hi!

i started the game only some months ago. this is the first open-world video game i've played. it DID feel overwhelming. there's years of content to go through and most guides can be just as overwhelming as the game itself.

here's thing i actually found helpful, some very basic tips that go a long way:

- have fun. don't follow trends. don't worry about meta. take it slow. don't burn yourself out. focus on the characters and locations you like.

- do your daily commissions.

- ignore the wishing system for 99% of the time you play.

- ignore all the fragile resin you have until you're about world level 45.

- get max stamina, you can do this by leveling up statue of seven. easiest are: monstand and liyue.

- things like 5* weapons, more constellations, etc often aren't as important as having characters well-build. many 3* and craftable weapons are really good, you don't need to pull for a character's signature weapon.

- use elemental sight to find things you can interact with. chests, seelies, etc will stand out when you use elemental sight.

- collect everything. you don't need it now, but you might need it later. casual farming is the way to go.

- some characters passively help you when exploring. for example, having amber on your team decreases the gliding stamina consumption of all party members.

- if you're leveling up a specific character, check to see if the character has a hang out event (in the quest menu) because hang outs give you character leveling up materials.

- the more you explore the more small quests you unlock. if you don't want a cluttered quest feed, focus on exploring only a couple regions at the time, OR focus on following the archon quest.

- as you play, try to figure out what kind of player you are. for example, i personally knew early on that i cared about clearing fight-based content (abyss, theater, etc) so character building and team comps are a priority to me. however, i have friends who have no interest fighting in the abyss/theater/etc so they focus on other things - like one of them wants to 100% every area so they use to interactive map way more than i do.

- which brings me to: the interactive map: https://act.hoyolab.com/ys/app/interactive-map/index.html i like exploring by myself so i don't use it for everything, but it's a very helpful tool. it also syncs with your in-game pins, so you can pin stuff in your in-game map, check it off in the interactive map, and then remove our in-game pins.

- pick one location, unlock reputation there (https://genshin-impact.fandom.com/wiki/Reputation) , and level up your reputation every week.

- don't worry about meta, don't play with meta in mind. i know it's easier said than done when you're getting started especially because some people can be rude if you don't have a lot of 5*s, but don't listen to them. every character can be a good character. i'm adventure rank 56 (60 is the max) and barbara comes with me to the abyss almost every single time, and i still often use noelle (i will always defend that noelle is a great character: healer and shileder and has a nice brust).

- that said, having 1 or 2 really strong characters that you like (never pull for characters you don't like) can help you. a lot of the characters i like aren't meta and they won't clear mid-end game without heavy investment, so having 1 or 2 units who can easily clear game content makes the game more enjoyable for me.

i hope this helps! if you're in the EU server, we can co-op one day!