Never forget. The most valuable character you will pull will be the one you play. Don't fall into the trap of pulling for the meta picks and never use them afterwards.

Your content has genuinely carried me through the game i started about a month ago and I'm AR 46 with plenty of resources and a really solid team, Thank you so much and keep making good content!!

Hey shark your channel is super underrated. I feel like it fills the awkward area for players who care enough about meta to do our research but don't have the luxury of time to watch theorycrafters do their more detailed nerdy excel calculation! Your recommendations seem factually based on theorycrafters' opinions but simplified enough for most of us who are often confused by TC terms. Appreciate it!

I'd add Kazuha to this list. His weapon can be the free umbrella or the craftable Iron Sting.

I'm so happy I got Zhongli on his first release before I left a few days after. I was planning to get back sometime and I loved the idea of a shield character while hearing rumors of people hating on his damage. Now that I've gotten back, I'm really happy I have him!! Especially since... Wanderer kinda needs him so he doesnt get interrupted LMAO Watching your vids also helped me survive through the game ofc lol Thankies!

I have Zhongli, Nahida and Raiden Shogun, all using the weapons mentioned here (Black Tassel, Mappa Mare and The Catch respectively). It's worth it to pull for them as F2P!

Alhaitham is also very F2P friendly and a strong C0 DPS even with just average investments. His kit feels complete at C0, he works with a lot of characters, has variety of team comps, and also fun and flashy gameplay. The only issue with him is his mirror management but when you get the hang of it, he's fantastic. And even if you mess up his rotations, he's doesn't punish you that much which is also a plus. His best 4 star weapons are free which are the umbrella sword and iron sting. A lot of people use harbinger of dawn on him which is a 3 star weapon. He's also easy to build with EM being the focus. Worth every primogems spent imho.

Prioritize Kazuha, Yelan, and Nahida. Raiden only has extra value over other good DPS characters if you don't already have Kuki at C2. Kokomi and Zhongli are great mostly for the comfort they bring. They are otherwise inefficient pulls if your goal is to secure the primogems from 36-starring spiral abyss as soon as possible.

Honestly, as a ftp, Yelan changed my game completely. Got her in the last banner and with her r2 fav bow she is INCREDIBLE. I can use her burst up to even 3/4 times in just one minute.

As a F2P player with Shogun and Nahida, I can confirm these characters are game changers. They pair extremely well together and I have made them both part of my main team, with Xingqiu and Dendro Traveler, and it does insane damage. Of course still need another team for Spiral Abyss, but I managed to get Ayaka recently and I'm working on building up her team for the abyss too.

Something that I will say and that Ik everyone else says. At the end of the day, choose who you like to play. The numbers don't matter if you don't enjoy how you achieved them.

This is such a great concept for a video, and is executed perfectly, thank you so much! I am a low spender (occasional BP only) and having Zhongli, Kokomi, and Nahida has definitely been excellent for me.

I love that the thumbnail is three archons and also Yelan. And you know what? She fits there.

i followed your advice when i started in 3.3 and got raiden (also wanderer as my first 5star) i also pulled for c6 xinqui but instead got him to c5 and got both yelan and hutao. Thanks for giving me a direction because now I’m having so much fun

I run the sacrificial sword on Kazuha, it solves the ER issue and being able to do his skill twice helps with grouping and crowd control.

I was honestly so bummed that I missed out on Ayaka this past banner, but after watching this and knowing Nahida is coming up, I'm stoked. I've got tons of pity stacks and missed a featured draw so I'm pretty sure I'll have her soon. 😁

I think Ayaka should also be in the honorable mention since she is already strong at c0 and her best 4 star weapon is the anemona kageuchi which can be crafted

Hey thanks for the great content! Started over from AR 23 after watching another one of your videos. Pulled a razor at AR 5! The game is so much easier after following your guide! Thanks!

