Note: this video assumes that you ALREADY have the best teams for your favourite characters. If you don’t have these already, don’t even think about vertical investment! (In my opinion :) if you want more help deciding: join the discord! discord.gg/3dHkuMsgGU

Great video. For me, I always follow a 5 step method: 1. Choose favorite character 2. Invest in favorite character 3. Choose best support characters for said favorite character 4. Invest in said support characters 5. Vertically invest some more in favorite character. Never fails me :)

Finally someone talk about this. This is super important to know since if you only wish non stop on characters that you might regret, it will ruin both your experience in the game and the amount of wishes you saved.

I would pull for more characters if building characters in this game wasn't an absolute chore

So the takeaway is basically get Nahida C2 and then do whatever you want 😂

One thing about the challenge that should be mentioned is, if you get a constellation, you can't turn that off. Meanwhile with a signature weapon, if you find the game too easy, you can always run a 4* equivalent instead. Yeah, it sucks you spent on a weapon you're not even using, but imo it's better than permanently taking enjoyment our of the game, because now stuff dies too fast

For farming violetgrass, I just planted it in the teapot, and you can buy it from wangshu inn (verr goldet, the lady/receptionist/owner) and from bubu pharmacy

I have decided to invest only on characters that I really really like. I started it with Rosaria, which is honestly a bad idea because she was a 4 star and the pity can be very unkind in getting their cons. I have a relatively small roster in terms of DPS/carries but I haven't gotten tired of my faves and they get the job done in the abyss. ❤

I really like your take on the topic. You pretty much nailed it, both pros and cons, both of the horizontal and the vertical. The thing is, neither way is clear cut better than the other, it's a lot about personal preference and experience. But just like everything else in Genshin, either approach has diminishing returns so mixing them up at the right moment is the best approach. I can confirm that leveling up many characters takes LONG time. It took me two years to reach the state where I finally had all my characters fully leveled up and equipped. And honestly many of them have very mediocre artifacts even though getting artifacts gets easier the more characters you have - the chance that an artifact is useful for some character grows with number of characters you're equipping. With regards to farming their ascension/talent materials, the approach of grabbing anything you run around while exploring pays off big time. I did not have to farm Xinyan's violetgrass at all because by the time I got to raising her, I already had enough. There were a few cases where I needed to go farming but they were pretty rare in comparison.

I feel like getting QOL cons is the best bet, like Yelan C1, Baizhu C1, Hu Tao C1, Koko C1, Yae C1, where they do technically give a dmg bump by not needing as much ER(in Yae's case actually allowing ger to realistically burst every rotation) or allowing smoother gameplay (Hu Tao stamina and giving Koko more hydro application allowing more flexibility in teams), while not making the game too easy

For me, I'm aesthetics over meta and I am very picky about the character design I like. One thing I don't regret is pulling for Nahida's weapon as a Nahida main. From wishing on the weapon banner, I got 5 Xiphos' Moonlight, 4 Sacrificial Fragments, Key of Khaj-nisut, Skyward Spine, A Thousand Floating Dreams, one Faruzan constellation (and a few other characters + dragon's bane). Right after that, I got my first Nilou. I knew I wanted Kazuha so Xiphos' Moonlight was perfect for him. I wasn't expecting to get the Key, but I use it for Kuki all the time when I don't use Nilou. I use Sacrificial Fragments for my Kokomi and Klee burgeon. My Raiden currently holds the Skyward Spine (Raiden does faster attacks when she uses it) while I gave the Catch to Xiangling. I finally got C6 Faruzan for the current banner. Simply from wishing on the weapon banner, my Nilou bloom team does the most damage + my Wanderer was able to unleash his power with Faruzan (even though most of my character's talents are 6/6/6) + Nahida/Klee burgeon carried my team and I was able to 36 star the abyss for the first time! I highly recommend considering if the four star weapons are going to help your account when choosing to wish on the 5 star weapon.

I like to spread out horizontally and try many different playstyles and raising characters but I also have invested more in a few characters I know I like. I have 20 different characters lvl 90 with passable and great builds, but I also invested a lot in a baalnational and my shenhe main DPS. It's fun because I can play whatever I want but I also can do hard content. I'm still raising different characters and wasting all my resources but it's the thing I enjoy most.

