother with the rest of the party (so her hits are less powerful and you can use more of them) I'm similar too...I don't like every fight to be super sweaty but I still want to enjoy my character's kit - I'm glad they added Local Legends as an option, its a fun surprise to stumble across them unaware

yeah even on my main account (low spender) it took mr about a year to get a high refinement sac sword as well! Meanwhiel I've been swimming in widsiths since the start 😂 On this f2p account I still only have 1 singular copy of a sac book - even though I've deliberately risky wished on a couple of weapon banners where it was rated up 😩

@@saurusness OMG my brain is blocking out trauma. I REROLLED my account to get Sucrose early (I love her!). I STILL only have an R1 Sac Fragments. 😵‍💫

@@RwnEsper that's just pure hateful of hoyo 😭

Yep 100%! Going and helping lower level people in coop can give some of that feeling of stomping on stuff which used to be difficult, though it does fade a little over time as you get used to just destroying everything... 😅 wish we could increase the world level more!

eventually I enlisted the help of my partner who voluntarily re-plays many of the events when I have no time or motivation, and does dailies etc - I don't think I could keep it up otherwise 😅 Agreed though, event exclusive stories have been some of my favourites and it's a real shame they're simply yeeted into oblivion after the events are over :

It's nice! I find it satisfying to speed through an event in one go, but also enjoy spreading it out into little chunks... having the two accounts means I can actually do both 😂

yay I'm glad! 😁💜

Dehya was my first 5* when she was launched on limited banner and because she auto self heals, dmg from Dragonspine & Inazuma electro water (and burning from pyro enemies) are a slow enough dmg that she can out heal it and with enough HP, you never have to worry about freezing/electrocuting/burning to death - I mean you constantly have the crackling frost border or electro border around the screen that limits some of your view but you don't have to frantically look for areas to warm yourself or flee she also has interruption resistance and mitigates the dmg from enemies and she can heal most of it, plus, any team member inside the field of her skill gets up to 50% dmg reduction from enemies, meaning you can get away without a shielder for most enemies and you won't be so easily flung around (at C0 she does better wtih ATK stats/weapons as an on-fielder but C1+ you can focus more on hp - although even at C0, giving her some added HP helps her tank dmg better). She can use The Bell claymore and proc the shield passive so you can actually build her as an "AFK farm" character - there's vids on it from a year ago. So she's perfect for new players because you can go in guns blazing into fights - even late game she's good - just not great for meta speedruns of Spiral Abyss - but I'd rate her top tier for overworld new players (it's not like new players can do spiral straight away anyway so it's not a huge resource loss to build one non-meta character to tank overworld) I now have her C2 (60%+ dmg increase) and with a great build/weapon her dmg is on par with average 5* dmg dealers - at C6 she has almost 200% increase in dmg compared to C0 and can actually shell out as much dmg as HuTao - that's why she's considered bad because she needs all her cons to perform at the level of other characters at C0-1 so her ceiling is the floor of others - and her dmg mitigation, team dmg reduction, self-healing, interruption resistance is great for overworld, but not enough for Spiral because you still need a team healer or shielder as she can't tank the lvl of dmg from aggressive bosses and her dmg before C6 is not big enough or fast enough to make her worth it over other characters However, I have pulled characters just to use in overworld and since most of your time is spent there, she can be worth it, especially early game as her dmg is not bad although as the on field dmg dealer, she requires a ton of ER (over 230 even with a second pyro teammate) but you can forgo ER entirely and just use her skill if you run her as a support on full hp build (or Healing Bonus circlet to tank&heal more dmg), or full EM for burgeon/overload If you get her and you still need to do Dragnspine/Inazuma electro water stuff - she's worth it for that alone lol

@@trashbuilds8351 cool. I pull must of my characters for love anyway. I was just curious. I finished Dragonspine and Inazuma ages ago. Might build Dehya later on. I have quite the backlog now as I’m trying to max out a lot of artefacts. But I will definitely build Dehya eventually. Thinking of using the Fontaine craftable on her. Is this a good choice?

