There are 122 playable genshin impact characters on the live global version, and the number moves by two or three every few weeks. Sorting them by element is how the game itself thinks about them. Sorting them by when they arrived answers a different and more practical question, which is what a roster this size means for an account that started late or never pays.
Six release eras, nine regions and a rarity split that runs the opposite way to most gacha games. Below is the whole roster arranged by those three axes, and what each one tells you about which characters you can realistically expect to own.
Six Years of Genshin Impact Characters, Era by Era
| Era | Region it opened | Years | Characters | Five-star |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1.x | Mondstadt and Liyue | 2020 to 2021 | 34 | 16 |
| 2.x | Inazuma | 2021 to 2022 | 17 | 10 |
| 3.x | Sumeru, and Dendro arrives | 2022 to 2023 | 17 | 8 |
| 4.x | Fontaine | 2023 to 2024 | 17 | 11 |
| 5.x | Natlan | 2024 to 2025 | 17 | 11 |
| Luna | Nod-Krai | 2025 onward | 16 | 12 |
The launch era is the outlier and always will be, because the game shipped with a full cast where every later version adds two or three. Everything after it runs at a steady rate, which is the detail that matters for a new account: the back catalogue is large and mostly reachable, while the front of the queue moves at a pace nobody keeps up with.
The version numbering changed this year. The game left the 5.x scheme for named Luna versions, which is a cosmetic change to how patches are labelled rather than anything structural, but it does mean a character described as “from 5.3” and one from “Luna III” are roughly eighteen months apart.
The Rarity Split Runs Backwards
Five-star characters outnumber four-stars 71 to 51, which is the reverse of how a gacha roster is usually built and has a specific consequence. Four-stars are the characters you actually accumulate, because they appear as the consolation on every banner, so a roster weighted towards five-stars means a free account ends up with deep coverage of a few elements and almost none of others.
Which elements those are is decided by which four-stars happened to be featured while you were playing, not by anything you chose. That is the real reason two accounts of the same age look nothing alike, and it is also why the advice to build what you already have beats the advice to chase a specific name.
The Traveler sits outside all of it. It is the only character whose element changes, picking up a new one in each region you unlock, and the only one every single account owns. For a new player it is also the cheapest way to cover a gap, because switching element costs nothing but a trip to a statue.
Where the Cast Comes From
| Region | Characters | Share of the roster |
|---|---|---|
| Mondstadt | 24 | 20% |
| Liyue | 22 | 18% |
| Inazuma | 17 | 14% |
| Sumeru | 14 | 11% |
| Fontaine | 13 | 11% |
| Natlan | 11 | 9% |
| Nod-Krai | 9 | 7% |
| Snezhnaya | 7 | 6% |
The distribution tracks the order the map opened rather than anything about the people. Mondstadt and Liyue were both present at launch and between them hold nearly four in ten of the cast six years later. Snezhnaya is the interesting line: seven characters call it home and the region is still not on the map, because they are all Fatui, the antagonist faction, released long before the place they come from.
Five more characters, the Traveler among them, belong to no region at all. For a player working through the story in order, the region column doubles as a rough spoiler scale: anyone from a place you have not reached is a character you will meet later.
The Most Recent Additions
- Flins: Electro, 5 star, released September 30, 2025 in version Luna I
- Aino: Hydro, 4 star, released September 10, 2025 in version Luna I
- Lauma: Dendro, 5 star, released September 10, 2025 in version Luna I
- Nefer: Dendro, 5 star, released October 22, 2025 in version Luna II
- Wonderland Manekin: no fixed element, 5 star, released October 22, 2025 in version Luna II
- Nicole: Pyro, 5 star, released May 20, 2026 in version Luna VII
- Prune: Anemo, 4 star, released May 20, 2026 in version Luna VII
- Lohen: Cryo, 5 star, released June 09, 2026 in version Luna VII
New characters debut on a limited banner and leave when it ends. Four-stars join the permanent pool one update later, which means every four-star eventually becomes available forever. Five-stars released on an event banner never do, so one you skip is gone until a rerun that may be a year away.
Weapons, and the Column Nobody Reads
Every character is locked to one of five weapon types, and the split across the roster is flatter than people assume: 29 catalyst users, 28 swords, 24 polearms, 21 bows and 20 claymores. The type decides the attack pattern and which weapons a character can hold, which matters more in practice than the numbers suggest.
Claymores break shields and ore that nothing else touches efficiently, bows are the only way to hit a distant target or a weak point, and catalyst users are the quiet exception worth understanding: their normal attacks deal elemental damage rather than physical, so they ignore the physical resistance that slows a sword user and they apply their element constantly instead of on a cooldown.
A team missing a claymore struggles against certain enemies in a way that has nothing to do with how well built it is, which is the single most common reason a newer account stalls on a boss. Checking the weapon column before the element column solves it.
What You Can Realistically Expect to Own
There is a meaningful gap between the characters on this roster you might pull and the ones you will certainly have. The permanent banner holds every non-exclusive character, so the standard five-stars and every four-star out for more than one update are reachable with the currency the game gives away.
For a new account that is the whole strategy. Build the four-stars you were handed, cover the elements you are short of with the Traveler, and pick one limited banner a patch at most. A team of well-built four-stars clears content that one underbuilt five-star cannot, and the maths does not change however long you play. The current banner schedule lives on the game’s own site and its community forum, which post it before anywhere else.
One practical warning for phone players. A party of fully built characters throws far more particle effects than a new account does, and both the frame rate and the handset temperature notice. The game is among the heaviest things on either store, which our roundup of the biggest games on iPhone puts in context, and a clip-on cooler is the usual answer for sessions past half an hour. Background on the game itself is in the reference entry.
How the Roster Changed What a Patch Means
A cast of 122 has quietly altered how the game releases content. Early versions could build an event around whichever three characters existed in the relevant region. With nine regions and six years of back catalogue, each patch now reruns older banners alongside the new one, which is why a character you missed two years ago reappears more often than the release schedule suggests.
It also means the useful question has moved. It is no longer whether a new character is strong, because most are, but whether they do something the eight you already own cannot. On a roster this size that is a much harder bar, and it is the reason experienced accounts skip far more banners than new ones do.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many characters are in Genshin Impact?
There are 122 playable characters including the Traveler, of which 71 are five stars and 51 are four stars. The figure rises by two or three with every version, so any count dates within about six weeks.
Which element should a new player build?
Whichever one your four-stars already cover. The system rewards reactions between elements rather than any single element being strong, and Anemo is the nearest thing to universally useful because it groups enemies and spreads whatever else is on the field.
Can you get every character for free?
Not all of them. Standard-banner five-stars and all four-stars enter the permanent pool and can be pulled with free currency. Five-stars released on limited event banners never join that pool, so they are only available during the original banner or a rerun.
Is it too late to start Genshin Impact?
No, and a large back catalogue is an advantage rather than a barrier. The story, the map and the events are free, nothing is gated behind a character you do not own, and six years of permanent-pool four-stars are available to a new account that was not available to an old one on day one.
