Most experts believe you should already have all the artifacts or have a basic understanding of “what are artifacts in Genshin Impact?”, “How to use them?” or “Which artifacts set is good?”
However, it’s safe to say not everyone knows which artifact they should use in Genshin Impact and what the difference is. To answer all the questions and more, I decided to create an in-depth guide for beginners that will explain what artifacts are in Genshin Impact.
Quick Links To The Various Parts Of The Article
- Basic & Beginners Friendly Genshin Artifacts Set Guide
- What Are Artifact Sets In Genshin Impact?
- Genshin All Stats Explained
- What Stats To Give In Genshin?
- Are All Level 3, Level 4, and Level 5 Genshin Impact artifacts worth it?
- What makes an Artifact Set “Good”?
- Genshin Impact Artifacts Scorer
- Genshin Impact: What Artifacts To Use For Each Character?
- How To Get Artifacts In Genshin Impact?
- What Is The Best Genshin Impact Artifacts Farming Route/Routine?
- Conclusion To Genshin Artifact Set Guide
- FAQs
Genshin Artifacts Set Guide For Beginners
What Are Artifact Sets In Genshin Impact?
Artifacts in Genshin Impact are deeply rooted in and integral to the game’s story and lore. Each one has a unique story for its origin, and in classic Genshin fashion, gut-wrenching. Before I spoil the game, let’s talk about why artifacts matter to you.
Whenever you get a character, no matter how good they are, they need to have a good weapon and artifacts to dish out damage. New characters by default don’t equip any artifacts, whereas the game will auto-equip any weapon on your characters.
Heading to the artifacts section on the character’s page, you will find 5 slots encircling your character.
These 5 slots are called –
- Flower of Life (Popularly called as Flower)
- Plume of Death (Popularly called as Feather)
- Sands of Eon (Popularly called as Sands)
- Goblet of Eonothem (Popularly called as Goblet)
- Circlet of Logos(Popularly called as Circlet)
Each of the Artifacts contains a Main Stat and a Substat.
What are the Main Stats and Substats?
Each artifacts have a main stat, which increases when you upgrade the artifact. Main Stat is fixed for Flower of Life (Flower) is HP, and for Plume of Death (Feather) is flat attack.
For sands, goblet, and circlet, it could be anything from crit rate, defence, energy recharge, attack, crit damage, Hydro damage, Electro damage, Geo damage, Dendro damage, Anemo damage, Pyro Damage, or elemental mastery.
On the other hand, substat will always be a combination of four stats from the list below.
- Defence %
- Flat Defence
- Attack%
- Flat Attack
- HP%
- Flat HP
- Crit Rate
- Crit Damage
- Energy Recharge
- Elemental Mastery
Genshin Impact Artifact Substats Guide
What Is Elemental Mastery In Genshin?
Genshin Impact has several in-game reactions that are created once you combine two or more elements. One of the most important substats that impacts and enables reaction is Elemental Mastery. I could deep dive into it, but this short video by YouTuber Crememe explains it no time.
What Is Energy Recharge In Genshin?
Similar to super duper moves in Power Rangers, Winx Club, and Dragon Ball Z, Genshin Impact characters also have a special move called an elemental burst.
A certain energy cost is associated with them whenever you cast them. However, to cast the elemental burst again, you would need to generate the energy, which can be done by generating particles and building energy recharge.
How Much Energy Recharge Should You Build?
It depends what is the energy cost of the elemental burst of the character you are building and the team members present in your party. For instance, some characters like Lisa and Charlotte have high energy cost, but if another cryo or electro member is present in the party, the energy recharge requirement also decreases.
What Is Crit Rate and Crit Damage In Genshin Impact?
While attacking with your character, you must have usually noticed an increase in the damage output at random times. It is your crit rate and crit damage in action. Crit rate% is the possibility of you hitting critical damage, and crit damage% is the output/additional damage that the enemies will receive.
The higher the percentage of crit rate, the more chances of you landing a critical hit, and the higher the critical damage %, the more damage the enemies will receive.
