Which location is the best?

Blu Brown, Reporter
October 27, 2022

     Ever since the game was released in 2020, Genshin Impact has definitely been one of the biggest games from the past few years known to date. Whenever the game is talked about, it’s usually known for the characters that people try to earn through primos, which are the game’s currency that people pay money for. Some people even talk about the lore and/or the badges that can be earned to change your wallpaper on your profile. If we’re really talking about what makes the game so unique and popular, it’s definitely the difference in the vast locations in the game. These locations are: Mondstat, Liyue, Dragonspine, Inazuma, Sumeru (Soo-meru), Fontaine, Natlan, and Snezhnaya (Shnez-naya). Unfortunately you can’t visit Fontaine, Snezhnaya, and Natlan yet. Sumeru already made its debut around a month ago, which makes it the newest location for the five out of eight so far, but that also means I’ll be ranking those instead.

     The first location most players will start with is Mondstat (pronounced Mon-Stat). Their element is Anemo, representing the wind and their founder is Barbatos (Bar-bay-tos), more commonly known as Venti. This location’s inspiration takes after Germany, which for sure depicts it very well according to the windmills from one of the buildings. When exploring, the characters you meet are Jean, Lisa, Bennett, Kaeya (Kai-yuh), Diluc (Dee-luke), Barbara, and many more. Apart from their emblem, their representative color for the nation is around mint green.

     Liyue (pronounced Lee-way), also known as Liyue Harbor is the second location able to be explored through in the game after meeting Xiangling (Shan-ling). The element is Geo: the earth element with their founder Rex Lapis, mainly known as Zhongli (Jong-lee). The location’s inspiration comes from China, which explains for most of the fashion pieces using different patterns and Qiqi (Chi-chi)’s character’s designs being based off of the jiangshi, also known as a “Chinese Hopping Zombie.” 

     This mythological creature is known well from the talismans on their hat and their red eyes, in which the young girl accurately depicts. Some of the many characters that you’re able to meet are Yanfei (Yahn-fey), Hu Tao, Xingqiu (Shing-chu), Ningguang (Ning-gwang), and Beidou (Bay-doh). Their representative color is yellow.

     Next up is Dragonspine. This mountainous region is located on the southern point of Monstadt. Though you’re able to explore the region at any rank, you have to at least be level 20 before going towards any quests. More towards its history, it was originally known as Vindagnyr (Vin-da-neer) before an event changed the region called “Durin’s Fall.” Dragonspine also has no emblem, element, well known characters, and no representative color. When learning about the mountain, some share secrets and superstitions about the location such as the snow that’s around the place never melting no matter the weather conditions that happen there.

     The fourth location in the game is Inazuma. Unfortunately, you won’t be able to visit the region until you complete the main quest  for the area and get to level 30. Their element is Electro; the electricity element, and the founder of Inazuma is Baal (Ball), more commonly known as The Raiden Shogun. Their representative color is purple, which can be shown all around the six islands. Some well-known characters that are from the region are Yae Miko (Yay Mee-koh), Thoma, Gorou (Goh-roh), Itto (EE-toh) Arataki, Sara Kujou. Inazuma takes its inspiration from Japan, which explains the architecture for the buildings and some of the temples like places that are located around the area. 

     The last available but recent location to play in is Sumeru. Though you can explore the region by getting through the Chasm in Liyue after reaching level 35, you can’t really complete the main story quests until you’ve completed the ones in the Chasm. Their element is Dendro, which deals with anything in the nature field such as trees and plants, and the founder is the Lesser Lord Kusanali (Koo-suh-nal-lee), more commonly known as Nahida. Unfortunately, the location used to get lots of controversies because of the characters having some colorism problems during its development, but after release it’s unsure if the dilemma got fixed. 

     Sumeru uses inspiration from mainly the Middle East with a little bit of South Asia getting into the mix too. This is probably the reason for some names or places coming from either Arabic or of Sanskrit origin. For representative colors, it can either be light green or dark green depending on the pictures used for their emblem. Some of the playable characters include Dori, Collei (Coh-ley), & Tighnari (Thweeg-nari), with others having their release pretty soon. 

 

Since we’ve already gotten every place out the way, it’s time for the rankings!
 

#5 – Dragonspine

     With the location in last place, it’s Dragonspine. Though it’s incredibly beautiful far away, actually going up and around the mountain is incredibly difficult because of its extremely cold and freezing conditions. You’ll mainly have to light up fires with any Pyro characters if you have any, and if there’s no fires around then you’re going to be completely out of view with going any further before making your way to the summit. It gets even tougher when completing most of the world quests associated with the mountain. It’s easy to instantly get lost and have to find a guide video on how to complete them according to my experience, since I’m not too good with the navigation from time to time. A few examples come from the game’s quests, like finding a young boy’s father that seemed to have been missing during an expedition on the mountain, or another having to light up beacons that got scattered all over. 