Reverse Psychology : Do not whale 😂

Another amazing video, you're one of the best Genshin content creators, thanks for the enlightening advices

Really great video and I love ypur takes. I vertically invested Heavy into my Bloom team because it consist of all my favorite characters and I loved that playstyle. I got C3R1 Nahida, C2R1 Nilou and my Triple Crowned Barbara and its actually crazy how this team bruteforces most of the stuff (ecven single target) to the point where my Flowchart for the abyss is like this: Has the Chamber Cryo Shields? No = Nilou Has the Chamber Cryo Shields? Yes = OPPA XL GO BRRRR 😂

Character fatigue is my big problem right now. I only have one team at 80, and they're fun, but it gets old playing them and only them. I need to invest some time into at least one other team so I can switch things up now and then to keep it fresh.

Your channel popped out of nowhere like 2 weeks ago. And now I consider you as one of the best genshin content creator on the side of information. My only recommendations are: -Add more power to your voice -Maybe avoid uploading videos above 20 minutes (cuz that's too long for most people who just scroll on YT and click on videos they think are interesting) -Maybe add some texts on your screen (If you have more time to edit) -Add some timestamps so people can just click to the part of their choice These recommendations are said subjectively. I just gave you the reasons how I get entertained by other content creators and stay until the end. Personally, I don't watch your videos whenever I wanna scroll at night. I usually do when I'm eating or doing something I'd be bored doing without watching videos. You are just too calm my brain absorbs whatever you say without all my attention to your video. I hope your channel grow sooner brotha. Thank you ;)

After 1 year of casually playing and horizontal investment i'm slowly transitioning to a bit more vertical investment for a few characters i really like. Took me a lot of time to deep dive into team building and getting overall knowledge how the different characters, artifacts, weapons and enemys work. A lot of your videos helped me with this^^ I am still more the "collect and try each char i like" type of player and the grind is real. One thing i newly invested in was getting Yelan c1 and her weapon right before finally getting Zhongli (i wanted him since day one and he is the best con for my Yoimiya 😅🙈), now i struggle with mora and talent books but overall its worth it^^ I really like the overall "do what you want and play your own way" tone of your content 😊

Good point for newer accounts. For me, as a small dolphin since day 1, I have a lot of characters and invested more into a few I like most (raiden, ayaka, hu tao). I went for a big roster of characters first, having 50+ characters built, and then went for weapons and cons on the characters I call "mains". I think this is a good guide for everyone: get as many characters as you need to be flexible enough for your own liking, when you are content with the amount of choice then invest into your mains. This may be 10-15 characters, may as well be 40-50 like for me. Just test around, play the characters maybe on a friends account to get a feel if you want that character etc. In the end genshin is not that hard, its just about your choices and investments. You can make any character work with the right teams, get a feel and don't rush things. Most importantly: have fun, it's a game, its there so you can ENJOY it

For the past year I've purely been doing horizontal investing, spending a few months farming mora and exp books to raise 5-6 characters are once. After now getting Kokomi and maxing her out I will finally be able to spend the second half of my genshin career farming purely architects and experience the pain that comes with it.

Got my Cocogoat c6, Raiden C3, Ayaka C3. All with signatures. Feels good.

I tend to vertical invest, but only to a degree. I have hard limits: my main dps get signature weapons, but only r1. I can go for cons, but only up to c2 AND only if the cons are truly important. And I tend to avoid similar DPS. So, I tend to look for main dps that cover different elements, game content, etc! Also, I try to get universal supports, which i invest into in a less drastic manner! At first, I was running a bit low on variety, but over time I've developed a pretty good variety of very strong units! :)

Great video! I like how you explain for new players that it’s not about pulling for one 5 star, it’s about how it fits into your account holistically. It’s been great to see your channel grow so fast and your hard work making these pay off. I recently pulled Kokomi finally and have been enjoying the different random comps she can pull together. My favorite has been Raiden Nahida Kazuha Koko since I hyper invested into those three with cons and weapons. Btw you can farm Violetgrass in the teapot and buy from Bubu pharmacy

the elaborate and complex world of Genshin economics. ps: my current Genshin fun is making a team from my least used characters and doing open world stuff with them. Making a effective team by understanding the nuances of the random jig saw piece skills is the fun in this version of gameplay.

