Man I would have paid $60 for this game easily but I am hesitant to spend a dime due to the gacha mechanics.
Currently have mona, noelle, fischl, barbara, jean, xingqiu, kaeya, lisa, amber. Really would like a venti or a razor.
Running mona, xingqui, fischl, and the main character and just hit adventure level 10.
I got the $5 monthly thing. Every 2 days you get enough to do 1 wish + 300 gems that'll get you 1 more wish (of course not enough for 2 since that'd be 320).
Razor is currently available as a purchase. You go to the store, and he costs 34 of the currency you get when you get dupes of 4* or 5* characters or weapons. He is there for 1 month, doesn't have an actual timer, but I suspect the store will refresh at the same time the new banner arrives and the Venti banner goes away.
Mona and Fischl are really good together. Do the E (R2 on controller) attack on Mona, switch to Fischl, do another E attack and the raven supercharges everything with water. Both their Q attacks can clear entire encounters in one go. Even mobs that are resistant to electricity get hurt when they get the water element on the, and the raven destroys things that are water based.
I run main character, Mona, Fischl and Xianxang or whatever her name is (gotten 3 of her, got 2 in one pack, and will get one more if I do the floors when I get to that, still only adventure level 18).
Some general things I have noticed in game I didn't see on "beginner guides"
- If you go to the stone pillars that restore health on the west side of the map, they are geo based, there you can switch your main characters element from wind to geo. You can swap between them based on the pillar. Just activate it, and it'll let you swap. They use another currency to upgrade your stamina. So to get a quick few stamina points, its useful to travel there and find a few geo points there rather than to look for 8+ of the wind. Geo statues start from 2 points just like the wind ones did.
- Remember to go into the tab for "events" and do the 3 trials for the 3 characters. You get currency for completing them.
- Remember to tag off things in the adventure book to progress it.
- I saw this in one video and it works. If you use Kaeya you can freeze water. If your main character is wind, you can push the ice forwards and walk on it. Cast ice again, push forwards, rinse repeat. Need to be fast when switching characters, but you can walk far further on water than what stamina would allow with swimming this way. For instance, on the top right of the map, due east, there are islands in the ocean that don't show up on the map. You can use the above method (can also use stam food I guess) and travel to the islands. There is a separate achivement for it and a hidden quest there.
- EDIT: In the store, you can also buy wishes (at 50% off) for the venti banner and standard banner for the currency you get when you get dupes of 3* items. It is currently 40% off. You can buy 5 for each per day. I would not use the currency you get for 4* for wishes since that tab also lets you buy characters. Currently Razor and Amber are there, but I'd rather save up for next refresh of the store page if you don't want them. Getting the 4* currency is way rarer than the 3* one.