Genshin Impact Genuis Invokation TCG Guide

In the expansive world of Genshin Impact, there are a million and one different things you could be doing. The main questline, character story quests, hangout events, and so much more.

As of late, however, all that exciting stuff has been put far on the back burner because now we have the Genius Invokation TCG to spend all of our time in.

If you’ve ever heard of or played Gwent, Hearthstone, or Yu-Gi-Oh! Then you’ll already be pretty familiar with what’s going on in the Genshin Impact Genius Invokation TCG. You build your Deck and try your luck battling against other players or take on NPC characters to help increase your rank and earn rewards.

But if you’re a newcomer to the art of children’s card games, then the number of rules and tricks to wrap your head around may be daunting, so let’s sit in the Cat’s Tail tavern and play a few rounds of Genius Invokation TCG together, and you’ll be a certified pro in no time.

Since the Genius Invokation TCG was officially launched in the game, I’ve been totally hooked.

Though I’m maybe not as good as some of the old card game pros out there, I think I’ve spent enough time ignoring official events in favor of a card game to be able to show you all the ropes. So let’s get started with this Genshin Impact Genuis Invokation TCG guide and learn everything there is to know about the Genius Invokation TCG.

At the End of the Deck…

The Genshin Impact Genius Invokation TCG is an optional, but enjoyable way to pass the time in Genshin Impact while earning yourself some primogems. Though it may seem complicated at first, it’s relatively easy to get used to.

I’d recommend just playing through the tutorial first for beginners, but when you’re ready for a little challenge, the Easy Quicken deck is fun to build.

For a seasoned Genius Invokation player, the Ayaka Yoimiya melt deck is a lot of fun and packs one hell of a punch. But most importantly, experiment with cards you like, and don’t forget to have fun!

Know Your Tools

I always find it easiest to learn by doing. So instead of just listing out a step-by-step of the most meta ways to play, because yes, there is already a meta, I’ll walk you through the basics of the board itself, what the different cards are, and how to win your first game of the Genius Invokation TCG.

Casket of Tomes

The Casket of Tomes is your best friend in all things Genius Invokation TCG. Here you can search for players in the overworld to battle to increase your player level and earn coins, and most importantly, this is where you can build your very own Deck to use.

You can have up to ten built decks once you reach player level ten, and you can select which Deck you will use when battling NPCs here. You can also change the design of your decks and game board using the different designs you can unlock as you play.

My absolute favorite design combo has to be the Legend card back and the Inazuma game board.

I’m a sucker for anything kitty themed and pink, so these two designs together just work so well. It’ll take a good deal of work to get to character level 10 to unlock the Legend card back, though, but it’s well worth going for, even if the allure of primogems wasn’t there.

Board Layout

The game board is where the magic happens, and though the layout is relatively simple, it’s still important you know what’s what to get the most out of it.

The bottom half of the board is where most of your attention will be, as this is where you can see your active character, playable hand, deck, elemental dice, and game timer. In the middle of your board section, you can see your three active characters.

To the left of your active characters, you will see any event or support cards you have played. You can only have four of these cards active at one time, so use them wisely!

Any character summons will go to the right of your active character cards. This includes Ayaka’s elemental burst, Fischl’s elemental skill, and just about all of Rhodia’s elemental abilities.

Above your UID, you will see the icons for your basic attack, elemental skill, and elemental burst. This will change to the change active character icon if you select one of your character cards that is not currently active.

In the top right, you can see the match history, giving you a rundown of all of the actions in the match so far, as well as the settings which let you check the game rules, challenge objectives, general game setting as well as a concede button.

On the right-hand side of your screen, you will be able to see all of your elemental dice. You can drag and drop a card from your hand into this area to convert one of your elemental dice into the same element as your currently active character.

On the left, you can see both your and your opponent’s Deck, including how many cards are left in them and how many elemental dice you and your opponent have remaining.

This is also where the button to end your turn is and a timer that will go down if you’re against a real person, not an NPC. Remember, if you end your turn first, you will play first in the next round, so it’s worth strategizing when you want to end your turn.

The top half of the board is primarily reserved for your opponent and follows the same layout as your side of the board, with the exception that you cannot see your opponent’s hand.

You can, however see your opponents’ move intention if you click on their character icon. Again, this is reserved for NPC battles and does not apply to challenges.

Character Cards

Character cards are exactly what you’re thinking. Many of our favorite Genshin Impact characters have been transformed into playing cards for you to use in the game.

Of course, many of the banner characters are available with more on the way, and many elite or boss enemies have also been included, like the Mirror Maiden or Jadeplume Terrorshroom.

