Genshin Impact Exploration Guide: Stamina, Waypoints, Statues of The Seven, Oculi & Chests

Stamina (the green bar under HP) caps at 100 by default, doesn't regen while in use, and only refills once you stop the stamina-draining action or touch solid ground/calm water.

• Climbing: drains continuously, faster in the rain (slippery surfaces).
• Swimming: drains slower than climbing; running out mid-swim pushes you to the nearest shore and costs a bit of HP.
• Gliding: drains very slowly, effectively unlimited over most normal terrain.
• Sprinting: only drains while holding the sprint button on land, NOT while walking normally.

Ways to boost stamina efficiency: cook stamina-restoring dishes (Sashimi, Adeptus' Temptation, etc.), some characters have skills that temporarily remove climbing/swimming stamina cost, and higher-level Statues of The Seven regen your stamina faster while standing near them. Check which characters have the best exploration utility on our Genshin tier list.

These two landmarks are easy to confuse since both require interacting to "unlock," but they serve completely different roles:

• Waypoints: only used for fast travel — no HP/stamina refill, no special rewards. There are many of them, spread evenly across the map for convenient movement.
• Statues of The Seven: interacting fully heals you and refills stamina for free, and also serves as the place you turn in Oculi to level up — each statue level per region (Mondstadt, Liyue, Inazuma, etc.) unlocks more Primogems, a higher stamina cap, and reveals chest/Oculus icons on the map within a growing radius.

So prioritize unlocking Statues first in whatever region you're farming (especially a newly released one) so the map reveals icons automatically instead of you having to scour every corner — then use Waypoints to optimize your route for farming ascension materials, see more on our Genshin ascension materials guide.

Oculi are region-specific exploration items found in the open world (often floating high up, requiring climbing/gliding, or hidden behind a puzzle), which you then turn in at that region's Statue of The Seven to level it up:

• Anemoculus (Mondstadt) & Geoculus (Liyue): the original 2 types, totaling roughly 66 and 131 respectively depending on the current map.
• Electroculus (Inazuma), Dendroculus (Sumeru), Hydroculus (Fontaine), Pyroculus (Natlan): each newly released region adds its own Oculus type, with a similar collection loop plus a region-specific mechanic (e.g. Dendroculus requires dodging Tree of Dreams traps, Hydroculus involves rising water).

Turning in enough Oculi at level milestones rewards Primogems (usually 10-20 per level), Mora, and EXP books, and some milestones also unlock puzzles that give region-specific ascension materials. If you're farming to power up an aggressive/high-damage team, prioritize the region where your main character lives — check which comps fit best on our Genshin team guide.

Chests are ranked by increasing rarity, and the higher the rarity, the more Mora/EXP/crafting materials they give:

• Common Chest: plain wood, most visible, lowest rewards.
• Exquisite Chest: ornate carvings, better rewards, sometimes guarded by enemies you have to clear.
• Precious Chest: usually appears after solving a mechanism puzzle (activating pedestals, lighting enough torches, guiding a Seelie home, etc.).
• Luxurious Chest: rarer, tied to World Quests/domains/major bosses, rewards include rarer crafting materials too.
• Remarkable Chest: the rarest, usually a reward for finishing a long quest chain or a special sealed area.

Many chests do NOT show an icon on the map until you: activate Elemental Sight to reveal hidden pedestals/mechanisms, solve a light/mirror-reflection puzzle, or use the region's matching element to trigger an ancient stone device. Practicing the right elemental reaction combos makes solving these puzzles much faster — check reaction recipes on our Genshin elemental reactions guide.

Elemental Sight is a temporary "scan" ability that reveals elemental-mechanic objects invisible to the naked eye: hidden pedestals, mechanisms that need a specific element to activate, elemental circuits leading to a chest, or world quest clues.

• Activate it by pressing the interact key when there's nothing nearby to interact with (default F on PC), with a short cooldown between uses.
• Objects glow in their matching elemental color (yellow for Geo, green for Anemo, purple for Electro, etc.) — you then need a character of that element to actually trigger it.
• It costs no stamina or resources to use, so activate it any time you suspect a hidden mechanism nearby, especially around ruins or caves.

Elemental Sight is especially useful in complex elemental puzzle domains — if you're not confident on the reaction combo needed to break a stone mechanism, review the combos on our elemental reactions guide before diving in, to save time fumbling around.

Genshin's map isn't just Oculi and chests — it's packed with quests too, and knowing which type gives what keeps you from missing big rewards:

• Archon Quests: the main story thread spanning regions, usually gated by a minimum AR and finishing prior chapters — rewards large batches of Primogems, story milestones, and sometimes unlocks new mechanics (like being able to dive underwater once Fontaine opens up).
• World Quests: side quest chains tied to a region/NPC, often hidden (not shown on the map by default, needing an NPC conversation or item pickup to trigger) — rewards include rare ascension materials, and sometimes even a free 4★ character or weapon.
• Hidden Exploration Objectives: the smallest kind, usually just 1 chest or a few hundred EXP, triggered by wandering into a special zone or solving a single standalone mechanism.

If your main goal is farming ascension materials to power up your damage as fast as possible, World Quests usually pay off better per minute spent than hunting individual chests — pair that with daily domain materials on our ascension materials guide to build a well-rounded team.