These are the best Genshin Impact characters to level up early

For new Genshin Impact players, every single character level counts. That means picking the right characters to level up early can be hugely important.

As of update 2.3, there are 46 unique characters in Genshin Impact. New players only start with a handful of characters, but waiting for the perfect character to start leveling is generally a bad idea. Arming your team with high levels, good artifacts, and solid weapons will help you cruise through Teyvat to find all sorts of treasure. If you’re new to Genshin Impact, here’s how to level up characters and which early units are worth pouring your resources into.

How to level up early in Genshin Impact

Genshin Impact’s leveling rules can be strange for newcomers. Defeating monsters gives you a small amount of character experience, but it’s nowhere near enough to actually level up your characters. Instead, you use special objects called experience books to level up characters. These come in three levels, with the most common being Wanderer’s Advice. You’ll need to dump these into your characters by the dozen to level up. Hold down the plus button to stack them up in the menu.

In addition to character level,  there are several other ways to boost your characters’ power. Talent levels are important as they directly raise the damage values of your attacks and elemental abilities. Artifact sets are also extremely important. For the early game, just jam attack percentage artifacts in every slot and raise their level to the maximum.

Xiangling is a great budget DPS

Xiangling is one of the few gacha characters you can get for free in Genshin Impact. You can get her for free by reaching Floor 3, Chamber 3 in the Spiral Abyss accessible through the eastern side of Monstadt. You don’t have to clear it with three stars. As long as you can beat all the enemies before the timer runs out, you’ll unlock a high-tier Genshin DPS character for free. 

One of her best weapons is the craftable four-star Crescent Pike, which boosts attack by up to 40% after picking up an elemental particle. Guoba is an easy source of particles, and Xiangling’s high base damage makes her a great DPS to carry you through the early game. Her level up materials are fairly easy to access as soon as you go to Liyue for the first time. Throw on a Berserker’s artifact set and you’re good to go.

Level up Barbara early for easy healing in Genshin Impact

Barbara is another free Genshin Impact character that you should consider leveling up early. Barbara’s entire kit is dedicated to healing. Her elemental skill applies a constant healing buff while her burst instantly heals the entire party for a good chunk of their max health. Healing is hard to come by in the early game, so having a dedicated character for patching up your main DPS is a good idea.

An important part of leveling up early Genshin Impact characters are talents. These become available to upgrade right after the first ascension to max level 40. Since Barbara is exclusively a healing support, just level up her skill and burst talents and leave her attack alone. Save your talent books for other characters later on down the line.

Noelle is the best early sub DPS

Noelle technically isn’t a free character, but she’s guaranteed to be available from the newbie banner. She’s meant to be your first claymore character that’s easy to use and build, but she fills a lot more roles than just that. Her combination of geo and claymore makes her an excellent shield breaker, and her shield helps keep your team alive during tough battles.

Most importantly, her elemental burst Sweeping Time turns her into a great area-of-effect DPS character. It greatly extends the range of her sword, which synergizes especially well with her spin-to-win charged attack. Swap to Noelle for her shield and keep her on the field every time her burst is available.

Sub DPS units are an important part of any Genshin Impact team. Noelle will introduce you to the concept while adding additional utility to your Genshin Impact squad.