Genshin Impact Weapons: Types, Rarities, How To Obtain And Level Them

Understanding Genshin Impact’s weapon system is crucial for optimizing your character builds and maximizing combat performance. This comprehensive guide breaks down everything from basic weapon categories to advanced enhancement mechanics.

In any role-playing game, your equipment choices significantly impact character effectiveness, and Genshin Impact follows this principle with its sophisticated weapon mechanics. Weapons serve as the primary source of attack power while their unique passive abilities create powerful synergies with character talents and artifacts. Whether you’re building a main damage dealer, support healer, or defensive unit, selecting the appropriate weapon transforms your combat capabilities and team composition strategies.

Aloy from Horizon Zero Dawn with her Bow weapon

Genshin Impact features five distinct weapon classifications: swords, claymores, bows, polearms, and catalysts. Each character possesses inherent weapon compatibility, restricting them to a single weapon type that cannot be changed. This design encourages strategic team building where weapon availability influences character selection. Beyond type categorization, weapons follow a rarity hierarchy ranging from one-star to five-star ratings. Higher rarity weapons demonstrate superior stat progression – a level 20 five-star weapon will consistently outperform a three-star equivalent at the same level due to enhanced scaling coefficients.

Weapons achieving three-star rarity or above incorporate both secondary statistics and passive abilities. Secondary stats provide additional combat attributes like critical hit chance, elemental mastery, energy recharge, or defense bonuses that scale with weapon level. Passive abilities exhibit tremendous variety, offering conditional damage boosts against specific elemental afflictions or providing randomized buffs upon character switching. These unique passives are weapon-specific and can only be enhanced through refinement processes, which we’ll explore in detail later.

Weapon acquisition strategies vary significantly based on rarity tiers, requiring different resource investments and gameplay approaches. Understanding these methods helps players efficiently build their arsenals without wasting precious resources.

Weapon Event Wish banner

Five-star weapons represent the pinnacle of equipment and can only be obtained through the gacha Wish system. Specifically, they’re available in Wanderlust Invocation (standard banner) and limited-time weapon event banners. Character event banners historically exclude five-star weapons, making targeted weapon acquisition require specific banner participation. Four-star weapons offer more accessible alternatives, available across all Wish banners, purchasable from Paimon’s Bargains using Masterless Starglitter, or craftable via forging with specific Billet blueprints. Starglitter accumulates through Wish pulls, while weapon Billets drop from weekly bosses or can be purchased from certain souvenir vendors. Additional four-star sources include the premium Battle Pass rewards and limited-time event completion bonuses.

Three-star weapons primarily come from Wish pulls or exploration chests scattered throughout Teyvat. Two-star and one-star equipment can be discovered in open-world chests, investigation points, or purchased from non-player characters. Early-game players should prioritize collecting these lower-rarity weapons as temporary solutions while working toward superior alternatives.

Common mistakes include wasting Primogems on standard banners for specific weapons or overlooking free event weapons. For optimal resource management, focus on weapon event banners when targeting specific five-stars and always participate in events offering free four-star weapons, as these often provide competitive options for free-to-play players. If you’re looking for comprehensive weapon strategies, check out our Weapons Unlock guide for advanced acquisition techniques.

Proper weapon enhancement transforms mediocre equipment into battle-ready assets through three interconnected systems: experience leveling, ascension breakthroughs, and passive refinement. Mastering these mechanics ensures your weapons perform at their maximum potential throughout your adventure.

Weapon Ascension menu

Weapons gain experience through two primary methods: consuming other weapons as fodder or using specialized weapon enhancement ores. These ores come in multiple tiers (Mystic, Fine, Basic) providing varying XP amounts, craftable at blacksmiths using mined crystals or obtained through Adventurers’ Guild expeditions. Daily commissions, quest rewards, and event participation also provide consistent ore sources. Maximum weapon level caps at 90, but achieving this requires six separate ascension phases, with the final ascension requiring Adventure Rank 50 completion.

Ascension represents critical power spikes for your weapons, unlocking higher level caps and occasionally enhancing secondary stat values. Each ascension tier demands specific material combinations including domain drops, local specialties, and monster components. Planning ascension material farming routes in advance significantly reduces time investment and ensures smooth weapon progression.

Refinement exclusively improves weapon passive abilities by consuming duplicate copies of the same weapon. Each refinement level (R1-R5) strengthens the passive effect, with R5 providing approximately double the potency of R1. This system creates strategic decisions about whether to use duplicates for refinement or equip multiple characters with the same weapon. Generally, refinement provides greater value than multiple copies for most weapons, especially for DPS-focused characters.

Optimization tip: Focus on leveling your main DPS weapon to maximum first, as this provides the greatest combat power increase per resource invested. Support characters often perform adequately with lower investment, allowing you to prioritize resources effectively. For broader character optimization strategies, our Class Guide provides detailed build recommendations. Time estimates for fully leveling a weapon from 1-90 with optimal farming typically require 2-3 weeks for free-to-play players.

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