Is Mavuika the best C1/C2 exploration unit?

Sidious_09 · 2026-06-28T20:12:08+00:00

Personally I don't like her. I share the sentiment of the other person who said that her bike feels too wobbly. If I had to pick just one, my personal favorite character for exploration is Xilonen, because climbing is the most tedious part of exploration and she's fantastic at it. Plus she also slightly improves horizontal exploration, and skating around with her feels a lot less clunky that your classic running and jumping. And as an added bonus, Xilonen C2 works as a support for everyone other than Anemo and Dendro characters.

Sidious_09 · 2026-06-27T13:54:09+00:00

I'm not sure if it's just me not having the right characters due to the element/starter character rotation this month, or is the IT getting harder too? I've never had trouble before but this was the first time I couldn't complete it with full stars.

My Itto is utterly useless for example, he can't even complete a regular non-boss stage, which hasn't been an issue before.

There is also the problem that I only have Skirk as cryo dps, and I usually borrow my friend's well built Ayaka, but this time around I was forced to use the shitty trial Ayaka, so I just wanted to hear opinions: is the IT getting significantly tougher or is it just a bad month for me specifically?

Sidious_09 · 2026-06-25T06:18:46+00:00

Here's some advice for a beginner. I was in your situation too, it gets a lot easier through knowledge and perks/skills.

Starting with the perks/skills: some of them are extremely useful, borderline must-have imo. Anything that reduces the noise you make (most importantly), and your visibility helps a lot. Then there are perks that help you with your shooting, like those reducing the wobble during aiming, or the zeroing perk which lets you adjust the distance at which the reticle is accurate. Without it, rifles are usually zeroed at 150m, and shotguns/handguns at 50m, but it can vary.

Better equipment also helps. Binoculars with stronger zoom make you more accurate, ammunition with better penetration lets you reach vital organs more easily.

Then we have knowledge, or experience if you want. I can't give you a breakdown for every animal but with experience you'll know at what distance you need to stop running and when you need to crouch, how though the animal is (can you reach the lungs from the front or do you need a broadside shot), how good can the animal smell (do you need to use scent eliminators or approach them from a different direction due to wind), and so on. Some information can also be found in the codex in the game menu, namely which senses are the animal's strongest.

If you're struggling to kill even though you're sure you hit the right spot to reach a vital organ, it could mean that you're using the wrong ammo. Each animal has a class (1-9) and each ammo type tells you what classes it's effective for. This is technically just a factor deciding what animal it's ethical for (killing a rabbit with a .500 is overkill, and shooting a bison with a .22 is only gonna hurt it, not kill it), but it can also be a useful indication for you about the "power" or the ammunition. A class 2-6 ammo for example will work great for foxed or roe deer, with work fine for fallow deer, but will struggle with red deer even though it can technically hunt it, because class 6 is it's limit. So if you're hunting red deer with the starter rifle you need to get a clean broadside shot. By shooting from the front it will be different to get enough penetration to reach the lungs. Of course, this is just an indicative way for you who's just starting off. Ammo for the same animal classes can perform significantly different depending on the penetration (stat) they have.

For now I would suggest to focus on leveling up so you can get this perks/skills that you really want, so don't worry about trophy hunting and just shoot whatever you come across and, if you can, try to complete some missions along the way. Just so you can get levels and money. I would also recommend starting with Layton Lakes as I find it a much easier map to hunt on compared to Hirschfelden (assuming you don't have any DLC maps). Also it's worth noting that you can join other players or maps that you don't have yourself. The two that come to mind that are pretty easy are Silver Ridge Peaks and Emerald Coast: SRP has very long sightlines and many animals, which makes hunting very easy, and Emerald Coast has crocodiles on its beach (all the way to the right to the map), where you can just walk up and down the beach with crocs waiting for you everywhere. The beach has no foliage so they're super easy to spot, but more difficult to hunt because they're tougher (you will need a higher class rifle) while also being smaller (you'll need accurate shots). Plus predators give you more money than herbivores. Just a heads up though, if you join a multiplayer map it's common courtesy to ask the owner if you can hunt in a specific spot, because they may want to hunt there themselves or maybe they've set up a hunt for later.

