Version 3.5 of the Abyss is a Free-To-Play
nightmare! So in this video I'm going to show you my experience with trying to use a guide
that is suppose to be "Free-To-Play Friendly." Now keep in mind that everything in this video is
based on, my own, personal experience, and is just my opinion. You may have a different experiences
and opinions on this matter. If you do, let me know in the comments! Also I wouldn't say that I'm
"Free-To-Play", I do purchase a Welkin Moon and the Battle Pass ev
ery month. And I have purchased
Primogems for wishes in the past. However, I'm no where close to being considered a "Whale".
I would describe myself as a "Casual Spender" I've only been playing for a little over a year
and in that time I've been able to get quite a few 5 star characters. But I wasn't able to 36
star the Abyss until just over a month ago. I was only able to do this because in the last
version of the Abyss you could get away with running two Dendro Teams. Most of the good 5 s
tar
characters that I have, and that I've invested in, are Dendro. So this ended up working in my favor.
I knew at some point I would need to start working on other teams though - that didn't involve
Nahida or Nilou. And then came the new Abyss. I tried over a hundred times to
figure out some teams that could work, without using a guide - because I like to do
things on my own for whatever reason - with varying success. Until finally, I was
forced to look for a guide when I was unable to 3
star the final chamber. All
because of this ridiculous creature. It's not tough, it's just that you can only
damage it for 30% of time you're fighting it. So I was forced to give up and try something new.
I looked at a couple guides and had noticed that the main problem with the final chamber,
is that you have to finish the first half quick. In like 40 seconds or 50 seconds at
most. Uhm, so that's kind of a problem for me because I don't have enough Pyro characters,
that I've invested in,
to really quickly take care of all the Cryo shields that you have
to deal with in the First Half of Floor 12. So anyway, after looking at a couple guides, I
settled on trying this team from this IWinToLose Gaming's video. In this video the team looks
very promising and I've been wanting to make a video about Dehya and Xinyan anyways. So,
I figured this would give me a good excuse to rank her up. Also the next team I wanted to
work was a National team. So because it looks like this team is p
retty much what I wanted to
rank up next anyways, I decided to test them out. When I first tried this team in Floor 1, it was
very obvious that I was going to have to start working on these characters, and hopefully
rank up some of their artifacts along the way. However this is where I ran into my first
hiccup. I grossly underestimated the amount of time it takes to get 4 characters from rank
70 to 90. So it was here that I decided that maybe I could swap out Heizou for the Wanderer,
who I
already have at Rank 90 with decent talent levels. I remember seeing a showcase video around
when Wanderer released, and from what I remember, the Wanderer and Heizou did about the same
amount of damage in a full rotation. But again, I quickly ran into another problem.
Wanderer, is the definition of a Hyper Carry. You have to use him on field in order to
do the same amount of damage that Heizou does in a single, quick, punch. So I had to
backtrack to working on ranking up 4 characters, aga
in. Once I got Xinyan to rank
90, Xiangling and Bennett to 80, I decided to give it another try. I also was
able to rank up some artifacts and talents, on all four characters. So, at this point, I
figured that I should be able to tell if this team was even going to be possible for me. And
after failing countless times, I decided that, no, even if I rank all these characters to 90, I would
probably have to also rank up all their talents to 9, and even then I think I would still struggle to
36 star this Abyss, a lot. I'm pretty sure what it will take is getting better Artifacts at this
point. And this leads me to the title of this video, the problem with most "Free-To-Play"
guides isn't the characters they showcase, but the artifacts and the time it takes to wait
for more resin to make any progress in this game. So to help prove my point, let's just try
and calculate an estimate for how long this exact setup in this video would
take an actual Free-To-Play player. So first let'
s assume that this Free-To-Play
player does not purchase Welkin Moon or Battle Pass, or anything else. And has, for some
reason, avoided all quests and anything that would give you extra rewards. So this is all
through grinding. It's not exactly realistic, but it's going to be the easiest to calculate
for. Also, once you get to a certain point, and you've kind of used a lot of your materials,
you're kind of in the situation that I am, where you're basically starting at zero
and having to g
rind for everything. So first let's start with the easy part, how
long it takes to rank a character up from 1 to 90 with the same talent levels as in the
guide. However, let's assume all characters are C0 instead of C6. Luckily I found this
planner that will help calculate all of this for me. I assume he has Heizou talents at level
9, since he didn't show them like he did for the rest of the characters. So it will take about
12.9 days, each character. With the exception of Bennett who will
take 14.4 days because his
burst is Crowned. So that adds up to about 53.1 days. This calculation is assuming that you
are able to get all of your Gemstones in this time as well. However, if you're less lucky
like me, then it might take you a bit longer to get enough gemstones. Now let's figure out
the how long it would take for the weapons. Rather than Refinement 5, like in the video,
let's assume Refinement 1 instead. So if you were able to craft an unlimited amount of Mystic
Enhancement
ores per day, then it would only take about 1.4 days to rank up each item. However,
this is not the case. You can only craft 30 ores per day. So in reality, it takes about 20.2 days
each weapon. This adds up to 80.8 days for all four weapons! Keep in mind this is assuming that
you aren't getting ores from any other source, other than crafting. So in reality this
estimate could likely be reduced a bit, but there are far too many variables
to figure that in the calculation. Now the last part
is the hardest to calculate,
the artifacts. That's because there are so many random variables that it's impossible to get
close to an accurate number. But that's not going to stop me from trying. Based on personal
experience, the fastest I've been able to get a semi-decent artifact set was in about 1000 resin,
before ranking anything up. However I've spent FAR more resin trying to get other sets. In fact,
I've been working on getting a decent Blizzard Strayer set for at least 8 months now.