C2 Raiden, C2 Nahida and C2 Kazuha are the only characters I would consider pulling for cons on

After having gotten almost all characters and some at C1 and some with their signature weapons I believe the best decision moving forward with my account is to invest on characters that are future proof, often support chars like Nahida

I have 12 limited banner 5 stars and all the 4 stars in the game (except Kaveh). Building characters can be a huge pain in the ass especially when you have so many of them. That's why I decided from now on to pull only on characters I really like and limit myself to 3 5star characters per region. I think I reached the point when vertical investment makes more sense. Constellations and signature weapons are a way to compensate for bad artifact drops and to future proof your characters. Plus you don't need to grind for constellations and farming for weapon materials isn't as hard as farming for artifacts. I plan to get C2 Raiden, C2 Ayaka, C1 Hu Tao and C1 Yelan. I will also get their signature weapons and one for Itto too.

I really like the "who is good at C0" part at the end. It's important.

Me doing both at the same time: vertically investing on 3 different accounts simultaneously with each account having unique main dps units

I did something similar. Played the game for more than a year without ever pulling for sign weapons, only characters to try out different team comps, then after I decided which teams I like the most and want to focus on I started pulling for the weapons 1 by 1 on their rerun. And I don't regret getting the wrong rate up weapon as much since I most likely already have the other character on the banner so I can just use it on them lol

Ultimately it's basically invest in supports, maybe get weapon, get your fav 5 star and after you did all this, consider possibly getting said character best early cons, stop there and maybe move on to a second or third team, cause you'll definitely need to have variety of elements

A relevant aspect it's the barrier posed by a 220+ CV build on all your dps when you have an advanced account if you plan to pull a new dps. It takes at least 2-3 month to fully build a DPS if you are not whaling, so investing horizontally can easily overwhelm your resources. I've invested in 23 5* with vertical investment in raiden c2 r1, yae c2, kazhua c2, nahida c2r1, yelan c1. I've got also Homa, Elegy for the end, Mistsplitter, Unforged and Thundering Pulse from the weapon banner. I could have got almost every 5* unit in the game by now, but i barely use half of the 5* cause in GI we have a lot of great 4* options.

I have gotten to the point where i have so much characters i cant use them all anyways. So now im going to get only characters with a really fun looking kit or design and then get cons and weapons for my current characters so that the ones i do often use get stronger

IMO C2R1 is the maximum for F2P unless you really like a character and don't care about anyone else at all.

It’s a very simple question really, it’s surprising to see people fighting over it. Great video as usual. Glad to see you talking about topics like that

I would never vertical invest but I'm pulling for Xiphos' every time it is featured lol

For me I use this to pick a character. 1. Should I roll for current banner if it has something I like (I ask this question) 2. Do I have enough primos to do that (should I wait until the banner comes out again) 3. Take into consideration upcoming banners (is their a character in next banners that I want) 4. If favorable banner has 2 or more compatible characters (1 being leninet) 5. Is it a character who can support my other fav characters. 6. Is this a character has good versitility? 7. Is their material to ascent or talent level up annoying? 8. Do I already have a weapon that could work with them exceptionally well 9. Do I already have that character's useful support already well. 10. What do video's say about that character. 11. Do I already have/Will constellation give more dmg or ease of use? 12. Is it clunky? 13. Will they be easily replacable/power crept? 14. Are they asthetically pleasing? 15. Am I willing to lose 50/50 to continue to get this character? 16. Will they be fun using in Co-op 17. Does their artifact set share the same domain as my other fav's artifact set 18. Am I willing to make another account to try to get them? 19. Do they have cute idle voice lines/animation? 20. Are they spammable? 21. Are they explore-friendly 22. Do they have good non-combat skills. I saw another comment make one. It seemed fun enough. I went overboard.

Good to see you're channel's doing great man! More power to you!

Just wanted to say I really love your content. I appreciate that you always offer multiple points of view and help people make decisions based on their situation or what they enjoy in the game, rather than blanket recommendations assuming everyone is the same. I'm sure it's not always easy but seriously, you do great work. Also you made a great point that I hadn't really considered about constellations making other characters feel less powerful/fun to play and that whole potential trap. I definitely enjoy having variety more, but I've been tempted by a few particularly strong constellations. This has given me something to really think about whether that might ruin some of my enjoyment in the long run. Thank you!

I wish they would open up more abyss. So we have a reason to bring three teams. That would require development effort though.