These cards are your primary source of damage, and the majority of Genius Invokation TCG will revolve around buffing and attacking with these cards.

You can unlock Dynamic skins for character cards by buying them in the shop for 4000 lucky coins, or you can get a few for free by leveling up. These will give your cards an animated skin.

Though this doesn’t give you any gameplay bonus, you do get style points so choose which characters you give a dynamic skin to wisely. In terms of which characters you should unlock first, I suggest you take a look at the recommended deck builds below and choose the characters according to a deck you like.

The character I unlocked first was Ayaka, and before realizing how amazing her card is it was purely an aesthetic choice. If you want a little bit of everything, Ayaka is the way to go.

She can hit hard, inflict elemental damage for reactions, and her elemental burst acts as a summon in the TCG.

Ayaka has been a staple in my deck since day one (seriously, I played a lot on the release day), and giving her the dynamic skin just adds to how much I love her card. Until an Itto card rolls along, Ayaka will have pride of place in my Genius Invokation deck.

How to Unlock New Character Cards

To unlock new characters to add to your decks, you will first need to invite them to the tavern and win a round of Genius Invokation against them, ensuring that you complete specific challenges.

To be able to invite characters to your tavern, you will first need a match invitation letter. You can obtain these by leveling up your TCG player level or by buying them from Prince directly in the Genius Invokation card shop.

You will then have to interact with the notice board by the door of the Cats Tail, and from there, you can choose any character you’d like to duel, except Cyno, who you can only unlock after reaching TCG player level 7.

Be warned that just because you can invite some characters at level one, it doesn’t mean that defeating them will be a cakewalk. I invited Keqing relatively early on, and I still have yet to complete all of her challenges. She gave me such a hard time in the early game that I still haven’t fully defeated her now out of spite.

Tavern Challenges

You can also unlock some character cards through Tavern Challenges. You will unlock more Tavern Challenges as your TCG player level increases, and you can start a Tavern Challenge by talking to Prince and selecting the character you want to unlock.

Just like unlocking a character with a match invitation letter, you must defeat the opponent in battle and complete special challenges.

While you can unlock playable character cards from Match invitation letters, only non-playable characters can be unlocked through Tavern Challenges, like the Fatui Pyro Agent, Jadeplume Terrorshroom, and more.

Support Cards

Support cards provide buffs over several rounds and take up room on the left side of the board. You can have up to four support cards in play at one time, so you can create some great combos if, pardon the pun, you play your cards right. There are three different types of support cards, location, companion, and item cards.

These cards provide many different buffs, from healing at the end of rounds, making weapon and artifact cards cost less to equip, drawing food cards, and drawing additional cards at the end of rounds.

These cards are excellent as they can be so versatile depending on which cards you go for. I love having a healing support card in my Deck like the Favonius Cathedral card and cards like Timeus and Wagner that reduce the cost of artifact and weapon cards to the point where you can play them for no cost at all.

My favorite Support card by far is the Liuye Harbour Warf card. This card lets you draw two cards at every end phase in a round.

This means that you can draw four cards at the end of a turn, and if you’re like me and never seem to get the right cards at the right time, this can be an absolute life saver. If you have room in your deck builds, give this card a try.

Event Cards

There are a couple of different types of event cards, but there is such a wide range of uses for event cards that it’s likely that these will take up most of the room in your 30-card deck limit.

There are food event cards that can heal you, make attacks cheaper, or reduce incoming damage, and when combined with the NRE item support card, which allows you to draw a food event card after you play another food event card, you can set up some awesome combos. Just remember that your character cards can only eat one food card per round!

The second specific type of event card is the elemental resonance card. Just like how elemental resonance works outside of the Genius Invokation TCG, you need to have two characters of the same element in your Deck to be able to play elemental resonance event cards.

The first type of elemental resonance card will let you create one die of the corresponding elemental type for no cost, which can be useful for attacking, especially if you get unlucky with your dice rolls.

The other type of elemental resonance card will provide various buffs depending on which elemental resonance you go for. I find the ones that give damage buffs more worthwhile, but I’d encourage you to experiment with different elemental resonances to see what works for you.

If you’re looking for a cheap and useful event card to add to your deck, make it Toss-up. You can play this card for free, and it lets you completely reroll all of your elemental dice.

I cannot tell you how many times I’ve run my Yoimiya/Ayaka deck and have managed to roll every other element apart from pyro and cryo. I barely even get any Omni-element dice!