However
with Blizzard Stayer, and a few other sets, you can use Strongboxes instead of grinding
Domains. And just look at this! I just wanted to record this bit to show that I just have horrible
luck, I knew that I wouldn't get anything good. But this is literally the very first Crit Damage
Circlet, that I've gotten for Blizzard Strayer. And just look at these sub-stats, they're just
not good. Maybe you disagree somehow... But maybe you should just get your eyes checked,
to be honest! Heh
e (Just Kidding ♥) But for Ayaka especially, they're just not good. Usually
at this point, I would just throw in the towel and say "I at least finally got the Main Stat that
I wanted." So, you know, hopefully I'll get real lucky with the fourth stat and it'll increase
all into that fourth stat that I wanted. Like Crit Rate or something. But that's never the
case! So... I'm going to have to keep grinding. So back to the calculation. Luckily someone
has thought of this and done most of the wo
rk already. So assuming that you already have
the perfect artifacts that you want to rank up, it will take you about 24.4 days
to rank up 5 artifacts. Being as we have 4 characters, this adds up to 97.6 days. So how long does it take to rank up this
"Free-To-Play" group? 231 and 1/2 days! Again keep in mind that this will likely take much
longer if you're starting out with no artifacts and have to grind for some good artifacts
before you can even start ranking them up. If you already have p
erfect artifacts at rank
1, then there's a chance it'll take less time to get them to rank 20. So long as you already
have the Mora and spare artifacts to rank them up with. So now let's compare my calculations to
the one I found on Reddit. By their calculations, it would take 75 days to rank up a single
weapon and character from rank 1 to 90 and to max out all their artifacts. So by
their estimates it would take 300 days to get a similar "Free-To-Play" team like the
one showcased in IWinT
oLose Gaming video. Oh yeah, have I mentioned? This is
only ONE team. So that means it will take somewhere between 463 and 600 days to
get the same group. Now keep in mind that this isn't the only guide out there that
has this problem. It's a common oversight, especially for content creators with sponsors.
I can see how it would be easy to forget that it takes a really long time to grind, when
you can't refresh your any of your Resin. I can attest that the numbers I calculated
are likely q
uite accurate for someone who is 100% Free-To-Play. For example,
I've have always purchased a Welkin Moon and the Battle Pass every month, with
the exception of the first month or two, and I usually use 50 Primogems per day
to refresh 60 Resin. As of writing this, I currently have 406 active days logged,
and 44 days ago I posted my first 36 Star video. So that means, it took me about 362
active days to 36 star the Abyss. So eventually you are going to run into the same problem I
had. The t
eams that you spent all your time on, will eventually not work for the Abyss and
you will need to start the process over again. So is there a way for these guides to be more
accurate, for actual Free-To-Play players? In my opinion, yes... and no. For a content creator that
essentially has unlimited resources, it would be incredibly hard to make a guide more accurate
for an actual Free-To-Play player. However, it wouldn't be an impossible task. The reason it
would be so difficult is because
it would end up taking a lot of extra time and effort to make
every video. You're going to end up failing a lot more often, which extends recording time,
and subsequently editing time. How do I know this? Well as someone who is much closer
to Free-To-Play than a Whale, I know from personal experience all of the repetition that it
takes to make a video about the Abyss. So it will take extreme planning and consideration in order
for someone with a Whale account to make a video that is actuall
y "Free-To-Play Friendly". For me,
a video that would be truly Free-To-Play Friendly, would mean that the artifact sub stats should
be decent, not godly. And I feel that it would be much more reasonable, if not all characters,
artifacts and weapons where completely maxed out. However, this is another example of why this would
make it more difficult to create content. For example, if you wanted to showcase a characters
full damage potential, then you have to max them out. But then, that woul
d also make them not
very "Free-To-Play Friendly". To be honest, they should have like a "Content Creator
Mode", where once you rank up your Talents, you could change them to whatever you wanted.
