Genshin Impact: What Stardust Is (And How It Works)

The gigantic open world of Genshin Impact leaves a lot of mysteries to be explored. The action RPG has countless dungeons, challenges, and treasure chests to find. Perhaps one of the biggest mysteries in Genshin Impact is finding out what all the in-game currencies do. Genshin Impact has a LOT of different currencies to sort through, and Masterless Stardust is one players may be confused about, since the game doesn’t explain it early on.

Whether it’s farming for Primogem crystals or receiving Masterless Starglitter from one of the game’s gacha pulls, there are plenty of currencies to keep track of in Genshin Impact. This includes Masterless Stardust that, like Starglitter, is obtained through RNG-based gacha pulls called Wishes. Because it all comes down to RNG, obtaining Stardust is beyond a player’s control. However, there are definitely ways to obtain it, which the game doesn’t necessarily explain.

Because of the gacha mechanics in this free-to-play RPG, rare weapons and additional characters are pulled through a system called Wishes. Players must spend another currency, called Fates, to make a Wish in Genshin Impact. Sometimes, players will pull a weapon they already own. Weapons are based on a star rating of 1-5, and if the weapon is a duplicate (as in, the player already owns one) and has a 3-star rating or higher, then the player will obtain some Stardust as well. For example, pulling a 3-star weapon duplicate will net the player 15 Stardust.

What To Buy With Masterless Stardust

Because of how easy it is to make Wishes in Genshin Impact, pulling duplicate weapons happens often. Even without spending real-world money, players should be able to rack up a good amount of Stardust. But then comes the big question of what exactly to spend it on. To find a selection of ways to spend Stardust, players just need to go to the Stardust Exchange tab in the Shop, which can be found from the in-game menu.

For 65 Stardust, players can buy two types of Fate: Intertwined Fate and Acquaint Fate, both of which are used for different types of Wishes. This can be especially important for anyone looking to reroll for better characters. Stardust can also be used to purchase extra EXP and Mora (Genshin Impact‘s world currency), although EXP and Mora are pretty easy to come by, so it’s probably better to save Stardust for more important items. Ores and rare items necessary for weapon upgrades can also be purchased at the Stardust Exchange.

Genshin Impact features a lot of currencies for players to keep track of. Because of this, it can sometimes be confusing about how to obtain things like Masterless Stardust – and how to spend it. Thankfully, Stardust is handed out pretty commonly through Wishes, which means players won’t have to be too frugal about spending it on items they want.

About The Author

Austin King
(1232 Articles Published)

Austin King is a Game Features Editor at Screen Rant. He’s the author of several books and hosts the Dragon Quest FM and JRPGs & Me podcasts. You can find him on Twitter @DragonQuaustin.

More From Austin King