Genshin Impact has been out for over a year now. It’s easily one of the most popular mobile and gacha games of all time, especially among a young English-speaking fanbase. However, it’s not unusual to see certain older players make certain mistakes either.
It’s not rare to see someone who might have not even played a JRPG before try their hand at the open world by miHoYo. However, you can easily spot on social media several mistakes made by not only beginners but experienced Genshin Impact players as well. Here are some tips to help and some (subjective) food for thought.
Mistake N°1: Pulling to build pity inGenshin Impact
Starting with the one practice that has bothered me the most ever since I realized its existence. I’m not sure how this all started. Perhaps from all the misdirected advice from inexperienced gacha players suddenly playingGenshin Impact. This is such a bad practice that part of myself can’t help but feel that anyone claiming they’re pulling “just to build pity” is trolling.
If you don’t want the 5-character then you shouldn’t pull on their banner. You should never do it. “Building Pity” is easily the worst mismanagement mistake you can do inGenshin Impactor in any gacha game ever. Especially as you WILL get unlucky, pull the 5-star character you didn’t want, and get your pity counter reset.
What about pulling for a new 4-star character on the banner of an unwanted 5-star character?
As for when there’s a new 4-star character featured on the 5-star character you don’t want to pull for, it’ll always be best to wait. Pulling only for a 4-star character is the same as pulling on weapon banners. It’s something only whales should do. Don’t do it as a F2P player.
Wait until that 4-star character is featured on the banner of a 5-star character you actually want. That’s the safest, most logical choice for F2P players. Or wait until you luckily get that 4-star character on the standard banner.
Mistake N°2: Using tier lists and the meta to decide which characters to pull inGenshin Impact
One of the most important rules to follow in gacha games is to only pull characters you actually want to marry. Don’t pull characters because guides and YouTubers want you to pull them.
Unless you’re a whale, pulling characters because you’ve heard that the character is strong in the meta isn’t a mistake in itself, but it’ll quickly make you grow tired of the game. If you don’t pull a character you like because they’re “weak”, you won’t enjoy gacha games in the first place. You’ll quickly get weared out and stop playing altogether. And that’s not even mentioning how pulling a “strong” character isn’t worth much inGenshinif you aren’t lucky enough in the Artifacts substats lottery.
Genshin Impactis way too easy to care about the meta
This is especially true in the case ofGenshin Impact, a game with pretty much no difficulty whatsoever.If you findGenshinto be difficult outside of Abyss Floor 12, it’s likely you wouldn’t be able to fully utilize the meta even if you had a “strong” character anyway.Pretty much the only exception to that rule is Zhongli.
It’s unlikelyGenshin Impactwill ever add PVP either. It’s not something actively sought by players or developers of Japanese-stylized online RPGs.
I’ve been saying this since the 3rd Beta Test before the game launched on August 06, 2025, but sadly miHoYo still hasn’t found a way to add challenging and interesting content inGenshin Impactwithout resorting to simple DPS checks and HP sponges. Constantly pulling the newer, stronger characters who powercreep past characters will help you get that extra 300 Primogems a month from Floor 12 Abyss. But that’s the sole benefit you’ll get from it. It’s not worth it.
Genshin Impactmistake N°3: Skipping dialogues
This one is more objective than the others and is bordering “you’re playing the game the wrong way” territory. But rather than newcomers, this is definitely something that experienced gacha players are prone to do.
There are overall two types of gacha players. Those who read the game’s dialogue and story, and those who don’t (or catch up later). Most gacha games are actually designed with players who skip dialogues in mind. And you’ll often get a quick summary of a story event if you skip it. That’s because the main appeal of these gacha games is to collect characters and build them.
The biggest appeal ofGenshin impactis its story
However, what’s the main appeal of Genshin Impact? I personally wouldn’t say it’s collecting characters.Genshin Impacthas a very expensive gacha system overall and few free rewards. It’s difficult even for wales to keep up with all the new banners and get every single 5-star character and weapon, unless they’re spending in the thousands.
As for the battle system, despite being an action RPG, your movements are pretty limited, and your Artifacts' substats will do the difference rather than your skills.
This leaves us with exploration and especially the story. The dialogues are definitely the main charm point ofGenshin. Most notably thanks to how they’re nearly always voiced. miHoYo definitely believes in its story’s attractiveness as well, asGenshin Impactis the only gacha game I know where you technically cannot directly skip dialogues and cutscenes.
Mistake N°4: PlayingGenshin Impacteven if it feels like work
Genshin Impactis a gacha game, so by design, you’ll end up having to do your dailies if you want to save gems. Going through repetitive tasks each day and each week. If you can’t stand it or if the game feels like a chore, it’s fine to stop.
I’m sure this is a point reached by many long-timeGenshin Impactplayers. Especially those for whom it was the first ever gacha game one year ago when it was released. I don’t know if I actually need to say that, as it feels so obvious, but there’s no point forcing yourself to playGenshin Impactif you’re not actually having fun. There are hundreds of other JRPGs you could play, with no gacha elements. This leads us to the fifth and final mistake often made even by experiencedGenshin Impactplayers.
Mistake N°5: Only playingGenshin Impactas your “main” game and not trying out other games
Again, that’s a very subjective “mistake”, butGenshin Impactshouldn’t be your “main” game. If you beginGenshin Impactnow, you pretty much have over 100 hours of passionate exploration, story, and quests awaiting you. But you’ll ultimately reach a point where you’ve cleared most of the interesting “content”.
Gacha games are designed to only be played for a few hours a day at most. And it’s the same forGenshin Impact. If it’s the sole game you’re playing for hours each week, you’re bound to get bored at some point.
Of course, things would be better if miHoYo managed to solve that issue, but it’s important to realize that this is an inherent part of the genre in the first place. Playing only a few hours or even just a few minutes a day is the whole concept that sociage / gacha games are built upon. And whileGenshin Impactmight be an huge open-world JRPG, it’s still a sociage at the end of the day. For comparison’s sake, I’ve honestly almost never seen any of my Japanese friends playingGenshin Impactcomplaining about the “lack of content”. Because they’re used to this in the first place.
Play JRPG classics, watch old school anime
As the content grows thinner and you wait for new updates, you should play other things. There are hundreds of legendary Japanese games out there you could play. There are tons of anime series you could watch outside of the ongoing popular stuff. And you could always ask me for recommendations in the comments or onTwitterif you don’t know where to start.
Genshin Impactdeveloper miHoYo is made out of otaku. And what otaku do when creating stories is recycle classics they love. Experiencing these games and anime classics yourself will make you able to recognize these inspirations and get a much better understanding ofGenshin Impact overall.