Basically half of the charachter best weapon/constellation is Nahida C2

I feel like something that a lot of people don’t think about when considering the best thing to wish for on their account is the fun factor of having certain things. If doing big damage makes you happy, then you could go for constellations of your favorite characters that make them do big damage like C2 Raiden. If quality of life constellations make you enjoy the game more then you don’t have to feel guilty for investing more primogems in your characters. All of my limited 5 stars are C0 with free to play weapons except for Hu Tao and Yelan which are C1R1. That’s because I find both of their C1’s as more fun than their C0. Yelan’s C1 isn’t crazy good, but it makes it so you can dash for longer distances in the over world. If you already have a ton of characters, getting more characters may be overwhelming and you might enjoy the game more by having a few constellations of your favorite characters.

I'm doing Horizontal and also Vertical investment at the same time. I do get whatever 5* I want and like, especially each of the nation Archon. While also building my dream team, I get 2 Ayaka for every rerun banner. Now She's at C4. 1 more rerun before C6. Downside to this is that you won't have that many new 5* and have to really choose between each of those new character. (Problem escalates even more, you might not have new 4* or only C0 character at best from freebies) Resin is heavily invested on minmax-ing artifacts of my favorite characters.

I like to play different characters so I actually build many characters in game haha. But it depletes many mora and resin. So I recommend focusing on your favorite characters and invest in them more.

Wait y’all don’t try to catch them all like Pokémon’s?

I only get the characters I like and if they have great constellations, I get them on their reruns. I also go all out on their artifacts but plan it out based on the strong box so that I can squeeze out the last 10% off damage when their artifacts become available in the strong box.

2:17 Wait.. THERE WAS A STAR BUTTON TO CHOOSE UR FAVORITE CHARACTER!?!?imma need to check waitttttt

I've been wanting hu tao since i first started genshin and after waiting a whole year for her, i managed to save up a good set of crimson witch for her (better than any of my other characters) After realizing she wasnt coming for so long i decided to aim for c1. And when I got her c1, I decided to get homa too and got it. And I also decided to get yelan and got c6 xingqiu on the way. And I'm 100% f2p, just very dedicated for hu tao lol and none of the sumeru cast was very interesting to me except nahida for dabbling in dendro Best investment ever. None of my other characters do as much damage as my hu tao. I also have raiden but she isn't built as good and im lazy and just want to use hu tao for everything And when hu tao gets boring I switch it up to physical qiqi lol

Since I look at leaks and know whats coming up, I horizontally invest when there are new characters I want, but vertically invest when there aren't characters I want. Atm most of the vertical investment I've done is weapons, the 2 exceptions are C2 Raiden and C2 Nahida. Unless you whale or rarely pull for characters I don't think anyone should go beyond C2 and their pref weapon for vertical investment, going any higher and you'll likely be worse off than just horizontally investing.

I'm a F2P that does vertical investment, and I can actually do max difficulty combat events and speedrun spiral abyss because of it. But you must be wondering, I probably have a few characters built, no I actually have 20 level 90 fully built characters, and I'm currently building 5 more (currently level 80). It's just a matter of using your resin right and playing daily 👍

after a year of playing, I feel like I recently hit a turning point on exactly this. Been horizontal all this time but starting to go vertical now. Artifact sets have become a real hassle, running out of mora and xp books is my least favourite thing in the game and most damning of all, I have 5 stars that have become glorified benchwarmers, not because I dont like them but because there's other characters and teams I just like a lot more. At some point improving a character I play all the time will become more fun then adding another character I trot out in a very specific spiral abyss once every month or so. The main thing that puts me of personally is actually overworld difficulty. To me, some characters already feel too strong to still be 'playable' in overworld and getting their constellations and weapons would make this worse

Never go for cons and weapons. Dealing 69% dmg is just a number, instead a new character gives more gameplay, more diversity build, new design, and new voiceline.

The only reason to pull for a characters signature weapons is if your current best option looks terrible on that chatacter.

I don't gave many characters. From the start I only wished for those 5* who I like. For this reason I also have good amount of weapons and signatures. No regrets and no problems with abyss since 2.8

As much as I do agree that horizontal becomes redundant, im too scared to pull for biggers numbers when there's always a chance of a new interesting character coming right after it. There's also the thing, for me, about trying to explore new regions w the characters of that region, to add that extra layer of immersion to the experience

I always went for horizontal investment, I always this mindset in my mind when building a characters. 1. For artifacts always farming for Emblem Of Severed Fate. That's honestly the best way to spent your resin when building horizontal investment. Why? cus all characters can use that artifacts, it just too versatile. 2. There's no such thing as bad artifact, always build them no matter bad it is. Honestly this is solving the problem of swapping artifacts for me. 3. Build for important characters first. Duh... obviously. If you get bored of that tried to build underrated characters. 4. Don't hesitate to build your 3* weapons or even use your billets.