The same thing goes for the constellations. So, what's my advice after all of this?
If you are serious about Genshin Impact, and it's end game content, then just know that
you need to be in it for the long haul. Even though it can be frustrating, don't give
up. I would also advise you to purchase
the Battle Pass and maybe even a Welkin Moon,
because it will seriously end up saving you a lot of time and effort. There is also plenty of
other excellent content that this game has to offer. So if you find the Abyss too daunting,
you can still have a ton of fun. And if you really don't want to spend any money on this
game, then I recommend that you find smaller content creators to get your guides from. They
will likely have a closer experience to you, and can set more realistic expectatio
ns.
You know, a small content creator, like me! If somehow you haven't noticed yet, my
channel is incredibly small. So I set a goal to be over 500 subs by the end of
2023, and in just 9 days you guys helped me reach my goal! Thank you so much! Now I'll
need your help again to reach my new goal, of 1,000 subs by the end of this year. Please
help me hit my goal and smash that Subscribe button! That way I can keep providing you
with excellent - FREE - content! And if you really want to suppor
t me, just leave
a comment below. Again thank you so much! I hope you found this video helpful and
just know that I really do appreciate you for making it this far. You seriously are
the best. I'll catch you in the next one. (subscribe)
Comments
I think lot of the comments are missing the point (or at least one of them). Getting good arifacts. There isn't any universal way to get a good character. You can have a C6 R5 character, but you might wait years to get a specific piece. I have grinded the Emblem domain ever since it came out, and I'm yet to get a singe ER sands that has crit as a substat. Literally the only way to get good builds is getting lucky. It is only that. I have otherwise well invested characters, but I just don't have the artifacts I need.
F2p guides shouldn't be about showcasing 1-2 teams and saying use those to clear abyss, they should help newer players understand what is needed for each floor and chamber and that is why you choose those 2 teams and mention suitable substitutes. In this Abyss the first half of floor 12 has a lot of cryo enemies so using pyro units helps, everyone got a free xiangling so give ideas to newer players of how to utilise her or other pyro dps in her place. Second half dendro teams work wonderfully. Every abyss cycle is a bit different from the last so it's also great to recommend characters that are universally good so we don't end up with the issue of I spent all my resin leveling up xinyan because I saw a youtuber use her and then next abyss she isn't a viable choice at low investment.
As a pure f2p player who 36str all abyss rotation, my advice is don't rush and jump into building too many characters at once. Build one team perfectly and thn move onto the next team. You'll get 36 eventually....
As a veteran since version 1.0, here's my advice: Don’t overestimate the importance of Abyss so don’t let Abyss to dictate your pulls and game experience. Firstly, you just loose 300 primos a MONTH between 36 stars and 27 stars. This is LESS then 2! pulls a month, 90% just 2 useless 3star weapons. The strong 4stars support chars are well known: xingqiu, xiangling, bennett, sucrosse, fischl, diona, kuki and yaoyao. If you care about Abyss so make sure to put the focus to these supports chars first. But don't rush as it is not the primos worth, just take your your time. Secondly, sooner rather than later you will reach a state in the game where there’s nothing else to do if you enjoy playing Genshin regularly :). I will be honest, I play the abyss just for the primos. I take my 600 primos per Abyss and don’t touch it again for 2 weeks until it resets again. Also, I play the Abyss because I don’t have anything else to do in the game :)
This is why 36* is mostly timegated, comp-gated, and skill-gated, not money-gated. The F2P/whale distinction matters less imo. I first achieved 36* three months after starting, but that was because the two teams that I invested in matched up decently against the abyss lineup back then. I then failed to 36* the abyss after that because the match up was horrible.
not to be rude but some easy pointers are 1. Understand investment and resin efficiency, you should level your key talents significantly more, please, (before being level 90, that should almost never be your first action, unless dendro or anemo) 2. don't build xinyan, play wanderer xiangling bennett flex, there are a bunch of options 3. IWTL is not a f2p friendly content creator
I find the biggest problem in these guides that they expect people to know how to play those teams. I recommend Sevy and Jyo's Spiral Abyss Guides for deeper type of guides. Deeper understanding of game helps as well, so KQM TCL or TC content creators as Jstern25 , Zajef77 and many more will help. As for issues I see pretty often are: level 90 on characters that don't care much (most atk scallers), throwing good artifacts out ( low CV ones with high EM/ER/ATK rolls, CV is good metric , but it's not everything) forcing 2 or 4 piece sets even if they have better artifacts on off -set. And most importantly: level 20 Xingqiu. I 36*-ed without Bennett, Xiangling, anemo as whole ,but not once was I able to 36* without hydro, and Xingqiu is best hydro.
