Genshin Impact Beginner Characters: Who to Build First From Amber, Kaeya, Lisa to Your First Team (Patch 6.7)

Before you even think about pulling on a banner, Genshin already hands you 4 fully free characters just by playing the Mondstadt main story: the Traveler — your protagonist, whose element unlocks with each region's Archon Quest (Mondstadt → Anemo, Liyue → Geo, Inazuma → Electro, Sumeru → Dendro, Fontaine → Hydro, Natlan → Pyro) — followed by Amber (Pyro, bow), Kaeya (Cryo, sword) and Lisa (Electro, catalyst), who all join through early main quests.

• None of these four require gacha — story progress alone gets you all of them.
• They also give you your first 4 elements to start experimenting with reactions, see the elemental reactions page.

Honest answer: it depends on who, not "skip all" or "build all".

• Amber: weak personal damage, not a viable long-term Main DPS — her real value is an early AoE trap skill and near-zero investment cost if you just keep her as backup.
• Kaeya: cheap Cryo application, still a solid Sub-DPS/Support for Freeze/Superconduct if you don't own a stronger Cryo unit yet — one of the more build-worthy starter 4-stars.
• Lisa: wide Electro application plus a slow, pairs well with Dendro/Hydro for Aggravate/Superconduct/Hyperbloom — still relevant in early-mid game.
• Traveler: the most flexible of the four thanks to free element-switching — several Anemo/Geo/Dendro Traveler builds even rank as long-term useful Support/Sub-DPS, see the tier list page for details.

Genshin's standard team framework is 4 characters, 3 core roles: Main DPS · Sub-DPS · Support (some breakdowns split out Sustain/Heal as a 4th). The biggest beginner mistake is leveling 8-10 characters evenly at once — the result is nobody is strong enough to clear early content.

• Pick one Main DPS you enjoy playing from what you already own, and pour EXP books + Mora into that character first.
• Then fill in 1-2 Sub-DPS/Support characters for whichever roles are missing — you don't need every 'hot' character if your team already covers its roles.
• See the full team-building framework and Flex-slot philosophy on the team building guide page.

If you don't own a single 5-star yet, the National Team — Xiangling + Bennett + Xingqiu + Chongyun/Sucrose — is the most reliable place to start: all 4-star characters that are easy to obtain from standard/event banners, simple to pilot, and dealing steady damage through Vaporize (Pyro-into-Hydro 1.5x, Hydro-into-Pyro 2x) and Melt (Pyro-into-Cryo 2x, Cryo-into-Pyro 1.5x).

• The 4th slot is a genuine flex: Chongyun (extra Melt damage) or Sucrose (crowd control plus a team-wide Elemental Mastery buff).
• Being all 4-star means near-zero gacha investment — you just need levels and gear.
• See more F2P comps on the teams page and the F2P guide.

The standard tier-list convention: 5-star characters are rated at C0 (no constellation), 4-stars at C6 — this matters a lot for beginners since you'll almost certainly only pull a C0 copy of your first 5-star. Don't wait for 'enough constellations to be strong' before building them — at C0 a 5-star is already carry-capable.

• Each Wish costs 160 Primogems; soft pity kicks in clearly around pull 74, and hard pity guarantees a 5-star by pull 90 (full breakdown plus a live calculator on the pity system page).
• The standard banner (Wanderlust Invocation) always has a fixed 5-star pool (Diluc/Jean/Qiqi/Mona/Keqing/Dehya or Tighnari depending on the period) — you don't need to wait for a limited banner to get a character to build right away.
• Prioritize pulling whoever fills a role your team is missing over whoever's 'hot' but duplicates a role you already cover.

Don't burn Resin on artifacts too early. The commonly confirmed threshold: skip it before AR30, you can test the mechanic around AR30-44, and farm seriously from AR45 onward — because AR45 unlocks the artifact domain's highest difficulty tier, guaranteeing a better 5-star drop rate per Resin spent.

• Early AR: focus on main quests and world quests to unlock systems — your 4 free characters are enough.
• Mid AR: lock in one Main DPS and assemble the National Team or whatever comp fits your roster.
• AR45+: start farming the right artifact set for your Main DPS first — see set/main-stat picks on the artifact guide page and ascension materials on the ascension materials page.

Everyone's felt the sting of losing a 50/50 or getting stuck halfway after leveling ten characters at once — here are the most common habits that slow beginners down or waste resources:

• Spreading Resin/EXP books across too many characters instead of focusing on one Main DPS first.
• Ignoring main stats (Sands/Goblet/Circlet) when leveling artifacts — a correct main stat beats a 5-star piece with the wrong one.
• Chasing whatever character is 'meta' even when your team already covers its roles, instead of pulling for the role you're actually missing.
• Forgetting redeem codes for free Primogems — you just need AR10 to redeem them, check the latest on the codes page.