I appreciate videos like this because this is a debate I’m consistently having in my head! I already have Raiden National, Alhaitham Quickbloom, Ayaka Freeze, Ganyu Melt, Itto Mono Geo, yet I have only been getting 33* on Abyss lately so now I’m starting to consider cons and weapons instead of new characters. Unless Fontaine blows up the meta again lol

There are more pros for horizontal investment than vertical investment: 1. You avoid the risk of frustration against enemies that are immune to a specific element 2. This is a character collection game. What are you doing if you're not collecting characters? 3. The progression is more reasonable and sustainable. Getting a new character from Lv 1 to 90 with a couple of talents on Lv 9 is WAY less time & resource consuming than a 200%+ CV set of artifacts, R5 signature weapon and 6 Constellations. There is only one true con to horizontal investment, and even that is a big IF. IF you care about Abyss Spiral, horizontal investment will be EXTREMELY damaging to your progress in terms of the time needed for you to go from starting this game to first completing all 12 floors, getting your first 36-star finish, and finally consistently getting 36-star finishes. It took me almost 1 year to clear all 12 floors, more than a year to get 36 stars for the first time and over 2 years to get 36-stars regularly because I went the collection route (Welkin only, rare occasions buying Battle Pass). There is no content in this game that actually requires vertical investment outside of Abyss Spiral. A player that doesn't care about Abyss Spiral basically has no incentive for vertical investment.

I made so many mistakes on my main account. I wish I had this info back then. I just started over and took a financial loss on the main account. It makes me hate playing. Now im going in with knowledge and free to play, and having so much fun.

Got back into the game after 2 years my friend is helping me with the one team rn (childe national) thinking about making a aggravate/hyperbloom team after i feel comfortable with my current team

If you don't like farming violet grass or other flowers grow them in your teapot. I use my garden patches everytime they are done growing. I get my realm currency and then farm my plants. If you aren't using your teapot, you are missing a ton of free resources.

I really see this when comparing my and my friend's accounts. He invested in guaranteed upgrades (like level 90, all talents 7+ and weapons 90) for literally every single character (except like Xiao and Diluc, which he doesn't have), even Aloy and Qiqi, or Amber. He hasn't really farmed artifacts too much. Meanwhile I've mostly invested in the characters I like and consider useful. I have only 4 characters at lv 90, most are left at 81 (or at 20 if I don't build them). I've spent a fair amount of time farming artifacts for these characters and crowned a few useful talents, but didn't touch some others (many supports have normal attack at level 1). I also have less characters because I skip more banners. As the result I've been clearing spiral abyss with 36 stars for about a year now, while my friend usually stops after clearing floor 11. Although at the end of the day, we both enjoy the game to a similar degree, he just has different priorities than me and that's fine. Not everyone cares about the spiral abyss. It's just that from a purely practical perspective, choosing a few characters (or teams) to invest into is much more effective.

It's important to note that FUN is relative. What's most important is that you're having fun playing.

Im upgrading every char to max atm, guess that problem is obsolete for me

I can confirm, with c3r1 Raiden I sometimes put lv1 Wavebreaker on her in abyss (which makes her in my case only 2% ahead of c0 catch Raiden damage) to actually play as opposed to deleting everything with first burst hit and being stuck without energy for the next chamber.

Team building is the only thing keeping me playing this game. I build characters in between repeat banners and the new character banners. Hoping to have every character finished by some point even though that would mean that I would have to actually wait until a new character comes out for me to actually put some work in. I guess character optimization would take place of character building as a whole.