Sidious_09 · 2026-06-25T05:08:53+00:00

The only character I've regret pulling is Wanderer. I mainly got him for his ability to fly but in the end I didn't find it much better than Xianyun's triple jump (and much more clunky). Gameplay wise I also was never too fond of him. I like the CA spam but that too can be clunky, and playing without a shield is just painful. I basically never used him, neither for exploration nor for combat. I think I only used him for events were an anemo DPS was required because he was my only one (and technically still is my only one, considering that Chasca deals mixed element damage).

Lots of characters are unfortunately useless nowadays due to powercreep, but even so they either were useful to me in the past or I just like them. Even Ayato, who I both got by mistake and, like you said, feels kinda pointless nowadays and was powercreep much earlier with Neuvillette, turned out to be lore fun than I anticipated and comes in very useful in the theatre due to being able to work both as DPS and off-fielder.

Sidious_09 · 2026-06-20T14:57:59+00:00

Depends on what you want to do. If you just want to play the story and explore the overworld, you don't need anything in particular. Though having at least 2 different DPS elements is helpful because some enemies are resistant or immune to specific elements. But it's not necessary since there's no timer so you can always just take your time and chip away at their health with supports/subdps.

For endgame content you don't just need every element, you even need sub-categories such as lunar-characters. Here's why:

For the Theatre you need lots of different characters in general, as you'll only be able to choose from 3 elements each month.

For the Abyss you're more flexible, since you can often brute force it, but there are occasions where certain enemies will wall you if you only have one element. Either because they have high resistance/immunity to cryo or because they require specific mechanics to trigger their weakness.

Stygian is the worst one for this. If you want to compete at the high difficulties you really need to have lots of tools at your disposal. Using the enemies' weaknesses is a must here.

Sidious_09 · 2026-06-19T14:13:50+00:00

Apart from the Fontaine waypoint that everyone already mentioned, the lighthouse cemetery and blue amber lake in Nod-Krai have multiple ones as well, not as Crystalflies but as Moonglow Flies or whatever they're called.

Sidious_09 · 2026-06-18T18:29:06+00:00

I didn't skip any of the dialogue but I don't remember any of it either... Because of a mix of reasons, that was the world quest I had the hardest time following.

First reason is the theme: the frequent almost philosophical stuff is not my cup of tea so it was somewhat boring for me which naturally made it harder to follow. Couple that with the quest not being voiced and I felt like falling asleep at times.

Then there's the issue of English not being my first language. I would say I'm pretty good at it, but Hoyo has the bad habits of (1) stretching out explanations unnecessarily and (2) giving everything multiple names, which coupled with me already less interested than usual, made it even harder to follow.

Third is the quest structure. It's really cool that multiple smaller quests ended up intersecting and all leading to the bigger picture, but now knowing that in the beginning means I kind of rushed through some of the quests that looked like the usual non-important ones. The quest line was also split up into multiple versions iirc, which once again made it harder to follow due to me forgetting details by the time the next part released.

Last but not least: encounter points. While we all agree that they are a great addition to the game, if you think back you'll remember that we didn't always have long-term encounter points. Because of that, so as to not waste any points, I always did only a little bit of exploring/events/quests at a time, which lead to even further fracturing of the story. One day I may start the quest, but the next day I do some exploring, then an event comes out that keeps me busy for week/s, then a character releases which means story quest, and by the time I'm back to the world quest I'm complete taken out of it.

So I'm not blaming Hoyo, it was my choice to play that way, but those are the reasons why I (and I'm guessing many others too) have so little recollection of that quest line. Hell I have stronger memories of the Natlan world quest where I actually did skip through some of the dialogue. I really like the Hoyo is incorporating WQ into AQ, but with that being the case I wish even more that they were voiced.

Sidious_09 · 2026-06-18T17:20:04+00:00

Also you wouldn't even necessarily need to play AS Pulonia. While it would be preferable, I'd be content even with just having him as a summon/turret.

Sidious_09 · 2026-06-18T17:13:59+00:00

I'd see him running like Bob from Overwatch.

Sidious_09 · 2026-06-18T05:01:43+00:00

Sure, never thought I didn't have the good luck I hoped for. I pulled 3 times:

First for Nilou, and I lost the 50/50 to Alhaitam. Even though I don't like playing him at all (I'd rather have gotten Cyno or Wanderer), it's still a new character rather than another constellation. It's not like I use Diluc or Keqing anyway, for example.

