The highly anticipated in-game card game was implemented in Genshin Impact’s patch 3.3, giving you the opportunity to not only collect cards portraying some of your favorite characters such as Fischl, Noelle, and Ganyu, but to also challenge NPCs as well as other players.
Learning Genshin Impact TCG may sound daunting to some players who are not looking to add just another thing to their list of daily activities in the game. This is why we’ve prepared this guide explaining how to unlock Genius Invokation, basic rules, card types, and how matches work.
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Having matched the prerequisites, you can then complete the World Quest Battlefield of Dice, Cats, and Cards in Mondstadt. Once you do so, you will earn the Casket of Tomes item which you can use to edit your decks and find the nearest NPCs you can duel with.
Every deck in the game must have a total of 33 cards, split between three character cards and thirty action cards. During every match, both players take turns to attack their opponent, managing their pool of elemental dice, an extremely important resource in Genius Invokation. Whoever beats all the opponent’s character cards is the winner.
To those who want to play some matches, there are three options. First, you can play the Adventure Challenge in which you try to win a match and complete three missions to receive rewards, such as Player Experience, Lucky Coins, and even cards.
The second option is the Duel. Some of the same NPCs who offer an Adventure Challenge are also up for a match against you. Winning duels will give you Player Experience and Lucky Coins.
Lastly, you can challenge the weekly Guest Challenges who are found at the Cat’s Tail. Keep in mind that these reset Monday every week, so after winning the matches available you will have to wait before there are more NPCs for you to challenge.
Winning Player Experience will increase your Player Level – which currently goes up to level 10 – and every time you do so, you will receive rewards such as Primogems. To get them, just talk to Prince the cat with a hat at the Cat’s Tail Tavern. You can also spend your lucky coins buying new cards there!
The Character Cards, which can be based on characters of the game or some enemies, work as chess pieces that you use to attack the opponent’s character cards. Each of these has a specific amount of Life Points, an element, and a set of skills.
A character always has a normal attack, an elemental skill, and an elemental burst. Every time you use one of the first two types of attacks, your character gains one stack of energy. You can only activate a character’s burst after filling up their energy slots.
On the other hand, the Action Cards include equipment cards, support cards, and event cards. In general, all of them affect your cards or other aspects of a match in a specific way.
The equipment cards need to be used on Character Cards and they increase the damage caused or lower the cost of skills. Support Cards stay on the table and they have various effects, such as healing your character or giving them more energy. And Event Cards have instantaneous effects.
In order to activate character cards’ skills or to use action cards, players need to spend a certain amount of elemental dice. Genius Invokation has eight types of elemental dice: Pyro, Hydro, Electro, Cryo, Dendro, Anemo, Geo, and Omni. The last one is a special type that can replace any other element.
Genshin Impact version 3.3 is here, with new codes, and new character Scaramouche (Wanderer), so find out where he’s placed on our tier list.
You’ll need Primogems and luck of the Pity and 50/50 systems to Wish with Fate for him and other current and next banners. You’ll also need the right Adventure Rank for events. For more Sumeru help, we’ve got pages on Sumeru Reputation, Tree of Dreams, Dendroculus locations, the Aeonblight Drake boss, the Garden of Endless Pillars Domain, and locations for Nilotpala Lotus, Padisarah, Scarabs, and Redcrest.
You can also now unlock the Genius Invokation TCG and, if you want help building your deck, check out our Genius Invokation TCG Card List.
If you want to relax, however, why not try fishing at one of the many fishing spot locations?
Every round in a match of Genshin Impact TCG is divided into specific phases. The first is the Preparation phase, where you decide whether you keep the five cards you draw at the beginning of the game or you switch them. You can switch as many as you want among the five, but you can only do so once.
Once your hand of cards, you are going to choose who is your active character among the three you have in your deck. This is the character you’re going to use to attack with and who is also affected by your action cards most of the time. Changing your active character is only possible during the next phases.
Right after you pick your active character, the roll phase begins. Eight elemental dice are rolled. You can reroll as many of them as you want, but only once too.
Now that you have a pool of elemental dice and your active character, it’s time to begin the action phase. During this phase, there are two types of possible actions: regular actions and fast actions.
Using a regular action, which might be activating a skill or switching your active character, always ends your turn.
In opposition to regular actions, fast actions don’t end with your turn. They contemplate playing action cards or using Elemental Tuning which allows you to discard one card from your hand to change one elemental dice to the element of your active character.
The player’s action phase continues until both of them end their round by pressing the button on the left side. Once this happens, all phases begin again and whoever ended their round first will attack first in the next action phase.
With that, you are ready to jump into Genshin Impact TCG Genius Invokation and, if you want help building your deck, visit our Genius Invokation card list page.
