Optimizing Your Resource Farming: What to Prioritize and Why
Knowing what to farm—and when—is key to building your characters efficiently. Resources in games like Genshin Impact or Honkai: Star Rail are limited by daily refreshes, so smart planning goes a long way.
Start with the Build Blueprint
Before diving into the grind, clarify your current goals for a character:
- Are you aiming to unlock a powerful passive talent?
- Do you need to boost weapon damage?
- Is your main focus level ascension?
Having a clear priority puts your resources and time to the best use.
What to Farm First: A Tiered Approach
Break down your farming plan into tiers of urgency:
1. Ascension Materials (Top Priority)
- Gate your character’s level ceiling
- Important for unlocking higher-tier content
- Required for both characters and weapons at big level milestones
2. Talent Books (Mid Priority)
- Core to increasing damage, healing, or utility output
- Best farmed on specific weekdays; plan accordingly
- Prioritize talents that offer the biggest performance gain
3. Weapon Mats (Variable Priority)
- Important, but weapon levels can sometimes lag behind character levels
- Great for stat boosts, but consider current team synergy
- Focus on limited-time domain availability if applicable
Tools That Save Time and Sanity
Organizing your farming efforts can feel overwhelming. Fortunately, a number of tools exist to streamline the process:
- Interactive Maps like the Genshin or Honkai fan-made maps mark exact locations of ore, enemies, and elite bosses
- Farming Planners such as the HoYoLab planner let you queue up needs and track progress over time
- Official and Community Guides often provide optimized farming routes and recommend mats per character or weapon
Use these tools to make sure your daily resin use moves you forward—not sideways.
Final Tip: Think Weekly, Not Daily
Instead of scrambling every day to farm whatever’s on your mind, think in weekly chunks. This helps ensure you balance your mat collection across characters and avoid resource bottlenecks right when you need that final talent level.
Leveling is the grind that defines everything else. Characters, weapons, talents—nothing hits hard unless you put in the time to power them up. And because most systems are time-gated, you can’t just brute force your way through. Resin limits, upgrade mats, talent books—they all run on timers. That means every decision counts. Spend resources wrong and you’re stuck waiting days to recover.
This is where efficient farming makes or breaks a player. Knowing what days to farm, which bosses to prioritize, and how to rotate your focus between materials is what separates the strong from everyone else. Casual players wander. Dedicated ones plan around resets. In the end, leveling isn’t just something you do—it’s the strategy behind your entire progression.
Resin in Genshin Impact is your most limited resource, so wasting it is a no-go. With the 160 cap, timing matters. Log in when you’re close to full. If you sit at 160 for more than a few hours, that’s potential rewards lost.
Start by prioritizing what you actually need. Weekly bosses are great for talent materials, but only the first three give bonus rewards. After that, domains often give better value—especially artifact sets or weapon materials when paired with Condensed Resin.
Speaking of, Condensed Resin is a time-saver. Convert your Original Resin into Condensed at the Crafting Bench so you can get double rewards in one go. Use it on domains, not bosses. It’s useless on anything that isn’t a double-drop source.
Fragile Resin? That stuff’s your wildcard. Save it for events, double loot days, or when you’re farming for something specific like a new character build. Don’t burn it just to dump Resin. Every Fragile Resin is worth 60 Original, so make it count.
Efficiency in Resin isn’t flashy, but it adds up fast. Plan your burns weekly, be intentional, and you’ll stay ahead without living in the game.
Gathering materials in Genshin Impact isn’t glamorous, but it’s the backbone of character and weapon progression. For local specialties like Cor Lapis or Dandelion Seeds, the trick is to stick to proven farming paths. Cor Lapis clusters densely near Mt. Hulao and Lingju Pass. For Dandelion Seeds, hit up the front of Mondstadt’s city gates every reset — you’ll need Anemo skills to harvest them. Don’t just roam. Map it out, clear the route, move on.
When it comes to combat drops like Fatui sigils or slime condensates, it’s about rotation and speed. Start in areas like Liyue Harbor for Fatui operatives and move through Northern Snezhnaya lines in Sumeru for a decently-paced route. Slimes? They’re everywhere, but Mondstadt’s hills give the best bang per minute, especially near Springvale and around Windrise. Wipe, reset, repeat. Efficient enemy rotation isn’t optional if you’re leveling fast.
Timers matter too. Each region resets at daily and weekly intervals, and planning by nation helps. Pace your farming to match reset cycles — hit Liyue specialties Monday, shoot for Sumeru boss fights midweek, and circle back to Mondstadt enemies over the weekend. Fontaine’s still fresh, but it’s stacked with mid-tier drops for upcoming characters. Know the timers. Use them.
No glitz here. Just tight routes, fast hands, and watching your map more than your enemies. It works.
Limited-time events aren’t just side quests. They’re some of the most efficient ways to stock up on materials, rare currencies, and upgrade items that usually take weeks to farm. Every event drops a fresh set of rewards, often with better value than the standard grind. If you’re skipping them or coming in late, you’re leaving progress on the table.
Before you burn through your regular resources, always check the event shop first. Many times, those same mats you were about to spend hours grinding are just sitting there at a discount—or tied to missions you’re already completing anyway. Don’t waste what you don’t have to.