In the video, I feel there is a message being conveyed that content creators have better things than f2p players, and while that is true, I don't necessarily think that always applies to artifacts as well. I think more than anything, it is just difficult to make a f2p guide where both the viewer and content creator shares the same amount of time spent in game. A f2p content creator who has been playing since launch will naturally have superior artifacts compared to little Jimmie who only reached Abyss floor 9 recently.
The best tip for f2p is level up universally good characters IE. Bennett, xingqui, xiangling, diona. These are some characters that fit on multiple teams and generally 2 or more are used in every abyss. Also the time to farm some of this stuff is greatly reduced due to missions and events so if you are new dint get overwhelmed. Build your characters and then build characters you love. Lastly you don't need to 36 every abyss.
This video reminded me of f2p keqings abyss clears. Sometimes only 4 stars with one or two five stars here and there (that's realistic for most of us). A lot of 3* weapons and 4* artifacts with ratios that a lot of players would call "bad ". And yet they clear every time while giving advice and strategies / explain mechanics to help
YES, YES, YES THIS IS THE EXACT PROBLEM WITH F2P PLAYERS, you are the first one saw talking about this issue, the problem isn't not having 5 stars characters, or weapons, the problem is that it takes too much time and effort to properly build a single one of them and when you finish building 8 characters for the abyss the new abyss cycle can't be 36* by your characters because the teams and elements needed are different.
Realistically, there are only two Artifact domains that you should be farming regularly, the one with Emblem and the one with Deepwood. The rest are either inefficient or can be obtained passively by the strong box. There are some niche artifacts for specific on-field carries. But do not pour all your resin in them, sub-dps and supports are more important Use Genshin Optimizer, it’s a god sent to reach your characters’ best potential
Imma be honest, this is the first video I've watched from you and I'm really surprised by the quality compared to size of channel! The amount of research and editing deserves far more subs. Until then I'll do my part to get you close to 1000
F2P which started since 1.6 , something to add on about the Abyss which may be helpful to beginners. You don't have to clear each phase in single run. Work out your team to first clear 12-3 3 stars first , then work your way 3 star 12-2 then 12-1. You may even use same team to do rerun to have burst ready at beginning of each stage. Abyss guides are not build guides, in otherwords they provide information like optimal team composition and what behaviours the bosses may have. Often the same channel provides character build guide, which provide C0 references which would be more helpful before you venture into the Abyss. Good Luck in the Abyss Everyone :)
Just a tip, generally it's not worth spending the extra mora and XP books to get a character. HP scaling characters (tao, yelan and nilou) are the exception to this, but typically for main damage dealers, after getting important talents to level 8 and the character to 80 ascended, it's more worthwhile to focus on getting good artifacts.
as a f2p who started 9 months ago and somehow still hasn't got to floor 11, this video makes me feel a little better. it's the same kind of feeling as when you realise that what you see on social media is not an accurate reflection of people's lives, it's only what they want others to see lol. thank you for this reality check, really needed that :)
I can highly recommend "Jyo’s Spiral Abyss Guides" he really focuses on the principles of good team building and and mechanics. He also gives viewer recommendations on how to approach the Abyss with the stuff you already got. Great channel if you wanna learn more about the game.
i saw the video in my recommended and didnt notice how many subs you had, i thought you had way more because of the quality of the video, you do absolutely amazing, keep up the great work😁
Finally! someone with practical advice. No sugarcoating. Keep it up brother! 🎉
Yeah the amount of investment needed to 36 an abyss in quite unrealistic for a newer player, i think dendro has helped a lot as you basically have one team sorted with hyperbloom which takes minimum investment, though even then how good it is is based on what characters you get, like lisa compared to kuki in hyperbloom is a massive difference. Another problem i feel with these f2p guides is that all the characters they use are c6 which is like definitely not happening for a new player, most newer players wont even have all the characters in a guide, im a low spender and i dont even have 1 heizou. The big problem is just how, the best team for your account will be different for someone elses depending on what characters they even have. Like these “f2p” showcases have like 8 different 4 stars at c6, by that time you definitely have like at least 2 or 3 most likely 4, 5 star characters, which make a biggg difference in some cases like nahida or kazuha.