Genshin Impact Character Progression Guide: EXP, Ascension & Talent Leveling Explained

New players often assume "leveling up = getting stronger" — but Genshin actually splits this into 3 separate systems, each costing its own resources and complementing rather than replacing each other:

• Level: raises base HP/ATK/DEF, using EXP books + Mora. But there's a hard cap per phase — level 20 is the ceiling until your first ascension, so you must ascend before going past it.
• Ascension: 6 breakpoints at 20/40/50/60/70/80, each one both lifting the level cap AND granting a fixed bonus substat (Crit Rate/DMG, Elemental Mastery, Energy Recharge, etc. depending on the character) — this is actually the biggest power source, not raw Level.
• Talent: separately upgrades all 3 combat skills (Normal Attack/Elemental Skill/Elemental Burst) from level 1 up to a max of 10, completely independent of the character's Level and Ascension.

So the correct order is: farm ascension materials in parallel with leveling — don't dump all your Mora/books into Level first and only worry about ascension later, since you'll just hit the cap and waste both resources.

Genshin has 3 EXP book tiers: Wanderer's Advice (1,000 EXP), Adventurer's Experience (5,000 EXP), and the top tier, Hero's Wit, worth 20,000 EXP each. Mora is spent at a fixed ratio of 5 EXP = 1 Mora, so higher-tier books cost more Mora per use but the conversion efficiency stays the same.

The total EXP needed to take one character from level 1 to the max of 90 is roughly 8,362,650 EXP — equivalent to about 418 Hero's Wit books (a widely repeated figure that matches across multiple independent EN wikis). Lower and mid-tier books mostly drop from treasure chests and quests, while Hero's Wit is mainly farmed via the Realm Depot (Serenitea Pot's Teapot furnishing feature) or obtained through events — unlike ascension/talent materials, there's no dedicated domain to farm EXP books directly.

Each ascension at levels 20/40/50/60/70/80 requires all 4 material types at once, with rarity climbing at each breakpoint:

• Elemental Gems: 4 rarity tiers, Sliver→Fragment→Chunk→Gemstone, dropped from regular world bosses matching the character's element (e.g. a Pyro character needs gems from a Pyro boss). The Traveler uniquely uses a separate material, Brilliant Diamond, which isn't element-locked (single-source detail — worth double-checking against the current version).
• Boss-specific material: dropped from regular open-world bosses (not weekly bosses), each boss type usually tied to several characters sharing a region/element.
• Local Specialty: plants/fruits/minerals gathered in the open world, each map region has its own set, respawning on a multi-day cycle.
• Common Enemy Drop: dropped from regular mobs, in 3 quality tiers (rough-refined-perfected), upgradable via Alchemy at a 3:1 ratio if you're short on the higher tier.

Since the 4 types come from 4 different sources, farming along a single-region route is the most time-efficient approach — plenty of optimized farming-route videos exist on YouTube for each area.

Talent books also split into 3 tiers by level range: Teachings (green, 2★) for the low end, Guide (blue, 3★) for the mid range, and Philosophies (purple, 4★) — the top tier — needed for levels 7, 8, and 9. From level 7 onward you also need a matching weekly boss drop tied to the character's element/weapon, which can't be farmed from regular domains.

Talent domains follow a fixed weekly schedule: Monday/Thursday unlocks one group of book types, Tuesday/Friday another, Wednesday/Saturday the last group — while Sunday opens every talent and weapon domain's full material set at once, great for catching up on days you missed. Leftover low-tier books can be crafted up, 3 Teachings → 1 Guide, 3 Guide → 1 Philosophies, via the crafting bench.

Pushing a talent to exactly level 10 ("crowning") additionally requires 1 Crown of Insight — an item you can't freely farm, obtainable only through limited-time events, certain seasonal offering systems, or a fixed purchase of 1 per month from Paimon's Bargains for 50 Masterless Starglitter — so it's smart to save Crowns for your main-carry characters first (per community aggregation, the exact gold-book/boss-material count for crowning varies slightly by character rather than being one fixed universal number).

Every material farmed from a domain, whether ascension or talent, costs Original Resin — it regenerates 1 point every 8 minutes, capping at 200, so a full refill from 0 takes about 26 hours 40 minutes; natural regeneration over a full 24-hour day only gives about 180 points if you're not using Fragile/Condensed Resin.

An easy-to-miss detail: every domain run costs 20 Resin and converts at a fixed rate into 100 Adventure Rank (AR) EXP, regardless of which domain — Domain of Blessing, boss fights, or Ley Lines all give the same rate. So your 180 naturally-regenerated Resin alone nets roughly 900 AR EXP per day (from the 20 Resin = 100 AR EXP formula), on top of the 4 daily commissions (each worth ~175-250 AR EXP depending on your current AR) plus a fixed 500 AR EXP bonus for claiming all daily rewards from Katheryne, plus Teleport Waypoints (50 EXP each) and treasure chests (10-60 EXP by rarity).

The single most important milestone for anyone farming ascension materials: hitting AR45 unlocks domains at the highest 5★ difficulty tier (a figure that checks out across multiple independent KO community discussions) — below that threshold, the same domain still drops 5★ materials, just at lower quantity/quality.

Since resources (Resin, books, Mora, Crowns) are all daily-limited, spreading them evenly across a full 4-person team is the slowest way to get stronger. Recommended order:

• Main DPS first — the character carrying most of the damage should get all 6 ascension breakpoints plus their primary damage talent (Skill or Burst, depending on their kit) up to 8-9 before worrying about level 10.
• Support/Sub-DPS tied to team mechanics — only ascend to breakpoint 60-80 depending on budget; prioritize their support talent (buff/debuff) over their normal attack talent, since their main contribution isn't self-damage.
• Healers/Shielders — usually don't need maxed talents, since healing/shield amounts are already sufficient around talent level 6-7; redirect spare resources to your Main DPS instead.

General rule: don't burn Crowns of Insight on characters you're not sure you'll keep long-term — save them for a comp/combo you've already committed to. See detailed role picks and build stats per character on our Genshin character list, and matching artifact/weapon setups on the artifacts page and weapons page.

The most common mistake: leveling up to 20/40 first, only to realize you're missing ascension materials, then having to pause mid-event/domain rotation — always check the material requirements before dumping EXP books into a new character.

• Don't over-craft books: converting 3 Teachings → 1 Guide costs extra Mora on top, so only do it when you're genuinely short on the higher tier and have a real surplus of the lower one, not just "to be safe."
• Prioritize Sunday farming if you missed the talent domain rotation for a character you need this week — it's the only day every talent/weapon domain opens all material groups at once.
• Check your AR before heavily investing in a new 5★ character: below AR45, the domain still gives materials but at lower quality/quantity — farming early is less efficient than waiting until you hit the threshold.
• Don't spend a Crown of Insight on a normal-attack talent if that character doesn't scale damage off normal attacks — double-check the kit mechanics before "crowning" something that takes a full month to earn another one of.

See how the banner/pity system affects whether you'll actually have enough characters worth investing progression into, and check which team comps are worth building around on our Genshin tier list page.