Thank you, Sharkie! I am now at AR50 and World level 6. And yes, still managed to get by with enough resources because of your guides. Thank you. *teary eyed

Really great video. There are tons of useful information in it, and your top 5+2 are my favorite characters ;)

Looking foward to Zhonli and Nahida rerun. I got most of the character I wanted now. Thx for your stream and video! It's really fun to learn from you! Much love!

When I saw the title my guess was Raiden, Nahida, Yelan, Kokomi, and Kazuha, but I think you're right that Zhongli is a better pick for most players/accounts.

i totally agree! i am currently chasing all of these 5 characters, unfortunately, i missed yelan and prioritize ayaka. But will certainly pull for her next. I got nahida previously, yay!

I think Alhaitham also counts here since he works rly well at C0, scales on EM making the iron sting amonst the best weapons for him, and works well with a bunch of team combs, although I think he's more of a bonus since his best potential is when he has an off-field electro applicator since he's best at spread reaction playstyle, personally I usually use him with Raiden or Kuki Shinobu

If you think about it, Kazuha can use crafted sword from Sumeru. Energy recharge sub stat and mastery for 12 seconds.

Aboslutely agree with this, I decided to skip raiden as I figured her rerun would be inevitable. I'd even go as far to say that Kuki Shinobu is an even BETTER pick than Kokomi, as she provides heals and excessive off field damage with hyperbloom. But as a Nahida, Zhongli owner I cant help but say my two teams would not have gotten far without them. Always remember as a newer player to pick up supports first. It may take some time, but building the backbone of your comps is absolutely essential. A 5 star carry can only do so much on their own.

Currently using a nahida, baizhu, yelan, raiden team and it’s my favorite team I’ve used so far so I can confirm. Killing most things with them feels incredibly easy and comfortable. Hoping to pull Kazuha soon!

thank you for your amazing video , keep it up sharky ^^ I have 3 of these ( yelan , Bal , Nahida ) now I am saving for kazuha and kokomi ^^

Great list and great analysis as always. I agree completely. It's also useful that you show good 3* and 4* weapons to use. For my mora, 5* weapons are overrated - not bad, just extremely overrated. My favorite weapons are all 4* weapons because they can work with more characters, where 5* weapons are actually pretty niche to the 5* character they launch with. SharkH3art's list is so good because those 5* characters work with 3* weapons. :)

Played since 2020 and zhongli is still use in my team to this day. ❤

just found your vids, very helpful to a new player. small suggestion though, turn the bass down on your mic, my headphones are rattling lmao

This is super helpful!! Thank you sm for this Shark!

Small problem I see here is, all the characters you mention are in essence supports. My personal experience is that after I got Zhongli and switched game to easy mode, I still lacked the damage needed for the game to start being satisfying. And that only changed after I got Ayaka. So I think that while it is very good to have some strong and flexible supports, having a strong and reliable DPS is also essential. Ayaka, Ganyu, Hu Tao and Yoimiya are in my opinion uncontested up to this day. Sure you can go without them just well but so can you without Zhongli or Raiden.

Nahida made my two healers who were rotting into my strongest team. Barbara and kuki. And her team is also really, really, really easy to build cuz you don't have to care about cr/cd. She's on most broken support with Benny and kazuha.

For me the best characters for f2p is: 1) Zhongli. Unless he faces corrosion damage anyone under his shield is untouchable. He makes everything ingame 3 times easier. I pulled him threw Hp% artifacts and black tassel and he made my teams immortals. 2)Raiden.Yes her artifact domain is pain got her on her last rerun and run her as a main dps. She kills anything she gets her hands on easily. If you already have a main dps you can run her as a sub dps spamming her skill for reactions. 3)Yelan. Put enough Hp% and Er from artifacts and you have a very strong burst dps for reaction teams. Her skill is also useful in open world, makes travelling from point a to point b faster. 4)Ayaka. Put her in a freeze team and she can level anything like a nuke. Yes she might have some problem if dont have enough er, but it can be solved with a cryo battery. Put her along with Yelan/Kokomi/Xinqiu and the enemies would never get to touvh you. 5)Kazuha. 4 piece vv and enough em to swirl everyone to death he can make elemental application childs play. Any 4 piece EM sword is good enough for him so no need to dive into weapon banners. Thats my reccomendations for f2p people like me after playing for a year.

