You log into Genshin Impact after a long day, pull up your quest menu, and stare at the half dozen blue story quest icons staring back at you. You’ve got a stack of fragile resin saved up to farm artifacts for your newly pulled Nahida, and you’re stuck choosing between sitting through 90 minutes of dialogue and cutscenes, or jumping straight into the domains you’ve been waiting to run all week. I’ve been in that exact position more times than I can count across three years of playing on two separate accounts, and I’ve gone through phases of binging every side story and ignoring them entirely for weeks on end to prioritize grinding. That’s why I’m breaking down exactly are story quests worth it in Genshin Impact for every type of player, no fluff, just honest takes from someone who’s tested both approaches extensively.
Exclusive Rewards You Only Get From Genshin Impact Story Quests
First, let’s talk about the hard, tangible rewards you get for finishing story quests, because that’s what most players care about first. Unlike daily commissions or domain runs that give you the same predictable rewards every time, story quests come with a long list of items you can’t get anywhere else in Teyvat. Some of these rewards are obvious, like primogems and mora, but others are easy to miss if you’re only skimming the quest payout screen. For players who are on the fence about spending their limited play time on story content, these small extra rewards add up fast, and they’re a big part of why the answer to are story quests worth it in Genshin Impact is yes for so many people.
- 30-60 primogems per full story quest arc, plus 1-2 intertwined fates for completing character story chapters, which works out to nearly 10 free wishes a month if you keep up with all new story content
- Exclusive character ascension materials you can't farm anywhere else, like unique boss drops tied to story quest unlocks that you need to ascend limited 5-star characters
- Limited-edition namecards, furnishings, and voice lines that are permanently unavailable once the associated event story quest expires, even if the event reruns later
- Free 4-star and even 5-star characters during limited-time event story quests, like the free Collei you get from the Sumeru archon quest opening, or the free Fischl from the 2.8 Summertime Odyssey event
Most story quests give you enough primogems to cover the cost of the story key you use to unlock them, which takes 8 daily commissions to earn. That means you’re not losing anything by taking the time to play through the quest, and you’re actually coming out ahead on primogems after you finish. Intertwined fates from character story quests are some of the easiest free wishes you can earn in the game, too, since you don’t have to grind dozens of domain runs or clear tough spiral abyss floors to get them. You just have to play through a short, low-difficulty story to get a free pull on the limited banner.
You also get a decent chunk of hero’s wit and mora from every story quest, which is perfect if you’re trying to level up a new character quickly without spending resin on ley line outcrops. I’ve used the mora from story quests to level up multiple support characters in the past, and it saved me hours of grinding ley lines that I could have spent farming artifacts instead.
Are Story Quests Worth It in Genshin Impact for F2P and Low-Spend Players?
If you’re a free-to-play or low-spend player, the short answer here is almost always yes. F2P players have limited ways to earn primogems every month, and story quests are one of the most reliable, low-effort sources of free wishes in the entire game. You don’t need a perfectly built team to clear them, either, as most story quest fights are tuned to be beatable even with underleveled, unoptimized characters.
F2P players can earn up to 1,200+ primogems a month just from clearing new story and archon quest content, which adds up to almost 8 free wishes every 30 days. That’s enough to get you halfway to a pity pull on the limited banner in just two months, without having to grind spiral abyss or spend hours hunting for chests across the map. For players who only log in for 30 minutes a day, that’s a way better return on time than spending those 30 minutes running low-level domains that give you garbage artifacts 90% of the time.
You don't need high level characters to clear most story quests, either. I’ve cleared multiple 5-star character story quests with a team of level 50 characters when I was still a new player, and I never ran into a fight I couldn’t beat after a couple of tries. The only exception is the occasional boss fight in archon quests, but even those are tuned to be accessible for casual players, so you won’t have to spend weeks prepping to beat them. If you’re really stuck, you can even co-op most story quest fights with a friend to make them easier, too.
