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Official Genshin Impact key art of Teyvat and its characters

Open Country

Genshin Impact

One of the loveliest open worlds anywhere, funded by a shop you should read about first.

Play it as a free solo adventure and it is one of the best on the chart. Treat the shop as scenery; the numbers are on this page so you can.

Free, randomised draws in the shopOpen worldStory chaptersEvery platformHoYoverse account

Genshin Impact is HoYoverse's free open-world action role-playing game: a bright, enormous continent, Teyvat, explored on foot, by glider and by boat, with a light elemental combat system built around a party of four. Every region, story chapter and puzzle is free. What the game sells is the chance to draw specific characters and weapons at published odds, and that system is the reason the Wallet bearing is where it is.

The four bearings

  • N
    Newcomer · 20%
    8

    Generous from the first minute: a gentle opening, a clear main quest, plenty of free characters and a game that runs on a phone. The download on PC is large.

  • E
    Every session · 35%
    8.5

    Exploring Teyvat is the point, and it is a joy: climb anything, glide anywhere, solve a puzzle, find a chest. Combat is light and satisfying. Daily chores are optional.

  • S
    Staying power · 25%
    8

    New regions and chapters arrive every six weeks on a schedule the studio has kept for years. The story has grown into something genuinely ambitious.

  • W
    Wallet · 20%
    4

    Everything you need is free, but the shop sells randomised character draws at published odds in a system built around near-misses. Spending to get a specific character can cost hundreds of pounds.

Weighted 20 / 35 / 25 / 20 into an Atlas score of 7.4. How the bearings work.

What you are actually doing

You arrive in Teyvat looking for a lost sibling and are handed a continent. The main quest walks you from nation to nation, each with its own culture, element and cast. Between quests you explore: climbing cliffs on a stamina bar, gliding off them, opening chests, solving environmental puzzles, fighting small groups of enemies with a party of four characters you swap between. Each character has an element, and combining elements, water then lightning, fire then ice, is the combat system. It is simple, and it stays interesting because the roster keeps giving you new combinations.

Co-op exists for a handful of activities, but Genshin is a solo game at heart. It is best played in long, wandering sessions where the map is the story.

The first evening, honestly

Genshin is one of the kindest openings on the chart. The first region is small enough to learn, the quest markers are clear, and you are given several characters for free within the first few hours. The game also runs on almost anything, from a PlayStation 5 to a mid-range phone, with progress shared across all of them. The only friction is the PC download, which has grown to roughly a hundred gigabytes.

The shop, plainly

Genshin's headline purchase is a Wish: a draw from a pool of characters and weapons. The odds are published in the game. A five-star character has a base chance of 0.6 per cent per draw, with a guarantee by the ninetieth draw, and the featured character is guaranteed within two such cycles. Draws cost Primogems, which the game gives out steadily for free and sells for money. The arithmetic matters: reaching a guaranteed featured character from nothing can cost well over £300, and the near-miss design, where a five-star that isn't the featured one appears first, is deliberate.

None of this is needed to play. Every region, quest and puzzle is free, the free characters are capable, and the game's difficulty is tuned so that spending is optional rather than required. The Wallet bearing is low not because the game demands money but because the way it asks for it is the least honest system on the chart.

Why it stays

HoYoverse has shipped a new version roughly every six weeks since launch, and the map has grown from one small nation into a continent of them; Version 7.1 arrived on 23 September 2026 with the Snezhnaya chapter in full swing, and the sixth anniversary on 28 September hands every player two five-star characters and a stack of free draws. The story, slow at first, has become one of the more interesting long-form narratives in the medium. For a player who never spends, that is a remarkable amount of free game.

Genshin Impact screenshot of a character beside a giant glowing flower
Beside a giant glowing flower over the water
Genshin Impact screenshot of a party in an ornate hall
A full party in a white-and-gold hall
Genshin Impact screenshot of a character with paired blades in the snow
Paired blades in a snowy arena, in the Snezhnaya chapter

Where it shines, where it drags

  • A beautiful, generous open world, entirely free
  • Runs on everything with shared progress
  • A steady six-week cadence of new regions and story
  • Light, satisfying elemental combat
  • Randomised character draws at long odds
  • Daily and event timers nudge you to log in
  • A very large download: 110 GB on PC, 150 GB on console
  • Co-op is an afterthought

The toll: what it costs in the UK

Genshin Impact is free to install and every part of the world and story is free. The shop sells Genesis Crystals, which convert into Primogems, which buy Wishes: randomised draws for characters and weapons. It also sells a monthly pass and a seasonal pass that pay out Primogems more cheaply than direct purchase. Prices below are the UK PlayStation and Xbox store lists on 24 September 2026; the PC and phone stores use the same tiers.

  • To install and playFree
  • 60 Genesis Crystals£0.99
  • 980 Genesis Crystals£13.99
  • 1,980 Genesis Crystals£26.99
  • 3,280 Genesis Crystals£44.99
  • 6,480 Genesis Crystals£87.99
  • Blessing of the Welkin Moon (30 days)£4.49 on PlayStation, £4.99 on Xbox
  • Gnostic Hymn passPriced in the client per version
  • Ninety Wishes bought outrightAbout £200 in Crystals at the prices above

Randomised items: Yes, and it is the centre of the shop. Wishes draw from a pool with odds shown in the game's own Wish details: a 0.6 per cent base chance of a five-star character per draw, rising sharply after about seventy-three draws, with a hard guarantee at ninety. The featured character is guaranteed within two such cycles. PEGI flags the game for paid random items. We would not spend on Wishes; if you want to support the game, the monthly pass is the honest purchase.

Subscriptions and online play: No subscription. Online features are free on every platform; on PlayStation no paid online service is needed.

Prices checked 24 September 2026 on the UK stores named above. See Paying for games in the UK for the rights that apply to each payment route.

Who it suits

Solo explorers who love a big, bright world and can ignore a shop, and younger players whose devices have purchase controls switched on. If you want a big world funded by a subscription instead, Final Fantasy XIV is the Long Road alternative.

Where to go next

Start with the Genshin Impact waypoint for a first evening that goes well. Or compare it directly: Genshin Impact or Final Fantasy XIV.