New sub here, I just started playing GI, I have been following your 2 beginners guide step by step. I have binged watch most of your videos and they have been extremely helpful. Could you make a video on the most comfy build? Easy to play, low weapon options etc.

Picked up Genshin in January. Raiden and Yelan are already secured, have gems saved up for Nahida since I've heard she's returning soon and working on getting more for Zhongli. Don't really like Kokomi though, but still, 4 out of 5 match, damn.

This is exactly how I pull for my account- good, strong and doesn't need gacha weapons. I've finally stick to being a Raiden main and I'm now going for characters that revolves around her like Yelan my current team is Raiden, Ganyu Kazuha and Xingqiu I know it sounds dry but this team com slaps and I'm expecting to get Yelan( pls) to add her with Xingqiu

I'm glad I have most of the characters mentioned here as they are extremely useful especially if your a player trying to 36star abyss 😁 (I still haven't got there my artifact luck ain't great haha...). Hopefully I can get Zhongli and Yelan on their next reruns as I'm saving my primos for Baizhu when he comes ❤ with dendro being out now I hope he comes soon.

Great video thx alot, so helpful

Thank you for confirming that I really need to be saving for Zhong Li’s and Nahida’s reruns lol

I just got my 4th of these 7 characters. Here’s hoping rumors are true and zhongli comes back in 3.7❤ Great video shark

The gacha was kind to me when I started playing a year ago. With the number of wins I have had under my belt thus far pulling under banners, single pulls included or ealrlies, I can skip as many banners as I need to save for what I want when I want. I was F2P when I started pulling, had only began being semi-f2p (buying a welkin and lower tier BP) 6 months ago when I was finally sure I'd stay playing for the long term. I hopefully will stay like that, with this insane luck intact until the end.

completely 100% agree with your take here. most useful characters are not DPS units but support. they will support you until the end of floor 12 abyss even if you main a 4-star DPS. perhaps even DPS Qiqi lol. Raiden is an exceptional character here. she's a DPS unit, but even Raiden has the support capability to restore ER to your whole team. characters like Ayaka, Yoimiya, Itto, and Hutao, while offering huge DPS damage, they are constrained with a specific team. they also require specific support characters to work well with them. so, this video is an excellent guide for all genshin players. and these support characters are super valuable. pull for them, and you won't regret them. the only characters left for me to pull is Zhongli. wish me luck on my next pull, and may you win your 50/50 as well!

Nahida is by far the best character to get. Of every character she is probably the most highly recommended and best. You will not be disappointed with her. You'll be disappointed you didn't pull for her. Her tether elemental skill alone is why. It shares damage between enemies and applies a lot of Dendro. I got lucky and won the 50/50 on the last day. It's recommended to start putting back primogems for her and be ready. What's great is you only need her at C0 so one pull and you can have a crazy strong Aggravate and Hyperbloom team or any other Dendro reaction for that matter. Sadly I did not win the 50/50 for Raiden Shogun. I was incredibly disappointed as she would've been great for my team. Yaoyao is a close second Dendro character worth getting too. Another great character that I feel needs more credit, especially when teamed with Dendro, is Kuki Shinobu. Absolutely great for hyperbloom teams. Everything goes boom.

I got Yelan at AR 18, i won a 50/50 and i have the favonius warbow on her. She is op

I got back into genshin few weeks ago, bought a farmed acc since i didnt wanna start fresh and didnt wanna play my main, went for c2 nahida and got her wep r1, she singlehandedly made genshin amazing for me again...

