If you’ve been online anywhere lately you have seen ads for “Genshin Impact.” This free-to-play action role-playing game allows players to assemble a team of quirky characters and explore a massive open-world fantasy realm. Each character specializes in a particular element and you will use these abilites to your advantage in both combat and world exploration. It’s a fun game with a massive amount of features to uncover. That’s why I am offering up five essential things you should know when starting out on your own adventure.

1. You cannot sell items
You will pick up a ton of materials as you explore Teyvat. Chests are everywhere and you will never run out of enemies to defeat. Before you know it, your inventory will be packed with weapons, artifacts and various items. However, you will soon discover that none of the merchants offer you the option to sell these materials to them. Instead, you can use all of these materials to enhance the items you intend to use. Simply select the weapon or artifact you like and scroll down to the enhance option. There you can select other items you won’t use to power up the ones you will. A level 20 bow will do a lot more damage than one sitting at level 1 still.

2. Concentrate on gaining adventure points over experience points
This one is challenging. If you are a regular RPG player, then your initial instinct is to grind character levels as much as possible through EXP. However, to get the most out of “Genshin Impact” you will need to focus on gaining adventure points first. Most of the game’s main story quests are locked behind a certain adventure rank. So if you want to continue searching for your sibling and handling the massive problem of Stormterror, you need to get those levels up. In fact, you’ll need to hit adventure rank 20 to unlock all of the game’s features. Opening chests, unlocking teleport points, making offerings and completing quests will all garner you adventure points so you can quickly move towards level 20.

3. You don’t need to spend real money
Yes, this game does include gacha mechanics. While playing, you will uncover a feature known as wishes. Basically, you can spend Acquaint or Interwtined Fates to roll for a chance to obtain rare weapons or characters. You can do individual or bulk rolls of ten. It’s tempting to spend real world money on these rolls. However, there is really no reason you should ever need to do so. If you find yourself lacking the materials for a roll, you can spend Primogem to buy them. Primogem can be found all over the world and they are easy to earn. You can even get them for tasks as small as uncovering a new location. So save all of your primogems so you never have to worry about spending real money.

4. Worship Statues of the Seven whenever you can
Throughout your exploration, you will run across winged statues known as Statues of the Seven. If you choose to worship these statues, you will get a ton of benefits. If it’s your first time worshipping one, it will unlock a section of the map for you to see. This means you can better plan for how you will explore that area. Whenever you level up a statue, you will be rewarded with a ton of great stuff. In addition to a lot of adventure EXP, you will also get Primogems, Anemo Sigils and Stamina. The last is especially important, as more Stamina means you can climb and soar for longer. If you want to explore every crevice of Teyvat, you will need to maximize your stamina. Make sure you always collect as much Anemoculus as you can for worshipping. Some playstyles need to switch out a lot of characters for maximum damage output, you can check out one like this Sara Genshin Impact guide.

5. Switch characters often
It’s tempting when playing an RPG to focus on the main character you start out with. However, you will find much more enjoyment in “Genshin Impact” if you switch characters often. Every character has their own unique elemental abilities, combat style and skills. You can maximize the effectiveness of these abilities by utilizing them at the appropriate time. Is it raining outside? Try switching to a Cryo or Electro user to give your enemies status effects. Is there a hard-to-reach enemy out in the middle of the water. Switch to a Cryo user and build an ice bridge to reach them. Play around with each character and their abilities. I promise it will not only be enjoyable, but allow you to defeat your enemies much easier.