How to Unlock Free Characters in Genshin Impact

In Genshin impactyou start with just one character, the Traveler. But over time you’ll work to expand your roster to include more characters, each with their own unique abilities. Usually you do this by making wishes on the gacha banners, but if you want to wish a lot, you’ll have to spend money. Luckily there are a few free characters you can boost your team’s growth.

Three of the characters below in particular (Amber, Kaeya, and Lisa) are all characters that rarely appear on the gacha Wish banners. Obtaining constellations for these characters is extremely rare.

Us Genshin impact guide covers the free characters that you can get, including some details on how to get them and how they play.

The Traveler (Aether/Lumine) – Anemo, Geo, Electro, Dendro, or Hydro sword user

When you first start Genshin impactyou can choose between the male character (Aether) or the female character (Lumine). This character is commonly referred to as ‘the Traveler’ and they are the main character of the game. You don’t have to actively use them in your party, but they will play a starring role in most subsequent cutscenes.

The Traveler starts out as an Anemo character, but once you arrive in different regions you can unlock the respective elements for that region. Going to Liyue will unlock Geo skills. going to Inazuma unlocks Electro skills, going to Sumeru unlocks Dendro skills, and going to Fontaine unlocks Hydro skills. You can change the character’s element by visiting a Statue of the Seven in that region.

Note that at the time of writing this, the Traveler has no Pyro abilities, even though we have access to Natlan. The Traveler’s Pyro form will likely come in a later patch.

Amber is the second character you encounter. Once you meet Paimon, follow the opening mission and you’ll encounter Amber very quickly. You can’t really progress and explore without picking up Amber, so just follow the main story missions until you recruit her.

Amber is known for being one of the weakest characters in the game, but her ability to fire Pyro-infused arrows will help you solve countless puzzles around Teyvat.

Kaeya – Cryo sword user

Kaeya is the third character you pick up. Shortly after you encounter Amber and enter Mondstadt, you’ll be given a handful of quests. One of those quests Crash coursetalks about meeting Kaeya in a temple. Follow the objective marker and meet him in the dungeon. After a quick tutorial on how Kaeya and Cryo characters work, complete the quest and recruit Kaeya to your party.

Like Amber, Kaeya isn’t particularly strong, but his Cryo skills will help you solve early puzzles. Additionally, his Glacial Waltz ability can be used in niche team compositions.

Lisa – Electrocatalyst user

Lisa’s acquisition method is very similar to Kaeya’s. As soon as you visit Mondstadt, you will receive a so-called quest Sparks between the pages. Follow the quest marker to another temple and go through it. Just like in Crash Course, you get a tutorial for Lisa and add her to your party when you’re done.

Like the other two, Lisa is far from the best Electro character you can get, but you’ll definitely want her around to solve any Electro puzzles you encounter in the early game.

Xiangling – Pyro polearm user

Once you reach Adventure Rank 20, you will unlock the Spiral Abyss. This is a sort of floor dungeon where you take your team through increasingly difficult floors and earn some bonuses along the way. If you manage to clear Floor 3, Room 3 of the Spiral Abyss, you will get Xiangling for free.

Xiangling is the best of the free characters, and she remains extremely relevant to the meta, as her Pyronado ability allows her to consistently deal damage even when she’s off the field. Alongside Bennett, another four-star, she remains an important part of many teams.

Noelle – Geo claymore user

Noelle is technically ‘free’, as guaranteed by the beginner gacha wish banner. You could avoid wishing on that banner and not getting the guaranteed Noelle from it, if you really wanted to.

There are only five permanently available Geo characters in the game outside of the Traveler, so Noelle is a good choice, especially if you need to solve Geo-based puzzles. You can also build her so she can swing big and hard if you want.

Collei – Dendro bow user

Like Xiangling, you unlock Collei for free just by doing Spiral Abyss. You need to clear floor 4 and room 3, so you’ll have to clear more than was necessary for Xiangling.

Collei is a great support for Dendro, because she can apply Dendro well and can help you solve Dendro puzzles in no time (especially if your Traveler is not attuned to the right element).

Lynette – Anemo sword user

Lynette is unlocked for free once you reach Adventure Rank 25 or higher, and she can be claimed through the usual event screen.

She is a great Anemo support that can be used in the same way as Kazuha or Sucrose; place her skills on the field to add large areas of spine damage when combined with other elements.

Other free characters through events

Sometimes some limited-time events reward free characters (or constellations, if you already have the character). So far, the flagship events have only rewarded four-star characters, but this can be useful if you’re missing important, powerful characters like Xingqiu or Bennett.

The characters available through these events normally reflect the region where the event takes place. For example, a major event in Mondstadt might reward Barbara or Noelle, but an event in Liyue might reward Ningguang or Beidou. Either way, it’s worth paying attention to events to score some freebie characters.

During the game’s fourth anniversary event, players could select a standard five-star character (Dehya, Keqing, Mona, Qiqi, Jean, Tighnari, or Diluc) for free. This is the only time the game has given away a five-star character, but we can probably expect something similar for future anniversary events.

If you are looking for more to do in Genshin impactwe have tons of guides to help you get started. Our early Genshin impact guides provide beginner tips on getting started, how the characters’ basic reactions work, and explain the battle pass to you.

We have in-depth guides on nasty Sumeru side content like Udumbara Pistil locations and where the Aranyaka Mysterious Clipboard buried chests are located. We also have content for Natlan, explaining how to unlock the various Natlan world missions and how to craft the Natlan weapons.