Toss-up has saved me multiple times, allowing me to at least use a basic attack. So if the RNG gods are rarely on your side as it is mine, Toss-up is a great idea.

Equipment Cards

There are three different types of equipment cards that you need to know. The first is weapon equipment cards. These cards give plus one to your attack, and the higher the quality of the weapon, the more bonuses you get, including bonus elemental die and even healing. The second equipment card is the artifact equipment card.

Like weapon cards, equipment cards buff your character in several different ways, from making your attacks cost less elemental die to guaranteeing elemental die of a certain type each round to healing and generating energy for your active character.

Any character can only have one of each of these cards equipped at any time.

Finally, we have the talent equipment cards. Every character card has a talent equipment card unique to them, and it allows them to use one of their attacks and will also provide additional buffs to your character.

These buffs include making future attacks cost less elemental die, adding additional charges to an ability such as Xingqiu’s rain swords, or making an ability heal like Kaeya’s Frostgnaw.

These cards are great to add to any deck and can help enhance characters and add some additional flare to what may otherwise be a subpar basic attack.

Card Anatomy 101

Now that we know what the different types of cards are and what they do let’s break down the anatomy of the cards so you’ll be able to ace anything your opponents throw your way.

Character cards are your main focus, so it’s important to know what’s what. The big “10” in the top left of the card is the amount of HP the character card has. When that number reaches zero, the character card will become inactive, and you will have to select another active character.

The little diamond shapes on the right side of the card are the amount of energy your character card has. You will gain energy whenever you attack or use certain event or support cards. When a character card’s energy is full, you’ll be able to use the TCG equivalent of your elemental burst.

The rest of the playable cards all share the same kind of layout, however, some differences between them are important to know if you want to become a master Genius Invokation TCG player.

In the cards that appear in your Deck, in the top left where the HP is on character cards, you will see a number in a colored hexagon. The number shows you how many dice you will need to play that card, and the color corresponds to the type of elemental dice you will need to play the card.

For example, in this Paimon card, you can see that we need three elemental dice to be able to play this card. However, this number’s background is white, meaning that all of the dice need to be of the same elemental type.

So to play this card, you will need three elemental dice of the same type or enough omni-element dice to be able to create three of the same element.

In this Starsigns card, you can see that we need two elemental dice and that the background is a darker grey color. To play this card, you can use two elemental dice of any element, so you don’t need to worry as much about matching up your dice.

Finally, in Yoimiyas talent card Naganohara Meteor Swarm, you can see that we again need two elemental dice, but as they’re on a red background, we will need specifically two pyro dice to use this card.

The background color of that little hexagon will always correspond to the element of the dice needed to play it. These colors will match the colors of the elemental dice, so don’t worry too much about remembering them.

You have to remember that white means any number of the identical dice, grey is any elemental dice, and anything else will directly correspond to an element.

Dice

The elemental dice are one of the most important and, sometimes, the most frustrating features in the Genius Invokation TCG. There are eight sides to these dice, one side for each of the elements we are already familiar with in Genshin Impact and then one side for a new element, the Omni-element.

The Omni-element counts as all of the elements, so if, for example, an attack costs three pyro dice to use, and you had two pyro dice and one Omni-element dice, that Omni-element dice will count as that third pyro dice.

The idea with the elemental dice is to match as many dice elements to the element of your active character as possible, except for Omni-element dice, which, as we know, act as an everyman in this situation.

This, unfortunately, is left entirely hands of the RNG dice gods, but if you don’t roll the dice you need, cards like the knights of Favonius library and Toss-up will allow you to reroll your dice.

Turns and Actions

Starting Hand

When you have selected your opponent, the turn order will be decided by flipping a coin if you’re against a real person. Otherwise, you will always take the first turn against an NPC. You will then be handed five cards from your Deck.

You can select and discard as many of these five cards as you like, but only once, so try to think ahead if you do choose to switch your cards. If you have cards like Timmie, Wagner, or Timaeus it’s a good idea to get these out on the field early doors to really benefit from their skills.

You will then have to choose your active character from one of the three character cards in your Deck. These characters will always be available to you.

However, you can only have one active character at a time. If you’d like to change active characters, you will have to sacrifice one die of any color and use up one turn unless you have used support cards to make this free.

Roll Phase

After you have selected your active character, you will enter the roll phase. Here eight of the elemental dice we discussed above will be rolled for you. Just like with your starting hand, you can choose to reroll as many of these dice as you like.

However, you will only be able to reroll them once at this stage, so try to get as many elements matching your active character as possible!

