Genshin Impact released at the end of September, which might seem recent, yet fans have already reached the end of the current content and are now focusing their time on putting tier lists together of all the weapons, characters, talents, and more.
And while this is all good and fun, and a lot of these tier lists have good information, players need to remember that this is a PvE game that will constantly change (in fact the 1.1 Update info just recently came out). With that in mind, here are our tips for what players should know whenever they start reading one of the many tier lists out there.
10 They Can't Be Super-Accurate With All these Variables
Like we said before, Genshin Impact has a ton of variables at play. There are technically 23 characters in the game (including both the Geo and Ameno Traveler) and 4 potential slots on a team they could fit in. That's a ton of possible configurations right there. Then, there's the Constellation system, the Talents system, the potential weapons each character "needs", and the way each character "should" be played. All of these factors combine so that it becomes almost impossible to say if one character is arguably the best for every team comp. Sure, there are the best "teams," but these are usually just made up of the 5-stars, which should be obvious.
9 What Makes A Character "Good" Differs From Player To Player
Once again, Genshin Impact is PvE. Players aren't constantly competing to max out their stats so they can beat everyone else online, its only against AI enemies. So, with that in mind, what is "Good" or "Bad" on a character is highly dependent on the player. For example, Amber is one of the worst characters damage-wise, but she can easily become relevant depending on the player! Her passive that reduces the amount of stamina used for gliding is incredibly useful for exploring. Plus, her Elemental Skill is a decoy that can weigh down pressure pads. One player might consider that so useful she should be top-tier, while another wouldn't consider those factors at all and throws her to the bottom.
8 These Tier Lists Have Bias
Genshin Impact is a game all about adorable/cool character designs Like any other Gacha game, it pulls people in by showing them characters that match their exact design aesthetics, and telling them they "totally" have a chance to unlock said character by using the Wish system (which honestly is super lenient and fair). With that in mind, know that exactly 0% of these Tier-lists are unbiased, it's unfeasible. Everyone has preferences for mechanics that they like, preferences for designs that they always fall back on, and "gimmicks" that they're suckers for. For example, there are people who like to run 4 Claymore users, dorks who want all Mages, and hot-blooded individuals who build teams full of Pyro characters. All of this comes into play when they make a Tier list, even if they're not aware of it.
7 Any Character Can Become Amazing If The Work Is Put Into Them
It's time to go a bit more into what we mean by "every character can be good." In GI, characters have a Normal Attack Chain, A Charged Attack, A Diving Attack, An Elemental Skill, and an Elemental Burst. Skills can range in actual effect, everything from a shield that heals to a deployable field that turns all normal attacks into Cryo. Thing is, some abilities that seem like they might be bad are actually insanely useful with the right combination.
For example, Lisa is a good mage, but she becomes insane when used with any Fire character who has an AOE ability like Xiangling since Lisa's Burst and Xiang's Burst both do constant elemental damage, meaning every enemy in the vicinity is constantly Overloaded. And that's just one of many possible combinations.
6 No One Has All The Characters Maxed Out
Here's the thing with Genshin Impact, it's a gigantic game that's not quite complete yet. As of version 1.0, the main story quests end after the Traveler is invited to the "Jade Palace." It's why players have been running up against walls when trying to get to AR 30+ and have run out of books trying to level all their characters. What this all means is, no one (as of yet) has gathered the resources to accurately test all the characters at max level, with all their constellations, talents, and weapons, it's just not possible.
5 They're Great For Basic Information, But Shouldn't Be Decision-Makers
This next one applies to most games with Tier Lists. Basically, we recommend that players use them as a very loose guide or a way of getting in-depth information on characters they were interested in. But Tier Lists should very rarely be used as "Oh these are the characters I must use" because that sort of defeats the purpose of a game like Genshin Impact. All these diverse characters with different elements, personalities, and animations were put into the game so that everyone would likely find at least one they like, whether aesthetically or mechanically. But if players are just using whatever characters rank the highest so they'll follow the "meta" and not the ones they like the most, they'll enjoy themselves a lot less.
4 5-Stars Will Always Be Better
Like in most games, the more "rare" something is labeled the more likely it is to be default better than anything of a lesser rarity. Legendary stuff is always better than Rare, Common can never match up to Epic, and so on. And in Gacha games, it's the star-system, where a character is ranked between 1-5 stars depending on their rarity. The 5-star characters in Genshin Impact are of course the ones that everyone's trying to nab, because they're innately stronger. No one's trying to argue that Amber is a better character than Diluc. So don't be surprised if every tier list you see has all 5-star characters in the higher tiers, because of course it would.
3 Elemental Reactions And Loadouts Matter More Than Specific Characters
Another aspect of Genshin Impact that some players seem to be ignoring too much are the elemental reactions. Fire and Water create Vaporize, Cryo and Pyro cause Melt, Hydro and Cryo inflict Frozen and it continues on from there. These Elemental Reactions play a huge part in the overall damage of a team, and countering the enemy elements isn't only encouraged, it's pretty much mandatory. So, careful stacking elements in your team, even if it's OP characters like Keqing and Razor.
Why? Well, because those high-tier characters won't be able to shine without some sort of elemental combo there to elevate their damage.
2 Character Importance Differs Between Combat, Abyss Spiral, And Exploration
Some Tier-lists for Genshin Impact just put characters somewhere between "S-Tier" and "D-Tier", some rank them #1-24, while others go a bit more in-depth. These in-depth ones are the versions we appreciate most, as a lot of them recognize that a character that's insane during combat might be sort of worthless for open-world exploration. So, do a bit of digging on each character you like from these tier-lists, find out what their passive talents are, and see if your potential team comp can do work in every environment.
1 Most Tier Lists Don't Consider Constellations Enough
And finally, a lot of these Tier Lists don't really consider the Constellations enough. We get it, to unlock Constellations for a character, players have to pull them multiple times from the Wish system. But, that doesn't mean these Constellations shouldn't be taken into consideration with the Tier Lists. For example, Fischl is one of the characters who is always very high on Tier-lists. But, just like any character, if her build isn't right, she won't become overpowered. If Fischl doesn't unlock at least her first Constellation that keeps her crow/orb doing damage even when its on cooldown, her viability suddenly plummets. Just keep these Constellations in mind is all.