To say that Genshin Impact took the free-to-play world by storm when it launched in September 2020 is a bit of an understatement. Not only did the game manage to raise the bar for what to expect from such titles, but it also exceeded expectations by forging its own identity, despite drawing initial comparisons to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

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Since the game's launch, its story and world continue to expand with frequent updates that bring in new characters and areas for players to explore. One aspect of its lore that has always intrigued and confounded fans in equal measure from day one relates to visions. The game often describes them as one of the most important things that can happen to a resident of Teyvat, yet doesn't do a great job explaining what that entails precisely. So we've scoured various resources in a bid to answer the burning questions once and for all: what exactly are visions, and how do they tie in with the overall lore and gameplay in Genshin Impact?

What Are Visions?

Genshin Impact Kokomi Inazuma 2.0

In Genshin Impact, a vision is a gift from the gods bestowed upon those with great ambition or passion living in Teyvat. They take the form of tools that grant those who wield them the ability to channel certain elemental powers.

Referred to as allogenes - or Genshin in Japanese - vision bearers are believed to also have the capability of ascending to Celestia through great, heroic feats, where they can become gods themselves. It is also possible for vision bearers to lose their visions should the gods no longer deem them worthy of having them. This is described as a fate worse than never getting a vision in the first place, and is something we see played out in lnazuma's Archon quests.

How Are Visions Earned?

A screenshot showing a vision being used in Genshin Impact

There is no set way for a person to receive a vision, although it is widely believed that visions are tied to their receiver's needs and ambitions.

Notable examples of allogenes and how they received their vision include Bennett, whose spirit of adventure and daring resulted in him being bestowed a vision that granted him pyro abilities following a near-death experience. Another is Qiqi, whose desire to freeze time to prevent her death resulted in her receiving a cryo-based vision that allows her to slow down time.

Types Of Visions

Keqing Using Her Burst in Genshin Impact

There are seven types of visions in total, with each one corresponding to one of the seven elements featured in the game. These elements are Geo, Pyro, Anemo, Cryo, Electro, Dendro, and Hydro. Pryo pertains to fire-based abilities, while hydro is water-based, and so on. Each of the nations that make up Teyvat also has a corresponding element that typically determines the kind of visions bestowed by its god (referred to as one of the Seven Archons). The nation of Mondstadt has Anemo, Liyue has Geo, Inazuma has Electro, Sumero has Dendro, Fontaine has Hydro, Natlan has Pyro, and Snezhnaya has Cryo.

Visions from the same region generally share the same look or shape. Visions can also vary in size. When a vision bearer dies, their vision becomes a masterless vision with no trace of its elemental power left behind. It is however possible for such visions to later get reawakened after resonating with someone else.

There are also counterfeit visions, which as the name suggests are not actual visions. They usually come in two variants. The first are items that look indistinguishable from actual visions but offer no elemental powers to their wielders. Then there are delusions, which grant their users elemental powers without the need for an actual vision but at great personal cost.

How Do Visions Affect The Gameplay?

A screenshot showing gameplay in Genshin Impact

The Traveler (that is, the main character) does not have a vision, however, they can still make use of elemental powers through other means. Over the course of the game, they will be joined by a number of companion characters that do have visions. A vision grants these characters between two and four active abilities. These include two elemental skills, an elemental burst, as well as the ability to change form into their element while sprinting. The first two of these typically deal elemental damage to enemies that get caught within their area of effect. Combining such attacks with characters that use different elements can result in an elemental reaction, which can deal even more damage.

Certain characters, like Lisa and Rosaria, also gain the ability to go invisible temporarily, which allows them to phase through enemies and their attacks. Bow wielders like Amber can as well channel their vision's element when executing fully charged attacks.

NEXT: Genshin Impact: Things You Didn't Know About Visions