@@tim-myton6361 I feel you, I'm working on characters too, never enough gold! I have Wolf's Gravestone which works better for dmg - but I mainly just use her full hp as a tank support if I'm fighting Signora lol. With enough HP Dehya can out tank Zhongli's sheild - HOWEVER it only lasts 9sec compared to Zhongli's 20 sec and his res shred might be better than her dmg reduction - but I'm no theory crafter so I'm not sure 5* weapons are best if you have one (Skyward, Wolf, etc.) but since she scales off hp as well she can get away with lower ATK weapons especially with Bennett atk buff. The Fontaine craftable at R5 is her second best 4* (the first is that fish event one but I don't have it). I mean technically R5 Serpent Spine is her best 4* but that's not free. Favonius at higher refinements is close dmg wise to Fontaine or fish and since her burst can proc the passive multiple times, it can help her & the rest of the team as well. I haven't tried her on burgeon so I'm not sure how the EM weapons do for that I hope the upcoming focus on burning reaction with Natlan will somehow make her a top choice for teams but that's copium lol

yay ty 😁💜🙏

Legit it takes SO long. It's honestly bad enough when you do have the battle pass!

I don't remember running out of Mora this much in my main at this stage. But maybe I'm doing things way different. Not sure.

Yeah I remember feeling super Mora rich for aaaages, and then all of a sudden just never having any. No idea when that happened though...

100% - Lisa is super underrated. Kaeya and Noelle too, just finished building both of them and they're great - especially Noelle with Furina!

Oh definitely! Even down to just the traveller: anemo traveller especially I feel like get's forgotten and pooped on when especially in early game they're mighty useful for reactions!

Same... it was so much more fun playing all the different characters though, just sad that it makes the progression painful for so long. Worth it once you get past that point though!

yeah I'd say it's probably the number 1 most common "mistake" that hobbles a lot of people's accounts for a while 😅 Having eventually learned from that mistake, I've taken care to not do the same thing with characters in other games (like HSr and now wuwa)

Yeah good points! I'd also add to your list any 4 stars whose main purpose is to trigger a transformative reaction, so Bloom Barbara, Dori, Kuki, Lisa, Sucrose, plus some of the others are legit fantastic (Charlotte for example is underrated). The harder part is knowing which characters fall into which group! Plus of course that's only for the abyss - for the rest of the content then it's all good 😁

@@raptori That's very true, you can get away with low cons if the 4* is good at just triggering a reaction and much easier to build My Kuki on my main account is still only C1 I hope she reruns soon - but she's still incredible for hyperbloom at C0 I struggle with Lisa unless I have some shield or interruption resistance, she just flies around like a ragdoll lol but that's probably skill issue on my part - I should try her full EM since I don't have kuki on my alt acct I really want to build Mika since I have him C6 and Charlotte I think I have her C4, I just don't need her since I have Xianyun & Baizhu but I should just for the fun of it Layla is also great and works for Spiral Abyss - I used to just barely clear Spiral with Layla C6, Ayaka, Fischl C4 and Xingqiu C4 - decent enough weapons and good enough artifacts - I don't know if this copium team would work in recent Abyss as I stopped using with Fontaine I should use a fun 4* team for overworld that's purposefully not as strong so the fights feel more exciting lol

@@trashbuilds8351 Relatable - my Kuki is C2! I got C6 Candace on one banner and only one Kuki, I was so annoyed 😂 Yeah I've not used Lisa for a looong while, def remember her being super squishy. Would be fun with Kirara shield though! I've not built Mika, rarely play physical DPS and he's so low down the priority list... Charlotte I built straight away, and even at C0 she's just as strong as Jean! She's absolutely incredible with Furina; I managed to get her C6 so she's just ridiculously good. I def use Xianyun and Baizhu more, but she's worth it to bring out every now and then, and she's my go-to in coop just because her normals are so much fun 😁 Yass Layla is amazing, my first choice shielder even ahead of Zhongli! That team sounds fun lmao, might try it... I basically never use Ayaka without her premium trio of Shenhe, Kazuha, and Kokomi 😎 A few times I've done that on the earlier floors of the abyss - even did floor 9 with solo Yanfei one time 😁

thank you rocky! 💜😁

Sometimes it's more about team rotations and synergy than builds - I once shaved off 30 seconds on one floor just by swapping the order of my characters' bursts - but yeah if your builds aren't quite there then it's painful to figure that out... and completely not worth it when the reward for it is just 50 primos 😅

@@raptori yup exactly. I've got plenty characters too but I want to use ones who deserve the love. Smacking Hu Tao at everything seems too easy so I swap her for Gaming. Cryo applier? Why not use Kaeya for a change. Idk i just find the grind a bit boring I suppose. I focus on exploration gameplay more, but I understand why people like the builds and teambuilding so much.