As a Traveler and Aloy main aswel as literally an "all characters main" i.e. i main Trav and Aloy but also fully build and upgrade all characters in the game that i have(except limited 5* cuz i don't have billions of dollars for that) i never ever go for weapons banner in the first place unless it has a good Aloy or Trav weapon and no other time, i never go for any cons at all no matter what, 5* cons are not worth getting imo given you can get a new 5* rather than a duplicate that bumps your dmg by a tiny little bit as for 4* i never aim to go for more than C0 given for 4* you're bound to eventually C6 them in time. To me vertical investment is stupid while horizontal investment is awsome cuz i want and love playing all characters tho resources are thin so it does take a while to achieve the end goal so it takes ALOT of time and good pre-planning. My priorities are simple: Fully build and max out and optimize Aloy and Trav(all elements) > Get all archons > Get all 4* in the game to at least C0 > Get all the other 5* i personally like. This all goes without saying given i main Aloy and Trav BUT i couldn't care less for the kits of the characters,i just want to collect all archons no matter what aswel as collect all 4* no matter what and all the other 5* i like even if they suck like Dehya.

there is no end. It's all fun. Play like Pokemon. Gotta build them all

Excellent advice, thank you! I've been horizontally investing for about a year now and just started vertically investing. It's interesting and has changed how I see characters. But I like having options and cool mechanics to play with. I'm also a huge Raiden Shogun fan, she's so fun and powerful, I can't wait to get her c2. She's the only 5 star I want constellations for because she's amazing. I call her the Grim F***ing Reaper because she mows everyone down. Thanks for sharing!

Thanks, this helped alot. I was stupid to think I could build all character at start of the game.

My F2P roommate grabbing welkin or two in a year has c6r5 Raiden, and showed me a couple of times soloing entire side of abyss for 36* timer. He plays mostly Raiden with Yae, Yelan, Kazuha. His Raiden has 312%ER; 52%cRate 139%cDmg, I never saw how much atk through r5 passive his Raiden ends up with, but his burst crits for over a mil.

Ill be honest, on the same note of not getting cons go keep it fun. .. Getting 5 star weapons kind of took the fun out. Before, you research and find the best 4 stars or even really good 3 stars that fit each characters, where as, with 5 stars you just slap one one and whatever... makes it wasier but way less fun for me

I get incredibly bored easily so I’d choose investing horizontally so I’d always have something to do Im not interested in doing as much damage as possible

Funny thing is that pretty much _all_ the horizontal variety that a F2P account may need in order to finish content (after proper investiment) is already _either_ *freely given* (from events or progression, like Barbara, Xiangling, Collei...), *always available* (from Paimon's Bargains, like Xinggqiu and Bennett) or *forced from the gacha* (as losses from the 50/50), so only someone that screws their account by actively targetting every and all on-field units (even the ones that overlap) and that throws viable artifacts away would _ever_ be locked out of endgame stuff.

When playing RPG's I like to do horizontal progression to be able to use any character whenever I want, in Genshin I have almost every character in the game (Don't have 1 4 star and 5 of the 5 star), each at least level 71 with 6/6/6 talents and 17 characters with level between 81 and 90, with 8/8/8 talents and the equipped weapons are at least level 70 for all my characters (most are 4 star weapons with a few 5 star weapons). Most of the time I've avoided doing artifacts, only rarely doing it to break the routine. Most of the artifacts I have are from the gladiator and wanderer sets (from the bosses) keeping the better artifacts for investment and the others go to the artifact strongbox to get other sets. All my characters are at a comfortable power for the overworld in a level 8 world. I can do the abyss up to floor 11 with full stars without much difficulty, tried to do the floor 12 but never gotten a star after clearing the first room. To get everyone to level 81, talents 8/8/8 and weapons to level 90 I need to grind for another 400 days if I'm unlucky with the drops. :/

Hmmm my investing looks like waves I guess. I invest horizontally but for the characters I enjoy most, I get their BiS weapon and constellations.

bro C2 your raiden just go for it. You’ve invested so much in this game already you’re allowed to hook up your girl it won’t hurt your content. Razor is my favorite and I’ve pulled 3 weapons for him now and I have almost every character. If an early con is super good and I like the character I’ll get it sometimes. I just got C2 Kazuha. But at the same time I skipped cons on nahida. I’ve only actually done that for a 5 star i tnd to be more like you. I hope you C2 Raiden.