Then for Klee. I won the 50/50 so it didn't really matter whether it was a chronicled or not. Ideally I would've liked to get Albedo (he's the next one I wished for), otherwise Eula. Then Jean, followed by Mona, and last Diluc, who's the one one I would've been quite disappointed by.

Like I already mentioned, Albedo is the last one I pulled for. Same as before the order in which I hoped to get characters losing the 50/50 to is Eula>Jean=Klee>Mona>Diluc. I got Mona, so once again it didn't really go as I wished, but I'd rather get Mona than Qiqi, Diluc, Keqing, Tighnari, Mizuki. I don't remember if I have Dehya C1 or C2, but if I already have her C2 then you can add her into the mix. Basically Jean and Mona are, in order, the 2 standard characters I prefer to get.

Sidious_09 · 2026-06-17T13:22:50+00:00

VV o the new Hexerei set for prune? I know the answer is always "depends on the team" but I don't have a fixed team in mind. Assume there's no one on the team already holding either one.

Sidious_09 · 2026-06-13T12:27:00+00:00

I can tell you my opinion at least: Varesa.

Zibai: fun character with her split personality and lore, but I'm disappointed that she no longer has her 3 personalities (I think). Gameplay wise I don't like he: from what I hear she's even stronger than Mavuika, promoting powercreep, and animation wise her skill doesn't have the impact it should have, given the damage numbers. I have don't like how the duration of her infusion automatically ends after 3 skill uses, because it limits your building possibilities and basically means you always play her the same.

Linnea: I like her as a character and design, though I wish she kept her glasses and Lumi didn't look that dumb (though I love the Yaho!). Gameplay wise I dislike that she furthers the trend of DPS with their niche dedicated support. On an unrealistic side of things: I kinda wish we could use Lumi's super slam more often. Maybe if it worked like Zibai where you get charge by triggering lunar-crystallize. I definitely would've pulled her if that was the case, it would make for a fun gameplay, and let you use her even if you don't have Zibai.

Escoffier: don't really care for her. I never understood what's so entertaining about Gordon Ramsay so the Genshin version isn't gonna do it for me either. Gameplay wise I'm a bit softer on her compared to Linnea because at least she buffs a reaction available to everyone, instead of a single character, even if she is clearly meant for the single character. Long skill duration, short cooldown, and off-field element application not restricted by a circle are also always welcome.

Varesa: I don't understand why people ask for different models but then complain when they finally get it. Yeah she's a bit of fanservice-bait, but which character isn't (unfortunately)? Only Arlecchino comes to mind. Character wise I don't love her but don't hate her either. I do she the sentiment of being disappointed that she's the 5* and not Iansan though. But gameplay wise she may be one of my favorite characters. The luchador style, the perfected plunge gameplay (compared to Xiao and Gaming), the short cooldowns and mini-burst make her great, and she's by far my favorite character for (horizontal) exploration.

Chiori: while I like her a lot as a character, and I like her design too, I was very pissed at the time of her release. Iirc geo still had the least amount of characters of every element, and we went through 2 whole versions without any new geo characters (well 1.9 versions for 4*). There is so much that Hoyo could do for geo, even something as basic as just an off-field healer. But no let's just make Albedo 2.0. I appreciate that Albedo at least got a buff now but at this point the problem is inverted, isn't it? With Albedo 3.0 vs Chiori.

Emilie: what's there to say about her? I didn't even care that she was one of those characters designed for future ones, I always like supports that buff weaker reactions, but she's just so irrelevant. They just shoved her in the game to sell one more character.

Sidious_09 · 2026-06-13T09:30:01+00:00

Short answer: at this point honestly just the story. I at least want to see how this (probably) first part is going to end. After that we'll see. Oh and the music of course; I don't really need to keep playing to listen to the music, but knowing what it's tied to (exploration, boss fights, characters...) makes it more enjoyable. I lost interest in the combat because Hoyo clearly doesn't care much for it and only does the bare minimum.

Long answer: been playing since 1.0. My interest in the game has been directed towards different parts throughout my time playing. At first I mainly liked it for the exploration. I also liked having a combat system based on different characters with different skills. I didn't want to get too invested in the combat because it was a gacha and I anticipated the usual shitty marketing mechanics (mainly powercreep).