@@kirkkek Yeah makes sense! I strongly prefer exploration gameplay too, though I enjoy combat quite a lot as well. But a big part of that is enjoying variety, so I've got 50 or so characters fully built at this point... 😅

@@raptori WOA that's a lot! I've got like 10 or so favourites that have better builds, 20-30 at a decent level but bad artifacts and a couple I've neglected entirely. 50 built..... mate, thats impressive

@@kirkkek Hahah I just like the novelty value of trying different teams, but *hate* having to swap around equipment, so it just ends up like this 😅Yours sounds much more reasonable tbh!

OMG yes feeling like overworld enemies were a challenge again was so incredibly refreshing! And same, ruin guards were my faves to fight because hitting that weak spot made you feel liek you were doing something right haha Some of the magic (like the wonder of exploring) didn't hit quite the same, however all the cut scenes in stories had wonderful nostalgia 😊

Ohh yes! The cut scenes. I completely forgot about them. I've always been a mobile player until recently when I transferred to PC. I've couldnt believe how much more beautiful the overworld is on PC and how much ive missed. I am contemplating starting from scratch to experience the wonder again while waiting for Nathan. 🤔

OH this is sucha good point! I was watching a novice friend play for the first time and also had to constantly remind them to switch characters so they can rotate through the skills and bursts - it's such a unique mechanic (at least in my experience) it's no wonder it takes people some getting used to!

@saurusness yeah, it's definitely unique because in most "team" RPGs, like Tales, Xenoblade, etc, the other characters are all on field, so the CPU will auto pilot for you and help make combos happen. And in other open worlds, like Zelda, Fallout, Elden Ring, we only control 1 character. So Genshin is going to be a unique difference for most people. My fond memories of the early game struggle definitely stemmed from just NA spam on Beidou, assuming that a big sword must mean big damage, haha. Definitely want to see you do the rest of your F2P series.

​@@xanaviii Right! Any other adventure RPG I've ever played is a single character game as well, so not only do you not swap between characters, there are no elemental reactions etc, just damage! nice ty!! 😁💜

@@xanaviii Yeah funnily enough the game which came to mind a lot during early Genshin times for me was actually Pokemon! I had always dreamed of an open-world Pokemon game where you'd run around controlling the trainer, but then when you pick a Pokemon to fight, it'd seamlessly switch to you controlling that Pokemon, and then you'd be able to switch between them mid-battle. Genshin's teams felt a lot like what I'd imagined there, except with an elemental system designed to take advantage of that instead!

If you're on playstation, all you need is a new profile, if you're on PC, then the easiest way is to change your server on the main screen before you go in game, and it'll automatically create brand new account for you on the new server. Your existing account will still be there when you on the log in screen change your server back to your main one! so for example if your main account is on EU, just change server to US and you will have both accounts tied to your log in details! You can also create a new account on the same server of you want to, but in that case you'll need a new email etc so it's a little more hassle! Thankfully the game doesn't make it easy for you to delete your account - there's even a 30 day wait period to protect your account from unauhtorised deletions!

@@saurusness omg. Thank you so much! Imma do that! I really appreciate your message! You've already helped me a ton and now this! THANK YOU!

@@Jett125 yay I'm so glad! 😁

We'd be happy to help! Either on Saurus's discord (there's a genshin channel) or during her streams (always Genshin on Sundays, though also sometimes on other days too) - she also plays viewer's abyss sometimes when people are interested!

@@raptori omg i would be happy to tune in!

Yess come join as at some point, I'll happily give some pointers! 😁 Like raptori said, sometimes we do viewer abyss runs where I'll try and complete as much of the abyss that the viewer themselves got stuck on, and based on the experience I can give tips on what to work on to make it easier! (e.g. tweaks to characters' build, or what character to focus on next etc)

@@saurusness tysm for the tip,imma download twitch

You can see it in the video at 4:45! It's Kagura's Verity, Yae's signature weapon 👀

Kagura's verity yeah as @raptori said 😁

@raptori Ah my bad wow completely missed that.