     The hardest part is unlocking one of the dungeon waypoints. This is at the very top of the mountain’s summit. You have to thaw out the first three shards that have been scattered throughout the whole place by using quartz crystals only to repeat the same thing two more times to drop down and finally reach the location. There are also a lot of enemies that sometimes block the mountain. You’ll mainly have to run past them or hope that they’re at a much lower level than you, unless you’ve been working on your character builds and leveled them up. 
 

#4 – Monstadt

     For Mondstat, I’d rank this location in fourth. Though it’s a pretty great location to start the game off along with coming across amazing characters from the region, they don’t really have a lot of special places to explore. It seems as if the area is a bit smaller than all the other locations. A few spots in Mondstat won’t really unlock either unless you’re at a certain rank or if you have a special character involved, such as getting inside Mona’s house with her Hydro emblem on it. The only thing that I feel like the area involves are most of the dungeons.These give you materials to help build and level up your character to get really good stats, like focusing on your character’s damage against different enemies and bosses. The good thing about Mondstat is that most of the things that you need from the different stores and the alchemy table are right across from each other. You can even hunt most of the birds easily despite Timmie, one of the non-playable characters in the game getting upset at you each time you hunt any.
 

#3 – Liyue

     Though it’s been very hard to make this decision, I’ve decided to rank Liyue at third place. It’s a very beautiful area. They have at least a wide variety of places to explore, especially once you’re able to reach the Chasm after tons of leveling up. There are also a lot of beautiful places to get a snapshot of you and your friends, such as one of the few cliffs that you can climb. Just hope that you can make it to the top as you’ll need a lot of stamina to get your way through the longest and toughest cliffs. You can do so by finding and offering different elemental crystals for each location to the Statue of the Seven that’s provided for them. 

     I also have to admit that there are some amazing quests involved and you get to know more about the characters than some locations after Xiangling introduces you to Liyue, like Ningguang and Zhongli. If you even take your time to explore enough, you’ll be able to find a secret place which involves a small ship a small distance away from the harbor by climbing up one of the cliffs and using your glider to land there. If you make it, you’ll complete a few mini quests right before you can unlock it, then you can switch between having a fun time there and getting back to the harbo.

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#2 — Sumeru

     As this is one of the newest locations, and I haven’t been able to explore it as a Genshin Impact player. I’ll have to rank Sumeru at second place due to hearing how beautiful the whole area is and how you can get there from Mondstat and Liyue or from Inazuma. Even learning its lore throughout the whole area is just as amazing as the entire environment. From showing the different rainforests, to even providing a whole desert, it proves how majestic the world of Sumeru can bring for every player for their own experience for traveling. Sumeru is also one of the easiest places to get through from another region. You can get there easier than sailing from one of the other nations to another. I love how they were able to expand on how they used different places and locations from South Asia and the Middle East to make it a beautiful landscape with an abundance of space to get from one place to another. Just even talking about the whole desert says words for me as I’d never expect that happening for a whole region. 

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 #1 — Inazuma

     The location that I put in first place is Inazuma. Although every other location is made up of one island or just one being a piece of land, this area is made up of six islands: Narukami, Kannzaku, Yashiori, Watatsumi, Seirai, and Tsurumi Island. Unfortunately, the last three of the islands of the archipelago aren’t playable yet but the first three are, which helps you gain a good experience of looking through each part. The most exciting part of Inazuma is sailing your way there. This is a completely different method of getting to the far away area, alongside navigating through all three separately. Inazuma is also part of the main story quests. Although I can’t spoil them for the lore, I can say that it’s immersive and absolutely wonderful to come across some of the battles from a few of the bosses, especially when it comes to one of the people that are playable in your party. 

     The only problem I have is, the thunder that strikes every once in a while when you’re busy exploring the island or sailing from one part of the archipelago to the other. You can get an achievement by getting struck by lightning if you try to get to Inazuma earlier than expected. To do this though, you have to use a Cryo character to make your way across the sea. The best character of this element I’d recommend for this is Kaeya. When using him, he’s able to use his elemental skill named Frostgnaw to blast ice onto the water, which will help him walk through it. The only downside is waiting to use the skill which is around four or five seconds long, so you’ll have to use it quickly before the ice will disappear. If it does, you’ll get stuck swimming your way across before going back to the last place you were at.

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After looking through all these beautiful nations, I narrowed it all down to one. And that nation is Inazuma.