That said, if you’re super short on play time, you can always space out story quests over a couple of days instead of binging them all at once. You don’t have to finish a quest in one sitting, and you can pick it back up right where you left off any time you log in. I usually split longer archon quest arcs over three or four days when I’m busy with work, so I still get the rewards without sacrificing time I’d otherwise spend farming for my main team.
When It Makes Sense to Skip Genshin Impact Story Quests
Story quests are worth it for most players, but there are a few specific scenarios where skipping them (or at least putting them off for later) makes sense. For example, if you’re a brand new player who just wants to unlock the Spiral Abyss or access Sumeru’s farming routes for a specific character’s ascension materials, you can skip through cutscenes to push through the archon quest faster. You can always go back and watch the cutscenes later in the game’s archive, so you won’t lose access to the story entirely.
Another scenario where skipping is okay is if you’re rerolling accounts to try and get a specific 5-star character on the limited banner. You need to reach AR 10 to unlock the wish system, and skipping the opening archon quest cutscenes can cut the time it takes to reach AR 10 in half, so you can reroll more accounts in less time. Just keep in mind that if you decide to keep that rerolled account, you can always go back and play through the story later to claim the rewards you missed.
If you’re an endgame player who only cares about clearing Spiral Abyss and grinding for perfect artifacts, you can also put story quests off until you hit a lull between banner runs. The permanent story quests won’t go away, so you can save them for weeks when there are no new events or banners you care about, and use them as a quick source of extra primogems when you’re a few pulls short of pity. Limited-time event story quests are the only ones you should never skip, as their rewards are permanently gone once the event ends, even if the event reruns a year later. I learned this the hard way when I skipped the 1.6 Midsummer Island Adventure event, and I still don’t have the exclusive namecard and furnishing that came with it.
Hidden Perks of Playing Through Story Quests Most Players Miss
Beyond the obvious primogem and fate rewards, there are a ton of hidden perks to playing through story quests that most players don’t realize exist until they’ve been playing for months. For example, many world quests that unlock quality of life features only appear after you complete a specific story quest checkpoint. The Parametric Transformer, one of the most useful tools in the game for turning useless materials into ascension items, only unlocks after you complete a short world quest that appears after you finish the Liyue archon quest arc.
Playing through character story quests also gives you a lot of insight into how a character plays, which can help you build them better. I didn’t realize how powerful Hu Tao’s charged attack combo was until I played through her story quest and got to test her out for free, which saved me a ton of time testing different builds on my own after I pulled her. You also unlock hangout events for specific 4-star characters after you complete their base story quest, which give you even more free rewards and unique endings to collect.
Many endgame quality of life features are only unlocked after you complete specific story quest checkpoints, so skipping them can lock you out of useful tools long term. For example, you can’t unlock the reputation system for any region until you finish that region’s first archon quest segment, and reputation rewards include things like extra mora, fast travel waypoints, and crafting blueprints for useful items like condensed resin. I skipped the Inazuma archon quest for two months when it first dropped, and I missed out on weeks of reputation rewards that would have saved me a ton of time farming.
You also unlock a lot of hidden achievements from playing through story quests, which give you extra primogems and namecards for completing specific tasks during the quest. I got an extra 20 primogems last month for making a specific choice during Nahida’s second story quest, which I never would have gotten if I’d skipped through all the dialogue without paying attention. Even if you don’t care about lore, those small extra primogem payouts add up over time, and they’re basically free for just clicking through dialogue options.
At the end of the day, whether you prioritize lore, rewards, or endgame grinding, the answer to are story quests worth it in Genshin Impact is almost always yes for most players. Even if you don’t care about the story at all, the free primogems, intertwined fates, and exclusive rewards alone make the time investment worth it, and you can always skip cutscenes to get through the quests faster if you want. The only exception is if you’re on a super tight time crunch for a limited banner or event, but even then, you can come back to the permanent story quests later to claim those rewards whenever you have extra time. I always make time to clear story quests within a week of them dropping, and I’ve never regretted it, even when I was in the middle of a heavy artifact farming grind for my main team.