@saurusness Missed that part of the video, my bad

Sounds like you're doing great honestly! Gotta remember that Saurus's alt account has 2-3 months of extra progress than yours does - started it in December - plus with all those advantages it makes progression smoother. Sounds like you're actually progressing in terms of AR at a similar pace - think you're going faster than either of us did on our main accounts! As to having time for it, one thing that helps is that Saurus and I share the alt account. Something like 90% of the time one of us just plays enough to get encounter points (usually exploration or a quest or two), spend resin, and leave it for the day, so often just like 30 minutes. Then whenever there's an event ending we'll make sure to finish it, which leaves the odd day when one of us has a few hours to catch it up on some story quests or something, multitasking while doing something else. Since we share the load it's half the effort compared to someone doing it on their own. In terms of hours spent imo 30-60 mins a day is kinda middle of the road I guess? It's just a very efficient hour, so faster progression than you'd see for someone who's taking their time to explore the world and experience it for the first time, etc 😅 And yeah, the gacha luck has been better than average - having a clearer idea of how to evaluate what banners to wish on made a huge difference of course, but that can only take you so far. Though that said, those are the only three C6 characters, which is one of the reasons we focused on them early on, and two of the cons each for Xiangling and Xingqiu came from the paimon shop. There are a couple of C4s (including Benny, who also came from paimon shop), a couple of C3s, and then the rest are C0-C2. Xingqiu's weapon was super lucky for sure, though there's also been bad luck too - despite spending 10-20 wishes on any weapon banner with a sacrificial fragments, and also wishing on any banner with Sucrose on it, we only recently got her C1, and her weapon also only came recently and is just R1 (she'd be one of the characters we'd focus on in a follow-up video). Hope the gacha is more kind to you so you can get the characters you want, it sucks when things outside of your control are making it harder for you 😭

I feel u with the gacha luck. I lost every 50/50 since i started playing around 6 months ago, and i also only yesterday got my first sacrificial sword (ive made around...450 wishes? On event banner and the normal amount of standard ones ...i also dont have a single tav sword. I literally had no er weapon had to tish ror fleuve cendre and do aranara for Sapwood....

@raptori Thank you for the long detailed response. That makes me feel much better. I must have missed the part about starting in December. Bad listening on my part I guess. Really, if it weren’t for floor 12 of the abyss, I would feel like I’m doing fantastically well.

@callimas Aye "casual" refers to the number of hours played per day/week and effort put into say beating harder content, but as you point out (and I tried to as well, not sure if that was clear enough 💜) having knowledge of how the game functions, knowing where to invest your resources/time makes a HUGE difference! But naturally the biggest difference in terms of say characters obtained, as well as artefats/weapons, is entirely rng! Those three are in fact the only c6 characters on the account, it just happens they are characters who majorly benefit from being highcon so that shows the weird biased luck in action! I think the unfairness of the gacha system can really get you down sometimes - this alt got really lucky with those particular c6 4 stars (and the sac sword), but on the flipside, still only has one singular sac book and barely scraped a c1 sucrose after dozens of 10 pulls on sucrose rate up banners 😩 My main account also took approximately 5 or 6 months to get it's FIRST sac sword, let alone refinements for it. I know all too well how defeating it can be when everyone seems to get super lucky with their pulls while you lose 50/50 after another - as a streamer I get a lot of people excitedly and happily announcing they got their chiori and her weapon all in under 30 pulls, meanwhile it took me a total of over 300 (lost 50/50 + two max faint points on weapon banner 💀) and it's hard not to let tha get to you at times... considering the number of pulls done in total my f2p alt is a LOT luckier than my main account and honestly event hat stings a little LOL 😂 Anyway, I'm really sorry you feel discouraged - I know the pain and it's a topic I've wnated to make a video on for a long time, but a somewhat difficult one to tackle ina way that doesn't make the "lucky ones" feel alienated.. I hope you catcha lucky break in your wishing soon 💜

@@saurusness Thank you so much for the reply, and I apologize again for letting my frustration and bitterness out. In my comment I focused on the handful of really strong C6 characters you pulled/bought, but characters and wishing are not actually what's gotten me down lately. After failing to get a single Xingqiu in ~14 ten-pulls on Neuvi's banner in 4.1, I learned to temper my hopes in terms of 4-stars. I'll get whoever I get. And as for 5-stars, I now pull only when I've saved 180 fates. So it's not wishing...it's actually the artifact system that has me in a mood. Trying to Improve my builds is starting to feel completely futile. And I only really care about improving my builds because I want to 36-star the abyss. If I could stop wanting that, I'd be fine. :)