Now the table is yours, and you will be able to play any event card, support card, attack with or swap your active characters, convert elemental die, or end your turn.

It’s best to play any event or support cards you’d like to play first, as these count as fast actions. As we already know, we can play as many fast action cards as we want in a turn, but any combat action will end our turn immediately.

From there, it’s rinse and repeat between roll phases and play phases until someone is crowned the victor.

Deck Builds

Now that we know the different cards and how to play the game, let’s go over three of the best decks you can use to become a certified Genius Invokation TCG pro. Of course, you can build your Deck however you like, these are just a few deck suggestions to get you started if you’re lost.

How to Build a Deck

Building your own Deck may seem daunting at first, but it will get easier the more you play and learn the cards. As a baseline, every Deck needs three character cards and a mixture of 30 different equipment, event, and support cards.

You can chop and change your decks anytime, but you can skip this hassle and use some of my recommended decks to get you started.

Ayaka Yoimiya Melt Deck

This is the Deck that I’ve used and had the most success with, and many avid Genius Invocation TCG fans would agree that this is one of the best decks you can use.

The only drawback to making the Deck for a beginner is the fact that you will need two match invitation letters to unlock Yoimiya and Ayaka, and you will need to complete the “Agent’s Resolve” tavern challenge to unlock the Fatui Pyro Agent.

Once you’ve done that, you’ll want as many cards that can give you energy as you can get, as this Deck relies heavily on using Yoimiyas elemental burst as soon as possible and then switching to Ayaka to deal heavy melt damage.

Here are all of the cards you’ll need to build this Deck:

• Yoimiya
• Ayaka
• Fatui Pyro Agent
• Two Gambler’s Earrings
• Two Paimon
• Two Liben
• Two Liu Su
• Two Parametric Transformer
• Two NRE
• Two Elemental Resonance: Woven Flames
• One Elemental Resonance: Fervent Flames
• Two Changing Shifts
• One Strategize
• Two Leave It to Me!
• Two Starsigns
• Two Calx’s Arts
• One Send Off
• One Lotus Flower Crisp
• Two Northern Smoked Chicken
• Two Minty Meat Rolls

Ideally, you’ll want cards like Paimon, Starsigns, or Leave It to Me in your starting hand, as this will allow you to build energy on Yoimiya to use her burst as soon as possible and will then allow you to switch to Ayaka without spending any dice to use her basic attack to deal enormous melt damage.

A lot of the food cards in this Deck will make basic attacks cost fewer dice, and if you’re in a pinch, you can switch to the Fatui Pyro Agent to build energy on your other characters.

You should find a lot of success with this Deck, and after unlocking all of the character cards you need, you should be able to build this Deck. If you’re missing a few of the cards, you’ll just be able to buy them from Prince with little trouble.

This is my favorite deck to use, and it’s won me plenty of games and has carried me through my TCG journey. The only drawback I’ve found is that if you can’t get Yoimiyas elemental burst off early enough or Ayaka is defeated before you can do much damage, you can really struggle to win.

At that point, you’re better off conceding against NPCs to restart the battle or accept defeat against your online opponent.

Mona Klee Vape Deck

This is a deck that has given me nothing but misery in the past, and though I’ve had some close fights, I’ve yet to win against my friend who uses this Deck exclusively.

The main idea with this Deck is to start with Mona and use her elemental skill, switch to Klee and use Klee’s elemental skill followed by her normal attack to apply pyro, and then end the turn so Mona’s summon can hit to vaporize your opponent’s entire Deck.

This is a very hard-hitting deck, and if you can pull off this combo, you can potentially KO at least one of your opponent’s characters on the first turn. Just don’t expect me to hang around if I see you using this deck.

Here are all the cards you’ll need to build this Deck:

• Klee
• Mona
• Mirror Maiden
• Two Liben
• One Iron Tongue Tian
• Two Liu Su
• Two Chang the Ninth
• Two Toss-Up
• One Starsigns
• Two Calx’s Arts
• Two The Bestset Travel Companion!
• Two Changing Shifts
• Two Strategize
• Two Elemental Resonance: Woven Waters
• Two Elemental Resonance: Soothing Water
• Two Pounding Suprise
• Two Lotus Flower Crisp
• Two Nothern Smoked Chicken
• Two Mushroom Pizza

Like the melt deck, you will first have to invite and win duels against Klee and Mona, and you’ll have to complete the Mirror Maidens Destination Tavern Challenge to unlock the mirror maiden card. Again, you’ll be able to purchase most of the other cards through Prince, so focus on unlocking the character cards first.