After 3 years, im planning on focusing more on vertical investment as i already have a large roster with many built characters and aside from the remaining Archons (and any Sovereigns they make playable) and a few Harbingers, there isn't really much else that interest me. I have almost all bases covered besides a a few things. This is who i currently use: Electro: C2R1 Raiden, C3 Keqing, Yae, C6 Fischl, C6 Beidou, C6 Sara, C3 Kuki, C2 Lisa (unless the rumored Electro Sovereign becomes playable i don't think im ever pulling another new Electro character) Pyro: Hu Tao, C0R1 Yoimiya, C2 Dehya, C6 Xiangling, C6 Thoma, C6 Bennett (all i want is Chev for my overloaded team, Arlecchino, Pyro Archon & the Pyro Dragon and i'll be done here) Hydro: Neuvillette, C2 Furina, Yelan, Nilou, Kokomi, C1 Mona, C6 XQ, C1 Candace (after pulling Neuvillette last patch, i think im done with getting new characters for this element as well) Cryo: Ayaka, C0R1 Ganyu, Eula, C6 Rosaria, C5 Layla, C4 Mika, C3 Charlotte (probably my least used element atm due to hows its been treated lately. Im just waiting for the Tsaritsa at this point. Maybe get Shenhe to make my Cryo dps stronger) Dendro: C2 Nahida, Dendro MC, C6 Collei, C1 Kirara, Yaoyao (don't have a dps here so im planning on getting Alhaitham) Anemo: Venti, Kazuha, C2 Xianyun, C4 Jean, C6 Sucrose, C3 Lynette, C4 Faruzan (one i get Lynette and Faruzan's C6 i'll be done here as well) Geo: Zhongli, Navia, C6 Noelle (with R1 Redhorn), C6 Yunjin, C6 Gorou (just finished this element after getting Gorou's final con from the event) I have already vertically invested in some of the Archons and Xianyun (while trying to get Faruzan cons lol). My current plan is to use my guarantee on Alhaitham and then hard save for C2 Pyro Archon, Pyro Dragon and Columbina in Natlan.

For the past 7 month i've got every single 5* i wanted in the game and even more. 10 5* with/without cons. I could have built them better if i did not want to invest into 4*. So the problem with 4* is that they give 3 free blue wishes and i absolutely can't say no to them 😂 Now i have half of 4* leveled up to 80-70, and the other half at least 50. I can say for sure it drains a ton of money and exp books. BUT. Because of this i can choose any support any time i need it and slap it on the team. And it also helps with searching for the best unit for the job i want them to do. I'm somehow completely restrictive to choosing 5* but also high heels for 4*. Can't say it's bad because i tend to like 4* more than 5*. Collei, Fiscl, Candace, Yun Jin, Layla, Rosaria, Faruzan have bigger value for me than 5*. But if you can avoid this tendency - better to. Having garbage artefacts has a toll on my performance.

I'm a moderate spender in the game, I started collecting characters since version 2.7 and back then I don't understand building supports and by the time I understand building good support on your fave dps or character, I got burned out leveling up my characters and it becomes less enjoyable. Now Fontaine is around the corner with new roaster of characters, I have to be tactful on who to wish! Resource is so limiting so must plan effeciently.

I like your videos and thoughts on how to play. Keep it up! Glad you're going full time.

I have so many characters and I love it. I love switching between so many characters I find interesting. Obv. sometimes its kinda meh when wanna maxing out things. But this keeps me the most joy.

That point on getting c2 for characters and then wanting more is SO TRUE. I got AlHaitham C2R1 (received gems for Christmas lol so spent it on my fav character) and Nahida C0R1 (Got her weapon accidentally while going for Xiphos) and now every other team I run in abyss just doesn’t compare on both comfort AND damage. It’s like now I want more even though I have plenty just so I can have TWO teams to absolutely shred abyss! I now want Nahida C2 to complete my AlHaitham, Baizhu C2 (for Cyno), Cyno C2R1, Ayato C2R1, Itto C2R1, Kazuha C6, etc. it’s a slippery slope. I don’t plan to splurge, I am welkin/BP buyer for a long time and will probably stay that way to support the game and power up my favorites over time, since genshin is my favorite comfort game. Personally I would say I got tired of leveling up characters so I am happy going for power and only picking up new characters if I really like them and their kits. I’ve fully built 20-25 characters with their own artifacts and I have at least 20-25 lvl. 20 characters on the bench if I want some variety lol

Honestly, im at the point where i don't really care for new characters anymore (and farming their artifacts is a major pain in the ass too) and all i really want now are the remaining Archons, Arlecchino, Columbina, Sandrone, Alice and the Unknown God (if she's playable) and i already have everyone else that i want. Because if this, i decided to focus more on pulling for cons/weapons for my current roster this year instead. Pulled C2 Raiden in 3.3 and got C2 Nahida in 3.6. Tired to get C1 Yae, but got Mona instead and decided to save the guarantee for Furina (planning on getting her weapon too and then get her C2 on her rerun as well). The only 5* characters i have pulled that were new to my account this year have all been standard banner characters (Dehya, Tighnari and Mona) lol.