One of the best examples I have read of understanding Crit rate and Crit Damage is the “beating with a slipper” analogy. Imagine, as an Indian parent, you hurl a slipper towards your misbehaving son; the chance of him getting hit is the Crit Rate, and the damage he receives once he gets hit is Crit Damage.
What are Health, Attack, and Defence Stats In Genshin Impact?
Health, Attack, and Defence are as simple as their name suggest. Health represents a scale or amount of damage your character can take before it dies. Defence protects your character from the enemy’s move and reduces the amount of damage taken. Attack is an offensive stat and is built to increase the damage against enemies.
Which Mainstat & Substat Should You Prioritize For Your Character?
Each character in Genshin Impact scales on one or multiple substates like Attack, Defence, Elemental Mastery, and so on. Scaling here means that if you provide the preferred substat to the character, his attack/shield strength/reaction capacity would increase.
For a new or casual player, it might make sense to always use the attack% artifacts, but it can make your characters weak. For your reference, the Xilonen, one of the best supports in the game right now, prefers Defense% stats. The more defense you have, the better healing and attack Xilonen does.
Each character is unique; some characters, like Xinyan, are also split scalers and prefer two stats instead of just one. Her Elemental Burst and Skill damage scale off ATK (Attack), while her shield strength scales off DEF (Defense).
I usually play Nevillette as he is fun and easy to play, and his attack scales with the HP stat. So I stacked a lot of HP stat on him.
There are four ways to find out which substat and mainstat your character would prefer.
- Read The Character Talents Yourself: All characters in Genshin provide a long explanation of how their kits work under the talent option in the character screen. Most characters showcase what the character scales on, so you can prioritize substats accordingly.
- Check the Official Substats Recommendation: After the Genshin Impact version 5.3 update, Genshin has started suggesting the recommended Artifact substat for each character. Data is sourced from active characters and is mostly correct for general, everyday casual players.
- Check Forums: If you’re not a casual player and love to min-max your favourite character, then forums like KQM (Keqingmains) and subreddits of your characters are worth checking out. I frequently visit the Nevillette mains subreddit to see what the best team and combination of supports for the character is.
- Refer to the Popular Genshin Guide Makers: Another, probably the easiest method to get an accurate recommendation for substat is to check out various guide makers on YouTube. I usually go with Zyox, Jello Impact, Zajeff77, and The Genshin Scientist recommendations. If you are a player from India who can understand Hindi, then I would recommend HiroisLive; he makes really good F2P-friendly guides.
Alternatively, you can check this list curated by Gesnhin Impact Fandom for reference. However, they don’t contain all the characters on the list.
- Max HP Scaling Talent Characters
- DEF Scaling Talent Characters
- ATK Scaling Talent Characters
- Elemental Mastery Scaling Talent Characters
A common mistake that Genshin Impact players make is that they think that no artifact is a bad artifact.
I recently discovered my sister, who also plays Genshin Impact, prioritizing “Energy Recharge” substat on the newly released Mauvika character. Energy recharge ER is a waste on Mavuika, as she uses fighting spirit to get her burst back up. So, do your research for your character before you spend resin and mora levelling up your artifacts.
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Are All Level 3, Level 4, and Level 5 Genshin Impact artifacts worth it?
There are three levels of artifacts available in Genshin Impact; the higher the level more mainstat and substat value they provide.
Ideally, you would want all your characters to have max-level 5 artifacts, but it’s easier said than done. Also, if you are an early-stage player, it’s okay to go with Level 3 and 4 artifacts as long as they have the right main stat and decent substat value. Don’t go chasing perfection; it takes time to build characters in games like Genshin Impact
There might be a Genshin expert recommending a particular set with specific stats, which can take months and years to farm.
You can spend money to get Dust of Enlightenment or Sanctifying Elixirs to get the set you want, but it’s not worth the price. I would recommend you spend money to get character or their weapons if you want to support developers.
For those unaware, Dust of Enlightenment allows you to re-roll an artifact so that the desired substat of your choice is levelled up. On the other hand, Sanctifying Elixirs allows you to create an artifact piece with the desired main stat and two substats.
What makes an Artifact Set “Good”?