Though this Deck relies heavily on the combo mentioned above, you can still hit hard even if you’re not quite lucky enough to pull the right cards at the right time.

Easy Quicken Deck

I think quicken decks are a lot of fun, and considering how cheap and easy this Deck is to put together and use, I’d recommend this Deck to anyone, especially when you get Fischl’s character card through completing the tutorial. The idea is to set up as many support cards as possible in the first turn, like Wagner, Timmie, Liben, and the Jade Chamber.

This will make it much easier to make combos later in the game. You’ll also want to be able to switch between characters quickly. Use Keqings elemental skill, then switch to Collei to make the quicken elemental reaction.

Then you can change back to Keqing to deal increased damage to your opponents. Using Fischl’s elemental skill is also a great way to deal with bonus Electro damage, though I’d recommend only switching to her in a pinch to save Keqing and Collei.

• Keqing
• Collei
• Fischl
• Two Stellar Predator
• One Thundering Penance
• One Floral Sidewinder
• One Sacrificial Bow
• One Aquila Favonia
• One Thunder Summoner’s Crown
• One Thundering Fury
• One Laurel Coronet
• One Liyue Harbor Wharf
• Two Knights of Favonius Library
• One Jade Chamber
• One Favonius Cathedral
• One Katheryne
• One Wagner
• Two Timmie
• Two Liben
• Two Elemental Resonance: Woven Thunder
• One Elemental Resonance: High Voltage
• Two The Bestest Travel Companion
• One Toss-Up
• Two Strategize
• Two Mondstadt Hashbrown

This Deck is really easy to build as it mainly uses early-game cards and can help you achieve victory relatively quickly, especially if you get a great starting hand full of cards to help you set up your Deck.

Rewards and Rank System

As with anything in Genshin Impact, there is a way to level up and earn rewards through playing the genius invocation TCG.

You can gain experience by playing any of the PvE modes available, from battlingNPCss in the overworld to completing weekly tavern challenges and taking on guest NPCs at the Cat’s Tail. Leveling up will unlock more cards, more NPCs to battle, and of course, primogems.

At certain stages, you will have to do ascension quests to increase your TCG level. This will have you face off against a pro payer assigned by Prince, and you will have to complete challenges to advance.

These challenges are fairly straightforward, so you shouldn’t struggle to unlock all that sweet loot. By reaching TCG level 10, you will have earned yourself 600 primogems and lots of other Genius Invokation TCG goodies.

There are also many achievements for you to earn that will test your skills in the Genius Invokation TCG and give you a few precious primos and a name card for your efforts. Though these rewards are nice, the real fun is found just by playing the card game itself.

It’s Time to Duel!

Now you should have enough knowledge and deck-building skills to conquer any opponent who comes your way.

This was a rundown of the basics you’ll need to master to become a Genius Invokation TCG pro, but of course, in an ever-changing meta, I’d encourage you to try out decks that you like the look of or even just decks of your favorite characters.

With all of this in mind, you’ll be ready to take down even the likes of Cyno with ease. Happy card battling!

FAQs

Question: How Do I Unlock more Character Cards?

Answer: To unlock new character cards, you’ll need to use a match invitation letter to invite the character you choose to the Cats Tail and defeat them in a duel.

To unlock NPC playable character cards, you’ll need to start a tavern challenge by talking to Prince and defeating the character you wish to unlock. Unlike playable character cards, you do not have to use a match invitation letter to do this.

Question: Which Deck is the Best Deck to Use?

Answer: Many people agree that the Ayaka Yoimiya Melt deck is one of the most powerful decks. But don’t take this to heart, there are many different combos of decks you can build, all with their strengths and weaknesses.

I’d recommend you build a deck you like the look of first, but falling back on one of the recommended decks above should help you out if you’re struggling.

Question: How many Primogems Can I Get from Playing the Genius Invokation TCG?

Answer: You can get 600 primogems from reaching player level 10 in the TCG and an additional 295 primogems from completing all of the associated achievements for a grand total of 895 primogems, which equates to five whole fates of your choice.

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Bethany Gerrish

Beth is a dedicated and passionate writer, with a deep love of gaming. It was only a matter of time before the two collided and with a slight Genshin Impact obsession, writing about the game was the most logical next step! Open world and RPG's have always been a favourite of Beth's, but Genshin Impact has been a long-running favourite since picking it up for the first time. As a soon to be university graduate with a bachelor's in Journalism, Beth is taking her first steps into the real world of digital journalism and is looking forward to meeting lots of new people and writing many informative pieces for you to enjoy!

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