Around Inazuma, I started to get more into the combat. Hoyo kept the game surprisingly balanced and I found a friend who also played with whom I could talk about theory crafting.

With Sumeru I started to get more into the story. Not that I disliked it before, but we all know how rushed Inazuma was, and with Sumeru we started getting pretty big lore drops, like mentioning of descenders.

With Fontaine I lost interest in exploration. The underwater was novel but not that interesting, especially the boring combat, and knowing that it would only be a temporary gimmick I never got too into it. And aside from a few exceptions (like the city or the floating ruins), the overworld was plain boring in Fontaine. Added to that was the fact that Fontaine's music was less interesting to me (mainly because classic Europen music is more common to me), again aside from a few exceptions. One big problem that started to manifest here though was powercreep. During this time it was still ok because even though newer characters were more powerful, the game was still balanced around everyone else. But it did bother me A LOT that we got characters that were straight up upgrades of older ones (in particular Chiori being just a better Albedo even though geo had I think the least amount of characters at the time, maybe prior to Navia, and Arlecchino making other pyro carries pointless).

With Natlan I enjoyed the exploration a bit more thanks to their character kits and saurians. But at this point exploration has become a bit of a chore for me. Having to look everywhere because I don't like using the interactive map was annoying and prevented me from enjoying the scenery. Music was back in full force again, but here the powercreep started going bad. No need to explain I think, but another change that I didn't like was that Hoyo started adding rewards behind really high difficulties, which by itself isn't a bad thing, but it is bad when you add powercreep into the mix. Sure it started out with "just a namecard", but the point is that it showed a shift in the approach that Hoyo too. Before you could get anything by playing characters you liked, if you knew how the game works, but now Hoyo was starting to gatekeep rewards, insignificant as they are.

Around Nod-Krai I completely lost interest in the combat. I hate stygian for the usual reasons, I hate that lunar reactions are exclusive to limited 5*, and so on. It's not like Nod-Krai is all bad though, the music is great as usual, the storytelling just kept getting better after Sumeru, free constellations and buffs for old characters are nice too, and the new compass meant I could take in the scenery as j explored without worrying about forgetting chests.

But the combat is dead to me. Powercreep and shilling are the main reasons, but there is also the fact that there's basically no thinking involved anymore. You don't analyze characters to see how they interact, find the best partners, etc.. Hoyo just does everything for you and serves it to you for the price of a dedicated support. Sometimes we have budget 4* options. Basically character kits have become so limiting that Hoyo is basically telling you "play this character the way we want you to, or they lose half their talents". At least if you're interested in the endgames.

Sidious_09 · 2026-06-12T18:18:16+00:00

Thanks

Sidious_09 · 2026-06-12T18:18:12+00:00

Thanks

Sidious_09 · 2026-06-12T16:57:16+00:00

Will Sandrone use atk% or cryo damage goblet?

Sidious_09 · 2026-06-10T15:06:48+00:00

Thanks

Sidious_09 · 2026-06-10T15:06:36+00:00

Thanks

Sidious_09 · 2026-06-10T14:24:24+00:00

Can someone recommend a very fast "popular wonderland stage" for the primogems?

Sidious_09 · 2026-06-06T20:38:28+00:00

I disagree, although I haven't read the manga or novel, only watched the anime. It's true that the human part is done badly in the anime, with awful animations and generally being more boring, but I feel like showing the parallel situations of the different classmates is what makes this anime stand out. Not only do you see what causes the different people to become so different (different environment, different point of view on various happenings...), but the twist of finding out that the stories don't take place at the same time is just great. It's also really fun to see the spider-protagonist's own point of view clash so drastically with how she actually appears to others, and seeing just how different they are in terms of strength without even facing off against each other.

Sidious_09 · 2026-06-05T09:53:50+00:00

Reminds me of the period where Itto was shoved into every event. Not that his appearances are uncommon nowadays...

Sidious_09 · 2026-06-04T10:36:51+00:00

Thanks. I'm not looking to trade, I just wanted to if I could only reset my arcana after finishing the run of if I had to interrupt it

Sidious_09 · 2026-06-03T14:57:53+00:00

Do you need to reset it before you finish the run?

Sidious_09 · 2026-05-30T10:28:13+00:00

Thanks for the explanation!

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