All symbols and meanings of Genshin Impact

Genshin Impact has a lot of symbology for players to contend with – and not just in its story. Everything from the UI to gameplay mechanics is represented by icons, and sometimes they’re not explained very well. It can be a lot to do when you’re just starting out, so we’ve put together a master sheet of all the Genshin Impact symbols and meanings for you to check out if you’re confused.

The user interface

Starting with the UI, here’s a quick breakdown:

• 1: This is your minimap. While exploring, icons will occasionally appear on the mini-map:
  • The white diamond with a blue center are waypoints you can teleport to. If they’re grayed out, you haven’t activated them yet.
  • The White Stars are Oculi – Anemo, Geo, and Electroculi are collectibles that you can use to level up your Statue of Seven.
  • Blue exclamation marks are side quest NPCs.
  • In Enkanomiya, an Inazuma area, there are sloped white squares with a similarly sloped white center. These are key seals used for solving puzzles and collecting treasures only found in Enkanomiya.
  • White hand symbols are local materials that you can collect. However, you will only see these if you have the corresponding character on the field – Klee for Mondstadt local materials, Yanfei or Qiqi for Liyue local materials, and Garou for Inazuma local materials. If you have Ningguang, she will indicate veins of ore to gather from on your minimap with a white crystal.
• 2: This is your event icon. You can click on it to access all currently running events.
• 3: This is the Battle Pass icon. Clicking on it will take you to the Battle Pass window.
• 4: This is the Wish icon. How to access the gacha in Genshin Impact.
• 5: This is your journal, different from your quest tracker. In the journal, you can complete investigative tasks, find out what your daily commissions are, locate domains, and track down rare enemies to defeat.
• 6: This is your backpack. Click on it to access your inventory.
• 7: This is the character icon. You can click on them to access the character screen to level them up and equip weapons and artifacts.

The Elements

Well, if you’re playing the game, you’ve no doubt noticed that enemies sometimes have an icon over their head. Genshin Impact focuses on interactions between the different elements of Teyvat: Pyro, Hydro, Anemo, Geo, Electro, Dendro, and Cryo. Characters and enemies become connected to these elements during exploration and combat, and knowing which symbol means what is important to make spontaneous decisions.

From left to right in the screenshot above, we have Pyro, Hydro, Anemo, Electro, Dendro, Cryo and Geo. When an element’s sigil is revealed, it reacts to other elemental powers marking it – pyro and hydro combined vaporize the effects and deal bonus damage, for example. If you see these symbols on monuments, you must use the same element to trigger the statue and get a reward.