You don't need to farm violet grass for Xinyan, you can just "farm farm" it at the Serenitea Pot, she's a character I don't love either, but I needed a pyro shielder aside Thoma for my Wanderer, and once I tryed it, my favorite team righ now is Wanderer + Xianling + Xinyan + Diona, it sooo much fun to play for me, that I remade my Exploration Team just changing Xianling for Mona, an now I can fly, climb, go through water bodies, break rocks, burn shields, do ranged attacks, frezee mobs, heal the team, it's suuuch a versitile team! ^_^

I'm probably going for weapons for one reason and one reason only: I'm a Kaeya main and trying to get his constellations makes me sad. If my Kaeya is at C1, then no 5 star is allowed to be C2, I REFUSE

tbh I'm fortunate enough to have most of my favorite characters be 4 stars or 5 star supports that don't really need 5 star weapons. At this point, the only vertical investment i can do is resin refreshing every day in hopes of getting a 0.001% dps increase with artifacts because hoyoverse refuses to give us a good DPS catalyst kekL

This is probably not Optimal, but I pull on the weapon banner. And from there, It will dictate if I pull for the character(s) or not.

certain weapons can have more universal value. such as nilous sword being the only HP sword. im constantly bouncing that thing around even though I didn't want it originally and got it by accident.

I got Yelan's weapon in 14 pulls, so I decided to finally get her C1.

The multiple characters with the same purpose is starting to get to me. I want Wriothesley so bad but I have a C2 Ayaka and he'll never be able to match her. Add the fact that Neuvillette is looking like a hydro DPS and I'm torn.

Dude finally somebody delves into this topic.

I already got too many characters already I always end up using the same few characters just because I like them most Now I rather invest all my resources in those few with constellations and their signature weapons

I'm at the point where I got most of the characters I need and the characters I want (all of the archons so far). Right now I'm just saving for the next few archons left and while waiting, I'm gonna wish on the weapon banner that I don't mind losing 50/50 to.

Alternatively: I can play abyss with like 20 different teams now and that really helps with burnout. Whenever I build a new character I also have their BiS team ready half the time cause I built so many others. But yea this problem can exist and it’s mainly solved by respecting pull value either based on meta, comfort, or your own personal faves. People who research before hand and figure out they love say the bloom meta tend to never regret their Nilou or quickbloom haithem since they are fun comfy teams that clap abyss at low investment. The thing about vertical investment is that depending on the team you flat out don’t need it. Nilou teams don’t need anything but her units existing and maybe an r1 key. That’s it your done and clearing abyss. Haithem is very similar except you don’t even really need his weapon. Low investment Meta teams tend to be low investment friendly and following the meta can ensure you never need to vertically invest. Just saying.

I prefer vertical investment. You get a lot of 4 stars and cons if you hyperinvest anyway so even if you're not aiming for anyone else, the roster still expands. You also have a higher chance of getting C6 4stars if you keep pulling on the same banner

People asking if vertical or horizontal investment is better me: yes jokes aside I usually invest in the characters I want first. Then if I happen to get extra artifact sets (which come naturally) during the farming then ill raise another character that can use it. That's how I've built 40 characters with their own artifacts and weapons over 2.5 years :) It's a lengthy process but its rewarding at the end of the day when u have literally every team possible for any abyss cycle xD

16:27 his c2 is definitely good but please dont get baited by his weapon. Its good dont get me weong But xiphos is just better especially since it gives your party energy aswell and makes it easy to huild him I guess if youre going for perfect artifacts with alot of energy recharge then his signature is better

It depends what you're looking for. Fun can be to collect characters, to shake up the gameplay and don't stick to the same thing over and over. Fun can be reaching the highest level of damage possible with a selection of characters you like. I don't think one is inherentely worse than the others, but the difficulty in Genshin doesn't really justify building C6R5 characters and the constant stream of new fresh characters definitely push towards picking up new characters. I think the best way to enjoy the game is somewhere in the middle, and that middle is not the same for everyone. Personnally, I have a lot of characters, but I also have some of them with constellations. Itto and Cyno are C2R1. Maybe a third of my 4 stars are really invested in, at best.

My ayato with hyperbloom outdamages my soup and xiangling vape..... Hu tao with double hydro and alhaitham spread makes my abyss runs....