How to Level Up, Ascend, and Refine Weapons

Weapons play an integral part in Genshin Impact’s combat. While there are a good variety of weapons in the game, not all of them are created equal. There are even weapons with effects that work well with specific characters. In this page, we will discuss the game’s weapon system and how to use it to improve your party’s combat potential.

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Knowing your Weapons

While there will be a variety of weapons in the game, their stats and effects are not the same. They fall under five categories: Sword, Bow, Claymore, Catalyst, and Polearm. You should primarily focus on giving a weapon to a character who can take advantage of the weapon’s effects. Let’s cite some examples below.

For example, Barbara can take advantage of the 3-star catalyst “Thrilling Tales of Dragon Slayers” because of its attack buff temporarily applied to the new character that switches in the field. Since Barbara’s combat prowess is abysmal, her main utility is activating her “Let the Show Begin” skill then quickly switching to any of your DPS to give them up to 48% attack boost for 10 seconds. That’s why even if the said catalyst is only 3-star, she’ll greatly utilize its effect to its full potential.

Another example is equipping weapons with “Bane” effect to the characters who can inflict them. Diluc can take advantage of the Bloodtainted Greatsword since it increases the damage dealt to enemies affected by Pyro and Electro. Kaeya can use the Cool Steel sword since its Bane effect increases DMG dealt to enemies affected by Hydro or Cryo. These 3-star weapons are good placeholders until you get better 4-star weapons with more powerful stats and effects.

Leveling Up Weapons

Leveling up weapons is necessary to increase their stats and in turn, improve your character’s damage output. You can level up weapons by using Enhancement Stones or other weapons you don’t use, preferably 1-star or 2-star weapons you can commonly find in chests. The amount of EXP these weapons and stones give will depend on their rarity. Prioritize upgrading 4-star and/or 5-star weapons. 3-star weapons can be upgraded as placeholder weapons but don’t go crazy on investing too much on them.

Ascending Weapons

Like characters, there’s a level cap to weapons as well. To remove the level cap, you’ll also need to Ascend the weapon by spending mora and submitting the required ascension materials. Like character ascension materials, you can also check the details of each material to display the different sources where you can get them. This will usually involve hunting down mini-bosses, elite bosses, or clearing specific domains.

Refining Weapons

Refining is a process involving “feeding” the duplicate copy of the weapon to the one you’re going to keep to permanently increase its effects (not its stats). You can refine a weapon up to 4 times, with its mora cost increasing at each refinement level. Any additional copies of that weapon can be used as level up material.