As a new player and not having enough characters for a team I like playing, I basically put everything into Yelans ER. Now, even as CO, I can keep her burst 100% active and shes hypercarrying me at ar43.

As someone who used iron sting kazuha for the longest time, it's actually not as bad as everyone says it is. He can generate a ton of particles pretty quickly and can keep near full burst up time on something like 130 ER. He can also cheese a lot of the updraft chests by just hopping over the updraft. His utility is absolutely worth pulling for.

I feel like I blow through a lot of the content thanks to Venti, Zhongli and Raiden Ei period.

Hi! I'm running Razor, Xiangling, Xingqiu and Diona but recently pulled Yelan. Should I level up Yelan and substitute Xingqiu? I'm AR 38 and currently going through Inazuma (I'll also be pulling for Ayaka in the next banner) and I'm always getting overwhelmed by the options :(

I personally really liked this video as it is going to help me a lot so thanks. I lost 50 50 in yelan banner but I guess I'm gonna save for the next must have.

I only started playing on september. My first archon was nahida. And she made the game easier. With raiden, everything has become child's play. I've recently pulled hu tao & yelan, and so far with both c0, yelan is more useful. Hu tao is great but you really need to master her playstyle. If you've got a chance to get these 5, you must do it. They're really worth it

U can't go wrong with zhong

Good tips overall. If i may ask for some advice, i have a c0 yelan, with a r1 lv90 stringless that i got sometime ago. Stringless boosts elemental skill and burst by 24% but i see now that Recurve enhances her HP by quite a lot. Which would you say is better?

Started on zhongli most recent banner and i have all these characters besides kazuha so yea i agree with everything he said honestly

I was pulling for Yelan but lost the 50/50....Now I have to wait for her rerun😅😅

please tell if ayaka is good or not

Thank you! Glad i Went for the this character

Started basically the day Yelan got out this this month and got her too that day with luck. Now I'm hoping for Zhongli, Raiden, and Kazuha with my priority set on Kazuha specifically (since I like the character's splashibility in teams and do have the sword you recommended). Any idea when those 3 may come out?

Thanks to you from AR 30 I focused on these characters now my team is Raiden,yelan,nahida,zhongli 😅love it ❤

Good video man but the audio is soooooo muffled I had to crank up my volume so much just to hear you

Thanks shark, pretty much agree with every placement here (I'd take Kazuha over Kokomi but that's just me)

Venti, Raiden, Yelan & Kazuha seems like good ones. After using a couple In free trial event I think Yelan is the best so far but needs good support. My current main is traveller, Xiaoling, Chongyun and any random healer. I plan to make a new party with one of the ones from above, hoping for a decent bow user

@ShartH3art - what weapon would you run with Kazuha? - I have a 4-piece viridescent venerer set, Kazuha is level 90, Kazuha's talents are 6/6/6, and I'm not running any particular team - could be freeze, or national where Kazuha replace Shogun, or even a hyperbloom team. Weapons on hand (all level 80 or 90): - Iron Sting - Kagotsurbe Isshin - Aquila Favonius - Prototype Rancour - Black Sword - Sacrificial Sword - Favonius Sword - Sapwood Blade - Toukabou Shigure.

If you run Kazuha with Favonius sword you'll need to make sure he has enough em (I heard that it's around 1000 but 800-900 works fine for me). I usually run Kazuha using Iron sting and a battery in my team and the entire teams bursts are usually recharged in time while my Kazuha also still does a lot of swirl damage.

I always love hearing your opinions and advice on characters, so thank you for this video!! :)

I started playing during Raiden's latest banner and now have 2 chars from this list (Raiden and Yelan)

As someone that got Yelan and Raiden really really early in the game. They are absurdly good that I very much so recommend pulling for them if you have the extra primos.

