Genius Invokation TCG is a permanent card game added to Genshin Impact. It’s more of a fun side activity to take a breather in between your questing, but if you want to get some of the shinier stuff, then you’d want to optimize to a degree. You can learn what cards to add to your deck here.
UNLOCKING GENIUS INVOKATION TCG
You will need to get the World Quest “Battlefield of Dice, Cats, and Cards”. You’ll be taken through several cutscenes and tutorializing, so take the chance to get familiar with the cards.
BASIC MECHANICS
DECK
Your deck consists of 3 Character Cards and 30 other cards consisting of Equipment, Support and Event Cards. Each card has their respective Dice cost, with a limit of 2 copies of the same card.
CHARACTER CARDS
Character Cards have their respective Active and / or Passive skills, with respective Dice or Energy costs where applicable. Energy is gained by using a Character Card’s skill or through external cards to unleash their Burst Skill.
A Character Card can be equipped with one Talent card, one Weapon card, and one Artifact card.
EQUIPMENT CARDS
These consist of Talent, Weapon and Artifact cards.
Talent cards require having their respective Character as part of your deck.
Weapon cards can only be equipped by a Character who uses that weapon type.
Artifact cards can be equipped by any Character.
SUPPORT CARDS
Support cards provide a variety of effects. They may stay permanently on the board or automatically disappear depending on the effect. You will find these placed on the left side of the board. They don’t usually end your turn.
EVENT CARDS
These are typically one-time use cards that don’t stay on the board. They don’t usually end your turn.
STARTING HAND
You can choose to swap out as many of these cards as you want in order to get the cards you want.
REROLL DICE
You get 8 dice that are rolled to any of the 7 elements, and the omni-element that represents all elements. They are your resource to activate a card’s effects or skills.
ROUND
Players will typically play a number of support cards before taking an action that ends their turn. The person who ends a Round first will go first for the next Round.
TURN
A Turn ends when a Character attacks, or when switching an Active character, unless specified as a Fast Action.
SUMMONS
Some Characters can have Summons. These stay on the board until their Usage duration ends and can be found on the right side of the board. A Character Summoning again typically refreshes its duration.
ELEMENTAL REACTIONS
ELEMENTS | NAME | EFFECT | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
Melt | Deal +2 DMG for this instance | |||
Vaporize | Deal +2 DMG for this instance | |||
Overloaded | Deal +2 DMG for this instance; when targetting an active character, the target will be forcibly switched to the next character | |||
Superconduct | Deal +1 DMG for this instance, deal 1 Piercing DMG to all opposing characters except the target | |||
Electro-Charged | Deal +1 DMG for this instance, deal 1 Piercing DMG to all opposing characters except the target | |||
Frozen | Deal +1 DMG for this instance. The target character receives the Frozen status: the character cannot use Skills (Lasts until the end of this Round). When receiving Pyro or Physical DMG, the character receives +2 DMG and removes this status in advance. | |||
Swirl | Deal 1 Cryo DMG to all opposing characters except the target | |||
Deal 1 Hydro DMG to all opposing characters except the target | ||||
Deal 1 Pyro DMG to all opposing characters except the target | ||||
Deal 1 Electro DMG to all opposing characters except the target | ||||
Crystallize | Deal +1 DMG for this instance, grant 1 Shield point to your active character. (Shield can be stacked. Max 2 points) | |||
Burning | Deal +1 DMG for this instance and create a Burning Flame: End Phase: Deal 1 Pyro DMG (1 Usage. Max 2 stacks) | |||
Bloom | Deal +1 DMG for this instance and create a Dendro Core: When you deal Pyro or Electro DMG to an opposing active character, DMG dealt +2 (1 Usage) | |||
Quicken | Deal +1 DMG for this instance and create a Catalyzing Field: When you deal Electro or Dendro DMG to an opposing active character, DMG dealt +2 (3 Usages) |
PLAYING GENIUS INVOKATION TCG
You can earn Player EXP by challenging NPC players as well as the Weekly Guests. There are 10 Player Levels.
You can find other players by using the Casket of Tomes gadget in your inventory, with available NPCs to challenge showing up on the map with card icons.
If you need to double check on effects, you can click on the underlined phrases to learn more details.
You can invite other characters to get their Character Card and Talent Cards on completing their related Genius Invokation TCG challenges.
Here are some general tips you can keep in mind:
- Keep Omni-Element dice and try to reroll for the elements for your Character cards
- Do try to enable at least one Elemental Reaction
- Cards like Katheryne to make Switch Character a Fast Action and Dawn Winery to make Switch Character cost less can make your strategies more flexible
- Don’t underestimate “tutors” (where you get to draw specific card types) or card draw in general
Matchmaking with other players is available only at Player Level 4, so you’ll need to work your way up to then.