When you know a big event is coming, prep your teams early. Push core characters to the right level, pre-farm common resources, and clear your schedule if it’s going to be a heavy grind. Events are time-limited for a reason. If you’re locked out because your gear or team isn’t ready, that’s on you.
Keep it simple: plan ahead, show up early, and clear the shop while it’s hot.
Co-op isn’t just for flexing your strongest build. It’s a smart move when you’re up against elite weekly bosses, digging through talent domains, or grinding for high-value artifact sets. These are the times when having a team cuts down your run time and gives you more chances at solid loot. If your stamina is low or you’re farming for multiple characters, co-op can save hours.
Still, don’t be that traveler. Heal before you join, bring useful builds, and don’t AFK mid-fight. If someone pops a condense resin, don’t bail. Say hi, say thanks, and don’t hog resources if you’re world-hopping. A little etiquette goes a long way in keeping those friend requests coming.
As for drop rates, multiplayer won’t magically improve the odds, but it does increase the speed and volume of runs, especially in artifact domains. If you’re running high-level content with coordinated teammates, co-farming becomes way more efficient. Hit bosses fast, reset quick, and get back in the loop.
Farming artifacts early in the game might feel productive, but it’s often a waste of time and resin. In the early stages, your characters are leveling fast, your team comps aren’t final, and better gear will unlock later. Investing resources into farming 4-star or poorly optimized 5-star artifacts just slows down your overall progress.
What many new players miss is that artifacts are driven by RNG. That means you can dump resin into a domain, get the right set bonus, but still end up with garbage substats. Flat defense on your DPS? Crit rate barely showing up? That grind adds up quick and doesn’t always pay off.
Instead, focus on raising character levels, talents, and weapons. These give real value out of the gate. Artifacts should only move up your priority list once you’re consistently tackling endgame content like Spiral Abyss and have access to the higher-tier domains.
When you do start farming, pick domains that cover multiple team needs. For example:
- Healers: Ocean-Hued Clam or Maiden Beloved
- DPS: Gladiator’s Finale, Shimenawa’s Reminiscence, or Gilded Dreams depending on the character
- Supports: Noblesse Oblige, Emblem of Severed Fate
Wait for strong main stats and substats before fully investing. A perfect set is rare, and patience beats burnout.
Daily expeditions are one of the easiest wins in the game. They take seconds to set up, and over time, the payoff is huge. Ores, regional specialties, and essential materials will quietly pile up while you’re busy doing anything else. Make it routine. Send your characters out every day.
Inside the teapot, companions are more than decoration. When placed correctly, they generate materials passively. Think of it as background farming. It’s not flashy, but it adds up, especially when you’re managing multiple characters.
Smart farming means blending both approaches. Let passives run in the background while you actively farm what you’re low on or grind domains for specific builds. It’s all about that time-to-value ratio. Don’t overfarm what’s already handled passively. Keep a balance and you’ll have what you need without overwhelming your schedule.
Strategy Beats the Grind
Mastering Genshin farming isn’t about logging more hours—it’s about logging smart ones. Grinding endlessly might feel productive, but real progress comes from strategic planning and goal alignment.
Know What You’re Working Toward
Before you spend precious resin or roll your dailies, ask a crucial question: what’s your current priority?
- Building specific characters?
- Ascending weapons or talents?
- Farming for future banner-ready resources?
Knowing your priorities lets you:
- Spend resin more efficiently
- Avoid wasting time on low-value domains
- Focus on long-term team synergy
Stay Flexible When the Meta Shifts
As new characters and updates arrive, the meta shifts. A build that dominates today could be average next patch. That’s why flexibility is key.
- Keep up with patch notes and character rebalances
- Adjust farming goals based on upcoming banners or events
- Prioritize versatile artifacts and weapons that support multiple playstyles
Sticking to your goals matters—but so does adapting when things evolve.
Bonus Resource: Sharpen Your Technical Skills
Looking to elevate your gameplay with better combos and tactical precision? Don’t miss our full breakdown:
Mastering Combos in Street Fighter 6
Although it’s a different game, the principles of muscle memory, timing, and situation-specific tactics apply just as much in Genshin’s Spiral Abyss. Smart training always wins over senseless repetitions.
Grinding too hard, too early is one of the fastest ways to stall out later. Many players obsess over early-game materials—things like low-tier character ascension drops or overstocking on common ores—only to find those resources clogging their inventory when it’s time to pivot. Materials feel useful in the first 30 levels, but those same resources won’t scale with you past midgame, meaning your time was better spent elsewhere.
Another common trap: dumping Resin into low-efficiency domains. Just because a domain is available at Rank 20 doesn’t mean it’s worth your daily cap. Prioritize domains that offer long-term returns—gear, talents, or weapon materials that are part of your core build. If you’re burning Resin just to avoid the cap, you’re not building toward anything.
As new regions open up, the game’s material economy shifts fast. What was valuable last patch might be irrelevant after an update. Adjust your farming routes, know what your team needs, and cut out anything that doesn’t serve a direct purpose. The smarter you are with your time, the less backtracking you’ll have to do later.