I'm New Too Genshin as a whole. So thank for this. I got a few of the characters. Noelle, Barbara,

I just played genshin last year on September and I've already got 3 of the above (Venti, Raiden Shogun, and Yelan). But for venti, I mostly used him just to explore Teyvat, still haven't got the best artifacts for him and the Cecilia takes time to collect which is a hassle and I'm lazy to get them. But for Raiden and Yelan, I love them! They're my mains now. Maybe I'll pull Ayaka in the next oncoming patch to get more DPS character. Still waiting for Zhongli though

I would have also added cyno white tassel can keep up with a lot of 4 star weapons even outdamages them and is like only 20% below his bis in dmg output also he‘s pretty easy to built because he ascends with with crit dmg which gives him 40 extra crit dmg and another 60 from the circlet means guaranteed 100 crit dmg give him em mainstats and the domain for him is pretty easy to farm and the same as for nahida and kuki nilou and a lot of other characters in dendro teams also the traveler btw since we talked about nilou you can play her in a bloom team with really low investment just give her hp mainstat on every single artifact and give her a lot of hp because she scales incredibly with hp thanks to her passives really easy to build and low investment just dont specifically give her em on this playstyle and take another character to prock the bloom reactions with a lot of em like barbara Xingqiu and another option would be collei or the traveler just give then a lot of em and only take hydro and dendro characters with you because of her first passive that „activates“ her 2nd

Idk if other people will agree but I just did the story mission for jean and I absolutely love jeans character and combat style. Her being anemo and having gale toss on top of passive and ultimate healing is something my teams been severely lacking. Tbh my team is trash still at ar38. I don't have enough resources or am capped because several of my characters need ascension materials at places I'm still locked from getting. Like Shinobu and even Shenhe who I just got and really want to use, Shinobu needs inazuma stuff and Shenhe needs an ascension material from some monster that's apparently only found in a place that I have no idea where it's at or how to get to it. Some E word... It sucks because I was stoked to get Shinobu since she's electric based but I'm still stuck using Lisa and since I'm level 60 I really don't want to waste material on her or my team anymore since I have better characters and it's already a grind. But I'm at a point where I'm underleveled and my damage output is literally a quarter of what the enemies do to me now. I literally just got destroyed by three abyss mages on top the cliffs near where the alcor ship is by liyue, they were basically one shotting all my characters.... I've been using Rosaria, Lisa, Mona, Xingxian, Lumine, Noelle. I have tons of characters but only those six are the ones I could afford to get to 60, and I still don't have some of them with talents at 4. I've mostly been banking on Mona with Widsith and Lisa with Thrilling Tales and been using their elemental reactions on top of monas crowd control move, using their respective weapon buffs on switches too, to do the most damage. Rosarias cryo is useful for this team too but she's basically my DPS with dragon spine weapon. I tried both traveler and Xingxian with this team and though they are alright in different ways I found Noelles shield and health Regen ability much better since my Xingxian is super weak and traveler as well. On top of getting wrecked so much lately the health resto from Noelle and being a beefy tank seems to work far better. I only have two 5 star characters though, Mona and Shenhe, and I can't even use one of them, and don't have a single 5* weapon yet. I've put like 80 pulls on standard banner and still haven't gotten a 5 * from it, as both my 5 stars came from even banner. Even Mona who's features on standard came from my first event 5 star wish.

Kazuha is so good even with irong sting.. sometimes he deal more dmg than my dps lol,he carried my all the way from lower AR to AR 56 now.He is the best support in game !

I hundred% would recommend Yelan. She revolutionizes exploration

Got pretty lucky on the Yelan banner to nab her C2. She's carrying my entire account right now with Favonius warbow and an EoSF set with decent crit, really solid damage and nice battery for the whole team. Plus the overworld running? Chef's kiss 🤌Love this character.

