Who Genshin Impact’s Best Free Character Is (& Why)

There are so many characters available in Genshin Impact that it may sometimes feel overwhelming when trying to decide which ones are the best. While most of the playable characters in Genshin Impact must be obtained through the Wish system, there are several characters players will obtain for free through the main story. But which FREE character in Genshin Impact is really the best?

Players are the Traveler, a mysterious adventurer who’s whisked away into the mysterious world of Teyvat. Early on, three Genshin Impact starter characters are freely obtained through the main story. These three characters – Kaeya, Lisa, and Amber – join the Traveler to form a four-member party. Unless players take advantage of the Wish system or special limited-time events, these are the only characters they’ll acquire in the game.

Other characters must be obtained through the game’s Wish system, which means acquiring them is based on RNG gacha pulls. These characters are typically better than the free ones, but the four starters are fine for getting players through story content. Other characters can be purchased through the Starglitter Exchange. Xiangling is even currently available for free if players can complete a challenging gauntlet in the Spiral Abyss. But since Xiangling is only available for a limited time, she’s not necessarily a free character players will always find in Genshin Impact. Of the four starters players get through the main story, the best one is the Traveler.

Why The Traveler Is Genshin Impact’s Best Free Character

Players can choose between a male or female Traveler at the beginning of the game. Along the course of the initial adventure, the Traveler will learn how to use Anemo and Geo elements. This makes them unique, since other characters can only use one element. Future updates to Genshin Impact will supposedly allow the Traveler to learn how to use all the other elements, until all of them have been acquired.

Additionally, the Traveler is incredibly powerful. Their base stats are good, but their character progression tends to be better than the other starters’. This is why the Traveler usually ranks as an A-tier character on Genshin Impact character tier lists. As the protagonist, the Traveler is just more powerful and offers more playstyle flexibility than the other free starter characters.

Because they are capable of learning other elements, the Traveler will only get stronger as Genshin Impact gets more updates. Even initially, though, the Traveler is stronger than Genshin Impact’s other free starters characters. Because of this, the Traveler is easily the best free character in Genshin Impact.

About The Author

Austin King
(1233 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.

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