As we discussed before, each character scales on different stats. However, the General rule of thumb for a great artifact set in Genshin is that if you can deal consistent crit damage and trigger burst whenever you swap back from a different character on rotation, you have a good set.
Generally, a good energy recharge of 180%, 50% CR, and 180% CD is considered good. However, these are very broad general recommendations. It is to be noted that energy recharge is useless on Pyro Archon Mavuika, so individual research is still required for each character.
Genshin Impact Artifacts Scorer
If you want to test your artifact builds and see how they stack up, then Akasha is a great website for that.
You can check the recommended build, what build others are using, and more. Make sure to sign up and follow the steps provided to access your account for analysis.
Genshin Impact: What Artifacts To Use For Each Character?
There are many artifact sets available in Genshin Impact. Each one works in its own way; some contribute individual DPS, boost elemental damage reaction, increase the attack of other characters in the party, and more.
It is generally recommended to go with either set of two or four artifact sets to get the artifact bonus.
Depending on the reaction and team combination you are going for, artifact recommendations change. For early game players, I would recommend referring to the Genshin Artifacts recommendation system. It’s generally great for most players and highlights which artifacts you should be going for.
If you are playing endgame content like Spiral Abyss or Stygian Onslaught, then you might need to formulate a better strategy for some characters.
How To Get Artifacts In Genshin Impact?
When you play the game, you passively get artifacts while defeating the bosses. They are good, but eventually you would need to go for specific artifacts that synergise well with your character.
To get the artifacts, you would need to do domain runs. Each domain gives you 5, 4, and 3-star characters after each run. Use the training book to find out the domain you would need to unlock to get the artifact.
No need to rush to Inazuma using Kaeya’s ice bridge if you are still new to the game. You will eventually unlock all the artifact domains.
What Is The Best Genshin Impact Artifacts Farming Route/Routine?
Each artifact domain in Genshin allows you to farm for two specific artifacts. What works best for me is doing domain runs where both the artifact sets would add value to my account.
For instance, I pulled for Chasca and Xilonen; their best in-slot artifact set is Obsidian Codex and Scroll of Cinder City. So, I had to go to the Sanctum of the Rainbow Spirit domain to farm artifacts for Chasca and Xilonen. After each run, I got artifacts that I can potentially use on either one of them.
So, plan your domain run strategically to make the best use of your limited resources and time. Moreover, I would recommend holding off on domain grinding till AR 45, but don’t spend too much time below AR45 as well; the boss’s artifact drop quality increases when you increase adventure rank.
What Does An Artifact Strongbox Do?
If you have unlocked the crafting bench, then you might have noticed the Mystic Offering option to create a strong box. What it does is take 3 of your 5-star artifacts to create a random 5-star artifact piece of your choice.
So you can use your 3 five-star gladiator finale artifacts to create 1 Maiden Beloved artifact. However, the artifact generated is completely random; it can be a flower, a goblet, a feather, a circlet, or a sand piece.
You can create up to 7 artifacts of your choice by offering 21 five-star artifacts that you deem useless on your account.
Conclusion To Genshin Artifact Set Guide
Hopefully, all your burning questions about “what artifacts are set in Genshin Impact” are now answered. I still feel like I am skipping a lot of information, like how to know which artifacts to use in Genshin Impact, and more, but this blog is already too long.
Do keep in mind that artifact farming in Genshin is a marathon and not a race. Don’t try to speedrun it to finish it in a day. It will take time to unlock all the artifact domains and get the right stats for your character.
F.A.Qs
Artifacts increase the damage by increasing important stats like defence, attack, energy recharge, elemental mastery, critical damage, and crit rate. If you use the sets in pairs or a set of four, then you can get an additional set effect bonus that boosts damage, reaction, or provides team-wide support.
Talents increase damage of your character based on overall stats, which you can increase by equipping artifacts. A high talent level without right artifacts is wasted potential.
There are a lot of good characters in Genshin Impact; some shine with the right support, and some solo. Mavuika, Xilonen, Furina, and Neuvillette are some of the best characters in the game.
Artifact transmuters allow you to create any piece of an artifact set and also choose the main stat and two sub stats.
There is a 6-week cooldown to earn crafting material to create an artifact of your choice.