For full EM kazuha, xiphos moonlight is amazing, because it fixes the ER problem, while still giving you as much EM as possible

Spiral abyss wise all the above characters are rlly strong with good artifacts builds and all that

Mr Shark! Can you maybe make a video on Raiden Hyperbloom team? I have Yelan, Xingque, DMC and Raiden and it's working really nicely. But my build is not done and maybe more people would like to know about this easy AF team.

Hey shark, I just got into the game during lantern rite. I’m currently using alhaitham, xingqiu, Yao Yao, and c4 beidou. I got bennet and xiangling but no other 4 star like sucrose, Kuki, or kujou. Should I still go for yelan since I’m almost at the pity? Or should I wait for Ayaka and shenhe? I got mona and Jean

SHARKYYY

Already have raiden and yelan, zhongli and kok were already on my to-pull list

Another great genshin vid. Keep it up and good luck. Thank you!

I knew I missed out when I didn't pull for Kokofish. Will do so on her next banner.

I do want to get some of these characters, like Zhongli, Yelan and Childe, but their banners have either not had a rerun or just had a rerun in which I wasn’t playing😭 I do have Xiao from his banner this year and now Alhaitham, and I’ve begun building Xiangling and I’ve been debating on what electro character to commit to. First Sara, but now I’m leaning more towards Keqing or Beidou

im actually considering getting at least c1 or even c2 nahida when she reruns just for the sweet that she brings to dendro reaction dmg

I would say Ayato is one of these characters too. Easy building, easy gameplay and easy team comps. Just dump your all Atk% weapon and artifacts on him and thats good enough. Also have one catalyst user with Dragon Tales for just switching to him, nothing else and bam! Your attack goes to the roof. Finally have a shield character like Noelle and make Ayato safe while using his E skill. You dont use his basic attacks much, so talent wise you only have two talents to upgrade. İt can be the basic of basics but even this is enough. If you have Zhongli too like me, it makes wonders. Zhongli, Barbara for Dragon Tales and also healing if needed and Ayato. I dont even need a 4th character for this comp.

Hey shark tell me should I get nahida or ayaka I have Raiden so I'm thinking should I get nahida for hyperbloom or ayaka

Though I love both ayato and alhaitham I regret pulling for both over characters i would rather have/play. my friend forced me to go for ayato bc she wanted shogun and same with alhaitham and xiao (you get the point)

Another great video! Im about a month in of playing I just got c2 ningguang and I wanna know if I should level her or stick with the c0 Noelle who I have at lvl 60 about to get to 70

I'm definitely going to aim for these characters

Hello, i watched your video named " The Only Characters You Actually Need In Genshin Impact (Updated) " and you talk about getting a good cryo dps, like Ayaka or Ganyu. Is it still relevant considering this video or not ? (asking because of the upcoming ayaka banner ). Thx for the content btw, it's really good for a returning rookie player like me.

Nahida was my first limited 5* back in April. I got Venti this month at 45 pity and a 50/50 win

are you suppose to save up 90 rolls before starting to go for a banner? I might have fk up, i started a week ago and have done 40 rolls on hu tao banner and now its 4 or 3 days left on it Edit: im f2p

I find it more important to have a good main dps with good support to get the most out of your main dps. And a main dps is for me a good 5 star like Yoimiya, Raiden, Ganyu etc

im currently planning on what 5 star units to get for my miko team and so far im thinking of kazuha but if nahida makes yaes damage stronger, should i get kazuha first or nahida? The team im currently thinking of is, miko fischl yao yao kazuha. Do you think nahida is worth replacing yaoyao with the cost of having no healer?

Honestly hyperbloom teams , dendro in general made the game alot easier

My 5* currently is Zhongli, Raiden, Yelan and Wanderer...planning to get Nahida on her rerun

Can u tell me how much of premogems i need to get exact 2, 5 star from any event ? Or i should say total how much i should stack to get yelan and raiden to get ?

Nice job, youtube, for recommending me this since the next Kokofish banner is just around the corner. Also, big thanks to the Shark himself for making this video.