Genshin Impact New Characters — Who Is Worth Your Time

Tier lists for Genshin Impact age badly, but the reasoning behind them ages a lot slower.

A difficult pick with a high ceiling is worse than an easy one until you have put the hours in. Tier lists describe a skill bracket, and most of them do not say which one. Anything that behaves differently on console than on PC is flagged where it matters.

How the roster breaks down

Role coverage inside a team matters more than the individual rating of any one pick. New additions are typically overtuned at release and corrected within two patches. Genshin Impact is not shy about hiding useful information two menus deep, so some of this is simply knowing where to look. Every roster has one entry that is quietly excellent and permanently unpopular.

Balance passes usually move numbers rather than reworking a kit, so the character still plays the same way. If a step reads as obvious, do it anyway — the obvious ones are the ones people skip and then wonder about. The strongest pick in professional play is often the worst pick in a solo queue.

The picks that punish beginners

There is no hidden trick here that the game is keeping from you. Nothing here assumes a particular playstyle beyond wanting the thing to work. Treat anything stated without a version number as provisional.

• Ignore tier lists that do not state the skill bracket they describe.
• Check the patch date on any ranking you are reading.
• Read the whole sequence once before doing the first step.
• Pick a role before picking a character.
• Learn one forgiving option properly before adding a second.
• Expect one number in every guide to be out of date; the method is what matters.

Why tier lists disagree

The developers have changed their mind about this at least once, which explains the older advice. If your result differs from what is described here, note what is different first rather than starting over. Where something depends on your platform or region, that is called out rather than glossed over. The community wisdom on this is roughly half right, and the half that is wrong costs the most time.

Patch notes move numbers around constantly; the shape of the answer holds even when a specific value shifts. None of this needs a paid tool, a third-party launcher or an account on a site you have never heard of. A single check up front replaces a lot of guessing later.

What changes between patches

The awkward part is rarely the step itself, it is knowing which step comes first. Do the cheap check before the expensive one — that ordering alone saves most of the frustration. Most of the disagreement you will find online is two people describing different builds.

It helps to understand why a step exists, because then you can adapt it when your situation is slightly different. Everything below is framed around the current state of Genshin Impact rather than a launch-week impression. What follows assumes you are on a current install and have not modified it.

Good places to start

Where two approaches both work, the one with fewer moving parts is the one to keep. If you are coming to this after a long break, the terminology has probably moved on. The short version is near the top on purpose; the reasoning is there if you want to know why.

Where people go wrong

• Rushing the last step, which is usually the one with the actual requirement in it.
• Grinding a method that was patched months ago because a thread still ranks well.
• Copying a setup wholesale from a streamer without understanding what each part does.

Genshin FAQ

Are tier lists worth reading?

The reasoning is. The ordering is a snapshot of one patch at one skill level.

What if none of this works for me?

Then something in your setup differs from the assumption — version, region or platform. Check those three before anything else.

How many are there in total?

The number moves every season. What matters more is that the roles behind them have stayed stable.

Who should I play first in Genshin Impact?

Something forgiving in the role you enjoy. The forgiving pick teaches the game; the flashy one teaches frustration.

Come back to the caveats list if it does not work first time — the answer is almost always in there.